Aunt Mary Pat — the patron saint of Delco — is ending live performances
The fictional Delco mom will drop a Greatest Hits album and headline a final tour before sticking to social media.
Delaware County icon Aunt Mary Pat is retiring from Acme — and the stage.
Invented by Troy Hendrickson as a tribute to his Iggles-loving, frank-to-a-fault mom after the Birds won the Super Bowl in 2018, the character has spawned a nonstop comedy churn, punctuated with a Delco accent. Hendrickson as Aunt Mary now has more than 180,000 followers combined across Facebook and Instagram, plus a roving show where thousands watch him bemoan improper Wawa etiquette (among other things) in a Karen cut and blue eye shadow.
After five years of live performances, Hendrickson announced via Facebook that Mary Pat would be retiring from the stage at the end of her 2023 “Clocking Out: The Farewell Tour,” which will run from March through June. Tickets will be available in February.
“All of this work, travel, and constant state of being busy have taken a toll on my physical and mental health and my personal relationships,” Hendrickson wrote in a post. “I know this may come as a shock and surprise to some, but it’s been weighing on my mind now for more than a year.”
The “Queen of Delco” creator has been open about his struggles with anxiety and depression and described a packed schedule that left little time for life outside the character. Now 34, Hendrickson said he averages about 200 shows a year as Aunt Mary on top of private events and stints as his more polished drag persona, Miss Troy.
Hendrickson told The Inquirer that he began having panic attacks in 2020 during lockdown, but the time off was a “point of self-reflection … I realized I didn’t know how to sit and just be me.”
He began seriously considering Aunt Mary’s exit from the stage midway through 2021, when his typical schedule of three shows or appearances a day started to blur the divide between Hendrickson and the Delco woman best described as an “aunt to all, mom to some, and wife to one.”
“When I first got started, it was always very exciting … but it kinda got to a point where I didn’t feel like a real person and I was stuck in this character,” Hendrickson said. “It was too much for me personally, mentally, physically.”
The Facebook post said that Aunt Mary will still be around for special appearances and to gossip about her frenemie Dawn on social media: “This doesn’t mean that AMP is going away. I am just changing the way that we see her.”
Aunt Mary Pat’s “Clocking Out” tour will be accompanied by a greatest hits album and provide a little closure — she’s stepping back from her career at Acme with no plans for what comes after.
“I haven’t gotten that far yet in thinking about what happens after retirement,” Hendrickson said. “But I think it would give me a little more creative freedom to digitally take her places she hasn’t gone before.”
Hendrickson himself will be hosting a new podcast called “Blessed be the Fruit: Dive into Wine and S— Talking,” set to premiere during the last week of January. With no characters included, the venture is a “celebration of all the things [he] loves,” where a featured guest will sample a local, bargain, and boujee wine on each episode while venting about the underbelly of what made them famous.
Personally, though, Hendrickson is just excited to “pick up a book and be able to read it.” His first stop after Aunt Mary Pat’s final tour concludes will be a cruise around the Mediterranean.