Taylor Tomlinson Takes Us Through Her Camera Roll & Talks Cake Decorating and 'After Midnight'

Variety

Join us on as inside look at Taylor Tomlinson's favorite photos from her phone gallery where she shares some of her best memories from the beginning of her career to going on an adventure with Paddington Bear throughout London.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Taylor Tomlinson, and I'm going to take you through my camera roll.

00:03Okay, so this is the first photo.

00:11It is a photo I took on my TV at home of the day my last special, Have It All, came out

00:16on Netflix, and it was number one in TV shows for, I think, like a day or two.

00:21I knew it wasn't going to be there for long, so I said, we better take a photo of this

00:25while it lasts, because that was very cool.

00:27I love being on lists.

00:30Lists are really important to me.

00:31Anytime I get to be on a list, I try to capture that moment.

00:34This special was different from the others for me, because all my dreams had come true

00:39professionally, and I think the first special, Quarter Life, is like me trying to get to

00:44where I am now.

00:45Look at You is me sort of in the middle, going, is this going to go away?

00:50Was this a fluke?

00:51And Have It All is me really going, yeah, I think I'm a real comedian now.

00:56I think I did it.

00:57I think I did what I set out to do, which was really nice.

00:59Have you guys introduced people you were dating to your parents?

01:02It's not about introducing people you love to one another, is it?

01:05No.

01:06It's about showing your partner why you're mean to them sometimes.

01:10Okay.

01:12This is the second photo.

01:14Okay.

01:15So this is a photo of me on tour with Conan O'Brien.

01:18There was a day in Chicago, I believe there's an American Girl.

01:22I think the original American Girl doll store is in Chicago.

01:25We were talking about American Girls when I was on the stand-up tour with Conan, and

01:29I had overshared and said that I never got an American Girl doll growing up, that I would

01:33just look through the catalog, because they're so expensive.

01:36And then the next day, Conan's social team was like, can you come downstairs, Conan's

01:40going to give you a doll.

01:41And he had me choose between the Samantha doll and the Kit doll, and I picked Samantha

01:46because I had read more of her books growing up.

01:49That's a little selfie of me and Sam.

01:51I highly recommend having one of your idols give you a doll.

01:55It really helps on tough days.

01:58So stupid.

02:00Okay.

02:02Next photo.

02:03Okay, so this photo was me last year in London doing some shows, and I had never toured internationally

02:11before, which was really exciting.

02:13I had never seen Paddington before, and my best friend came with me to the first leg

02:18in London, and so we watched Paddington, and we're like, this is the greatest movie we've

02:22ever seen.

02:23I would not shut up about it.

02:25And towards the end of the trip, my friend Dustin Nickerson, who opens for me, bought

02:28me this Paddington bear.

02:29I'm getting dolls from a lot of people in this scrapbook, I just realized.

02:34He got me a little Paddington to remember the trip by, and it made me very emotional,

02:38and then I took Paddington around to all of the major landmarks and took photos of those.

02:42So this is one of them.

02:44Next photo.

02:47Ooh, this is me really living.

02:50This is me after I sold out two shows at Radio City Music Hall, which was absolutely insane

02:54and beyond my wildest dreams.

02:56And Monday night, we all went out, and I think we saw a show, and then we went to a Broadway

03:01bar, and you're not supposed to take videos or photos, so it feels very free in there.

03:07And someone on my team just grabbed this real quick, but this is me drunk for the very first

03:13time in my whole life, and I really had a great time.

03:16Look, I'm not advocating for abstinence, but I'm glad I waited until I was 29 and successful

03:23to get wasted at a Broadway bar.

03:25It was the right way to go.

03:26I was drinking whatever my social media manager handed me.

03:29I was like, what's that?

03:31Can I try it?

03:32Give me one.

03:33I don't know anything about alcohol.

03:34I've been drunk twice, ever.

03:36And I'm like, is that good?

03:37I'll have that.

03:41Okay, this, speaking of international tour dates.

03:44So I also got to perform in Australia last year for the first time, which was incredible.

03:49And when I came back, the jet lag was unimaginable.

03:53It was terrible.

03:54And I sort of lost my mind a little bit.

03:55I had given myself a few weeks off and thought, I'll rest, and then I couldn't because I was

04:00so tired.

04:01So I couldn't sleep, I was really wired, and I also got weirdly insecure about the fact

04:05that I had no hobbies to turn to when I had time off.

04:08On the plane ride back from Australia, I went down a rabbit hole on TikTok watching people

04:13decorate cakes.

04:14And I thought, if I get all the tools, surely I can decorate cakes.

04:19It's not that hard.

04:20You just need all the tools.

04:21And I have money.

04:22So I went and got a bunch of tools, and what you see here is me trying to decorate a cake.

04:28We put the beginning stages in because it just goes downhill from here.

04:32It's really not good.

04:33There's a whole mini-series on my Instagram of me trying to decorate these cakes at home,

04:39and it's pretty sad.

04:41It never goes well, but people seem to find it entertaining.

04:44So unfortunately, my only hobby is still creating content and not actually making anything anyone

04:50would want to eat or look at.

04:52Then I put some pink sprinkles on it.

04:56I don't know if I should do more sprinkles.

04:58It lasted maybe two weeks, and people still bring it up to me.

05:02They're like, what happened to that cake show?

05:04I was like, that was two weeks.

05:06That wasn't...

05:07It didn't last that long.

05:08I think I only made like four cakes.

05:10That was a dark period.

05:12Next one.

05:14Oh, this is me being told by Stephen Colbert that I got the job hosting after midnight.

05:20I was on my way out, and I got a text from my team that was like, can you hop on a Zoom

05:28with Colbert and everyone?

05:29I think they have a few more questions for you because I was up for the job, and I had

05:33done the screen test the week before, and I thought, oh yeah, sure, that's fine.

05:37I got on, and he sort of acted like he was going to keep interviewing me.

05:41He's like, there's a couple of things I didn't ask you, and I was like, okay.

05:44Then he totally faked me out and gave me the job, and this is my genuine and sincere surprise.

05:49I was so excited.

05:51I was so afraid.

05:53It's crazy that this was only in November.

05:55This wasn't that long ago, and I feel so different than I did in this picture.

06:00I don't feel differently about getting the job.

06:02I just feel different as a person as a result of having this job.

06:06My life is very different now.

06:08It's funny to look back at moments in your life knowing how much it changed after that.

06:13I'm really glad that somebody screenshotted it on the call, which I really appreciated

06:17because they're like, you'll probably want to have this, and I do.

06:22This is a photo of me at After Midnight in an outfit I really, really loved.

06:29I'm so stupid.

06:30When I got this job, I thought I was going to have to dress myself, so I went out and

06:33bought suits, and I got there, and they're like, you're so cute.

06:37We'll put these over here.

06:38We have a professional.

06:39When I started doing the show, I was like, can I just wear the same suit every night

06:43like the guys do?

06:44And they're like, you really can't, and I was like, okay.

06:46And then I thought about it, and I remember watching Chelsea lately and being a teenager

06:50and being like, ooh, yellow tank top.

06:52I do remember noticing her outfits, like, oh my gosh, her hair's up.

06:56I do remember that stuff.

06:58Granted, Chelsea Antler is much hotter than me, so okay.

07:04This is my younger sibling and I watching After Midnight in my hotel room, which was

07:11the first time I'd watched the show.

07:13Like, I'd only seen clips, really, online or, like, on links that they'd send me.

07:17I'd never actually watched it on TV or even, like, Paramount Plus, and it was so crazy

07:21to watch it on TV and go, like, oh my gosh, we filmed that yesterday.

07:26Now it's just out there, and it's happening, and it reminded me of watching, like, Whose

07:30Line Is It Anyway when I was a kid.

07:32It really hit me, and I was like, oh, this is, like, a fun, goofy, silly show.

07:36It just felt very nostalgic to me, so that also felt significant.

07:41My siblings and I are really, really close, and they're so lovely and supportive and

07:44think it's cool, but also know that I'm a loser, which is the perfect balance and exactly

07:49what you need in your life if you're gonna be in show business.

07:51People going, that's cool.

07:52Also, you know, simmer down, like, okay.

07:57This is a photo of me in front of the Winter Garden Theatre where they were doing The Music

08:05Man with Hugh Jackman's signed glove that I really did bid on and purchase in a charity

08:12auction after the show.

08:13People asked me if that story from Have It All is true.

08:16That picture is my proof that it actually is, and I do remember participating in the

08:21auction.

08:22It's very exciting.

08:23Have you ever participated in an auction?

08:24Like, one where people are excited?

08:26It was thrilling, and then it's over so fast, and you spent so much money.

08:29But again, it was for charity.

08:30I would never just do an auction for nothing.

08:34And I got this glove for my manager, and there was also Sutton Foster also signed a glove,

08:39which I almost kept, but I was like, no, you got these for Judy.

08:43After this happened, the very next night, I had a show at Town Hall in New York, and

08:46I did the first version of that bid.

08:49Super worth it.

08:50Super worth it.

08:51Definitely got my money's worth out of that glove.

08:53And then last one.

08:57This is me at 16 years old doing stand-up somewhere that looks illegal.

09:02I don't even know where this was.

09:04I don't know if it's upstairs.

09:06Upstairs where?

09:08A business?

09:09An apartment?

09:10A hotel?

09:11Who knows where this was?

09:12But I do like this photo because it shows you how far I've come, career-wise and acne-wise.

09:18Anybody who's made it in this business in the way they want to, it is important to remember

09:23how far you've come and how hard it was to get there, and nothing drives that point home

09:29more than this photo for me.

09:32And look how excited I am.

09:34I loved comedy so much, and I still do, and that's who's doing stand-up every night inside

09:38me, is this bitch right here.

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