Andy Offutt Irwin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Andy Offutt Irwin
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| Background information | |
| Born | December 14, 1957 Covington, Georgia |
| Occupation(s) | Storyteller, singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, percussion |
| Years active | 1984–present |
Andy Offutt Irwin, born on December 14, 1957, is a talented American storyteller, singer, and humorist. He grew up in Covington, Georgia, a small town near Atlanta. Andy started his career in 1984 at Walt Disney World with a group that made up comedy on the spot.
After five years, he began performing as a singer-songwriter, traveling around the southeastern United States. In the mid-1990s, Andy also started performing for kids. He continued to sing and write songs, adding storytelling to his shows. He would usually tell one long story during each performance.
In 2004, Andy decided to focus on storytelling full-time. He quickly became well-known across the country. Today, he often performs at storytelling festivals throughout the United States. As of 2024, Andy has released 14 albums featuring his stories, songs, and whistling. He has won many awards for his work, including the Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Network in 2013.
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Andy's Early Life and Career
Andy Offutt Irwin grew up in Covington, Georgia. This small town is about 35 miles east of Atlanta in the southern part of the United States. When he was young, Andy discovered he was good at making different sounds and imitating how people talked. He later went to Georgia College and earned a degree in Sociology in 1983.
Starting in 1991, Andy toured the Southeast as a singer-songwriter. From 1995 to 2001, he performed at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. There, he sang funny songs, played guitar, and did comedy as "Offutt the Minstrel." He also performed at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival in the 1980s.
Becoming a Storyteller
How Andy Started Storytelling
Around 1996, while performing at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, Andy met a famous storyteller named Carmen Deedy. After they talked for a while, Carmen told Andy, "You're a storyteller." She later saw him perform and explained how the storytelling world worked. Carmen encouraged Andy to develop his storytelling skills.
They even shared a storytelling show together in Atlanta. Andy left his guitar at home for this show to challenge himself. This was his very first storytelling performance. In 2005, he was featured as a new voice at the National Storytelling Festival.
Storytelling as Performance
Before becoming a full-time storyteller, Andy worked as a comedian. However, he realized that his style of performance didn't fit well with modern comedy clubs. He jokingly called them "evil, smelly places." Some of his stories can be an hour long. Andy noted that comedians today usually only get a few minutes to perform.
Using storytelling as a type of theater allows Andy to create more detailed characters. He can also explore more serious topics. He believes his storytelling is funny, but it also has serious moments. He doesn't need the audience to laugh the whole time. He hopes his stories have important meaning.
Andy takes humor very seriously. He remembers wondering as a kid why people laugh. He was always the class clown and interested in what makes laughter happen. Now, he gets to study the idea of humor every day. Andy sees himself as a writer and calls himself a humorist and storyteller. He says this is because he performs in places like libraries, which are different from comedy clubs.
Andy's stories often show what life is like in a small Southern town. They often talk about growing up and getting older. They also explore family connections and the history of different groups of people living together in the South, especially in the 1960s. He also shares stories about the fun art of the practical joke.
Andy's Story Characters
Many of Andy's stories feature his made-up aunt, Dr. Marguerite Van Camp. He describes her as being about 85 years old. She and her friends started a hospital in rural Georgia. Andy explains that they did this because they were tired of their usual clubs. So, Marguerite, Mary Frances, and Julia all went back to medical school.
Andy based Marguerite loosely on his own mother and grandmother. He says his mother was "unabashed and delightfully inappropriate." His grandmother was a polite, older lady. Andy explains, "I was raised by Southern women so I imitate a lot of them. Marguerite is the voice of my grandmother... and the attitude of my mother." He adds that he puts anything he wants to complain about into Marguerite's voice. Andy sometimes mentions his made-up Uncle Charles, Marguerite's husband who has passed away. Uncle Charles used to be a state lawmaker and liked to quote William Shakespeare in funny ways.
Two other characters in Andy's stories, Johnny and his brother Kenny, are real people he knew as a child. In the 1960s, the elementary school Andy attended started to include students of all backgrounds. He became classmates with Johnny Norrington, an African American boy. They became good friends, even though there were still some old rules about different groups of people.
In his story "The Rudiments" on the album Banana Seat, Andy describes an accident he caused while riding his bike in Johnny's neighborhood. He was scared, but Johnny's mother quickly helped him. On the album Bootsie in Season, Andy remembers how he and Johnny watched the movie Dr. Terror's House of Horrors together. Due to old rules, Johnny had to sit in a different section of the theater than Andy.
Discography
- Banana Seat (1995)
- Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital (2004)
- Book Every Saturday for a Funeral (2006)
- Bootsie in Season (2007)
- Crowd Control (2008)
- Lip Service (2010)
- Risk Assessment (2011)
- Sister True (2013)
- Andy's Wild Amphibian Show! (2015)
- Squeaky on the Roof (2017)
- Love and Armadillo Migration (2017)
- Flaked, Puffed, Shredded, & Clustered (2018)
- Perpetual Calendar (2019)
- Free the Imprisoned Lightning (2024)
