Two comics from Chicago join 'SNL' cast; Bayer, Brittain both

With two more local talents hired to crack wise this fall on "Saturday Night Live," the show's 36th season promises to be lavish with comedy of the Chicago kind.

Vanessa Bayer and Paul Brittain, both longtime performers at the iO improv house, will be featured players when "SNL" returns Sept. 25, sources said.

NBC would not confirm the hires, and the actors couldn't be reached for comment.

Bayer, 28, is a stand-up comic who performs with the iO team Revolver and in its improvised puppet show "Felt." She understudies at Second City and is in the cast of the Annoyance Theatre sketch show "Swear Jar."

She came to Chicago from Cleveland in 2004.

Brittain, 33, grew up in Naperville and improvised with the iO teams Rattlesnake High School and Topaz. Last year he played a clueless advisor on things erotic in an iO solo show called "Sex Ed."

At "SNL," they'll join a cast already boasting Chicago-trained comics Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers and Jason Sudeikis. The "SNL" writing room, also well stocked with Chicagoans, recently added Second City actors Shelly Gossman and Tom Flanigan.

Bayer and Brittain were spotted at iO during a recent scouting visit to Chicago by an "SNL" team that included executive producer Lorne Michaels.

The Comic's Comic website reports that Los Angeles actor Taran Killam, fiance of "How I Met Your Mother" star Cobie Smulders, also will be an "SNL" featured player.

Color Photo: Paul Brittain; Color Photo: Vanessa Bayer