Leanne knew at the age of 5 that she wanted to be a comedian, but being born and raised in Middle Tennessee in a farming community of 500 people, she didn’t know how in the world it was going to happen. She grew up loving comedy and her very funny and encouraging mother, Lucille, allowed her to skip kindergarten to stay home and watch Hollywood Squares and Match Game.  At age 10, after “killing” in the 4-H talent show, she was bitten by the performance bug.

After graduating from high school, Leanne was feeling the lure of Hollywood, but the idea of moving was unheard of and too daunting for a country girl who had never been away from home, so she enrolled in college at The University of Tennessee, where she graduated (by the skin of her teeth) with a degree in Child and Family Studies. Her greatest desire in life was to be a mother. She married her husband Chuck and they moved to Bean Station, TN in the beautiful foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  Chuck owned a mobile home refurbishing business and Leanne worked with him…for a very short time. Chuck liked to boss and Leanne wasn’t one to be bossed, so she decided to get pregnant instead!

After having her first baby, she was in absolute heaven, but she still had a tug in her heart to do stand-up. To make a little spending money, Leanne started selling jewelry at home parties. She was supposed to talk about the jewelry but instead talked about breastfeeding, hemorrhoids and being a mama. Women thought she was funny, somebody peed on a couch and before she knew it she was booked out a year in advance. The company saw what was happening and asked her to speak at their sales rallies. It was there that women started saying, “you need to do stand up!” That gave Leanne the courage to really go for it!