11/21/2023 0 Comments Tim reid tom dreesen![]() So with no money in the bank, one suit and a dream, he left for Los Angeles. Dreesen could have returned to the Chicago area and made a good living selling insurance, but his life so far - the good, the bad, the poor, the funny - was a story he needed to tell. But after six years, there was no “big break,” and the team broke up. They toured the country together, working college campuses and the black “chitlin circuit” between long stints at Playboy clubs around the country. ![]() Those evolved into gigs at local clubs, and the two men became “Tim and Tom,” the first black/white comedy team. Dreesen and ReidĪs a release, he joined the Jaycees, where he met Tim Reid, who would later find national stardom as Venus Flytrap on “WKRP in Cincinnati.” Dreesen and Reid began their long friendship doing middle school drug prevention presentations that were filled with give-and-take and lighthearted banter. Instead, he returned to Harvey and worked odd jobs, from bartender to dock foreman to insurance salesman. His service led him to exotic ports around the world, where he gained life experience but no trade or profession. He would then get up, deliver newspapers and go to school. For heat, we would gather the little pieces of coal that fell off the train in a box.”ĭreesen spent his childhood defending himself against neighborhood tough guys and listening to his parents, who both had drinking problems, argue until dawn. “It’s hard to describe how poor we were, but I’ll try,” Dreesen said from his home in Southern California. Like the Sinatra song “My Way,” Dreesen - who is half Irish and half Italian - has had his share of ups and downs, starting with a rough-and-tumble childhood in Harvey, Illinois, a working-class town where his family barely clung to the short end of the stick. In that very same lifetime, he appeared on “The Tonight Show” more than 60 times and spent 13 years riding in private jets and limousines as the opening act for Frank Sinatra. Tom Dreesen grew up in a shack with no hot water, started working at age 10 and, as a young comedian, slept in a car for three weeks. Lifting himself out of poverty by his own bootstraps, Tom Dreesen made it to the very pinnacle of standup comedy by staying in touch with his humble roots.
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