Taylor Tomlinson is still not slowing down
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Tomlinson had planned to take a break after she shot her 'Have It All' Netflix special last year, but then the opportunities kept coming. And for a stand-up comedian fighting to get ahead and get noticed, those opportunities are too rare to pass on lightly. 'You're not wrong to be scared that you could, like, miss a window or miss an opportunity,' she said. 'That's a very valid fear in this business. So if you can keep pushing, you feel like you have to, almost until you can't. So I'm certainly still in that mode. But I don't know, every year I'm like, I'll take next year off, and then something else happens.'
Tomlinson, Michael Urie, Jessica Williams, and Luke Tennie on "After Midnight."
Sonja Flemming/CBS
Initially hesitant to take the 'After Midnight' gig, Tomlinson relented when she learned the shooting schedule would allow her to tour on the weekend. She tapes one show a day on Monday and Tuesday, and then two on Wednesday. Then she can travel for stand-up and fly back on Sunday night, and start the whole process again. But she does have a little time to relax. 'Now, when I get on a plane on Thursday, it's like a nice break, because I don't have to wear any hair or makeup or even really talk to anyone all day,' she said. 'I'm like, ooh! A six-hour plane ride's like a spa day.'
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The pace of late night television can be frenetic – Tomlinson says the crew starts editing a show while they are still filming it. 'It's been interesting to learn just how crazy it is to make a late night show,' she said. 'It's also really stressful, and it's also nice, because it weirdly takes the pressure off when you're like, well, if it was bad, we get to do another one tomorrow. And if it was good, you're like, I can't celebrate too long, because you've got to do another one tomorrow.'
The format has evolved since 'After Midnight' debuted in January of '24. A reboot of the Comedy Central show '@midnight,' it features three guests, usually stand-up comedians, riffing on internet content. Then Tomlinson started doing a monologue. And a segment satirizing talk shows became a regular segment. 'I think it's much more similar to, like, 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' than a traditional late night show,' she said. 'Then I think they've wanted to kind of split the difference and make it more of a hybrid. We do like a talk show portion now, which started as a joke, and then [it] was something they were like, 'maybe you
could
do that.' We were like, 'Oh! Okay!' So now I think it's sort of like an in-between.'
As much as Tomlinson had to adjust to the show, it has also been adjusted to her. 'I was actually a little, I think, taken aback when the note was to make it feel more like my show,' she said.
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Tomlinson says the new hour of material she's presenting on the 'Save Me' tour is deeply personal, more akin to her 2022 special 'Look At You,' in which she talked about her bipolar diagnosis, the death of her mother, and a failed engagement, than the comparatively lighter 'Have It All.'
She started her career playing church functions, and Tomlinson's religious upbringing has always been a part of her stand-up. But it is more in focus this tour. 'I'm talking about it a lot, and I actually think it's the most positively I've ever talked about growing up religious, and the most affectionately I've ever talked about it,' she said. 'It's about deconstructing your faith and exploring your sexuality and whether or not you want to have kids and all that kind of stuff. So it's a very personal hour. I think if you like 'Look At You' where I was talking about mental health and losing a parent young and all that, then you'll really like this one.'
In keeping with the theme, Tomlinson has been ending shows on the tour with a segment called 'Crowd Confessions.' The audience texts answers to a set of questions on a screen before the show, and Tomlinson and her opening act (in Boston, it'll be Sophie Buddle and Zach Noe Towers) discussing their answers onstage. Thanks to a thrift store in Buffalo, Tomlinson and company actually sit in a pew for this part.
It's a more efficient method of working the crowd. 'I love doing it,' Tomlinson said. 'It's so much fun. It keeps every show really fresh. I love doing crowd work, but I can't hear anybody past the first three rows. And also, there are people who don't want to shout their secrets in a room of 3000 people. And I certainly wouldn't. So I wanted to hear from more people and get to know audiences a little bit more and give people their money's worth.'
