Comedian Linda Stogner Finally Gets Her Long-Overdue Comedy Special

It was about time someone gave Linda Stogner her own comedy special. She's spent so much time, money and effort building a comedy community for Dallas that she deserves an hour of her own in the spotlight.

Stogner spent her comedy career in two different ways. She performs a quirky, bordering-on-insane standup on stages across the region, which earned her the Funniest Comic in Texas title in 2014. The other half of her time is spent giving other comics a stage to perform through her various ventures, such as the Back Door Comedy Club she co-founded with Jan Norton in 1988, which has survived 12 moves, the most recent of which brought them to Richardson.

"The opportunity came kind of fast, and they said maybe we could do it in the summer, but you never what could happen in between," Stogner says. "I'm told if you have an opportunity, you try to do it then because you never know if it's going to fall out or not happen."

The Dry Bar Comedy Network offered her a chance to do her first feature-length special two years ago. It was shot at the Dry Bar Comedy theater in Provo, Utah, in 2020 with a scheduled release the following fall. Then, the pandemic delayed it for months.

"I was so excited and everyone knew I went out there to shoot it," Stogner says. "It sort of became comical because everyone was like, 'When's it gonna come out?' It didn't have a date until the week before it came out."

Dry Bar finally released Stogner's special Welcome to My Planet on its website and various streaming service options.

"It was frustrating because in your mind, you don't know why they're delaying it or are they gonna go under," she says. "The pandemic put so many fears in your head and so many things shut down, I didn't know what was gonna happen."

Talk about Stogner's special started after she opened for comedian Lance Mantalto at The Grove Comedy Club in Arkansas. Stogner says Mantalto recommended her to his agent who requested a tape from her and set her up to record a special in February 2020. She had only a week to prepare.

"I focused on the stuff I'd been doing because that's what they always say: When you have an important set, don't try anything new," Stogner says. "The first time I was on national TV, I think it was Joan Rivers when she had a special. I tried a joke for six months and I couldn't get it to work. So I thought don't try it but something in my gut said go for it and I went for it and it worked really great and after that, it didn't work any more. You have your rules but you can break them sometimes."
Even through the nerves and short prep schedule, Stogner says she wanted to make sure she had just as much fun as the audience or the whole thing would never work.

"That's the best advice you can have for any set," Stogner says. "Whether you're playing around or it's your most important set, if you have fun, the audience will have fun. That was happening for sure. For the most part, I tried to focus on not letting my nerves get in the way. Even though it's stuff I've done for years, I didn't want to let myself get too anxious because it was important to do it."

It's been over two years since she recorded it, and Stogner's special is finally starting to find an audience. She says she's getting contacts and recognition from new bookers and fans who saw her on Dry Bar's platform.

"Last Saturday, I was at Back Door and some comics were saying congrats and then there was a lady checking in and she looked at me and said, 'Oh, are you somebody?'" Stogner says. "It's one of those questions where you go, 'Hmm, yes and no.' On the one end, it's cool but on the other, it's kind of humbling.

"I didn't know what to say. So I just smiled and said, 'I'm working on it.'"