Fearless and Vulnerable Taylor Tomlinson Shines at the Wynn Hotel’s Encore Theatre
It’s definitely Taylor Tomlinson’s moment, and the packed audience at the Wynn’s Encore Theater in Las Vegas this past Saturday night showered the 28-year-old southern California comedian with non-stop love.
The star of two Netflix stand-up specials and intelligentsia coverage in the New York Times and Vulture has already been through life’s ringer, losing her mom to cancer when she was eight and riding the mental health roller coaster with depression, night terrors and panic attacks. Tomlinson’s shows offer insight and comfort, especially to folks who’ve been dealing with these issues. Taylor’s advice to herself and her audience is right there in the name of her current theater tour: “Deal With It.”
She also resonates with her young audience who face the humiliation of being single in a cruel dating app world. Funny, too, to hear her lampoon the boredom that can creep into longtime marriages.
Tomlinson is smart, funny and commanding, hitting all her targets with rapid-fire precision. No guerrilla-style humor or political commentary here. She’s an artist who aims to please, having sharpened her craft on the church comedy circuit (as part of her conservative Christian upbringing) before ascending to the national arena and “going dirty.”
Tomlinson is also fearless and vulnerable. From the moment she walks on stage, she masterfully gets you on her side. She is clearly pissed off, and you want to cheer her on as she works through her own issues. Because of her tight professionalism, you don’t get the sense that this sky’s-the-limit star is going to unravel in front of her audience. There’s this show to finish of course, and another one to do in another city.
YouTube screen grab from her current Netflix special, “Look At You”