The 2024 Festival features a fantastic lineup!
Bil Lepp, Andy Offutt Irwin,
Anne Rutherford,
Dino O'Dell and Norm Brecke all-in-one Festival weekend!
The best-of-the-best will again be at the Kansas Storytelling Festival, Downs, KS, on April 26-27, 2024.
2024 PERFORMERS
Bil Lepp
Bil’s humorous, family friendly tall-tales and stories have earned the appreciation of listeners of all ages and from all walks of life. Though a five time champion of the WV Liars’s Contest, Lepp’s stories often contain morsels of truth which present universal themes in clever and witty ways. Audiences all across the country, from grade schools to corporate execs to the Comedy Central’s Hudson stage, have been delighted by Bil’s mirthful tales and delightful insights into everyday life.
Andy Offutt Irwin
Andy Offutt Irwin is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. Andy has been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival for more than a decade and as a Teller-in-Residence at International Storytelling Center fourteen years. Among other gigs, Andy has been a Guest Artist at La Guardia High School of Art, Music, and Performing Arts in New York (The “FAME!” School); he has been a Keynote Speaker/ Performer at the Library of Congress-Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy; a Guest Writer Performer with the Georgia Tech Glee Club; and a guest composer with the Amherst College Men’s Double Quartet. He is also arguably the world’s best whistler.
Anne Rutherford
Storyteller Anne Rutherford delights audiences nationwide with funny, touching performances that include tales of personal adventure, folklore and prize-winning lies. Her singing and mandolin playing add to the fun, along with vivid vocal and physical characterizations such as her original Wild West alter-ego, the adventurous Clementine Ryder. Anne grew up in a little Pennsylvania town along the Susquehanna River, in a house with a grave-yard on one side and a cow pasture on the other, but now resides in the Pacific Northwest. She is grateful for the storytelling community and audiences because, as she says, “Without you – I’d be talking to myself.”
Dino O'Dell
Dino O’Dell mesmerizes his audiences with stories from the most untraditional sources – from dinosaurs to outer space. In an hour spent with Dino, youngsters may meet a cowboy that doesn’t like taking baths, a space alien that needs help fixing his spaceship and Dino’s grandfather, who tells them stories about making pancakes. All the while, the students engage in songs that reinforce the concepts they did not even realize they were learning. As an innovative and inspiring educator, Dino is a professional, and as an entertaining storyteller, he is amazing!
Norm Brecke
Norm has told stories professionally all over the country and has been a featured teller from coast to coast.
One of his greatest joys has been performing and teaching with his wife, Anne Rutherford. When Norm tells a story, people listen and often join in. Anne & Norm perform, teach, and lead workshops for adults, children, and families across the country from their base in the Pacific Northwest. Accompanying themselves on instruments from guitar & mandolin to ukulele & kazoo, their repertoire features interactive songs, folktales, personal stories, and historical anecdotes told with humor and heart.
