Photo: Talk Tuah with Haliey Welch by way of YouTube
How do you go about turning a profitable pull of the web slot machine into an precise superstar engine? The newest sensation to strive it out is Hailey Welch, a.ok.a. Hawk Tuah girl, whose enthusiastic supply of pretty commonplace blowjob recommendation — you realize, spit on the factor, and many others. — on TikTook over the summer season earned her a degree of viral fame that was unsurpassed till … Pommel Horse man? After quickly capitalizing on the preliminary wave of consideration with kitschy merchandise and paid spot appearances, Welch and her reps have now entered section three: a podcast, natch.
Understandably titled Talk Tuah, the pod debuted earlier this week with comic Whitney Cummings as its maiden visitor. (Side observe: Cummings appears to be carving out a curious micro-niche serving to new viral figures turned podcasters christen their exhibits; she additionally appeared as Anna Delvey’s first foil when the faux heiress launched her personal eponymous podcast final summer season.)
In its debut episode, the 22-year-old Tennessee native spends a while speaking about her fame (“it’s crazy how I said two words and now I’m here, isn’t it?”), which may solely go thus far, and doling out relationship recommendation, which is already a well-worn section premise amongst the chat-podcast set. Welch nonetheless comes throughout as a clean slate, somebody so early in the superstar life cycle that her persona requires additional definition. For her half, Cummings tries to do a few of this work by contrasting Welch’s “ghetto Dolly Parton” (her phrases) aesthetic with what the comic perceives as an inclination amongst privileged white girls to fixate on genteel sensitivities. Instead, Welch shows a “one of the boys” penchant for gross-out uninhibitedness, which Cummings appreciates and does appear to be a viable avenue to construct a persona round. To this evaluation, Welch nods appreciatively.
Chatcasts, and sturdy web fame extra usually, want a variety of issues to be viable, however amongst them are a hook, consistency, and a constituency. That final issue is probably the most necessary, and you don’t need to squint to already see the lane for Welch. One of her first post-viral appearances was on a Barstool Sports present. Talk Tuah got here out of a partnership with Betr, the sports-betting firm based by Jake Paul, the noxious YouTuber turned boxer. In the Hollywood Reporter story touting her signing with a expertise agency and an leisure lawyer for illustration, the latter’s assertion introduced up how she was “known to her friends as the female Theo Vonn.” If this post-viral fame gambit works out, it’s very attainable America would possibly nicely have discovered its red-state Call Her Daddy.
This is the factor, isn’t it? Can Welch and her group take the one-dimensionality of her fame and construct out a bigger superstar infrastructure round her? Maybe that is simply election-season fumes talking, however the conceptual precedent to Welch that instantly involves thoughts is Ken Bone, who went viral for trying sorta-kinda fascinating whereas asking a query throughout a 2016 presidential debate. He, too, bought merch to capitalize on his fame and ended up being invited to seem on discuss and interview exhibits, together with, cursedly, Real Time With Bill Maher. Though the distinction there may be that it was by no means completely clear if the man truly wished to parlay his second in the highlight right into a extra sustained media presence. In any case, he was milkshake-ducked earlier than we might know for certain. Still, Bone shares the similar type of virality with Welch and thus illustrates the similar underlying problem: Unless yow will discover extra to work with, you hit the limits of the shtick actually shortly.
There was once a strategic logic round why you’d launch a pod to additional facilitate one’s superstar. Back when podcasting wasn’t co-opted by YouTube, the concept was that proudly owning your personal profitable podcast insulates you from being utterly beholden to the caprice of social-media algorithms. As any veteran influencer will let you know, sustaining long run in these areas is a tough enterprise. Burnout and the menace of precarity are main points, and there’s been a protracted line of YouTube personalities who’ve left the game consequently.
But these are issues that can solely come up after you’ve turn into an precise concern, and it stays to be seen whether or not Welch will turn into one. The web is plagued by failed makes an attempt at post-viral fame. Anna Delvey’s personal podcast, for occasion, was short-lived, with the rip-off artist calling it quits after simply 9 episodes. She’s now scheduled to seem as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. That’s the different factor about the fashionable form of fame. Talk Tuah could go nowhere, however there are unending slot machines for her to drag: Instagram, TikTook (once more), Dancing With the Stars, Survivor. At least now she’s obtained Jake Paul cash.
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