Born and raised in Covington, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta, Irwin began his career in 1984 with an improvisational comedy troupe at Walt Disney World.

Andy Offutt Irwin is a native of Covington, Georgia,[1] a small town in the United States' Deep South about 35 miles east of Atlanta.

From 1995 to 2001, Irwin sang humorous songs, played guitar, and performed comedy as "Offutt the Minstrel" at the Georgia Renaissance Festival.

[2] Around 1996 while performing at the Georgia Renaissance Festival (GARF), Irwin met nationally prominent storyteller Carmen Deedy.

[5] Irwin also realized that his style of performance was at odds with the main venue available to comedians today: comedy clubs.

"[5] Using storytelling as a theatrical form allows Irwin to create more fully drawn characters and to explore darker subject matters as well.

"[3] Irwin loosely based the character of Marguerite on his mother ("unabashed and delightfully inappropriate") and his maternal grandmother ("a genteel, bun-haired lady of means").

"[2] Irwin occasionally mentions his fictional Uncle Charles, Marguerite's deceased husband, who briefly served as a Georgia state legislator and who liked to quote Shakespeare out of context for comic effect.

When the all-white elementary school that Irwin attended in the 1960s was forced to integrate, he became classmates with Johnny Norrington, an African American.

In his story "The Rudiments" on Banana Seat, Irwin describes an accident he caused while riding his bike on a visit to the Norringtons' all-black neighborhood.