Otto Petersen

Who Otto Petersen is

Otto Petersen was an American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian who, with his dummy George, performed the adult comedy act Otto & George, which Bananas Comedy Club's owner in New Jersey credited with inventing the x-rated ventriloquist act. Drawn to entertainment as a seven-year-old on Staten Island, he bought George for $350 at Louis Tannen's magic shop in Times Square, and the pair began as a street act in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the early 1970s before moving into nightclubs later that decade.

For nearly four decades he worked clubs across New Jersey and New York, among them Bananas in Hasbrouck Heights for more than twenty years, the Stress Factory in New Brunswick and Crossroads in Garwood, and he appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and in the film The Aristocrats. The act's recordings include A Boy and His Log (2006) and Found Cassettes (Live) (LaughDome Records, 2016). He died on 13 April 2014, aged 53, and Otto & George tracks were still being played on SiriusXM's Raw Dog Comedy and Raw Comedy channels from 2022 to 2024, among them Tom Carvel, The Bronx Part 2 and Nice To Be Here Part 2.