Have stories, will travel Andy Offutt Irwin shares tales, coast to coast BY JACKIE KENNEDY National storyteller Andy Offutt Irwin is the first to admit—and apologize for the fact—that he “streams” when he talks.  Apologies aren’t necessary, but it can be a tricky ride navigating a discussion with him. Compare a conversation with a canoe trip and this Georgia-born, Covington-based singer/storyteller and arts educator takes you not only down the Chattahoochee, but up every tributary between North and South Georgia, swinging his skinny arms, bouncing his bony frame, and whistling triumphantly as he does.
Maybe it’s because, at nearly 50, he’s still a kid at heart, a rambunctious boy-man who considers camp counselor the best job he’s ever had. (He worked at Camp Glisson, a United Methodist retreat based in Dahlonega, for seven years.) Although he’s worn a variety of occupational hats since then—from janitor to political satirist to Walt Disney World performer—camp counselor is the role that best complements his current gig: storytelling. Whether he’s performing for a packed auditorium or an intimate gathering, Andy connects with his audience like a quirky counselor engaging kids around a campfire.  “The secret,” he says, “is this: Treat children with the same respect with which you treat adults, and treat adults with the same frivolity children crave. When you’re on stage in front of a group of old people, remember they used to be 12 years old, and when you’re in front of children, remember you used to be 12.”
Appealing to young and old, Andy performs at storytelling festivals and conducts educational workshops at schools (elementary through college) across the nation. He’s shared his amazing mouth noises and hysterical guitar tunes at numerous venues, including the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and LaGuardia High School (the “Fame!” school) in New York City. Says LaGuardia’s director of choral studies, Jerry Ulrich: “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.” Additionally, Andy hosts the Georgia Public Broadcasting radio show, “Evening Star,” on Sundays at 4 p.m., featuring the nation’s top songwriters and contemporary folk musicians. He routinely shares one of his own stories during each 60-minute show. Many of his tales—spun with a sing-song voice that ebbs and flows from soothing softness to waves of laughter—feature Aunt Marguerite, his fictional 85-year-old aunt, based on the women who raised him, primarily his mother and grandmother. Marguerite is a widow and self-proclaimed “recovering racist” who grew bored with the garden club, went to medical school and opened a hospital. When he’s speaking as Marguerite, Andy—the lanky and loud harbinger of hilarity—transforms into a soft-spoken, gray-haired lady in a flowery cotton dress, albeit draped by a doctor’s white coat. Instead of a locket bragging her grandchildren, a stethoscope rests on her bosom. Where did Andy Irwin go? This ability to transcend self and become story put him on the national scene. Working in comedy and music for two decades, Andy played everything from the New Year’s Eve party at the New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta to the Georgia Press Association’s annual “Cracker Crumble.” He’d been incorporating stories into his performances long before he realized that storytelling was a genre. After telling stories for years, he was invited to be a featured teller at the 2005 Jonesborough Storytelling Festival in Tennessee, the “Super Bowl” of storytelling. “He blew us away,” says Pat Gay, a librarian at LaGrange Memorial Library and committee member of LaGrange’s Azalea Storytelling Festival, which features Andy March 2-4. “We’d worked locally with Andy for a long time, and it was wonderful to see someone that deserving on the national stage. He’s one of the kindest, most considerate storytellers I’ve ever met.”  It was at Jonesborough that Andy met Kathryn Tucker Windham, at 87, the grand dame of storytelling. “I hear you make fun of old ladies,” Windham said as she introduced herself to the newcomer.
