Experiencing Taylor Tomlinson Live is Worth The Wait
Comedian Taylor Tomlinson strolled onto the Saenger Theatre's stage Friday, October 14, with the self assurance not many professionals her age possess—in any career, much less as a stand-up comedian facing a large house. Fans across age demographics seemed excited to be in the same 2,600-seat room with her energy. She exuded poise and attitude well beyond her twenty-something years--comfortably playing to the crowd as if it was a more intimate comedy club.
Wearing her signature black leather jacket over a simple white shirt, black jeans, and her hair in a ponytail, Tomlinson kicked off her performance with new material in the ever-evolving topics of her life: dating, family, love, and anxiety. Taking the stage to thunderous applause, Tomlinson launched into a 75-minutes set upping the ante from previous concerts.
The Have It All Tour references the struggle many have balancing work, family, life, and love. Confronted with her contemporaries getting married and having children, she voices the obvious question: is the pursuit of happiness through life, love, successful career, and supportive family possible or a series of either/or choices. Her observations are delivered with brilliant and sly satire having the crowd roaring.
Taylor Tomlinson's The Have It All Tour is a long-overdue, in-person experience for New Orleans fans on the heels of her two previous streaming stand-up routines, which most have only been able to watch on Netflix.
And she clearly relished being with her fans in person as well. Throughout the concert, she frequently questioned the audience on topics including which dating sites they used, the worst advice they were given, and even cures for insomnia. Audience responses were often funny and sometimes shocking—one seemingly catching Tomlinson off guard—giving her unexpected and fun fodder to expand on—in a way that the audience participants enthusiastically enjoyed where she took their information.
"She came out strong, and kept on swinging," said Jay Laws, a fan who "pre-gamed" by watching both Netflix shows prior to the performance.
Many were introduced to Tomlinson in her Quarter Life Crisis show during the pandemic quarantines in 2020. Although filmed prior to Covid-19 lock downs, families needed laughs and discovered her "wholesome round face" and honest-but-scathing humor. Harvesting jokes from the anxiety of being 25 years old in today's world cut to the funny bone of anyone who is twenty-something, or who has ever been twenty-something—universal truths that are not only timeless, but relatable across demographics.
Look At You followed, streaming on Netflix this year, with new found self-awareness that is as hilarious, and at times uncomfortably honest, as her first show. Delving into our collective conscious of faith, parents, dating, and mental illness, her sharp wit and engaging manner makes all topics—including a dead parent—universally understandable and, yes, hysterically funny.
Tomlinson's fans are well aware of her background of having her mother die from cancer when she was eight years old, being raised by her conservative father (and her subsequent rebellion through comedy), and recently discovering she "has bi-polar"—finding the joy and laughter along the way, and allowing us in to se it as well. This performance takes all of that insight to new levels in her growth as a person and reminding us we largely relate to all of it, and probably feel the same way.
Tomlinson is boldly open about her self and her relationships—expanding insights into those with her father, sisters, friends, and past-and-present boyfriends. It's this approach to her comedy that lands the jokes, slicing their qualities with such precision, she connects with audiences facing similar challenges, and kept laughter filling the rafters.
Oddly, Tomlinson's warm-up regular Dustin Nickerson was sidelined in New Orleans for Laura Peek, a Tennessee native who quickly connected with her-fellow southerners in the crowd, and kept the laughs coming.
Peek's opening act, like Tomlinson's set, expertly harvested material from her life, also finding a commonality that connected with the audience. Her themes complemented the headliner's material without stepping on it, and had the theatre ready to laugh.
Tomlinson is now closer to twenty-ten years old than the twenty-five when she was headlining in Quarter Life Crisis, and performing since she was sixteen, her comfortable demeanor on stage is well earned. Tomlinson's Instagram fan page dates back to early performances in late April 2014 (when she was 21), belying eight years of comedy-club hecklers and fine-tuned experience with some of the greats of her generation, as well as that of her parents. Working with consummate comedy professionals including Whitney Cummings, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O'Brien, as well as launching her own successful podcast Sad in the City, she has the chops to carry a one-woman show in larger venues with an easy confidence.
Taylor Tomlinson is a rising star in a dark night who not only understands comedy, but is also a champion for it.
