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Cleveland native Vanessa Bayer returns to the small screen for the 41st season of Saturday Night Live.

by Barry Goodrich | Sep. 17, 2015 | 4:00 AM

 

Vanessa Bayer's popularity as a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live should come as no surprise to her Orange High School classmates who voted her Most Likely to Succeed. "I didn't really get into a lot of trouble, but my prom date let the air out of one of the tires on every school bus," says Bayer, a straight-A student who did killer impressions of her teachers. "The next day, I felt so cool that I knew who did it."

The 33-year-old comedian had a busy summer promoting Amy Schumer's film Trainwreck, in which she appeared with another local talent: LeBron James. Bayer begins her sixth season on Saturday Night Live by working with both Miley Cyrus and Schumer, who host the first two shows on Oct. 3 and 10 respectively. We talk with Bayer about her characters, James and her family.

Q. You are known for your impression of Miley Cyrus. Why did you choose her?
A. It's always such a treat when Miley's on the show, because she's responsible for my career [laughs]. I was working on her before I even auditioned for SNL. I couldn't believe no one was doing her. She hosted during my first season, and her mom and sister were in the studio the first time I did her voice. They were so lovely about it.
 
Q. Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy is another one of your popular SNL characters. What inspired him?
A. When I was in seventh grade [at Ballard Brady Middle School], I went to bar mitzvahs pretty much every weekend. It's really a combination of my brother and the other boys from those bar mitzvahs. At that age, it's almost too formal for them and everything feels awkward.

 

Q. What was it like working with LeBron James and Amy Schumer?
A. I couldn't believe how good an actor LeBron was. You're like, What can he not do? He has really good comedic instincts. When we were shooting the movie, Amy and I made each other laugh all the time. We were improvising so much that Judd [Apatow] finally told us we needed to do some stuff he could actually put in the movie.
 
Q. Where does your sense of humor come from?
A. My dad is very funny. He does great impressions, and he's the comedian among his friends. When people ask me who my favorite comedian is I always say, "My dad."
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