Northeast Ohio natives Jonah and Vanessa Bayer no longer call the Midwest home, but they often reference their upbringing here in their popular How Did We Get Weird? podcast. Jonah is a successful therapist and journalist who’s played in punk bands for years, and Vanessa is an actress who was former Saturday Night Live cast member who’s had numerous roles in film and TV.
In a recent Zoom call, they talked about their careers and their upcoming show at House of Blues, where they’ll record their podcast live. Indie rocker JD Samson of the bands Le Tigre and MEN, who also went to Orange High School with the Bayers, will guest. The event takes place at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25.
What was it like to grow up in the Cleveland area?
Vanessa: It was so great. I feel like it was an ideal place to grow up. We had such a beautiful neighborhood. Everything was right there, and we were able to ride our bikes outside. We had such a fun time. Things felt very easy.
Jonah: I agree. It was such an amazing music scene back then. My bands would play at Euclid Tavern or Peabody’s Down Under or the Odeon.
Vanessa, were you always funny and interested in acting?
Vanessa: When I was really little, I was performing for my family. I also did middle school after-school theater. When I was in high school, I would do impressions of my teachers, but I didn’t know I was heading toward a comedy career. I was also a very good student, and I focused on that more than being funny.
Jonah, were you always drawn to music?
Jonah: Yes. My bands would play a lot in high school, and Vanessa would come to see us at the Euclid Tavern or wherever we played. I was obsessed with guitars and music and punk and hardcore.
Vanessa: By the way, our family was always into comedy. Our dad was very funny, and our mom was funny too. We loved Chris Farley and Adam Sandler movies. We were kind of obsessed with comedy in our house.
Jonah: That is true.
Jonah, how did wind up liking hardcore music?
Jonah: I don’t know. At first, I was kind of into metal. I took guitar lessons at Mayfield Music and then at Academy Music in Solon. From hanging out on Coventry, I met some kids who were more into punk and hardcore. I started listening more to that and going to those shows. There was such a great scene at that point.
Were you both able to explore your interest in the arts at Orange High School?
Vanessa: We both took art classes with a really great arts teacher. Kids who had artistic talent made such beautiful stuff in her class. It was really helpful.
Jonah: I actually hung out with kids from other schools. Back then, there were three kids at our high school who were into the music I was into. But the day after our House of Blues show, we are being inducted into our high school’s Hall of Fame. That is kind of cool. There will even be a ceremony.
Vanessa: We have pushed hard for it on our podcast, so I wouldn’t say it came out of nowhere.
Talk about what college was like. Vanessa, you went to the University of Pennsylvania.
Vanessa: That’s where I focused all the silly stuff I was playing around with in high school. When I was in college, I auditioned for Bloomers, the nation’s first collegiate all-female sketch comedy and musical parody group. I got in, and I was obsessed all four years of college. I thought, “This is definitely what I’m going to do for a living.” Other than studying and getting good grades, this was something I was good at. At Orange, all my good friends were so good at sports. When I got good at comedy, I realized that it must be what it’s like to be good at sports. I never understood what that was like.
Jonah: I think Vanessa is underselling how good her grades were. It worked out well for me because if I got an A, I had done a good job. Meanwhile, she was getting higher than As.
Jonah, you went to Ithaca College. What was that like?
Jonah: I played in bands. I met this guy who also did this zine. When I graduated, I got the music editor job at Alternative Press. That was almost more formative to me than my classes. I had interned at AP one summer. It was a positive experience. I worked with [then-editor] Rob Cherry a lot. I worked there and kept writing and doing the zine. When I graduated from college, they hired me to do the whole Warped Tour. This was right after I graduated college. I did this 8-week tour on a bus with 22 people and got to meet the guys in bands like Bad Religion. It was my dream. [AP music editor] Dave Segal was leaving, and I applied for that job and got it and started a month or two after the Warped Tour ended. I wasn’t planning on moving back to Cleveland, but I got that job and moved to the West side where I almost never hung out, so it was like a new place.
What do you each consider your big break?
