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2 months ago
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It’s early June on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, and Taylor Tomlinson is less than five months into her gig hosting “After Midnight.” Based on the 2013-17 program “@midnight” in which guests play silly games about internet memes, the CBS late-night entry is part panel, part game show and part showcase for the best comedians in the business and other famous people you didn’t know could be so funny — who knew Joe Manganiello had an uncanny Mark Wahlberg impression in his back pocket?
At the center of a simple but colorful stage stands the 30-year-old Tomlinson, the picture of calm, in a pantsuit that manages to toe the line between professional and hip. Tomlinson, the only woman currently hosting a late-night network series, will later reveal that when she first took the job, executive producer and comedy legend Stephen Colbert (whose show precedes “After Midnight”) gave her some valuable advice. “The most helpful thing he said was, ‘You’re not going to be amazing right away,’” says Tomlinson, Variety Creative Impact in Comedy honoree. “He let me know this will take a while to learn and not to expect to nail it in the first week. And that helped so much because I still feel like I’m learning how to do this job every day.”
The thing is, though, she excelled out of the gate. The show is still morphing and discovering itself — adding a monologue at the top, which she kills on this night — and the very spirit of the show is that it changes with the times. But for someone without a hosting pedigree and stepping into a new format, Tomlinson was a natural. Since its Jan. 17 debut to this day, she reads like a seasoned pro, rolling with the punches, putting her guests at ease and keeping the audience entertained.
Even Colbert is impressed by how quickly she seems to have adapted. Asked why he first selected her for the job, he says, “I like that she’s young, grew up in social media and can work at a high reference level in that world, but still seems suspicious of what social media feeds us every day.” He then adds, “What I didn’t expect was how someone so young can be so confident in the role and adaptable to changes so fluidly.”
It makes sense that Tomlinson would be a prodigy. She started stand-up comedy at the age of 16, after her father signed them both up for a class. Her first real performance was at the course’s graduation, where her material centered mostly on how young she was. “I just felt like it was an elephant in the room when I got on that stage as a literal child and everyone else was an adult,” she recalls. “So, I was like, ‘I’m sorry I’m so young and have no skills or experience.’ I was insecure and self-deprecating, but it was a very supportive audience.”
Tomlinson dismisses the idea of a “lightbulb moment” when she knew this was her destiny. She loved doing it, but she had terrible anxiety and stage fright. “I would do it and then feel so proud of myself for pushing through that debilitating fear,” she recalls. Soon, she was booking shows on the church circuit, where she thinks her youth helped her stand out. “It’s a very small scene and it helped me be memorable, if nothing else,” she notes.
When she turned 18, she was able to begin performing at comedy clubs and open mics. Growing up in Temecula, about 90 minutes outside of the comedy hub of L.A., she found work begat work as other comics would refer and vouch for her.
Still, she estimates it wasn’t until she was 19 or 20 that she realized comedy could be a career. At that point, she was doing cruise ships and getting on the lucrative college circuit. “Someone said to me, ‘You’re really talented but unless you work hard, you’re not going to make it and it’s your fault,’” she says. “That kind of kicked my butt into gear.”
She dropped out of college and eventually got off the church circuit. She was already realizing her material might be getting too risqué for that audience when a joke on Twitter got her fired from an upcoming gig. (The controversial line? “I am like a wild animal in bed — way more afraid of you than you are of me.”) She’s grateful for her time on the circuit, saying it taught her to be creative while staying clean. “It was good in the beginning to exercise that muscle, and it made me have the ability to perform anywhere and for anyone,” she notes. “But it didn’t feel honest to perform those spaces anymore, knowing they wanted someone super christian.”
A major turning point occurred when Tomlinson was spotted by Judi Marmel, a founding partner at Levity Live. Marmel had been sent a tape of the comic auditioning for a cruise line. Her reaction was instant. “She was 22 years old, and her writing was well beyond her years,” Marmel recalls. “After I watched that, I knew she was going to be the voice of her generation.”
Marmel isn’t prone to exaggeration, and she championed the young comic from the start. “Judi wanting to sign me is absolutely the biggest break I ever had in the business,” Tomlinson says. “She made great things happen and pushed for things I didn’t have the self-esteem for yet.” After appearing on Netflix’s “The Comedy Lineup” with a 15-minute segment, Tomlinson wanted to submit for a half-hour special. It was Marmel who told her she was ready to do a full hour. That became her first special, 2020’s acclaimed “Quarter Life Crisis.” Notes Tomlinson, “I trusted her and I think she believed in me more than I believed in me.”
