Average at Best by Pub Choir’s Astrid Jorgensen

Average at Best is part memoir, part manifesto and wholly Astrid Jorgensen! If you haven’t heard of Pub Choir, you’ll be left wanting to join the next improvised comedy choir lesson. (Yep, she’s scheduled two shows in New Zealand during November!)

Astrid is best known as the force behind Pub Choir and Couch Choir. She founded the mass-singalong event that turns hundreds (and now thousands) of strangers into a one-night choir. Astrid is on a mission to teach the world to sing. She’s not promising to make anybody better at singing, she simply wants people to feel less ashamed of whatever voice they have. Astrid argues through story, humour and hard-won insight that we don’t need to be brilliant to belong. We just need to show up. 

The book toggles between green-room chaos and private reckoning, career breaks, burnout, the weirdness of viral fame, and the ethics of building community on a stage. She shares her life journey from being a schoolteacher with a cheap microphone and a bold idea to teaching thousands to sing in public. 

The central theme is that most of life happens between the extremes. The thing about ‘best’ is, it’s rare, says Astrid. This is exactly why she is so determined not to let the pursuit of ‘best’ rule her life. She’s all-in for chasing ordinary moments that make life feel full. 

“Some people are verifiably the best at certain things. Maybe you’re one of them - congratulations! Somebody can run 100 metres faster than all other people on the planet. Some woman has the world record for eating more hotdogs than anybody else in one minute. But so what? (Both of those features are impressive, by the way!). Being the best at something is an achievement worth celebrating. But what about every other part of your life?” writes Astrid.

“The odds are, at almost every moment, you’re not the best or the worst at whatever it is you’re doing. There are billions of people on earth. It’s far more likely that your actions will fall someone in the vastness between ‘best’ and ‘worst’. That’s where most of life is lived - in the all-encompassing, electrifying average of everything else. I’m not trying to bum you out, I honestly think it’s very freeing to stop striving for ‘best’ all the time.” 

In Average at Best, Astrid takes you behind the scenes as she shares her highs, lows and everything in between. She’s performed on stages around the world, met celebrities and taught hundreds of thousands of people how to work together in literal harmony. Along the way, she became the best at something while sometimes feeling the worst; including performing from an elevated scissor lift in front of a drive-in movie crowd…

The anecdotes, including almost becoming a nun and a chip packet fiasco are laugh-out-loud. Equally, Astrid’s reflections on class, access and the quiet power of participation are thought-provoking. Average at Best is a highly amusing and deep honest memoir. Highly recommended.

Discover how Astrid began Pub Choir (view here) and follow Astrid Jorgensen online.

Reviewer: Andrea Molloy

Simon & Schuster