Taylor Tomlinson Hopes No One Filmed That
Working It Out all-timer Taylor Tomlinson returns to the podcast this week on the heels of the release of her new Netflix special, “Prodigal Daughter.” Mike and Taylor talk through what they do when they get stuck on a bit, what they’d do if they found out they were dating their cousin, and how being a stand-up is sometimes just telling 300 people a secret you weren’t ready to share. Plus, lots of new jokes about sex dreams, lovebombing, and baby names.
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mike-birbiglias-working-it-out/id1515419751
Find Mike:
Website: https://birbigs.com/
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Facebook: https://facebook.com/birbigfans
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mikebirbiglia
Find Taylor:
https://www.instagram.com/taylortomlinson/
https://taylortomlinsoncomedy.com
Hosted and Produced by Mike Birbiglia
Producers: Peter Salomone, Joseph Birbiglia, Mabel Lewis, Gary Simons
Video Consultant: Graham Willoughby
Special Thanks: Marissa Hurwitz, Josh Upfal, David Raphael, Nina Cwik, J. Hope Stein, Oona
Sound Mix: Shubh Saran
Supervising Engineer: Kate Bilinski
Music: Jack Antonoff and Bleachers
@38616mbram
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
49:51 . If one of your best characteristics is being a fast reader, it may be a love bombing situation.
@robertgregory6990
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
"…he's also dodging with the murderer thing, I think." 🤣 You two are hilarious. 5:04 "Relationship Saboteur" is what we call THIS master class, Taylor, lol. Everyone's toxic in their 20s in one way or another.
12:28 If your profession remains "low class", you can get away with more sh*t. But honestly, I don't think in those kinds of standards. Not now. I used to. But now I'm all for being honest and if that means being gut-wrenchingly raunchy, so f*cking be it! It's your mic for ever how long your set is, right?
19:07 "Now he curses?" I think what makes a great comedian – or actually a great person at any artistic profession – is room for growth and the ability to accept and accomodate that growth. Like, Taylor, how you were saying about the bit about your significant other having their ex's ashes in an urn on the mantle, lol – great joke, honestly! – but that's not how you feel now. And you wrote another joke to compensate for that growth, or shine a different light on it. Writers, artists, performers – anyone who walks a creative path, their own life is a huge trove and wellspring of experience to create and draw from. So, people who are really good at what they do, you feel it. Like that burning ignition you feel when a bit goes over really well. I would think that is probably THE reason you do what do. And it's therapeutic! 22:05 🤣 "Synonym for 'f*ck'"…."Hey, Alexa…"🤣🤣🤣
23:14 At this advanced age I'm at now, looking back over my life's course, all the worry I went and worked through was necessary. If for nothing else, as a gauge for how much I and my life has changed. And how much better I am now at living confidently. Like, that first special of yours, Taylor, when you said, "…You were garbage! Thinner garbage because you had no gut to listen to yet…", lol, the truth of that entire joke – classic! It is that kind of honesty that makes you prolific.
27:13 I grew up in a Southern Baptist household in the 80s. So, I get where you're coming from. In your Prodigal Daughter special, you used the term "religious trauma". And I never even considered that term. But I did know that church and religion f*cked me up. It was the same for me – abstinence from everything. And as much as it may have f*cked me up, at this advanced age I'm at now, lol, I can see it in retrospect for what it gave me. Like you, a LOT of humor, lol. Because without my sense of humor over the course of my life, I would be in prison or a psyche ward, lol. Or the prison psyche ward! So, eh, in a way, it's like God's little joke, lol? Like a line from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, one of the characters – I believe it was Martha – said, "Oh, dear, I'm just trying to shame you into a sense of humor." Lol, I read that play in my 20s and have remembered that one line above all the lines in that play after all these years.
29:29 "What the f*ck?! What am I doing? Moreover, what are THEY doing being all happy? What gives them the right to be HAPPY?!" 🤬🤣
30:02 Wow! It's a magic as a kid, that at some point, you lose. Robert Bly called that quality the "gold ball" in his book Iron John. As a kid, you possess this magic and life is so full and brimming with possibility. Then puberty hits. And growth. And hyper self-awareness. And you lose the gold ball. And because of that, in your 20s, you are garbage, lol. Thinner garbage, but…
I think that's our individual work as human beings – to hear and feel and process ALL other peoples' opinions, and to turn those opinions off. And to see those opinions – as well as various silly and ridiculous interpretations of the Word of God – for what they really are. Which, what they really are, is not mine, lol. The Word of God is mine. It's built in to me. And it is sacred. Other peoples' interpretations of the Word of God are NOT mine. 🙂 And I believe in the process of weeding out all this other sh*t, and all these other inner voices of antagonism and negativity, I think we see and come back to – maybe not fully – some semblance of that childhood magic. And we find our lost gold ball. 🙂 But now the gold ball looks like that baseball, lol, Bugs Bunny throws in his cartoon that goes around the world and has all these stickers from different places it's been!
38:33 OMG! Dude, Mike, your hypothetical situation(s) are so me! I do the same things!
