Sketch artist dynamo Chloe Troast recently stopped in the Bay Area on her North American Summer tour. She performed to a sold-out crowd at the Verdi Club in San Francisco—produced by East Bay-based Talent Moat—after a run of showcasing her talents as a comedian, musician and overall creative mastermind as a cast member for Saturday Night Live’s 49th season.
With a charm and innocence akin to the late great Charlie Chaplin, and a coy optimism and musical flair as seen in the early works of Steve Martin (just slightly more demure), I’d bet Chloe is likely to give us her best work in the days to come, post-SNL. She now joins the ranks of single-season SNL powerhouse players like: Billy Crystal, Damon Wayans, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Martin Short, Christopher Guest and, oh yeah, recent Academy Award winner Robert Downey, Jr.
The show itself has had some rocky transitions in recent years, including: 14 cast member changes in the past four seasons; a 35% decline in viewership in season 47, with only a 3% increase by season 49, leaving many curious as to the future of SNL in general. Not to mention a post-Covid era flurry of format changes and current online competition with TikTok and YouTube. We can only hope the show is able to wrangle its challenges in season 50 and beyond.
Nevertheless, SNL is legendary. And with an alumni of only 168, having been a cast member is a hard-won, heavy-duty piece of equipment to have in Chloe’s levity arsenal.
Today’s market of standup comedy isn’t your parents’ or grandparents’ brand of a single comedian flowing one-liners whose only prop is a water pitcher on a stool. It’s slightly more competitive these days. Chloe pulled through with flying colors and non-stop laughs. To the delight of the crowd, the show itself turned out to be much more of a variety format than anticipated, including music and surprise guests.
Starting off with a “Get to know me, get to know you” icebreaker segment that blended seamlessly in with a bit where her “obsessed ex-boyfriend, Greg” showed up unexpectedly to reminisce and re-cap on their past relationship excursions. Her acting chops were ironically strong in her interpretation of an acting coach, and after engaging in some chit chat with one lucky showgoer, Chloe came up with some on-the-spot acoustic guitar and singing brilliance about the audience member’s daughter, Audrey, and her love for Star Wars that translated like Joni Mitchell performing a battle rap.
And while her live show was industry standard in length, it seemed to end too soon. It was apparent her talents go beyond what we may view as being just a comedian. I gained an understanding of how underrated and underappreciated comedic artists can be, seen primarily as people to make us laugh, but not enough stock is given to the fact that they can (and do) help us understand ourselves a bit better.
Chloe definitely has that nice babysitter vibe—not the babysitter teaching you how to smoke cigarettes or banging her BF in your parent’s bed while they’re on their anniversary dinner date and leaving you with an iPad to entertain yourself. Rather, she’s the one helping you make homemade oatmeal cookies (with a recipe substituted with coconut sugar, because she cares), then politely/constructively aiding you in coloring inside the lines, and tucking you in with a customized lullaby… and then quietly banging her BF in your parent’s bed, so as to not disrupt your dreaming.
She may not realize it herself but she’s smooth enough to win you over and not have you realize it until her skit on TV is over or you’re on your way home from her show.
When talking to her she can catch you off guard by using terms or words about herself that people may not always like to cop to, like “anxious” or “delusional,” and make it sound positive, normalizing awkwardness and encouraging you to reach for your dreams anyway.
You get the impression that Chloe came from a family environment that encouraged creativity. She can recall her parents putting her in all sorts of lessons and programs as a kid. While not formally trained, her mom was often playing the piano—her parents “loved music,” said Chloe “There was ALWAYS music around the house.”
After graduating from NYU with a major in English and a minor in Middle Eastern Islamic studies (likely not the combo you’d expect from a now famous comedian and artist), Chloe started standup and sketch comedy. Through referrals she made the short list for an audition for the ’22-’23 season of SNL, and was then hired on for the 49th season at SNL after an additional audition process.
While normally there’s a pre-season shindig before the show starts production, Chloe came on when a writers’ strike was just ending. She was brought to the table raw with ideas expected from her on the spot, many of which were not only used but well received—not too shabby for a first season featured cast member. Check out: “Little Orphan Cassidy” (a fan favorite) featuring Timothee Chamalet as an example of her songbird satire.
As for her future? A rom com co-starring Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) is in the works through New Line Cinema, and a project with Adult Swim called DOHL’S.
View her comedic/melodic genius in the following clips:
