How Kira Coviello Created Honest 2 Betsy

The sheer number of things—and the vast variety of them—that Kira Coviello could conceivably be doing at any moment seems implausible, but it’s true. If it’s before noon, she might be waking her children by marching into their bedrooms playing an original accordion ditty called “My Daughter’s Been Sleeping All Morning.” If it’s the afternoon, she could be sewing a tuxedo on the puppet version of satirist songwriter Tom Lehrer. At night, Coviello could be performing a vaudeville show that loosely tells the topsy-turvy story of her life. And at just about any time, she might be crocheting a giant uterus, playing one of five instruments, sorting through vintage dresses, or making a video for her social media audience, which totals more than a million followers.

Coviello, 42, grew up in Scranton, PA, dancing, playing instruments, and performing on stage throughout her turbulent youth. “I’m the youngest child of a blended family,” Coviello says. “I was always the comedian, the funny one with all the attention, and I loved the attention.”

But that’s not what’s happening now with the ventriloquism and the splits in fishnets in front of a live audience. Coviello is a social media personality, entertainer, artist, performer, musician, instrumentalist, actor, and dancer who is known for portraying a 1950s housewife named Betsy. And it’s Betsy who led Coviello back to the stage in cities like Las Vegas and New York, performing Honest 2 Betsy: Live and Uncensored, a variety show that blends comedy, ventriloquism, music, dance, and a few other things that are harder to explain.

Coviello, who isn’t one to sit still (“I went back to teaching ballet at five days postpartum with a baby strapped to my chest”), was amid a rare period of her life when she wasn’t working in 2023. “I was chatting with some friends, and I said, ‘I’m a 1950s housewife now.’ And started doing some shtick where I put on one of my vintage dresses and did a video about Barney coming home from work. And one of my friends said, ‘That’s actually pretty funny. You should put that on TikTok,’” Coviello says. “I did, and it kind of started as one thing and evolved into something completely different, into whatever accordion puppet weirdness it is now.”

What’s in Her Name?

Coviello introduced Betsy to the world in June 2023, and weird though it may be, the impact and resonance is undeniable. Although the exact game plan for Betsy evolved over time, Coviello approached the name and concept in the hard-charging way she handles most things. “I’m very impulsive, so I had this idea, and I said, ‘I’m gonna call her Honest 2 Betsy because that’s a phrase from the 1950s, which is funny. I set up an LLC that day. I went full Honest 2 Betsy,” Coviello says. “After I posted a few videos, I wondered about the origins of the phrase ‘honest to Betsy.’ I looked it up and discovered that there is no origin of the phrase ‘honest to Betsy’ because it’s ‘heavens to Betsy’ and ‘honest to goodness,’ and in my brain I did a malaphor.”

The premise of many of Coviello’s posts maintains a similar structure. Betsy typically finds herself in awkward and precarious situations in which she is donning a vintage dress (and hair and makeup) and accompanying a musician who is singing songs that turn wildly inappropriate, misogynist, or strange. Then the magic happens. “That’s when I am doing some facial acrobatics with my mug that is made of rubber,” she says. Sometimes Betsy appears shocked by the impropriety. Other times, she takes a slug of whiskey and continues banging away at the piano.

Although Coviello’s aim is to get some laughs, Betsy also has something meaningful to say. “I’m hitting them from both angles, which is really good because it’s kind of a sneak attack. I rope ’em in with this cute 1950s shtick. And then I’m like, bam! Women’s rights!” Coviello says. “Some of the songs are sung by women who really paint a dark picture of the time. Others are sung by men. But it’s shocking, for example, to hear a song like ‘The Polka’ with the lyrics ‘I don’t want her / You can’t have her / She’s too fat for me.’ This is a hit song that people sang and danced to at weddings!”

Whatever subtle feminist messaging Betsy is driving at, it’s delivered in a vehicle only Coviello could maneuver. That’s because she was a trained actor, multiinstrumentalist, dancer, choreographer, and stage director long before she was a social media darling.

The Birth of Betsy

When Coviello was growing up, her parents were passionate about the arts. Her dad was in finance, but he was also a marble sculptor and a theater buff. Her mom, Cassandra Devine, owned and operated the Devine School of Dance at the Waverly Community House for 37 years. “The arts were so important to them,” she says. “We went to New York City all the time to see shows. That was always a priority.”

As far back as she can remember, Coviello was dancing and playing instruments. In fact, she was so young when she began lessons that her Suzuki violin teacher attached a ruler to a Cracker Jack box to resemble the shape of a violin to show her how to hold the instrument. Ultimately, Coviello became a pianist, violinist, and cellist and even excelled at tap dancing while playing the violin.

But dancing was the discipline that occupied much of her mind, heart, and body, mainly because it meant so much to her mom, who trained her at the Devine School of Dance. “I wasn’t a great dancer when I was little. I had long, skinny pony limbs, and I didn’t know what to do with them. But then I decided I was going to be a good dancer because that was also a great way to make my mom happy. I got a lot of positive affirmation from that,” Coviello says. “On the other hand, it was not easy being in front of my mother in a leotard every day because she was so focused on every person’s body. But she was very proud. She would call the local newspaper when I came in second place in a ballet competition.”

However, her mom’s pride was matched by constant scrutiny, which impacted Coviello in a variety of negative ways, including an eating disorder that started early in puberty. Instead of showing concern, Coviello’s mom praised her tiny frame. “She’d say, ‘You look beautiful, you look so thin, you look so good,’” Coviello recalls. “My teen years were hard. I gained weight, lost weight, binged—I was bulimic and anorexic for years. At one point, my parents were going through a divorce, and my dad had to come to the house. My mom was pitching a fit, and it was this incredibly painful, dramatic event. My boyfriend Noah, who is my husband now, came to pick me up. I remember going back to his house sobbing and sobbing and his mom just being so kind and trying to play board games with me.”

Ultimately, Noah encouraged her to seek treatment for her eating disorder. “He’s absolutely been my rock throughout everything,” Coviello says. “My life would probably have taken a very different path if not for him.”

The path she took went through Wagner College in Staten Island, NY, where she studied musical theater and won the Nathan and Ruth Wolff prize for academic achievement and excellence in dance in 2006. After college, she regularly commuted to Manhattan for auditions. “The goal is always to get on Broadway because that’s the plan from the time you’re 4 years old. And if you don’t reach that, then it feels like you’re a failure,” Coviello says. “But when I got to Philly, I absolutely loved it. I love this city much more than New York. It’s less overwhelming for me. The theater scene is incredible. I love the people here.”

At 24, Coviello was married to Noah and happily immersed in Philadelphia regional theater when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “That’s when I stopped auditioning—it was too stressful. I wasn’t getting the same joy out of performing all the time. And I took a break,” she says. “I thought it was going to be a short break, but it turned out to be a very long break. And I went into teaching dance and having babies.”

Throughout the next decade, Coviello focused on raising her three daughters, Eloise, Esme, and Tallulah, but she never stopped working, using her many talents to support a Bucks County acting school and teaching dance, among other things. She was content with her family in Doylestown, although she found that while her performing side was dormant, it still lived somewhere inside her.

Her life took a turbulent turn during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a relatively short period of time, her brother, Sean, a pulmonologist, nearly died because of the virus, ultimately needing a double lung transplant. Her mom was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and her beloved aunt was diagnosed with lymphoma. Remarkably, Sean got better, but her aunt and her mom have both since passed away. “It was a crazy time. I’m watching my brother die over text messages and taking care of my mother in a nursing home while raising tiny humans during a pandemic,” she recalls. “I don’t know how I did that.”

But all that turmoil led Coviello to a place where she was ready for the creation of Betsy, which has synchronized so many of her talents into one character and provided a meaningful platform for her to share her creativity and her ideals. “Seeing all these people in my life die or get sick pretty young led me to this place where I’m ready. I had this dream, it’s back, and I have an audience,” she says. “They want me to do this—so let’s freaking do it.”