If I Were an Auditor: The Video

CPA romance in Second Life

“If I Were an Auditor,” a song parody of “If I Were a Carpenter,” is the first ever music video about accounting performed and filmed in the virtual world of Second Life. Conceived by Edith Orenstein, author of the Financial Executives International blog, and performed by Orenstein and Steven Zelin, aka “The Singing CPA,” the video features a cast of accounting and financial bloggers.

A romantic story, scheduled to coincide with the Valentine’s Day celebration, the video, “If I Were an Auditor,” tells the story of two accountants who fall in love and decide to get married, but who have reservations about the intentions of their partners.

Lyrics:

If I were an auditor, and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway? Would you hold or trade me?
If an auditor were my trade, would you still find me?
Or would you always second guess me, like everybody following behind me?

Save our love through loneliness,
Save our love through sorrow,
Would you give me sale treatment,
Or tell me I was borrowed?

If I worked for an audit firm, would you still love me?
Answer me babe, ‘Yes I would,” you wouldn’t put the lawyers above me
If I worked a million hours, in audit, tax, or advising
Would our love grow every day, or only be amortizing?

So I can document today, you mean what you say, in the story you tell.
I need evidence today, to rely on what you say, before wedding bells.
Speak a little louder into my lapel.

If I were an auditor, and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway? Would you hold or trade me?
Would you marry a CPA? You can count on me, baby.

Orenstein sings the female part in the music video. Zelin is a former PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant who quit his full time job to pursue his musical career. While maintaining a small private practice, Zelin performs about 50 shows a year. In addition to performing at accounting conferences, business meetings, and holiday parties for audiences of accountants and other business people, Zelin conducts educational programs involving music for children at libraries and schools in New York City.

“I write funny songs about accounting and taxes, ” Zelin said, but added that this is his first group video project. “I was really happy that Tom Hood and his team at the MACPA held my hand and made me look cool and hip with Second Life; it was definitely a new thing for me.”

The Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) produced the music video. MACPA is the creator of CPA Island in Second Life, a virtual meeting place for accountants and accounting educators.

The characters in the music video were played by:

* Dee Day, MACPA conference manager, in the role of the bride
* Mark Jankowski, co-founder and president of Shapiro Negotiations Institute, in the role of the groom
* Dave Albrecht, Concordia College, author of blog: The Summa
* Colleen Cunningham, global managing director, finance and accounting, Resources Global Professionals, Resources Global Finance and Accounting Blog
* Michelle Golden, (member of AccountingWEB Bloggers Crew) Golden Practices Blog
* Edith Orenstein, (member of AccountingWEB Bloggers Crew) FEI Financial Reporting Blog
* Gail Perry, managing editor, AccountingWEB
* Tom Selling, author of The Accounting Onion
* Bill Sheridan, CPA Success (MACPA)
* Darla Sycamore, IFRS News and Views
* Mark Jankowski, co-founder and president, Shapiro Negotiations Institute
* Steven Zelin, “The Singing CPA”

Posted on February 13, 2010