[2] A visit to Disneyland with his family prompted a young Strassman to ask his father to purchase some professional magic tricks that he performed for local neighborhood children.

[3] Strassman took a ventriloquism class in junior high school as an elective, taught by local Chicago children's television host Steve Hart.

He took to busking in Central Park in New York, Leicester Square and the Marble Arch in London and a brief stint in Paris.

[7] In 1980, Strassman (along with his main ventriloquist character Chuck Wood) appeared in Roger Corman's horror movie Humanoids from the Deep.

[15] He received the “Critics Award for Comedy”[16] and the Glasgow “Herald Angel award.”[17] Strassman continues to perform frequently throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Britain.

[27] In 2010, he performed the play, "Duality," written and directed by Steve Altman, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in Los Angeles, CA.