Otto Petersen

Otto & George was an adult-themed ventriloquist comedy team composed of comedian Otto Sol Petersen (July 29, 1960 – April 13, 2014) and his dummy George Dudley. Petersen began performing with George as a street act in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s the act moved into night clubs and began to evolve into an "X-rated" act.

Background

Otto was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, New York. He is survived by his wife, Trish Conte, his mother, Sylvia Petersen, his brother, Tom Petersen, and a sister, Lona Petersen.

Otto & George were frequent guests on the Opie and Anthony show with side-kick Jim Norton, and appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Howard Stern Show, Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular & Bullshit! programs, and Showtime's Full Frontal Comedy. The duo also appeared in the feature films Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen with Chris Rock and Tim Allen, and performed a version of the "The Aristocrats" joke in Paul Provenza's & Penn Jillette's film of the same name.

Performing for over 30 years, Otto was well renowned as both a comedian and a ventriloquist. One notable aspect of his ventriloquism was that his lips still moved while he spoke with the George voice, but the illusion of there being a different speaker was made with the sharp contrast in the George voice with his own. Otto spoke with a low, rather nervous voice whereas George spoke in a loud, harsher voice.

One of the team's last ventures was their Internet variety show The Pig Roast with Otto & George.

Otto & George performed all over the U.S. and Canada. The duo performed several times at the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montréal, Canada.

Otto cited the legendary ventriloquist Paul Winchell as his inspiration after watching him on television in the 1960s.

Illness and death

Otto fell ill in 2013 with bacterial meningitis and was placed in a coma for over a week.

He died in his sleep at his home in Keyport, New Jersey on April 13, 2014, of undisclosed causes.

Filmography

Feature films

• Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen (1988)
• The Force Within (1993)
• Roswell and Alistair (1998)
• White Chicks Incorporated (1998)
• American Dummy (2002)
• The Aristocrats (2005)
• I'm No Dummy (2008)

Television

• The Morton Downey, Jr. Show (1988)
• Playboy Channel's 'The Club (1990)
• The Joe Franklin Show (1990)
• Full Frontal Comedy (1996)
• Late Show with David Letterman (2007)
• Penn & Teller's Bullshit! (2007)

External links

• Otto & George Official Home Page
• The Pig Roast with Otto & George
• Otto Petersen at IMDb