Comedy = Tragedy + Time

At least I didn’t put this up yesterday. (From BANDS I USETA LIKE II.)

Otto Petersen was a ventriloquist who entertained audiences from the early 1970s until his unfortunate demise in 2014. He was a living encyclopedia of show biz minutiae, and was admired even by the likes of Jeff Dunham and David Copperfield. He wrote the obscene nursery rhymes that made Andrew Dice Clay a star. His crowd work with dummy George Dudley was so sharp and quick, no one ever gave a shit that his mouth moved. Otto & George was one of the funniest acts in the business; maybe even the funniest.

That’s a perfect vent act right there; a foul-mouthed, angry dummy abusing a lumbering oaf. Otto not only had the gift, but he was a link to Old Comedy, and could spin tales about Charlie Barnett and Ray Garvey. In 1988 he was one of Comedy’s Dirtiest Dozen, among some other comics you might have heard of, like Chris Rock and Bill Hicks.

Otto is unanimously celebrated among great comedians. There are too many Otto stories on podcasts to mention here, but Jay Mohr is a good example; he often relates a story where George read a newspaper, as Otto carried on a conversation independently. Otto was raw, old-school talent, honed on the streets of dirty ’70s NYC.

Photo: Otto and George.com

“In Central Park one Sunday, I had John Lennon in my audience. He waited until the crowd dispersed to say to me ‘the puppet is funnier, here’s two dollars. Give George $1.50…you keep the rest.'” -Otto Petersen