Taylor Tomlinson on turning personal trauma into comedy gold

RTÉ News​

10 hours ago

Sínann Fetherston speaks with comedian Taylor Tomlinson about her Save Me Tour, and how therapy has helped her turn personal trauma into comedy gold.
"I had a lot of religious trauma to work through because of the way I grew up," Taylor Tomlinson tells me, speaking over Zoom from her New York home.
The comic is set to play Dublin's 3Arena on Sunday, 13 July, as part of the Save Me Tour, a show that details her sheltered childhood in a devout Christian household, where things like Harry Potter were banned because Dementors were seen as being too similar to the devil.
Although her faith waned when her mother passed away when she was just eight years old, the church did eventually lead to an unlikely career in stand-up.
As a teenager, she signed up for a six-week stand-up course, which led to a successful run on the Christian comedy circuit.
Eventually, the performer outgrew the church-approved constraints, and a seemingly tame joke had her in the bad books. ("In bed, I am a wild animal... I'm way more afraid of you than you are of me").
From there, the then 21-year-old stepped out into the mainstream circuit and hasn't looked back - until now.
"My twenties were about untangling myself from all of that, and now I'm 31 and I have a much more balanced, nuanced view of religion and belief," she explains.
"I promise it's funny," she adds, laughing.
Since 2020, the California woman has shot to stardom, with the Hollywood Reporter naming her as one of the "100 most powerful women in Hollywood" and Variety listing her as one of their "10 Comics To Watch" in 2024.
As well as delivering three Netflix stand-up specials in this short time - Quarter-Life Crisis (2020), Look At You (2022), and Have It All (2024) - Tomlinson became the only female host on late-night television in the US when she presented the panel show After Midnight.
Off-stage, these years were equally as transformative: she broke off an engagement, went to therapy, received a bipolar II diagnosis, came out as bisexual, lived bi-coastally, and toured constantly.
These incredibly personal topics quickly became fan-favourite material, with audiences applauding the standup's intense vulnerability and wit, but they have come at a cost.
"I've been running a hundred miles per hour for 10 years because I've been scared and striving," she admits. "I'm reaching a point now where, hopefully, I'd like to prioritise my health and wellbeing and personal life a little bit more than I have."
A comedian to her core, Tomlinson says the jokes (as well as a lot of therapy) decide when she's ready to open up.
"I think therapy is big," she says, "and also, once I have written a great joke about something, it kind of doesn't matter if I'm ready or not. I'm like, we better get ready because I really want to tell this joke!"
At the same time, thanks to said therapy, she's happy to pull material if it doesn't feel right during a performance: "I think you just kind of know.; it's kind of like baking, you stick the fork in and see if it comes out clean."
With great fame comes a great many podcasts, and Tomlinson has quickly learned that the conversation around her material rarely ends when the curtain falls.
If a public figure cracks the door open to their personal life, journalists, podcasters, and fans will always be ready to push for more.
"The way you speak about things on stage is a very specific, honed version of your feelings," she agrees.
"You get it down to the least amount of words possible and tie it up in a nice, neat bow. Having conversations with people face-to-face is a lot trickier and feels a lot more vulnerable, weirdly enough, than doing it in front of thousands of people."
Religious trauma and therapy aside, Tomlinson says that the emotional minefield of dating will play a big part in the show because, as many of us know, trying to find love through swiping is rife with material. Particularly as a celebrity. And even more so as a comedian who cracks jokes about her broken engagement.
"I don't know what to blame it on," she says of the current dating scene.
"I don't know if it's being more of a public figure, being a little bit older, having standards, being comfortable alone, or is it just that it's generally difficult to date now with social media and apps? It's probably a combination of all of it, but everyone I know who is dating is not having a good time."
"It's bad out here," she adds, grimly, "but then I look at my own social media and I'm like, ugh, this is people's first impression of me? It's just a nightmare out here."
On the plus side, a nightmare date is a goldmine for material, and Tomlinson promises plenty of jokes: "That, I can guarantee".