Kelon has 1.1 million followers on TikTok, but not all of them know who he is. When the 27-year-old Texan posts videos of himself not wearing a wig on his account @_itzpsyiconic_, he often gets confused responses. “People would be like, ‘I didn’t even know this was you. I was literally about to unfollow you ’cause I was like, Who is this person?’” Kelon, who uses any pronouns and prefers to go by his first name, tells Vulture in his first interview. He’s better recognized when he is in character as viral sensation Terri Joe, an extremely religious southern bellewho doesn’t like Black people or “homaseggsyuhs.” You might also know Terri’s “cousins” — Jeorgia Peach is an L.A. influencer with a penchant for pink décor, and Amethyst is a Salem-based spawn of Satan. Although each of the characters has different looks and personas, they’re all equally willing to roast whoever joins a TikTok livestream, even when that means getting temporarily banned for bullying. Kelon describes his approach to humor as akin to drag queen Bianca Del Rio. “Comedy, but being absolutely rude to people,” he laughs. His celebrity guests aren’t exempt from this treatment — Terri has told Madonna she was a forgetful 80-year-old, called Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer a “harlot hussy,” and made Doja Cat a frequent target — but you don’t have to be famous to join his world of improv. In fact, some of the funniest conversation partners are confused TikTok users who make Kelon lean out of the shot to laugh with earnest reactions to his shockingly over-the-top characters.

Like many others, Kelon was first pushed onto TikTok by quarantine boredom. In 2020, he began going live in a wig and a grandma costume he had from a past Halloween. It wasn’t his first time chatting with strangers online; shortly after finishing high school, he started going on Omegle with friends. But on TikTok, he went viral enough times that celebrities started popping up in his join requests; he credits Doja Cat for starting a “snowball effect” of other famous fans like Madonna. Now, more than two years later, he goes live from a tripod in front of his bed about four times a week, normally from around 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. (central time, for those of you who want to join). When just chatting with guests starts feeling stale, he will randomly come up with a dramatic story line to “boost the lore,” whether that’s getting Terri kidnapped or killing off her dad. By this past April, Kelon, whose last job was at a tech start-up, was getting enough livestream gifts to make TikTok his main source of income. People tell him they watch his lives instead of TV and that they’re late to work because they have to stay up with him. Some fans are so dedicated that they get FOMO over missing even two minutes of the Terri-verse. Vulture called Kelon upto ask him about rubbing elbows with celebrity guests, where he draws the line when it comes to roasting, and what a TV show for Terri Joe could look like.

How did you come up with your characters? 
They kind of just manifested themselves. I basically based Terri Joe off of the show True Blood. There’s people on that show that are very country, like, hillbilly racist … just very judgmental Christian people. I actually made Terri Joe’s last name Fortenberry to show that she was in relation to Maxine Fortenberry. She lives in that universe.

Jeorgia Peach is just an archetype of a person that I liked growing up. The mean girl, the quote-unquote rich, pretty girl that’s horrible to everyone, the love-to-hate … Regina George, basically. And then Amethyst is another archetype. Most of us have been through an emo phase in high school, and she is the manifestation of that.

What does your routine look like before going live? Do you do any sort of preparation? 
No. Everything I do is literally just on the fly. It’s not as funny to me when it’s planned out because then I’m thinking about it as opposed to it being the random things that come out of my mouth. I’m never contemplating or thinking about the lives throughout the day. It’s only like right before the live, I’m like, What am I gonna say? And then I just press the start button … I feel like it’s all a big improv thing.

Have you done improv or any type of acting before?
I haven’t. Growing up, I was very shy. I would never really talk to people. Most of my creative outlets were either drawing or listening to music. You would never see me doing what I’m doing now, being outwardly boisterous and talking to random people — I literally would burst out into hives.

Do you still consider yourself to be shy?
It’s only in the beginning now, like when I meet someone new or when I’m in new situations. Once I get more comfortable, everything goes out the window and you’ll never get me to shut up. I just start off as nervous. I have been recognized in person, and I break out in sweat immediately. And I feel like they’re looking at me crazy because I’m this crazy person on live who says everything and anything, but when you meet me, I’m literally about to run from you. [Laughs.]

I don’t know what comes over me when I do the lives, but I don’t feel like myself. I feel like the character. And on the live, I don’t see everyone watching. If I was in a room with 10,000 people watching me, I would literally faint. But I don’t see them, so it feels like just me and the other person I’m talking to.

I wanted to talk about Terri Joe being in a wheelchair–
Oh God. I don’t know how that started, actually. I think people just wanted me to stand up because they wanted to see my whole body. And then I was like, What can I say to not be standing up? And that just was the first thing that came to my brain.

You’ve been on a couple of lives where you ended up meeting people who actually use wheelchairs. How did that make you feel? 
At first hesitant to talk about the wheelchair, ’cause that’s their actual real-life experience. And then here I am just saying that I’m in a wheelchair but I’m not. I just approach it by saying that I am in a wheelchair, but not permanently. Like I’m just sitting in it because I want to. Instead of actually saying that I’m paralyzed because that’s kind of insensitive. I feel like the line gets blurred a lot because I say a lot of things that are insensitive.

Well, I say things that are insensitive, but it also applies to me.

Like what?
The homophobic, the racist, the fatphobic things. Like, I would never say anything racial about someone that’s not within my race. I say the N-word all the time, but who doesn’t as a Black person? If it’s super-quote-unquote offensive, I only feel like it’s okay for me to say it when it applies to me.

