Loyd Artists

Andy Offutt Irwin

BIOGRAPHY

Performance Formats:

Check out Andy's new concert with The Kandinsky Trio

2009 WINNER for the story, "The Beauty Pageant" from the album, Bootsie in Season
2008 WINNER for the album, Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital
2008 WINNER for the album, Book Every Saturday for a Funeral
2006 Just Plain Folks Award - Best Storytelling Album Storytelling World Awards

IN OCTOBER OF 2005, ANDY EXPLODED ON THE STORYTELLING SCENE AS A "NEW VOICES FEATURED TELLER" AT THE NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL. HE WAS INVITED AGAIN IN 2007, AND HEADLINED IN 2008 AT THE FESTIVAL'S MIDNIGHT CABARET. IN THAT TIME HE HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER STORYTELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

With a manic Silly Putty voice, astonishing mouth noises, and hilarious stories, he is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. Andy is one vibrantly odd bird, with feathers that tease, tickle and tug at the heart - And a whopper of a personality, which barely fits in most rooms. People are drawn to him like magnets to a refrigerator. And inside, it's all Mountain Dew and Jolt Cola.

A native of Covington, GA, Andy started out in comedy, but added music and storytelling because he had a lot more to say. In storytelling circles, he is especially known for relating the adventures of his eighty-five-year-old Aunt, Marguerite Van Camp, M.D. Andy has released three storytelling CDs. The first two CDs, Book Every Saturday for a Funeral and Christmas At Southern White Old Lady Hospital, won the coveted 2008 Storytelling World Resource Award. Bootsie In Season, his 2007 CD release, features Andy's Aunt Marguerite and the story of how she became a self-described "recovering racist" along with flying rubber snakes, smashed watermelons, leaping Milk Duds, falling mannequins and roped-in beauty queens. Andy is described as Foghorn Leghorn meets Lily Tomlin meets William Blake. Andy's 2008 release, Crowd Control, was recorded live at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Don't worry Andy fans, this album contains tales of that eighty-five year-old, newly minted physician, Aunt Marguerite Van Camp. But Andy gets more personal than ever on this collection of stories with tales about his sons, Liam, the Night Toddler, and Tristan, the Microcephalic Adventurer, that Flying Kapoo.

Andy's always on the go, performing at festivals, theatres, conferences, churches and schools throughout the United States, including two gigs as a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival, where in 2008 he performed a solo concert at the Midnight Cabaret. He has been a Teller in Residence twice at the International Storytelling Center and a featured teller at festivals through out the United States.

Andy is often a featured speaker and keynote performer for conferences and meetings. His conference performances range widely from keynote performer at the Library of Congress Conference on Family Literacy to the Georgia School Transportation conference; featured speaker at the anniversary of a southern funeral home and the Mountain States Health Alliance; audience wrangler for the Evening Star series on Georgia Public Radio and the Trial Lawyers Convention. Andy's presentations are often tailored to meet the theme of the conference or meeting. His many characters and stories delight and enlighten attendees.

Andy used to have real jobs: from 1991 to 2007 he was Artist-In-Residence in Theatre at Oxford College of Emory University. He spent five years writing, directing and performing with the comedy improv troupe, SAK Theatre at Walt Disney World. And he's had lots of interesting life experience-type employment, including – but not limited to – actor, camp counselor, political satirist, youth director, janitor, deputy voter registrar, theatre orchestra conductor, garbage man, teacher, carpenter's flunky, and bullfrog tadpole catcher. (Honest)!

" A fiendishly clever union of Tom Lehrer's topicality ... cut with Bobby McFerrin-style mouth music. Andy Offutt Irwin's shows are good quirky fun..." The Atlanta Journal Constitution

"That always amazing Renaissance man, Andy Offutt Irwin mixes music and theatrics, measure for measure." - Creative Loafing

THEATRICAL SHOWS FOR GROWNUPS
Book Every Saturday for a Funeral
Marguerite, an 80-something-year old widow, is tired of the bridge-club-garden-c1ub scene, so she and her friends go to medical school and open a hospital in rural Georgia, "Southern White Old Lady Hospital." Marguerite is a self-proclaimed recovering racist who is in love with life. As she says, "when all your Saturdays are booked for funerals you have to pay attention and love everybody you can." 'This theatrical show of stories features Andy moving in and out of the characters of Marguerite, her friends, her late - but sometimes visiting - husband, Charles, and her transplanted-to-the-North daughter Francine. Andy makes each character come to explicit life! Audiences will roar with laughter at the antics of these well-meaning women while opening their hearts to these universal stories of family, aging, death and the joys of living.

Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital
Based on the 2006 Just Plain Folks Awards', "Best Storytelling Album" of the same name, join Marguerite as she struggles with holding on to a Christmas spirit even as the holiday begins with the first catalog arriving in her mailbox in August.

Generational Revenge
We all know that grandparents and grandchildren gain solidarity through their battle with a common enemy, the grandparent/ parent who's caught between the two. Marguerite learns a thing or two from her granddaughter, Drucilla, after the college sophomore returns from a spring break trip to New Orleans to do Katrina relief. Drucilla's experiences remind Marguerite that sometimes, stern parenting can backfire.

SHOWS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES
Offutt's Environmental Epic Show
Follow as Andy and his friend, Johnny, follow the creek until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. There they learn about pollution, recycling, the food chain, and the interdependence of life. Apple Boy, an actual talking piece of fruit, makes an appearance, as well as a cricket that lives in Kudzu, and bullfrog tadpoles yearning to break free from a pickle jar.
This is the world's funniest environmental awareness program!

The Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta

Nouns, Verbs and Other Important Stuff
Andy makes up half the show on the fly, which is where the audience comes in! Students use their creative skills to help Andy write spontaneous, fanciful, and hilarious songs. Kids learn the definition and use of adjectives and other parts of speech through the oft-requested (and dreaded) Jelly Song!
Andy Offutt Irwin and young people, a magical combination!

Jerry illrich, LaGuardia School of Art, Music and Performing Arts, New York, The FAME! School

Letters, Numbers and Other Important Stuff
Andy uses lively counting, alphabet, and spelling songs to teach important life lessons. Students learn original songs like My Fingers Equal My Toes, You Are a Goofy Kid, and Socks Go Between My Feet and My Shoes.
Now here's a man who understands the importance of language and language acquisition as it relates to emergent literacy learning and family literacy.

Dr. Molly S. Kinney, introducing Andy as the Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy

Andy Offutt Irwin is Mr. Rogers on steroids! - Barbara McBride Smith

I've seen Andy Offutt Irwin work with students from rural Georgia and inner city New York - both were eating out of the palm of his hand! He has that extraordinarily remarkable ability to make people laugh and lose themselves in the moment of his performance. He was a huge hit at LaGuardia! Not a week goes by that some student doesn't walk up to me and say 'When's that guy from Georgia coming back?' - Jerry Ulrich, Director of Choral Studies; LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts (The Fame! school) - New York City