Andy Offutt Irwin :: Who is this Guy?

"Amazing interactive folk from an eccentric who punctuates his tunes with humorous anecdotes... 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

Some people have inner-kids.
Andy Offutt Irwin
has an outer-kid.

With a manic Silly Putty voice,
astonishing mouth noises,
and hilarious stories,
he is equal parts mischievous school boy
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.

He’s always on the go, performing at festivals, theatres and schools throughout the United States, including two gigs as a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival, where in 2008 he will perform a solo concert at the Midnight Cabaret.

He has been a Teller in Residence at International Storytelling Center;

a Guest Artist at La Guardia High School of Art, Music, and Performing Arts in New York (The “FAME!” School); and he has been a Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress-Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy.

He is an award winning recording artist with five titles and growing.

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. But he’s had lots of more 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).

_____________________

OK, it's simple enough to indicate that Andy Offutt Irwin is a strange combination of singer-songwriter, comedian, thespian and storyteller, but that is too simplistic a description of what he does during the course of a performance.

OK, how’s this?
You will see Andy onstage with a guitar: an old, worn guitar that has seen many a performance. He plays it; sometimes soft, sometimes really hard, but always he plays it well.
Sometimes he'll sing when he plays, and sometimes he'll sing when he doesn't play. He sings lots of different songs; some of them are downright wacky. He also talks; sometimes with the guitar, sometimes without.

Sometimes he talks as Andy,
and sometimes he is somebody else entirely.
He is an absolutely captivating storyteller!

All of this is evidence of the onstage persona of a unique and wonderful fellow from Covington, GA. His talents are self-evident, but we hope we're not revealing any secrets if we say that, when you get past all the wild, funny aspects of this man's personality, there is a genuinely nice guy under there.

– Micki & Seegar Swanson, Fiddler’s Green