Meet Pepper Slit! Chloe Troast on Her Zany New Alter Ego

Chloe Troast is inviting audiences into the wonderfully weird world of Pepper Slit.

The comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member is currently starring in Pepper Slit: Live in Her Living Room, an intimate theatrical experience that puts just 36 audience members inside the East Village basement apartment of Troast’s hilariously delusional, down-on-her-luck alter ego. Following popular demand, the show has extended its run through August 29.

Troast recently joined BroadwayWorld’s Richard Ridge at the West Bank Cafe to talk about creating Pepper, turning the character into a musical and embracing the unpredictability that comes with performing just feet away from her audience.

Pepper has actually been in Troast’s comedy arsenal for years. The character began with a voice inspired by the glamour of another era.

“I was doing this voice of, you know, a kind of Betty Boop-ish, New York, old Hollywood, old Broadway kind of voice,” Troast explained. “They kept requesting songs and I kept doing songs in the voice.”

That bit eventually evolved into Pepper, whom Troast describes as an amalgamation and “love note” to the grand divas of old Hollywood—with one important addition: “That plus, like, a baby is her because she’s just a rotten brat. She’s a total brat.”

While music was always part of Pepper’s DNA, Troast didn’t initially expect the show to become quite so musical. “It really became a musical when we were deep into the development of it, because I’m just such a sucker for, you know, plot being moved through music,” she said. Troast wrote the music alongside Charlie O’Connor and Sam Blumenfeld, allowing them to tailor every number to the performers’ strengths. “The best part about that as a singer is that you write it exactly how you want to—the notes you want to sing, the notes you feel wonderful singing, the notes that feel great in your body.”

And with only 36 people packed into Pepper’s living room each night, there is nowhere for the audience to hide—which is exactly how Troast likes it.

“I just want people to have an experience unlike what maybe they’re normally expecting as theatergoers,” she explained. When she spots someone who isn’t quite sure what they’ve walked into, she sees it as an opportunity: “I’m like, you’re in, we’re in, let’s do this.”