Not Southern comedy. Trio of women offer comedy with a Southern accent.

While all three of the headlining comedians on the Country Cool Comedy Tour have Southern roots, they will be the first to tell you that the laughs are not restricted to any particular region.

“People always want to label us, all of us, as Southern comics,” said comedian Karen Mills. “But we’re really comics with a Southern accent.”

Since 2015, successful comedians and close friends Mills, Trish Suhr and Leanne Morgan make sure to take the time out of their respective busy schedules to come together to make theaters crack up across the country with their Country Cool Comedy Tour. The tour comes to the Bluegrass Saturday at the Lancaster Grand Theatre in Lancaster.

While all three comedians built up solid reputations in stand-up comedy individually, the three performers came into each other’s orbits thanks to making appearances on various lineups in Lexington-based Etta May’s Southern Fried Chicks Comedy Tour.

Trish Suhr, a native of Middlesboro, is best known as the “Yard Sale Diva” as co-host of the Style Network’s “Clean House” and is the current host of GSN’s “Daily Draw.” She grew up around her family’s funeral home business but was not going to let anything stop her from breaking into the entertainment business after watching “The Carol Burnett Show” and “I Love Lucy” with her papaw growing up.

“I always asked when I saw funny people on TV, I was like, ‘what are they?’ They said, ‘they are an actress.’” Suhr recalled. “I never wanted to be anything different.”

When Suhr eventually moved to Los Angeles, she used to go up on stage wearing jeans and T-shirts at the Comedy Store for years, but it was when she decided to wear dresses and high heels on stage and talk about her upbringing, varied interests and other aspects of her life that people started to take notice of her as a stand-up comedian.

“They were looking at me saying, ‘What is June Carter doing up on stage talking about sports stuff,’” she said. “You have to realize no matter what it is in life, you’re always best when you just tell the truth.”

Karen Mills is a former college basketball star at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (despite being only 5’2”) who seemed destined for a life of coaching. But after moving to Atlanta, a combination of acting and comedic-writing classes and a successful stand-up debut at The Punchline led her to a career that’s lasted more than two decades.

Whether it’s been on stage or in radio and TV appearances, Mills’ quick, observational humor touches on the good and the bad, like her career in sports, the effects of aging or her fight with ovarian cancer (she’s currently in remission).

“Whatever I go through in life is what my comedy is about,” Mills said. “It’s really about your mindset and finding the humor in any situation.”

Mills cancer battle has led to her being on stage not just as a comedian but as an inspiration, leading to her being booked at both comedic performances and speaking engagements for people and families who have overcome or are still fighting the disease.

“So many people will say to me, you don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve laughed,” she said. “It really makes me aware of the struggles people go through and that not everyone can look at things the same way I do.”

Leanne Morgan, like Mills, also grew up in Tennessee in a tiny farming community near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Despite going to college to be a child family therapist, she got the most fulfillment when she became a housewife and mother to her three children. While she grew up in a family of good storytellers, Morgan found her love for comedy not on the stage but as a sales person in the living rooms of fellow housewives.

“I was supposed to be selling jewelry but, instead, I was telling jokes,” she said. “Somebody peed on a couch one night, and that’s when I thought, ‘I’ve got something.’”

Morgan also made a name for herself doing stand-up comedy in L.A., eventually leading to her making appearances on “Dr. Phil,” celebrity chef Paula Dean’s cooking shows, “The View,” finishing as runner-up on Nick At Nite’s “Funniest Mom in America” and co-hosting her own radio show “Chewing the Fat” on Sirius/XM’s Blue Collar Radio.

Morgan admits she’s “done some nifty things to be a mother of three children in Knoxville” and that she built her fanbase on her honest-to-goodness truths and details being a mother, wife and, now, an empty-nester channeling all her affection on her dogs.

“Women say to me, ‘I feel like you’re in the closet watching my family.’ ‘I feel like you’re married to the man I’m married to.’ ‘How do you know this?’” Morgan said. “I just talk about what’s really happened.”

The Country Cool Comedy Tour will feature each comedian doing a 25-minute set and coming together for a bit of off-the-cuff banter at the end. All the performers agree that in addition to being a joy for the crowd, the opportunity to share the stage together is a treat they all cherish.

“It’s very rare that three headliners get to work together. Comedy is usually an isolated business,” Suhr said. “When we got to chance to work together, it was like magic. It’s like being on the road with your best girlfriends.”

This story was originally published April 10, 2018 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Not Southern comedy. Trio of women offer comedy with a Southern accent.."