From Summer Camp to ‘SNL’: How Chloe Fineman Found Comedy Through Jewish Life

When Chloe Fineman attended New York University to study classical theater, she envisioned her acting career filled with dramatic roles and period pieces. “But I think I came off too quirky or something because casting directors kept telling me to do comedy,” the 31-year-old “Saturday Night Live” newcomer told the Journal. “Thank God.”

Fineman is one of two new cast members on “Saturday Night Live” and already is a hot commodity. Appearing in only 17 episodes so far, her impressions and costumes have delighted viewers, bringing them back for more each week. She impersonated then-Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, the entire cast of “Little Women” and JoJo Siwa and Carole Baskin from Netflix’s documentary “Tiger King,” to name a few.

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If you scroll through her Instagram, you can find even more uncanny impressions — and wigs — including Drew Barrymore, Frances McDormand, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Greta Gerwig, Natasha Lyonne, Roseanne Barr, Hannah Gadsby, Tomi Lahren and Maisie Williams.

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Fineman revealed it was at Camp Kee Tov in Berkeley where she discovered the art of comedy. “The camp [did] ‘skits’ every morning while counselors put sunscreen on children sitting on the grass,” Fineman said. “And dare I say, that was my first stage. Kee Tov was magic. All my friends were hilarious and still are.”

Fineman always has surrounded herself with like-minded zany people. Sometimes it’s her family who appears in her Instagram posts, her friends “Erica and Mimi, who were hilarious and loud,” or her JewBu (Jewish Buddhist) Aunt Eileen. Jewish on her father’s side, and a self-proclaimed “half WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant),” she started hanging out with her friends at Hebrew school — where pizza and soda were provided. Then came Camp Kee Tov, and a hot pink-themed bat mitzvah. For Fineman, Jewish life and funny moments went hand in hand. “So much of it was just finding a funny group of friends and being in a funny warm community,” she said. “Which is my Jewish space? I think [I] connected deeper with that funny warm community … there’s just something about laughing and wolfing down food that I really need in my life.”

Fineman said her first impression was of her Aunt Eileen because she “had the most incredible Baltimore accent” and was able to mimic her voice.

Obsessed with Berkeley Rep, “Angels in America,” “The Vagina Monologues” and nude people riding bikes at protest rallies in San Francisco, Fineman started absorbing details around her that could later be used as bits. It was at the Groundlings in L.A. where she finally took classes to refine those bits, impersonate celebrities and create new characters. “I kept leaning into impressions and putting them online purely because it was fun,” she said. “It took me years to even think being on ‘SNL’ was even the slightest possibility … or a ‘goal,’ but then I started at the Groundlings and suddenly had this huge passion for dressing up in wigs so I started dreaming about ‘SNL.’ ”

Fineman falls deep into online rabbit holes of celebrity interviews and Vogue’s “72 Questions” so she can perfect each persona. She says it comes down to “finding some tic or laugh in an interview and re-watching it over and over again.”

“So much of [summer camp] was just finding a funny group of friends and being in a funny warm community,” she said. “Which is my Jewish space? I think [I] connected deeper with that funny, warm community … there’s just something about laughing and wolfing down food that I really need in my life.” — Chloe Fineman

On March 23, thousands of people tuned in to watch Fineman get married on Instagram live. It was “purely as a sketch and then a bunch of news publications earnestly report[ed] on it,” she joked.

If she were to have a virtual Shabbat dinner during quarantine and perhaps Instagram live the semi-intimate affair, she’d invite all-star comedians and performers Sacha Baron Cohen, Cazzie and Larry David, Natalie Portman, Chelsea Peretti, Nick Kroll, Adam Sandler, Lil Dicky, Max Greenfield and his daughter, Jerry Seinfeld and Tiffany Haddish.

Unfortunately, fans will have to wait for what ultimately would be hypothetical comedy Instagram gold during COVID-19, because Fineman is busy at home working on sketches for “SNL’s” quarantined shows.

“SNL” has modified its sketch comedy show so the cast and crew can work safely  during the pandemic. “SNL at Home” has so far been successful and Fineman’s experience on Instagram oddly prepared her for this situation.

“It’s been really a blessing that my boyfriend lets me store all these wigs in his garage. I just happened to have JoJo Siwa, Carole Baskin and [Timotheé] Chalamet wigs and costumes in his garage from other skits I had done at Groundlings,” she said. “Same with Airbnb [sketch]. All [these] things just lying around in the garage, [it’s] so cool to get to bring them to life.”

“SNL at Home” is similar to creating videos on Instagram, Fineman said: A sketch is written, performed in front of a small group for feedback, and then performed without a live audience. “It’s challenging but also weirdly a lot like Instagram on crack,” she added.

The “SNL” experience is still surreal for Fineman, who compared it with being a “freshman at a pretty epic high school.” She now is surrounded by creative people like her, many of whom she looked up to while growing up.

“Everyone at ‘SNL’ has inspired me,” she said. “I love Fred Armisen, Adam Sandler, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon. All of them. Growing up in the Bay Area, I think The Lonely Island [comedy trio featuring “SNL’s” Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone] really inspired me. And I watched them with my friends all the time, and then suddenly they were on ‘SNL’ so that — making your own videos — it could lead to stuff. That really inspired me and still does.”