UnderdogMindset

Two Netflix comedy specials before age of 30 while dealing with being bipolar disorder

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Taylor Tomlinson
Neal Brennan / CC BY 3.0
Posted: Mar 2, 2023 Updated: Mar 29, 2023
Comedy Mental Health Women

It is not a common thing to have two Netflix comedy specials before the age of 30. Still, Taylor Tomlinson did this when she released her second special, Look At You, in 2022. She achieved this despite dealing with depression and being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. Taylor discusses those topics in her specials.

Quotes

"I'm like, 'I want to make fun of this because it's something bad that happened to me and if I turn it into a joke, then it's taking the power back.' And now it was a little bit more like, 'Oh, I want to do jokes about this because hopefully it will make other people feel better.'"

Taylor Tomlinson

"When I got diagnosed, they started listing names", "They were like, 'You know who else is bipolar? Selena Gomez.' And I was like, 'That does make me feel better. She is very pretty. Okay, I'll be bipolar.'"

Taylor Tomlinson
References

  • Comedian Taylor Tomlinson Shares Why She Needed to Find the Funny in Her Bipolar Diagnosis

    Still, finding a way to not only address things like mental health and losing her mom to cancer when she was just 8 years old, but also make it seem funny, was kind of a tough nut to crack.

  • Taylor Tomlinson: Rising Comedy Star Raising Mental Health Awareness

    “Her gift is making weighty subjects come off as breezy. There’s no way a special that covers [suicidality, night terrors, panic attacks, and bipolar disorder] should seem this delightful. That requires skill and savvy… These jokes are carefully massaged, contextualized and accented to work for any crowd, and among her strategies to lighten the mood is arguing that it’s OK to laugh because [it] helped her career.

  • Taylor Tomlinson Felt 'Embarrassed' About Her Bipolar Diagnosis, Took a 'Long Time to Accept' It

    Taylor Tomlinson is opening up about coming to terms with her bipolar disorder. The 28-year-old comedian recently spoke to E! News, explaining why it took her "a long time to accept" her diagnosis and to make it a priority. She said she grew up in a very conservative household with parents who taught her that mental health wasn't a priority, which initially led her to avoid getting the medication she needed.

  • Look at You, Taylor Tomlinson—You’re Doing It!

    Taylor Tomlinson’s Look at You shows how far she’s come since her first appearance on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup in 2018. And her biggest revelation from the new special—that she has bipolar disorder and anxiety—explains some of it.

  • Taylor Tomlinson: A Comic With the Confidence of a Star

    The moment I knew that the stand-up comic Taylor Tomlinson was going to be a star was not after she made the precociously funny debut special, “Quarter-Life Crisis,” at the age of 25. Or her assured follow-up, “Look at You,” which premiered on Netflix this week. Or even after the news that she’s writing and starring in a movie about her own life (directed by Paul Weitz).

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