In November, Taylor Tomlinson celebrated a milestone birthday. The stand-up sensation turned 30, an age when she thought she would officially be an adult. Things haven't gone as she had planned.
“When I was 20 years old I thought I was going to get married. [by 30]” he says over the phone from Los Angeles in early May. “Maybe I would be preparing to have children. I thought if I could tour theaters when I was 30, it would be amazing. The fact that I was able to do that when I was in my twenties, now I don't even know if I ever want to get married or have kids. “It's very strange to feel so different about everything, but it's comforting to see where you are and how it's not what you imagined and say, 'Oh, but I like this too.'”
Since the release of her debut Netflix special, “Quarter-Life Crisis,” which came out in 2020 just days before the COVID shutdown began, the candid and cutting Southern California native has been opening up to her audience about her anxieties and aspirations. . Raised in a conservative Christian home, Tomlinson abandoned religion and pursued a comedy career, getting engaged (and ending that engagement) and being diagnosed as bipolar (which formed the core of her second special, 2022's “Look at You”). . and, now as a successful star, grappling with the knowledge that achieving her professional dreams doesn't mean she got everything she wanted.
These concerns intertwine in her February release, “Have It All,” her third and most moving Netflix special, in which she reflects incisively on being rich and famous at 30, but still lonely and romantically unfulfilled. But if the special marks a turning point in Tomlinson's life, so does her new job. When James Corden announced that he was leaving “The Late Late Show,” CBS decided to relaunch the Comedy Central game show “After Midnight” and announced that Tomlinson would be the new host.
It was a good job, but I wasn't sure I wanted it.
“I was looking for reasons not to do it,” admits Tomlinson, who feared hosting would affect her first love: stand-up. But when she learned that “After Midnight” would require her services only Monday through Wednesday, allowing her to perform on weekends, Tomlinson accepted the idea.
“I was very surprised to want to do this job,” he says. “But I felt kind of alone, not on the road. Along the way, I had my tour manager, my best friend, open for me; I had what I felt was a team. But then I would come home to Los Angeles and feel like I was floating, to the point where I thought, 'Shouldn't I live in Los Angeles?'”
Taylor Tomlinson, left, hosts CBS' “After Midnight.” Guest comedians include Nico Santos, left, Billy Eichner and Pete Holmes.
(Robert Voets/CBS)
“After Midnight,” which was released in January, gave Tomlinson the opportunity to be part of another team, and she enjoys the fact that it's not “her” show like a traditional late-night show would be. Instead, the show invites a panel of comedians to analyze Internet videos and memes. “My goal is not to be the funniest person in the room,” she says. “If I'm funny, that's a plus, but my job is to make [my guests] as fun as possible, prepare them as best you can and make it a great experience for them.”
In fact, in “After Midnight,” which features a relaxed, jokey vibe, Tomlinson is an excellent facilitator, playing the straight woman so her veteran comic panelists, like Tig Notaro and Pete Holmes, can shine. Interestingly, she claims that “After Midnight” is actually more pressure than stand-up “because there are a lot more people counting on me and there are a lot more people to disappoint.”
It took Tomlinson a minute to adjust to this new work schedule. But now he's back on tour and already developing material for his next special, the seeds of which were planted with “Have It All,” where Tomlinson announced a new chapter in his romantic life: dating women. To fans, that might have seemed like big news, but the truth is that her bisexuality was something she had known about herself for a long time.
“Those were jokes I'd been working on for years,” he says. “[They] We weren't going to do 'Look at You' because I thought, 'I have more to say about this, we'll wait for it.' I think making those jokes helped, because the more you talk about something, the more you allow yourself to imagine it. [as] a posibility. I grew up very religious; “I feel a lot of shame about sex and I struggled with it a lot.” Tomlinson realized that if he didn't tell those jokes in “Have It All,” his stories about his fears of dating women would be so far behind in his rearview mirror in his next special that they would no longer be relevant. for his life. In fact, he's happy to say, “I met my current girlfriend about a month before filming 'Have It All.' I speak of [my sexuality] a lot in the new time.”
When Tomlinson initially began promoting “After Midnight,” she and producers had not yet figured out the format, and some observers incorrectly assumed that the show would be another talk show. But correcting that confusion led the industry to speculate that “After Midnight” was another nail in the coffin of traditional late-night dining. Does Tomlinson feel that her program represents an ever-increasing sea change?
“There are how many [late-night talk shows]?,” she asks. “There's Kimmel, Fallon, Seth, Colbert.” John Oliver's “Last Week Tonight” doesn't count because it doesn't include interviews with celebrities. However, Tomlinson maintains: “That seems like a lot, right? I think It would be silly to say, 'Yeah, there are four big talk shows here, they're dying.' And so are the daytime talk shows: Kelly, Drew and Jennifer Hudson. [those] The shows have more in common with traditional late-night talk shows. “Personally, I don’t feel like the talk show format is going away.”
You can't worry about the other late-night shows – you have your own to focus on. And as for comparisons, she won't worry. “I love that it's something different,” she says of “After Midnight.” “I think it's refreshing, cool, fun, silly and silly in the best way.”