I know your lives sometimes end because TikTok bans them.
Yeah. I mainly get banned for harassment and bullying. That’s the reasoning it always says. But that’s the comedy I do — roasting. So I don’t know, I’m gonna get flagged for that either way. That’s why I just started making backup accounts. And like, once I get banned here, we’ll just move to the next account.

How do you distinguish a humorous roast from an insult that goes too far? 
I try to keep it very surface level with the things I say. I will make stuff up about a person. It doesn’t even have to be true. But I would just make a scenario up and be like, that’s your life.

I don’t know if people view me as a rude person and think that they would meet me and I would just instantly start throwing insults at them. I have met people who try to throw insults at me in a joking way — it’s usually drunk people at the club. But I’m not that kind of person in real life.

On TikTok, it feels almost expected that your guests and your comments section will roast you back. Have you ever felt like someone said something about you that crossed a line?  
I’m a very confident person in the way that I know who I am and what I look like and everything about myself. So there’s nothing that anybody could ever say to me that’ll make me feel bad about myself. Also, how could I be so contradictory by telling people things like that and then not wanting it back? I think it’s funny, honestly. It’s nothing I’ve never heard before. Growing up with three brothers, and then me always being like the odd one out, I’ve heard it literally all. So nothing ever fazes me.

When you say “odd one out,” you mean because–
Being very different. I was always into art and music that wasn’t quote-unquote very African American. Like pop music. Just gay stuff. [Laughs.]

A big part of Terri Joe’s character is that she doesn’t approve of homosexuality. What experience have you had with that type of extremely religious, homophobic person?
The crazy part is I have zero relationship with that kind of thing. [Laughs.] I’ve been to church maybe ten times in my entire life. So I’ve never really had any experience with that kind of thing, and I’m not very religious myself, either. I was looking at the juxtaposition of being “gay,” being “Black,” being “a man in a wig and a dress” while saying I hate all three of those things. That’s just funny in my brain. Because clearly, I am all of those things, but I’m saying that I don’t like any of them.

Is there a reason why all three of your characters are women? 
I don’t know. I do feel more comfortable and confident being … like, portraying a woman. I don’t know why that is. It just happens that way.

How would you describe your relationship with gender? 
I don’t think I have one. I feel like anything and everything applies to me. I don’t care to be referred to as he or she or they or them. With gender or sexuality, I just never labeled myself that way. So I don’t care what people call me, ’cause it may apply, who knows? [Laughs.] Life is long. Things are always changing, so I don’t want to ever label myself, ’cause something could be different in three months.

You’ve had several famous guests on your lives, including Madonna, Doja Cat, Ziwe, James Charles, Baby Tate, and Hunter Schafer. Were any of those appearances planned?
They just happened. I feel like it was like a snowball effect. Because it started off with Doja. And then other people saw it, and I think it just all went from there.

Your lives with Doja in particular are really popular. I think her energy matches yours well. 
Which is very shocking. I literally don’t know how any of that happened with any of the celebrities. Like they just come on there, and I’m like … okay! [Laughs.] And people are in the comments going crazy. I just have to take myself out of it and give that person what they came for, which is the character. Because just imagine if I was on there like, “Oh my God, Doja Cat! Doja Cat!”the entire time when she’s just trying to be funny and do the dumb shit that I always do.

Madonna also seems to really enjoy going live with you. She has your merch, right?  
I sent it to her because we said on the live that we did together that we would exchange gifts. She sent me Balenciaga glasses, and she also said she was gonna send me a Bugatti. But she sent me a toy model Bugatti — which is actually so funny — and then a letter saying how much she had fun and how she’s a woman of her word.

That’s nice. How did you feel about that?
I’m not a very “in touch with my feelings” kind of person. I don’t know what I feel most of the time. But it was definitely cool. It’s definitely shocking to be rubbing elbows with people of A-list celebrity status. But I really see everybody as the same. I just see celebrities as people. They’re not benevolent beings to me as people sometimes make them out to be.

Do you have any goals for yourself, either on TikTok or elsewhere?
I haven’t delved that far into where I see this going. I don’t know. Hopefully, somewhere big. Maybe one of the characters having their own TV show?

Ziwe’s viral Instagram lives evolved into a Showtime show. It’s definitely possible.
Yeah. After I went live with Ziwe, one of her project managers on the show messaged me on Instagram and asked for my business email. We had a little Zoom call, and we just talked about where I see this going. I told him the same thing I told you: I literally have no clue. Then he was like, “Well, we’ll just keep in contact.”

If you did do a show, would you want it to be a guest-based format similar to your TikTok lives? Or would you want it to be something scripted? 
I feel like it could be either-or. Like Terri Joe, or all three of them, having an actual TV show, and it’s scripted and jokes are written in and there’s other characters to play off of … just a whole world of stuff like that. I think that could be funny. But also, it could be a talk-show type thing where I interview other people or celebrities. Even just walking on the street, interviewing people and talking about Jesus Christ when I know nothing about Jesus Christ … that could be funny, too.

We’ve been talking about TikTok, but I also see screenshots and clips from your lives on Twitter all the time. So, last question, what’s it been like becoming a reaction meme?
Actually, that’s been one of my goals in life. [Laughs]. I used to always tell my friends that I would just love to be a random meme because I think I make so many memeable faces. I was talking to my cousin the other day, and he was saying, “You always said that you would be quote-unquote famous.” I don’t remember saying that, but it sounds like me. So I just feel like I may have manifested all of this without even really trying to.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

When this happens, Kelon has multiple backup accounts he can try to go live on instead.A controlling character who is disliked for her prejudice and faux southern hospitality. TikTok can temporarily or permanently suspend an account’s ability to go live for violating community guidelines. It’s Terri Joe’s World, But Kelon Is Running It