InterALIA talks to Librarian, Cabaret performer and former Australian Idol auditionee, Andrew Finigan.
Andrew Finigan has an Arts degree and Masters of Applied Science (Library & Information Management), and several years experience in libraries, including academic and public libraries in Melbourne and Darwin. He is currently Manager of Karama Library for Darwin City Council Libraries. Andrew also has a background in musical theatre so is well equipped to branch into Cabaret performing. He will be perfoming 16 shows in February and March for the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
A musical exploration of one man's quest to make libraries cool again. Tackling a world of sex, politics, nerds and pop song contests, Andrew Finegan attempts to dispel the stereotypes and prove that he has what it takes to be a... LIBRARIAN IDOL.
Andrew first tried his hand at stand up comedy at a Campus competition many years ago, back when Britney Spears was virtually unheard of; "I held my own okay, but didn't really follow it through at all", he said."In 2004, I performed in a comedy musical called "I love you, you're perfect, now change", which was musically directed by Eddie Perfect, who also had his own show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. [His] show... totally blew me away, and I saw him again in another show that featured Tim Minchin, who was also incredibly brilliant... I remember seeing them bashing out subversive, controversial tunes on the keyboard, and thought, 'Wow, I'd like to do that some day'".
"Flash forward to late 2006, when I'd moved to Darwin. There was a group starting a comedy room in town, and the call was put out for anybody who wanted to workshop some material and then perform it. I wrote a few minutes worth of stand-up, and a song about having an "over-zealous" Christian girlfriend (which is only very slightly based on truth). People seemed to be intrigued by the novelty of musical comedy."
"I wrote some more stand up and another song the next month about Vegemite and the US. The stand-up was fairly so-so, but they loved the song. So, I kept doing that. "
Andrew then put together a full-length show for the Darwin Fringe.
"I came up with the title after auditioning for Australian Idol, and blurting out the words, "I want to be Australia's first Librarian Idol".
Andrew is fascinated by the number of librarians who react strongly to portrayals of their profession in the media. "Some might say that many librarians are quite self-aggrandising of the their profession, I know that I have been from time to time, and this show has been, in many ways, a kind of self-inflicted therapy to stop taking myself so seriously."
He is also on a mission to reinstate librarians in their rightful, cool, place in society. His show deals with notions of popularity, looking at defining features of past "librarian idols", be it through religious leadership, arrogant upstart-ness, political activism, and exploring other possible paths to becoming a "Librarian Idol".
"Librarian Idol" is not just about being a librarian, but "it always comes back to this strange but amusing "mission" to justify my existence as librarian as being something far more important than society deems it." Andrew has continued working on the script since performing in Darwin, has weeded some content, and written a new song, relishing the challenge of being surrounded by some big names at the Adelaide Fringe.
Andrew is now in the conceptual stage of writing a new show called "Evil (Library) Scientist", and plans to perform at the Darwin Fringe this year. "I'm also planning on doing something later this year in Melbourne - quite possibly as a satellite event for the 4th ALIA New Librarian's Symposium". http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2008
He is looking forward to exploring the world of Cabaret, and in the meantime Andrew Finegan, Librarian Idol, is quite happy with his career in Darwin and encourages others from southern states to make the move. "There's always work for more librarians up here in Darwin - it's a pretty cushy lifestyle, considering that the humidity is really not an issue when you have air-conditioning, living within 20 minutes drive from everywhere, with beautiful sunsets most nights, and no water restrictions".
You can preview Librarian Idol on http://www.myspace.com/andrewthelibrarian
or get more details at http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/tixhome.aspx.
