Have you ever stopped in the middle of Broad Street and opened your ears to the soft sounds of Philly? Does the scraping of a spoon on water ice soothe your soul? Does condensing the question \u201cdid you eat?\u201d to a concise \u201cdjeet\u201d make the back of your neck tingle?\u00a0<\/p>\n
If so, this local comedian\u2019s TikTok page might just be for you.<\/p>\n
Betsy Kenney<\/a>, 38, a North Philly native, has gone viral for a series of Philly-inspired ASMR videos. In the clips, Kenney exaggerates her local vernacular, putting on an accent that Kylie Kelce herself scored \u201ca good 11.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n (For the uninitiated, ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. People watch ASMR videos, which include whispers, soft tapping, scratching and crinkling sounds, to relax, relieve stress and wind down.)<\/p>\n Kenney, a comedy writer, performer, director and mother of two, began her TikTok<\/a> page about two months ago. Soon, it became evident that she had a knack for making Philly-specific content. She has appeared in a Super Bowl commercial<\/a>, written for Ryan Reynolds<\/a>, and will be in WHYY\u2019s upcoming show \u201cThe Good Neighbor Club<\/a>.\u201d You can also catch her improv show, \u201cThe Love \u2018Doctors<\/a>\u2019\u201d, in which she performs with her husband, Ryan Haney<\/a>, at CSz Philadelphia<\/a> this Saturday at 9 p.m.<\/p>\n While Kenney\u2019s real accent isn\u2019t nearly as strong as the one in her videos, she said that her Philly characters are \u201cbased on friends, family and neighbors I grew up with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n @betsy_kenney<\/a> Replying to @Katie Coo Cat she\/her \ud83c\udf49 #phillytiktok<\/a> #phillyfoodies<\/a> #gobirds<\/a> #philly<\/a> #phillyasmr<\/a> \u266c original sound \u2013 Betsy Kenney<\/a> <\/p>\n How did the ASMR videos start? Where did you get the idea?\u00a0<\/p>\n I was never on TikTok until recently. I don\u2019t know if you remember, there was a Phillies game where a woman stole a ball from a kid\u2019s hand. [Yes, we remember<\/a>.] And they were referring to her as Phillies Karen. I have a wig that looks just like hers from years ago. So, I said to my husband, \u201cI think I have to make a TikTok. I\u2019ve never felt a calling to make one, so I\u2019m gonna do it.\u201d And so I made it, and it went viral instantly<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then after that, I\u2019m like, \u201cI guess I\u2019m on TikTok now.\u201d And every time I make a video that isn\u2019t Philly related, it doesn\u2019t do as well. But whenever I do a Philly video, people love them. I just randomly came up with the ASMR idea. People love ASMR because it\u2019s very calming. And so I\u2019m like, \u201cI think it would be funny to do a Philly accent, because people think it\u2019s the opposite of calming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n People really just loved the videos right away, and a lot of people have been finding a lot of comfort in them. A lot of comments are like, \u201cOh my God. This brought me back to my mom mom\u2019s house in the \u201890s. This sounds like my aunt, my uncle, my old neighbors.\u201d I just did it as a joke at first, but now I\u2019ve been having a lot of fun doing it, and I\u2019m so glad it brings joy to so many people.<\/p>\n Why do you think those Philly videos specifically are the ones that are driving the traffic?<\/p>\n I think Philly accents are having a moment right now because of \u201cTask<\/a>\u201d the TV show that\u2019s based in Delco \u2014 not in Philly. Don\u2019t get them confused, because TikTok will come for you, as they have for me. It\u2019s a really popular show, and people are like, \u201cWhat is this accent?\u201d It\u2019s a very hard accent to do, unless you\u2019re from the area and hear it a lot.<\/p>\n What tips do you have for people trying to learn a Philly accent?<\/p>\n My husband is from Connecticut, so he doesn\u2019t have any kind of accent. We\u2019re doing accent immersion with him<\/a>. Talking really slow can help you \u2014 just drawing out the words, I find. And people call it a \u201choagie mouth\u201d or a \u201clazy mouth accent,\u201d because you don\u2019t move your mouth or tongue around a lot. Another big tip is just sound angry whatever you\u2019re talking about \u2014 even if it\u2019s not something you\u2019re angry about. Just sound really passionate about it, and then at least you\u2019re getting the essence of a Philadelphia person.