Andy Friedman began in the world of art and illustration, and later moved into music. Born in Brooklyn, he graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in painting. He started work in the mailroom of The New Yorker in August 1998 and began slipping his own cartoons in among the submissions; eventually, the magazine started buying them, and they were published under the pseudonym Larry Hat. Friedman built up a career as a freelance illustrator. In the spring of 2002, he left The New Yorker and began performing on-stage with a show that combined his spoken word...