It can be challenging to describe what makes Tomlinson stand out as a comedian — she’s gregarious and warm with killer timing. But the simplest answer is, she’s funny. Marmel describes her as having “the unique ability to be a truth-teller, while also being relatable to her audience.” She can riff on age-old topics like relationships (when mentioning her broken engagement, noting the ring kept snagging on things “like sweaters and my freedom”), but often there’s a modern twist. Her most recent special, “Have It All,” had her reveal her bisexuality and discuss the differences between dating men and women. She’s been open about her mental health struggles, simultaneously destigmatizing the topic while also acknowledging the absurdity of trying to describe her symptoms like “my bones feel itchy.”
Her appeal and work ethic landed Tomlinson on Billboard’s list of 10 highest-grossing comics on tour in 2023 — the only woman on the list alongside heavyweights like Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle. While Tomlinson is proud of her spot on the list, she is also quick to note that such things are hard to measure, depending on who’s touring at the time and the size of the venues.
And stand-up will always be her first love. It’s the reason that she’s OK with the fact that over the years, various projects in development (like a sitcom) didn’t pan out. It’s why she hesitated when first approached about the “After Midnight” job. But then she learned it would only tape three days a week — Monday through Wednesday — leaving her free to do stand-up on weekends. She was also excited by the prospect of working with Colbert, whom she praises for guiding her during the process and still checking in on her from time to time.
Colbert, whose Spartina Prods. was behind the reboot with shingle Funny or Die, was already a fan. “I first saw Taylor on YouTube Shorts. For whatever reason, the algorithm decided she was for me,” he recalls. “Maybe because I also watched a lot of Lisa Gilroy and the algorithm saw ‘blonde female comedian?’ Who knows? Whatever reason, I’m grateful to our robot culture lords.” Because he had watched so many clips, he says she became the “default comic” in his feed, “so I saw a lot of her stuff.”
Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, says it was an easy sell, and a test show sealed the deal. “She’s incredibly smart, charming, engaging and has a very funny quick wit. There’s no one like her in late night right now.”
Asked for her proudest moments with her client and Marmel points to two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall and the moment Colbert welcomed Tomlinson to CBS late night while onstage at the Ed Sullivan Theater. “It was not lost on me the history of being in that theater and watching a young woman be welcomed into network late-night television.”
Perhaps because Tomlinson was taking James Corden’s timeslot, many assumed “After Midnight” was a talk show — even though “they put it out there in every press release exactly what the show was.” As a result, she laughs, “When the show premiered, some people thought I’d been tricked into doing something else. This is goofy and ridiculous and exactly what I signed up for.”
It’s also harder than the host makes it look. They are writing and shooting four hour-long episodes a week. The guest list can vary wildly — though the show boasts a who’s who of top comics (Patton Oswalt, Pete Holmes, Maria Bamford), it has also brought in everyone from director Kevin Smith to to actor Haley Joel Osment. And she puts them all at ease. “I never want people who are nice enough to come on the show to feel I’m judging their jokes or that I didn’t think they did well,” Tomlinson says. “I want everyone to feel like they’re killing it and to walk away wanting to come back.”
It seems to be working: the show has already been picked up for a second season. Reisenbach marvels at how Tomlinson has made the property her own in such a short time. “She is incredibly fast on her feet and has such hilarious takes on all the dumb things on the internet, and yet she is incredibly generous with the guests,” she says. “It is because of the atmosphere she creates that everyone who comes on the show has a great time, and that translates for the audience at home.”
And Tomlinson, who once worried the job would limit her life, has found the opposite to be true. “I feel like my life is much fuller than it was a few years ago,” she notes. “I’m realizing it’s important in entertainment to be able to do more than one thing, to diversify my ego.” To that end, Tomlinson has several other projects in the works, including an international and domestic tour and feature scripts with her writing partner Taylor Tetreau.
The sky’s the limit for the comic, who seems up for any challenge. Asked if there is anything about Tomlinson that might surprise people, and Colbert offers a tidbit: “She spends her free time racing motorcross bikes and can bench press 215 pounds,” he reveals. “She also doesn’t mind when friends lie about her to the press.”
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