2021 Susquehanna Folk Festival Liars Contest
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Live-streamed at 7 pm Eastern
Tall-Tale-Tellers Sought!
Apply by mid-June
About This Event:
Love telling tall tales and shaggy dog stories? Enter the Liars Contest at the fourth annual Susquehanna Folk Festival this summer!
Love telling tall tales and shaggy dog stories? Enter the Liars Contest at the fourth annual Susquehanna Folk Festival this summer!
The Liars Contest is a juried competition, emceed this year by the hilarious Andy Offutt Irwin. Storytellers must apply and submit a video representative of their work. Nine contestants will be selected to participate in the live-streamed competition.
Anyone who can tell a good story may enter! Stories must be humorous, family friendly, and new to the festival. Stories that relate to the festival's theme (which will be announced) get a bonus in scoring. There is no application fee.
Cash Prizes!
A panel of three expert judges will award cash prizes to the top three liars.
Performances by Andy
The contest will also feature a short performance by Andy Offutt Irwin to keep everyone entertained (and then some) while the judges make their decision.
And on the afternoon of the contest, enjoy Andy's Wild Amphibian Show, featuring tadpoles, ridiculous parental questions, a five-gallon pickle jar, and a cat named Bootsie.
About Andy Offutt Irwin
With a silly putty voice, hilarious heart-filled stories, and amazing mouth noises (arguably, the greatest whistler in the world), one-person-showman Andy Offutt Irwin is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer.
One of the most sought after performing storytellers in the United States, Andy is especially known for relating the adventures of his eighty-five-year-old-widowed-newly-minted-physician-aunt, Marguerite Van Camp, a woman who avoids curmudgeonship by keeping her finger on the pulse of the changing world around her as she seeks to grow – even at her advanced age – in the New South. Marguerite steps lively through this existence, loving as many people as she can.
October of 2019 marked Andy’s tenth year as a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival. He has appeared fourteen times as Teller in Residence at International Storytelling Center, and is a favorite performer at schools, universities, theatres and festivals. Andy is the recipient of many awards, but he is tickled as can be to have received the Oracle 2013 Circle of Excellence from the National Storytelling Network. Andy lives in Covington, Georgia and he thinks he is funny.
Contest Rules:
- Stories must be humorous, family friendly, and new to the festival
- Stories should be about 7 minutes long
- Stories related to our theme (to be announced) get a bonus in scoring
- Anyone who can tell a good story may enter!
- There is no application fee.
- Contestants must submit a video sample of their work.

See Andy's Wild Amphibian Show
livestreamed at 2pm on July 14:
a family program held in collaboration
with York County Libraries.
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