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The book Tomlinson is working on, titled 'Actually, Nevermind', with a planned release in 2026, is another dream fulfilled. She had wanted to be a writer as a kid, before she discovered stand-up comedy. She's thrilled at the opportunity, even if it adds to her already busy schedule. 'Because, you know, I just didn't feel like I had enough going on,' she said. 'I'm sure I'm definitely overworking myself, and I'm sure I'll have a breakdown any day now. But for right now, I'm really enjoying it.'
TAYLOR TOMLINSON: THE SAVE ME TOUR
The Boch Center Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston. Feb 27-28 at 7 p.m., March 1 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and March 2 at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
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I got concussed, I got hit in the back of the head with a bong and that kind of laid me out for a few moments. I think Seth broke his hand or fractured his hand or something. Everybody was getting banged up, but it felt like you weren't really participating in the fight scene if you didn't have some scars by the end of it. McBride stole even more scenes as the trigger-happy explosives expert on the set of a Hollywood war movie in this hit comedy directed by Stiller, who costarred with Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, and more. That was that was such an insane shoot. I mean, it was like movie star camp … I was the new kid on the block. And suddenly I'm at a table reading with Tom Cruise and Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. I mean, I was just trying not to shit my pants the entire time. But I can remember that it took a while to shoot that first sequence in Tropic Thunder, where it's the war scene at the beginning. I think it was almost like three weeks of shooting. And every day there's so much going on there. And so every day everyone was called in and you had no idea if you were going to be on camera or not. And I was so nervous. I hadn't said a word in this movie yet. And every day I would go in with my stomach in knots, up in that tower, waiting to blow the whole scene up. And every day I would get ready for it. And then the day would move on and they're not going to get to me. They're still shooting stuff with Steve Coogan, or they're still shooting helicopters flying in. And so for three weeks, I was just like at the edge of my seat every day, like, 'F--k, I got to do this. And in front of all these people.' And they finally got to me, like on the last day of [shooting there]. They just came up into the tower and just let me rip it. And I was just pulling all these lines out of my ass and just trying to make Ben laugh. It was all just sort of improv and I remember as soon as it was done, everyone on the crew started clapping and I was so relieved. Basically, I could breathe, finally. And Ben was like, 'You know, you did it. That's that.' And so I felt like I had passed the first test, but it was definitely three weeks of just sitting on the edge of my seat of like, 'Am I going to get canned when I open my mouth in this movie? Is that what everyone's going to realize I don't belong here?' McBride created Eastbound & Down with Foot Fist Way collaborators Hill and Best shortly after their indie film breakout scored a release from Paramount Vantage. It starred McBride as the very politically incorrect Kenny Powers, a disgraced ex-pro baseball player forced to return to his small hometown, and became a cultishly adored hit for HBO. After we got [Foot Fist Way] set up, Will and Adam were curious of what we wanted to do next. I just had a vision of just moving into television, and they were kind of surprised about that because most people were trying to get out of TV to make movies. This was in 2006, so TV wasn't quite what it is right now. But there was something about the format of storytelling, about breaking a comedy and having like three or four hours to tell a story as opposed to just an hour and a half. It just felt like we could be a little bit more outside the box and maybe take some more risks and chances and maybe create something a little bit more unexpected. I would just sort of make choices and decisions based on what I wanted to see. I don't think it was really until maybe a season or two into Eastbound, where I started to kind of feel confident in what we were doing. Jodi and I were very lucky on Eastbound because I think if we would have made that as a film, I think it would have probably done nothing. 