Vanessa Bayer was in Chicago and exhausted when she first received the call telling her she had been cast on “Saturday Night Live.” She had just flown back from the audition in New York that day. Her agent said she hoped Bayer was not too tired to come back and begin what would be a seven-year tenure on the show.

Bayer responded, “What if I said I was too tired?”

As she recounted this story during her Friday night set headlining University Union’s “An Evening of Comedy,” Bayer couldn’t help but break into a gaping grin. As hearty laughter bubbled through the crowd of more than 400 people, her grin grew even wider.

“I just wanted to tell you guys about the moment I almost destroyed my whole career,” she said, then quickly moved into another beat of her 30-minute set.

Bayer rose to fame when she joined the SNL cast in 2010. Since then, she has also starred in films like “Trainwreck” and “Ibiza” and a web series she created with her brother, “Sound Advice.” Bayer showed a clip of the series during her performance.

Woven throughout the set were some of Bayer’s celebrity impersonations, a central aspect of her comedy. Her Jennifer Aniston and Miley Cyrus impersonations drew especially loud cheers from the crowd. Many of her impersonations, however, drew on iterations of Bayer herself. In one of her central bits, she did an impersonation of herself stumbling awkwardly through a sex joke.  

“I’m not too good at sex jokes,” Bayer said, prefacing the performance, “but because you guys are in college and you like sex stuff, I’m going to make an exception.” As always, her infectious grin was present.

Sabrina Jalees opened University Union’s “An Evening of Comedy.” Aaron Kassman | Staff Photographer

Bayer shared the orange-lit stage in Goldstein Auditorium with opening acts Sabrina Jalees and John Early, fellow comics as well as longtime friends and collaborators. In an interview with The Daily Orange after the show, Early said he met Jalees through the comedy scene in New York City, where they co-hosted a show in the basement of a bar.

“(Jalees) was always the person in New York who, like, if I needed someone to truly slaughter on my show I would have her come on,” Early said backstage.

Sitting beside him, Jalees added, “Slaughter is a good thing.”

Jalees performed first and focused her set around the recent birth of her son, Wolfie, and her relationship with her wife, Shauna. Sitting down at the edge of the stage, bathed in the spotlight, Jalees shared her problem with girls named Karen: As a child, her brother’s girlfriend Karen washed all the families dishes with olive oil instead of soap.

Early was up next, and Jalees gleefully introduced him and met him onstage with an embrace. After clarifying with the audience who SU’s biggest rival really is, Early asked if he could tell the crowd something.

“Can I be 100 percent honest with you,” Early said, looking over his shoulder as if someone backstage was whispering into his ear, “the people at Duke a) are trash, b) are shady, and c) are sketch.” The audience exploded into cheers.

John Early was the second comedian to take the stage Friday night. Aaron Kassman | Staff Photographer

Similar to Bayers’, Early’s set featured a diverse roster of impressions, from the moon itself to a “frail actress” telling a ghost story. Through all of them, he remained committed; after all, Early graduated with a BFA in Acting from New York University, an experience he joked primarily taught him “how to dramatically take the stage.”

Toward the end of his set, Early began to draw from a list of notes, sharing brand new jokes he was still workshopping. After one joke about testicles, Early waited for the crowd to die down, chuckling to himself.

“That one’s going places,” he said.

After the show, Early had advice for any aspiring comedians in the audience: be authentic.

“Try to find what makes you authentically funny around your friends, around your family and exploit that onstage,” Early said. “I wish I had had that advice.”

Jalees agreed and added that once you realize comedy is calling you, all you have to do is start performing.

“You won’t be good at it for many moons,” Jalees said, “but we’re all just continuing to try. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be like ‘I think I got this.’”

“That’s beautiful advice,” Early said. “Just start.”  

Published on March 2, 2019 at 12:45 pm