Vanessa: Mine would be getting on SNL. I was living in Chicago for six years. I was taking improv classes and writing a lot. I was doing standup. I had a day job and everything but every night I was doing comedy. SNL would scout in Chicago. They would come every summer to Chicago. About a year before, I had taken this workshop and worked on these characters and impressions. I had my audition ready, but no one was asking me to do it. A year later, they came to the iO Theatre where I was on a house team. I got to audition for [SNLproducer] Lorne [Michaels] and a bunch of the other writers and they flew me to New York to do a screen test, and I got on.
Jonah: I was happy that I had the writing to fall back on. I had friends who were touring full-time, and it was difficult. I had something I could do to make money. Getting that music editor job when I was 22 helped me make so many connections that I would use later. Me and Geoff [Rickly] played in United Nations together. I met him on the Warped Tour while I was working for AP that summer. I met Steven [Smith] from fuse who I ended up working with on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show when I eventually moved to Brooklyn.
Vanessa, talk about your SNL skit “Jacob the Bar Mitvah Boy” and how that came to fruition.
Vanessa: Growing up in Cleveland and going to Orange School, we had Bat Mitvahs and Bar Mitvahs almost every weekend in seventh grade. I noticed the boys were less comfortable on stage than the girls. That inspired the character, and I did it a little in my standup. When I got on SNL and I was doing it on TV, friends of his that didn’t know him as a kid thought I was doing an impression of Jonah. I realized that so much of it is based on Jonah and his mannerisms. I like to think that now he is confident adult person. There are things that little boys do that I know Jonah did. Like adjusting their glasses. They’re so awkward with their hands. It really makes me laugh.
Jonah, what did you think of the character.
Jonah: I love it. I was living New York then and there a couple of years before. I remember being in the audience at SNL tapings, and it was surreal. It was great seeing Billy Crystal and all these celebrities interacting with this Jacob character.
When did you start collaborating together?
Jonah: When I was playing in the Lovekill, Vanessa would open for us in Chicago when we came through town, and she would roast the audience and the band. I always wanted her to do it. The Lovekill toured a lot and in between bands when we were setting up, she would come out.
Vanessa: Even his older bands I would open for. The audience didn’t usually want to see me. They just wanted to rage. I would come up there and do these intentionally lame jokes and make fun of everyone. Jonah was always pushing me to do it.
Jonah: When United Nations, Vanessa would do comedy. We did [the web series] Sound Advice and she played a media coach. We had people like “Weird Al” Yankovic and Drake on the show.
Vanessa: I was really condescending to these bands. We would write stuff together. Sometimes, Jonah would get embarrassed by what I had to say. He would have to leave the room.
Talk about your podcast, How Did We Get Weird? How did it come together?
Jonah: It started maybe four years ago. We had worked together on music and comedy and turned it into the podcast. We talk about Cleveland a lot and our childhood.
Vanessa: The idea came up organically. We would text each other and see if we remembered some things from the past. We both have the personality where we will get fixated on something from our childhood and spend an hour diving into it when we have a thousand other things to do. We thought, “Why not make this a thing we are doing it on purpose?”
Jonah: I had done a podcast in New York called Going Off Track. I knew how they worked. Vanessa would guest and we would do live podcasts too.
I like that you come off so naturally. And I like how you always have a specific theme too.
Jonah: It’s really fun. It’s been really cool. I’m a therapist now, and that is my main thing. I don’t do as much public facing stuff. It’s an easy way to connect to people. We just had Ben Gibbard on for the second time. They find it fun to talk about something different than just the record. We talked about snacks with Jason Isbel. We’ve had these amazing musicians talk about these silly topics, and it’s fun for them.
What will the live show be like?
Vanessa: We’re still kind of figuring it out. We have fun surprises. We can’t say too much about it yet, and that’s not because it’s not figured out.
Jonah: The podcast has some rotating segments. We will integrate some of that stuff. We will have some Cleveland stuff. I think it will be really fun.
Vanessa: And it will be people’s last chance to see us before we are inducted into the Orange School Hall of Fame.
And your personalities change.
Vanessa: We’re going to turn into these cocky monsters.
Jonah: But we’ll still be down-to-earth at that show for just a few more hours.
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