The ‘After Midnight’ host has quite a few irons in the fire
By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated February 19, 2025
Two years ago, when Taylor Tomlinson was on her breakthrough “Have It All” tour, she was wrestling with work/life balance. Her Netflix specials had blown up and she was selling out theaters, and wondering how to find more time for her personal life. Since then, she has become host of “After Midnight,” a late night show airing weeknights on CBS, started writing a book of essays for Gallery Books, and booked even more stand-up shows on her “Save Me” tour. Last time, she played four shows at the Wang. This time, it’s six.
Safe to say that the balance has definitely tipped in a particular direction. “Work absolutely won that battle, for now,” said Tomlinson, speaking by phone from a Chicago tour stop. “It’s so funny because I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’ve really grown and changed and evolved. And then I look back at everything that I’m doing and I’m like, oh my God. Actually, I’ve not done much balancing at all. I’ve just gone, how much more can I take on?”
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.”