-Our next guest is a very funny comedian
who kicks off her Deal With It tour September 16th
at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis.
Please welcome to the show Taylor Tomlinson.
♪♪
[ Applause ]
-Thank you so much for being here.
-Oh, my gosh. Thank you for having me.
♪♪
-Thank you so much.
I'm so happy to have you here in person.
And I'm also happy -- You're from California,
but you now are spending time living in New York, as well.
How you are finding New York? -I am.
You know, I miss my car a lot.
I'm used to driving --
Like, I miss crying in a car that I'm driving.
-Sure. -Like, here can you do it,
but you're like, "Oh, my God. I'm not in control of my life
or even this vehicle." -[ Laughs ]
-It's very triggering. But, yeah, my boyfriend
lives in New York and is, like, born and raised in Manhattan,
which I consider low-key child abuse, but...
[ Laughter ]
...he's like, "If I have kids, we have to raise them here,"
and I was like, "I'm gonna love my children."
[ Laughter ]
But I've learned that, like, when you are single,
and you're looking for somebody, like, you need to make a list
of all the things you want in a partner, right?
'Cause if you forget to put something on there,
the universe is like, "Well, technically, you didn't say,
so we didn't bring you that."
And because he grew up in New York, he cannot drive.
Didn't even know I had to ask for that.
Thought that kind of just came with the fully grown man.
[ Laughter ] And let me be clear.
He could drive, but he won't. -Oh.
-He, like, won't drive, because he's like, "I'm a New Yorker."
Like, you know what I mean? -Yeah, I do.
-I'm like, "What are you gonna do
if there's, like, an apocalypse?"
And he's like, "There are Lyfts, there are Ubers."
I'm like, "What do you think Uber drivers are gonna be doing
during the apocalypse? You think they're gonna be
hopping on the app, like, 'Oh, hell yeah, surge pricing.
Must be 'cause Satan's here.'" Like, it's just crazy to me.
-You -- when I saw Quarter-Life Crisis,
your special on Netflix -- And I feel this is something
that is true of me as I get older.
I become very resentful of young talented people.
And I was like, "How is she so good, so young?"
And then I felt a little bit better,
because you started very young doing stand-up in churches.
-Yeah. Yeah, I started when I was 16.
That's the only place you can do stand-up
when you're 16 is in church. -Uh-huh.
-And only if you do an altar call at the end.
If you end it with like, "And Jesus died for your sins,"
then they're like, "Okay. You can do 15.
That's fine." But, like, comedy clubs
won't let you perform until you're 18.
-Gotcha. -And even then,
it's a little sketchy. -And so what --
And did you find --
Did the material go over well with your church crowd?
-You know, I spent most of the first couple years
of my stand-up "career"... [ Laughter ]
...being, like, very apologetic for just being so young.
Like, the first joke I ever did, how I used to open sets,
is I used to say, like, "I know there's probably gonna be
like a generational gap here. You know, I'm so young.
Like, you guys saw 'Titanic' in theaters, I saw it on VHS.
Like, you cried because Jack died.
I cried because Leonardo DiCaprio
didn't look like that anymore." [ Laughter ]
-Would -- so Deal With It is the new special.
Why are you calling --
The new hour you're touring with, I should say.
Why is it called Deal With It? -The new hour that I'm doing now
is a bit darker than Quarter-Life Crisis was.
Like, Quarter-Life Crisis, my Netflix special,
is a lot about, like, being in your 20s
and, like, it sucks and it's hard
'cause you're in transition. And this new hour
is, like, getting to the bottom of why you suck.
Like, "Okay. We know we suck. Let's figure out what it is,"
with, like, a lot of therapy and soul searching and whatnot.
So I named the tour Deal With It because it's, like, dealing
with your issues, dealing with your childhood trauma.
And also, if you saw Quarter-Life Crisis
and you come to see me, and you're like,
"Why aren't there more dating jokes?"
Deal with it. This is the show.
-Right. -This is the show.
-You actually talk about and went through
what a lot of people did, which is continuing
to do therapy during a pandemic where you couldn't
be in the room with someone, and having to do it over Zoom.
-Mm-hmm. -How did you find that?
-Well, I started seeing a new therapist during the pandemic.
My old one, in one of our last sessions,
told me that when I get close to people,
I have a tendency to self-sabotage,
and, like, I thought that was bull [bleep] so I ghosted her.
[ Laughter ]
And I started seeing my current therapist during the pandemic.
So I only recently met her in person.
And, like, oh, man --
Have you done Zoom therapy, Seth?
-I haven't done Zoom therapy.
-Oh, it's so much fun watching your trauma buffer.
It's a great time. Watching your issues
struggle under the weight of your weak Wi-Fi.
It's really -- it's great. Every week, I was like,
"It's just hard. My dad doesn't listen."
She's like, "I can't hear you. You froze.
If you're still talking, I'm not getting any of it.
Luckily, I have your credit-card information.
I'll see you next week."
-You -- we were talking backstage about the timing.
I felt deeply empathetic for comedians who maybe --
the shutdown happened right before they were about to tape.
Like, that's the worst, right?
You have an hour ready to go, and you have to wait so long.
Your special came out right before.
And somebody might think, "Oh, that's bad timing,"
'cause a big special comes out, you can then go sell tickets.
But it actually turned out to be pretty good timing.
-Yeah, I mean, I was very nervous,
because it came out the week before lockdown.
So just under the wire. And I was thinking, like,
"Okay. Well, I guess I missed my moment here."
Like, by the time everything goes back to normal,
if it ever does, I -- people will have forgotten
that this special even came out.
Meanwhile, my agents are calling me like,
"This is a great time to have a special come out."
Like, seriously, people are trapped in their homes.
They're watching stuff they wouldn't even consider
watching if they could go outside.
Like, "People are really giving stuff a chance right now."
And I'm like, "Okay. I would have hoped this did well
without a global emergency, but I'll take it."
-You saying that makes me realize how many agents
probably told clients, "You are crushing this pandemic."
-Oh, my God. This one -- "COVID's been great for you."
[ Laughter ] I heard that so many times.
-I think it's very exciting, as we do come out of it,
hopefully, that people will be able to go
and see you perform again. And you've got a lot
of great tour dates in a lot of great cities.
And thank you so much for being here.
It's really lovely talking to you.
-Thank you so much for having me.
-Taylor's Deal With It tour
starts September 16th in Minneapolis.