Kira Coviello, who performs at Club Passim on Jan. 8, has built a following online by bringing viewers back to the days of Tom Lehrer and other comic song writers
By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent,Updated December 30, 2025, 10:47 a.m.
Before she created Honest 2 Betsy in 2023, Kira Coviello had never heard of Tom Lehrer. She’d never made a puppet before or learned accordion or played the nyckelharpa. And she wasn’t really into vintage novelty songs.
When she comes to Club Passim on Jan. 8 with her comedy and music show, supported by the Bawdy Broads, she’ll perform a tribute to Lehrer that includes the puppet she built in his likeness and cover off-color songs like Rusty Warren’s 1958 version of “Roll Me Over In the Clover” and Benny Bell’s “Shaving Cream” from 1946 while playing accordion, nyckelharpa, and a variety of other instruments. All because Betsy, her online comedy persona, has become an unlikely social media star on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
“None of this was ever on my radar,” says Coviello, speaking by Zoom from her home in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. “It’s such a fantastically fun surprise.”
Though they share a striking resemblance, Coviello and Betsy are two different people. Betsy is the one fans see in reaction videos. She is smiling, doing household tasks or miming playing piano to novelty songs from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s until she catches wind of their rude or violent lyrics, which appall her and occasionally drive her to spike her tea. Coviello is the violin-playing actor and dancer who created Betsy. She doesn’t wear vintage clothes in her daily life, nor does she take to the bottle like Betsy.
“She’s very much a character,” says Coviello. “She’s quite the character, and extremely different from me. We don’t have the same wardrobe choices. I go for comfort.”
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