<\/p>\n I do a very dramatic version of a Philly accent. I used to have a much thicker Philly accent, but then when I moved to New York, I did a lot of acting and commercial acting. In order to sell products for national brands, I can\u2019t have an accent because they don\u2019t want that. Brands need somebody who can sell to everybody. I\u2019ve had l to work really hard to kind of get rid of my accent.<\/p>\n And now, a lot of feedback that I get in videos of when I\u2019m just being myself, they\u2019re like, \u201cWhere\u2019s the accent? I thought you had an accent.\u201d So that\u2019s been interesting to kind of marry the two personalities together<\/p>\n I don\u2019t really like ASMR, but I admit that I was weirdly comforted by your Philly ASMR. Something about it tickled my brain. I feel like it\u2019s not just about the accent, it\u2019s also about what you\u2019re saying, which are very Philly-specific phrases. Do you write a script for what you\u2019re going to say?<\/p>\n No, I\u2019m actually a trained improviser, so everything I come up with is on the spot. I think the thing that you\u2019re noticing maybe, or something that you\u2019re finding comforting \u2014 that I also find comforting \u2014 is the essence of a Philly person. It\u2019s so much of everything! You get so much love. You can get so much anger and excitement, and there\u2019s just something that I find in all my family members so comforting. It\u2019s how happy and excited they get, but also how mad they can get at things, too. It\u2019s something that I\u2019m having a lot of fun with, that I\u2019m feeling is resonating with a lot of people.<\/p>\n @betsy_kenney<\/a> Thank you @Kylie Kelce \ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc9a #kyliekelce<\/a> #phillytiktok<\/a> #phillyasmr<\/a> #gobirds<\/a> #eagles<\/a> \u266c original sound \u2013 Betsy Kenney<\/a> <\/p>\n Kylie Kelce gave you a shout out. Where were you when you first saw that?\u00a0<\/p>\n I was running errands. I had just dropped my son off from school, so I wasn\u2019t even near my phone, and my cousin group chat was popping off, and everybody\u2019s like, \u201cOh, my God, congrats, Betsy. That\u2019s so cool.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWait, what are they talking about?\u201d And, they told me, so that was amazing. I knew that she watched some of the ASMR videos. It felt so nice and validating that she shouted me out on her podcast. And she gave my accent an 11, so that meant a lot.<\/p>\n Gotta love a good cousin group chat.<\/p>\n You know you\u2019re from Philly when you have a cousin group chat.<\/p>\n Tell me more about working with your husband. You guys are comedy partners. How did you meet?<\/p>\n I lived in New York City for 12 years, and there I performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater. We were both students and performers there, and that\u2019s where we met. Once COVID happened and we had kids, we moved back to this area. We performed a few times together when we lived in New York, but we were never hosting a show together. I missed performing so much that we decided to pitch a show to ComedySportz theater in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n So now we host a show there together, and it\u2019s improvised. It\u2019s called \u201cThe Love \u2018Doctors,’\u201d and we\u2019re \u2014 in quotes \u2014 \u201cthe world\u2019s best married couple.\u201d People come and they bring us their love problems, and we improvise on stage the solution for them. It\u2019s been really fun getting to perform together. He\u2019s like the funniest person in the world, so it\u2019s been a lot of fun getting to do that with him.<\/p>\n Can you give me an example of a marital problem that a couple pitched to you?<\/p>\n One couple, the husband was mad that the wife always walked in front of him, and so we watched that play out on stage with Ryan and me, and the solution was that the wife thinks she\u2019s better than him. That\u2019s why she\u2019s always walking ahead, and that\u2019s just what he has to live with. [Laughs] He was happy that he found the solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n What can we expect for the future of your TikTok page?<\/p>\n