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Boston Globe

Taylor Tomlinson is still not slowing down

Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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.