After growing up on the south side of Chicago, Dreesen spent four years in the U.S. Navy, then returned to the Chicago area to sell insurance. He went to a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting where he met a newly minted marketing manager for DuPont, Tim Reid. They were asked to promote an anti-drug program in the local schools. A child, whose identity is apparently lost to history, suggested they would make a good comedy team. There had never been a Black-white comic duo before in the United States — Tom was white, Tim Black. They decided to go for it: they became “Tim and Tom” and went on tour. They were “America’s first Black and white comedy team,” Dreesen liked to say, seriously. And, jokingly, liked to add, “History shows we were the last as well.” Though maybe it’s not the best joke: I can’t think of any others as standup comedy duos in general fell out of favor, even if some did well in films (Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor jump immediately to mind).
It certainly was a struggle for Tim and Tom. First, it was hard to find a venue that would book them. “The audiences were very honest with their like or dislike,” Reid said in 2008. “A guy comes up to me and puts a cigarette out in my face, I know where he stands.” Dreesen jumps into the story: “That was the fourth time we were ever on stage,” he said. “The guy damn near beat me to death, and then put his lit cigarette out on Tim’s face, and I got in the car with Tim and we’re all scarred and bruised, and Tim says, ‘Welcome to show business’.” They found better gigs, and a manager — who promptly dropped dead of a heart attack at 32. But they did particularly well on the “chitlin circuit” at Black-owned clubs. And yet, “I kept a ledger,” Dreeson said. “We made $12,500” one year. “That we had to split, of course,” Reid rejoined.
They had to split indeed — split up, after 6 years on the road — but both did quite well on their own: Reid landed a role as DJ “Venus Flytrap” on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982), and continued on with multiple shows after that. Dreesen almost immediately landed a standup spot on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show — and Johnny was so entertained he invited Tom back 60 more times. Frank Sinatra called and brought Dreesen on as his warmup act. In 1983 he recorded an album at an all-Black audience in Illinois. The title: That White Boy’s Crazy *. It killed. He served as an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation, landed acting roles on TV (including a guest spot on WKRP), and appeared in several films. After Sinatra’s death, he toured nationally with an autobiographical show, Shoeshines to Sinatra.
In 2008, the former duo published a book about their time on the road, Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White, and in 2002 Tom published his memoir, Still Standing…: My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra. And all along, Tim & Tom remained friends, serving as “honorary uncles” to each other’s children. Reid is still alive at 81, and hasn’t retired. Thomas Edward Dreesen died June 17, at 86.
One of Dreesen’s appearances on The Tonight Show in the 1980s.