The WaterWhispers Ear Cleaning Role Play

This video is from YouTube ASMR artist TheWaterWhispers. Ilse is a prodigious uploader of ASMR videos with over 300 videos in under 2 years. Ilse used to do videos in both English and Dutch, though for the past year or so all of her videos have been in English. As with other ASMR artists, her (subtle) accent in English is one of the more appealing parts of her videos.

Ilse is one of the artists who has had the most visual change in her style. In earlier videos, Ilse was tentative and reserved, which worked well. Since then, she has gained much more confidence in her style. This is evidenced by an increase in the amount of smiling and eye contact that she makes with the viewer. This more personal tone combined with her pleasant demeanor makes for some very good videos, especially in personal attention and role playing videos.

This video is a medical role play of ear cleaning. I am a very big fan of ear cleaning videos. I actually prefer actual ear cleaning videos to intentional ASMR ear cleaning videos. But, that does not mean that the intentional ones are not excellent, especially with the popularity of 3DIO Free Space microphones.

On to the video:

• 00:06 - Ilse does an excellent job of maintaining eye contact starting here. I can imagine that is very difficult since you must look at the lens of the camera and not the video monitor.
• 00:37 - The fake handshake in ASMR videos is always very awkward. I don't think that there is a good way to shake your hand in the air and make it look like you are actually shaking someone's hand. Though, Ilse's eye movements and lovely smile here make for one of the best I have seen.
• 01:26 - The customer portion continues in the clinic room. I noticed a change in Ilse's tone in this portion to a more soothing and comforting tone, which I enjoy quite a bit.
• 02:43 - Ilse gets up to "look" at the viewer's ears. This is where the 3D microphones shine. The 3D sound, especially with headphones, is extremely wonderful.
• 04:13 - Ilse returns to the chair to finish the customer service portion. One of the surreal aspects of watching ASMR videos is that we find nothing wrong with watching a video where much of it is simply video of an empty chair. I'm definitely not complaining about it though.
• 05:33 - Ilse mentions that some people enjoy ear cleanings and the viewer can just close his/her eyes. I like it when a towel or some other cloth is draped over the lens of the camera with a gentle touch to simulate eyes being closed. It may seem silly, but it makes it feel more real to me, plus is makes me feel like I am okay to close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
• 06:06 - As Ilse begins the medical role play portion of the video, I noticed that her tone changed to an even softer one that is very good. You can even hear some mouth sounds that are very popular triggers for many in the ASMR community.
• 07:00 - When Ilse pushed the "hair" out of the viewer's face, I get major tingles. I think it is the combination of gentleness, personal attention, and attention to detail that does it for me. It is a small touch that makes this such a good video.
• 13:43 - What happened? I think I fell asleep for a bit there. But, I guess she is done with the cleaning?
• 15:02 - I have mentioned before how important I believe that empathy is to the ASMR experience and this simple look from Ilse is a fantastic example of the small expressions that great artists do that make the video work.
• 15:48 - This card that Ilse has that links to other videos is, I think, an excellent way of doing links to other videos. I dislike the in-video pop-up boxes, but I am always looking for other similar videos to watch when I like a particular video.

TheWaterWhispers, Ilse you again!