Taylor Tomlinson chose a church setting for her Netflix special “Prodigal Daughter,” filming inside Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where leaders said they view her comedy as a fit rather than a threat to faith community norms. The show was recorded in November and released Feb. 24, according to Religion News Service, which partnered with The Associated Press on the story. In the special, Tomlinson uses material that includes sexual themes and profanity, as well as jokes spanning topics that some churches may consider inappropriate.
In promotional material described in the report, Tomlinson performs from beneath Fountain Street’s ornate sanctuary ceiling while wearing a cross on her necklace and a leather jacket, and the set includes jokes and religious references that the report says could be regarded as blasphemous by many nondenominational Christian congregations. The special includes what the report characterizes as material ranging from jokes about sexuality to jokes about the crucifixion. The report also says the set draws on Tomlinson’s conservative Christian upbringing and her account of the personal fallout she associates with growing up in church.
Fountain Street Church leaders said the match between the venue and the comedian was intentional. The church’s Rev. Nathan Dannison said the charge that Fountain Street is “not really a church” has been leveled against it since the 1890s. He and other leaders said the congregation’s identity has been shaped over generations, including its shift away from a specific denomination and its broader approach to doctrine. RNS described the church as non-creedal and as a community that rejects specific doctrines.
The report said Fountain Street’s reputation developed through a number of publicly known positions and affiliations. Founded in 1869 through the merger of two Baptist congregations, the church dropped its Baptist affiliation in the 1960s under Rev. Duncan E. Littlefair, a longtime pastor. During that period, RNS said local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood were organized at the church, along with the establishment of a Choice Fund that provided money for emergency abortion care in Michigan.
Church leaders also framed the venue as one that supports open debate and civil liberties, including free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. RNS said Fountain Street’s congregation has hosted a wide range of public figures, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Angela Davis, Winston Churchill and Malcolm X, and that the church has welcomed comedians since at least 2011. It described the church as part of the regional culture in Grand Rapids, which has ties to theologically conservative Dutch Reformed Christian traditions.
Tomlinson’s recording came after her team reached out to Fountain Street in spring 2024 as the place to film her fourth Netflix special, the report said. Kayle Clements, the church’s director of audio and visual technology, said Tomlinson was looking for a church setting where she could film and where the emphasis of her work—her conservative Christian upbringing and her struggle with what it means to be religious—could land with an audience. Clements also said the special was heavily focused on those themes.
The report described Tomlinson as no longer religious in her own account, and it included a question she asked the crowd about her past. It said she asked, “I have religious trauma. Anybody else have religious trauma?” and added that the special’s context is that Tomlinson equates the term with growing up in church but not identifying as religious anymore. In the report’s description, Dannison said the congregation includes “reconstructing Christians” and people who, in his view, arrive with frustrations shaped by what they describe as toxic theologies of Christian nationalism and right-wing Christian fundamentalism.
Producing the special required a large operational push by Fountain Street staff and leadership, RNS said. The report described months of preparation tied to ongoing restoration work on the church’s historic bell tower, and it said the week of the recording drew in extensive production staffing, including Netflix employees and equipment support. Fountain Street’s governing board chair, J. Spalding Wall, said the team initially landed with about 12 people and that it grew to about 135 by the time the recording week ended. The report said Tomlinson performed four shows during the week of Nov. 1, 2025, and Clements said he worked nearly around the clock, with his shortest day at 17 hours and his longest at 23 hours.
RNS said the finished special includes exterior shots of Fountain Street’s neo-Romanesque structure and begins with Tomlinson exiting a choir room onto the stage. The report said some set material draws on her earlier “church basement” routines, including jokes about “decaf” Christians and references to “Veggie Tales.” It also said Tomlinson questioned aspects of how stories such as Noah’s Ark became widely popular children’s material, and she later shifted to more pointed critiques of church teaching and response to difficult questions.
After the special’s release, the report said dozens of Fountain Street members gathered at the church for a celebratory viewing party, including a “thank you” video from Tomlinson. Dannison described the night as an example of the church living out its values, saying the event reflected Fountain Street “living out its values of liberalism, free speech, progressive values, sanctuary, freedom to share your story, freedom to share your hurt without fear of censorship.”