Andy Offutt Irwin - Background and Early Career

Background and Early Career

Andy Offutt Irwin is a native of Covington, Georgia, a small town in the United States' Deep South about 35 miles east of Atlanta. As a child, he always wanted to be a musician, learning to play drums in elementary school band and adding guitar as a teenager. It was also in his youth that Irwin discovered his talent for imitating different sounds and the speech of others. While he was growing up, Irwin was an avid fan of Bill Cosby's comedy albums, which featured Cosby's humorous stories about his youth. Irwin memorized these stories and, at his teacher's suggestion, would recite them to his class while his teacher prepared a daily report. Irwin later attended Georgia College where he received a B. S. in Sociology in 1983. While there, he was named Mess Georgia College.

Starting in 1984, Irwin spent five years writing, directing and performing shows with the improvisational comedy troupe SAK Theatre at Disney World. Upon returning to Georgia, Irwin began to focus on singing and songwriting, though he always kept comedic elements in his music. Beginning in 1991, Irwin toured the Southeast as a singer-songwriter, performing both solo and with his band, an act that he bills as "Andy Offutt Irwin vs. the fingermonsters" (sic). From 1995 to 2001, Irwin sang humorous songs, played guitar and performed comedy as "Offutt the Minstrel" at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. He also performed at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival during the 1980s. From 1997 through 2005 Irwin directed the annual Cracker Crumble, an evening of politically satirical skits put on by the Georgia Press Association for Georgia politicians and lobbyists.