44:04 Lol, "Yeah, I'm excited but remember all those other jackasses I've hooked up with before. What are my odds THIS time? Anybody do statistical analysis professionally?" 🤣🙄
@haa_vee
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Mike, the lighting on Taylor or over exposed and very harsh. She deserves better.
@EhNothing
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Really enjoyed this and the honesty of the perspectives shared. Thank you.
@TheDementation
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I got like about 15 minutes like in, and then like I couldnt like listen to it like anymore.
@justacuppajoe
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I would say that what makes you both such great comedians is that you are so damn genunine. People really do recognize that and appreciate it so very much. Thanks for sharing Mike, and thanks for having Taylor on the show. 🙂
@sarahmartinez1021
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
45:46 okay, this is something I do with my kids. It’s a Jewish tradition. You’re not supposed to tell the name of the baby to anyone until you have a live birth (or until they’re 8 days old, if you’re more religious), lest you tempt the evil eye and have an unfavorable birth outcome. Practically speaking, it also helps insulate me and my husband from certain family members’ unsolicited opinions and negative comments. No one can imagine that they will have an influence over the name if it’s already on the birth certificate. And, if I’m not telling our families, then I’m definitely not telling anyone else. That’s a slippery slope, cause where do you draw the line? And I’m definitely not asking anyone to lie for me. “Oh this is the name but don’t tell anyone.”
@March1966
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Love her. Older, conservative couples in Vegas? You mean the ones gambling their social security checks away? Carlin had an unbelievable vocabulary, and made his observational comedy work either way. Personally I liked the blue George better.
@austinthomas2383
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Taylor you have just single lines that kill me. 100% understand how abstinence is like deep in you because I have that relationship with homophobia as a gay man. You're a genie
@rajivbatra
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
"I'm not worth the wait" is the best bit from the whole working it out section, and it was a throwaway! I could imagine a whole special built around that theme, with the title "Worth the Wait"
@brandon6110
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
My sister in-law saw our list we were working on when my wife was pregnant and commented she liked some of the names. 2 months before our due date her dog has a litter and she used 3 of our top 5 names. I kinda knew where we stood after that.
@Peteparker_
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
She's so pretty.
@KuryakinIllya
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Hey Birbigs, I think the time is right for a callback on the "my wife's name is Jen, I call her Clo" joke. Been a while. It would work really well in the right place.
@ish474
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
The amount of personality dismorphia Taylor has is amazing😂❤. I fell in love with her when she did Berts Podcast before I ever saw how amazing she is at standup. There are a few comedians that have come so far but they can't see it so they still think of themselves as the underdog. You're at the Top baby
@D3ATH_follows_all
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Jokes are just pain × humor/sadness ÷ time. However much time it takes to accept the pain, to be able to not only laugh or cry through it, but to share it openly with anyone and accept it as it is.
@Tom-rz6xv
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Could have ended with "And it was nice to see you"
@donstaples4812
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Gorgeous, intelligent, funny…..
I'm perfect for her
@perry-ad
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
how many shirts does mike Birbiglia have? Maybe 4? it's what makes him smooth.
@schwachoochoo
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
Love hearing this conversation. So thoughtful and real. I really connected to the exchange of material. Taylor will never see this, but putting it out there into the ether. How long does it take before it's okay to say, "I love you…"? As long as it takes for it to not be a surprise.
@JeremyForTheWin
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
The "this is the worst part" conversation was on Jesse David Foxs Good Ones podcast
@ltdattnspn
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
That was great!
@julies518
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
In case it makes you be less annoyed re baby names, if parents don’t share the name it’s probably bc they don’t want to hear other people’s opinions about it. Or they have a close friend or family member they are suspicious might steal the name if that other person’s baby is due first. It has happened to me. 😅
@courtneya3
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
31:10 32:02 is a fuckin WORD man. Phew
@MySkye60
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I didn't know my baby's name until she was born
@FPwLola
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I am 100% of the time playing out the snippets of relationships I happen to overhear, I'm with you Mike. I can't even stop it, if I hear something its just automatic. Either that or I have a quick 2 second flash of what they would be like in bed-in my head-based on what I overhear them say. And then I get embarrassed, like they know I just did that. 😭 This was like Delicious Dish but with comedians. I really enjoy hearing about who Taylor is NOT on stage. I might even like her better, tbh. 👀 Thanks for another one! 💗✨
@brocluno01
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
The more I see snippets of Ms Tomlinson, and especially this interview, the more I appreciate what she does. To have her describe the mechanics of her humor is eye opening. I don't want to be her clone, but I'd like to have the talent 😅
@coffeehousemt
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
“Do you just daydream about your daughter becoming an artist but being like ‘my dad did everything right’” made me laugh soooo hard.
@bramvanduijn8086
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I vaguely remember that the "worrying makes you focus on the details" thing has some scientific proof behind it. Basically, stress gives you tunnel vision.
Edit to add: I really enjoyed this, you were both thoughtful and for me it was relaxing.
@danfuller3053
April 2, 2026 at 1:19 am
I like her comment about doing the next special clean (21:00-ish). Constraints push creativity!
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