Coming off the success of her 2020 Netflix special “Quarter-Life Crisis” and releasing her second special sometime this year, 28-year-old comedian Taylor Tomlinson has seen a lot of success in her young career. However, that success doesn’t cure the uncertainty of an ever-changing world — especially in the unfamiliar territory of bustling New York City.
Born and raised in sunny California, moving to New York City was a major environmental adjustment — even more so during a pandemic. With shows across the country each week and split-living between coasts, the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree created her “Sad in the City” podcast to journal her experiences, feelings and struggles in NYC.
“The genesis of this podcast, really, is that I had a week in New York that I was extremely sad — like, just rock-bottom depressed,” Tomlinson said during the first episode. “And it was not the first time I felt that way in New York … I had gotten to this point where I was so lonely here that if people recognized me on the street, I would make them talk to me for longer than I think they were even comfortable.”
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“Sad in the City” — a play-on-words of the show “Sex in the City” — mixes comedy, vulnerability and the general uncertainty of the world. With topics like loneliness, main-character energy, a West Coast vs. East Coast smackdown and making friends as an adult, the podcast serves as an outlet for Tomlinson’s successes and failures of trying to make it as a New Yorker.
“If you are an insecure person, who’s afraid of being judged, do not come to New York because people are judging you,” Tomlinson said on the podcast. “In New York, I do think people are judging you — so hard. And you just have to get good with it.”
While New York City is the podcast’s focus, it is full of relatable content for anyone dealing with the craziness of finding out where they belong in the world. Co-hosted with podcast producer and co-founder of Gotham Podcast Studios, Brianna Peters, the two often go off on tangents about mental health, finding purpose and more.
“…Once I achieved everything I wanted to and had the career I wanted to have and had to face the fact that I wasn’t the type of person that I wanted to be with forever,” Tomlinson said on the podcast, “it was mostly just realizing that I wasn’t where I wanted to be, and I wasn’t this great person I thought I was. … It’s tough, and your young adulthood is just constantly punctuated by those moments.”
With seven episodes already out and new episodes released every Tuesday on various streaming platforms and YouTube, there is plenty of “Sad in the City” content for new listeners to binge.