“Yes ma’am,” Irwin replied. “I make fun of people like you.” “You better watch yourself,” she advised. He knew he’d found a friend and mentor. And at the National Storytelling Festival, after 22 years of performing, he’d found his niche. “Storytellers and the people who put on storytelling festivals are as nice as they come,” says Andy. “My first year on the national scene was a sweet, sweet year.” Born and raised in Covington and a 1977 graduate of Newton County High School, Andy “crammed four years of college into six” at now-Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville where he graduated with a sociology degree in 1983. He stayed on another year as artist-in-residence, writing and directing a play, “Through the Needle’s Eye: A Celebration of Saint Francis,” an endeavor that capped seven years of acting and directing at Georgia College. From there, he worked with the comedy improv troupe, SAK Theatre, at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., where he wrote, directed and performed from 1984 to 1989. The experience gave him the confidence—and the connections—to venture out on his own, landing gigs throughout the Southeast since returning to Georgia where, in 1991, he began working part time at Oxford College of Emory University, and, since 1993, has been their artist-in-residence. The short commute from Oxford to his home in Covington has served well to offset the time he’s on the road, traveling to schools for weeklong residencies, clubs for gigs and libraries for summer reading programs. (He wrote theme songs, including “Place to Be Spotted” and “Books Ahoy,” for public service announcements promoting the state’s summer library programs.) From 1995 to 2001, he performed as “Offutt the Minstrel” at the Georgia Renaissance Festival in Fairburn. After 16 years at Oxford, during which he was honored with the 2001 Sammy Clark Award for Exemplary Teaching and Service, Andy retires this spring to pursue national storytelling as a full-time venture. “It’s been a dream job,” he says. “There are wonderful people here who’ve given me artistic freedom and an overwhelming sense of community.” That bond was never stronger than in 2004 when Andy and his wife, Kathleen, suffered the loss of their son, Tristan, who died at age 11. Born a spastic quadriplegic (his twin, Ian, was stillborn), Tristan was never able to walk or talk, but his smile lit up a room. “He was a regular at the local Mexican restaurant,” says Andy. “We’d walk in and everyone would holler, ‘Welcome! Hola Tristan!’” Caring for their son was a full-time job that Kathleen relished, and coming home to Tristan’s broad smile softened the wear and tear of life on the road for Andy. Their son’s death left a void that Oxford students and coworkers tried to help fill. “This is a loving, affectionate community that’s embraced us,” says Andy.  Now, the Irwins dote on their 7-year-old son, Liam, a rambunctious boy whose giddy grin and twinkling eyes hint at mischievousness inherited from his father.
Although his life has been seasoned with sadness, Andy exudes contentment. “Joy,” he explains, “is the whole salad. I know this. I had to learn that life is not a comic strip. Charlie Brown is always 10 years old, but life is not like that.” Life, instead, is a series of heartaches and happiness. “You can’t appreciate one without experiencing the other,” says Andy.  The Just Plain Folks Music Awards recently showed their appreciation for Andy’s talent when they honored his “Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital” as the 2006 Storytelling Album of the Year. The CD features Aunt Marguerite, as does his new CD, “Book Every Saturday for a Funeral.”
Andy has learned to take heartaches and find the humor in them, “hopefully humor that’s benevolent and can be a gift to someone,” he says. “If we care about all people, even those who aren’t like us, we have more concern and empathy for them and, ultimately, more joy in our own life—and that’s the joke!” Jackie Kennedy is a LaGrange-based freelance writer and 1985 graduate of Georgia College.
Azalea Storytelling Festival When: March 2-4, 2007 Where: Callaway Auditorium, LaGrange College Campus, 801 Dallis St., LaGrange. Performing: National tellers—Donald Davis, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Andy Offutt Irwin and Sheila Kay Adams. Regional tellers—Josie Bailey, Anne Hewett and Jane Sullivan. Cost: Full festival, $35; Friday evening, $15; Saturday, $30; Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon, $10; Saturday evening, $15. Student tickets discounted; Sunday concert admission is free. For more: Call (706) 812-5602 or e-mail bknight@westgatech.edu. The National Storytelling Network honored the Azalea Storytelling Festival with its annual Leadership Award in 1999 for significant contributions to the community. Details: To purchase Andy Offutt Irwin’s CDs or for booking information, visit www.andyirwin.com. | 