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And the fact that Seth and Evan were directing and there was nobody else calling the shots. It was these guys who were in the trenches with us making it, and man, we would have these 45-minute long takes. We would have takes that we would have to stop because the cameras overheated. They were running for so long and you would just go into a time warp. [They] would yell 'Action!' and then it was almost like the Holy Spirit was speaking through you. You just start speaking in tongues, just saying the most awful shit and just going at one another. And it was a complete joy. Vice Principals, created by McBride and Hill and starring McBride and Walton Goggins as two co-administrators vying for their high school's top post, only lasted two seasons on HBO. But it begot a fruitful relationship for McBride and his future Righteous Gemstones costar Goggins. The first time I met Walton, he actually had come in to audition for the third season of Eastbound. He was auditioning the role that ultimately went to Jason Sudeikis. And we were already kind of down the road with Sudeikis when Walton read, and so I was already going with [Sudeikis], but I was just so struck by Walton. I instantly felt pulled towards him and liked him and was just like, 'Oh man, I want to know more about this dude.' He's such a live wire. And so he was on my radar ever since then. And actually when we were shooting This Is the End down in New Orleans, he was down there for Django [Unchained]. So sometimes at the bars down in New Orleans, our two crews would end up at the same place every now and then, and I ran into Walton a few times down there. Though longtime creators Jody Hill and David Gordon Green are executive producers, McBride created HBO's The Righteous Gemstones — which follows a family of wealthy televangelists – by himself. Like Eastbound, McBride (who lives in Charleston, S.C.) filmed Gemstones in and around Wilmington, N.C. [Creating these stories and characters] is kind of what drives me more than anything. I just love telling stories, and I like creating stories, and it's honestly part of why I'm closing the chapter on Gemstones, as much fun as I've had making the show. As much as I love the entire cast and I've loved making it, I just want to tell more stories. And I see how quick time's moving on and I've been on Gemstones since I wrote the pilot in 2017. And it's been an absolute blast, but my brain is just firing and wanting to tell other stories as well. For me, that's kind of my driving force. What inspires me the most is just trying to find a new world and new characters to explore. I've never had a negative reaction to [the religious aspects]. I mean, it's not to say that maybe people haven't had a negative response, but it's been surprisingly positive. I think if you're a religious person, you might be turned off by, like, the profanity. And Walton Goggins's d--k hanging out. But ultimately, you also kind of despise these false prophets as well. This is a type of ministry that I don't think anyone who's religious really is trying to defend. And being from this region and even growing up in a religious house, I don't think the M.O. of the show was ever to be like a takedown of religion by any means. I really wanted us to walk a fine line that the butt of the joke was never someone's faith or was never belief. The butt of the joke was hypocrisy. And that's where we would find our humor. We wouldn't find it in mocking what people believe ultimately at the end of the day. And so I feel good about how we rode that line. And I think when you do that, I think you invite more people to come and enjoy the show. The [guest stars] have all been so awesome. I mean, any time we can convince anyone to come down here and play with us, we've never been disappointed, which is great. Everybody from Bradley Cooper to Sturgill Simpson to Joe Jonas and Steve Zahn and Lukas Haas and Eric Roberts, it's been absolutely nuts. The people that we've been able to talk into coming out here this season, Seann [William Scott] and Megan [Mullally] and last season, Kristen [Johnston], it's been a lot of fun. That's the thing I kind of enjoyed the most about my career in general. Just growing up watching movies, watching TV, being addicted to that stuff, with my career I've been able to use it as a way to service my fandom for all these different actors and different filmmakers. Whether it's showing up on Ridley Scott set for [Alien: Covenant] and getting to meet him and see what he's all about to casting people [like] Lukas Haas in the third season. Growing up, Witness and Lady in White were two of my favorite movies. And I wasn't bashful about telling him that. So sometimes when we cast these people, it's just an excuse for me to get to meet people I've always admired. I will miss [Gemstones], and I miss all of them. I have good, fond memories of Eastbound and VPs. And I have so many great memories about Gemstones. But I'll keep working on something new, and if I wouldn't have stopped those shows, then I wouldn't have had Gemstones. So I just think about what's next? And what's the next world? And who are the next people I'll be able to talk into coming down here and f--king around with me. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Best of GoldDerby Stephen King movies: 14 greatest films ranked worst to best The Making of 'The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day': PBS variety special 'comes from the heart' 'The Life of Chuck' cast reveal their favorite Stephen King works, including Mark Hamill's love of the 'terrifying' 'Pet Sematary' Click here to read the full article.
