Soul Brothers: Reid, Dreesen recall racially charged comedy act

CHICAGO LIT | Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen recall their racially charged comedy act

'Their rapid-fire routines include one in which Tom attempts to be a soul brother and temporarily change places with Tim in the social environment of 47th and Drexel. Tim and Tom are a fresh breeze in cafe comedy."

So wrote a Chicago Daily News critic in early January of 1974.

The venue was Mister Kelly's on Rush. The act was America's first and, as it would turn out, last black and white comedy duo -- Tim & Tom.

That's Tim Reid of "Frank's Place" and "WKRP in Cincinnati", and Harvey's own shoe-shining, bootstrap-tugging hero Tom Dreesen.

Side-splitting social commentators and creators of such characters as Super Spade and the Courageous Caucasian, they were the Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo of yuks, the Barack Obama and Joe Biden of politically incorrect humor. Minus the fame and fortune.

Their alternately sad and funny saga, Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White (The University of Chicago Press, $24), written with former Sun-Times sports scribe Ron Rapoport, just hit bookstores. The project was Dreesen's idea and he eventually got a reluctant Reid on board.

"I didn't want it to be one of those typical ghostwriting stories, where you sit down and you record all of your life and somebody goes away and writes it," Reid says. "I wanted to be more involved in it for fear of many things. But in doing the process, the three of us quickly discovered that we were being sort of guided by the story."

Long a successful stand-up comic (he was Frank Sinatra's opening act for 14 years and toured with Sammy Davis Jr.), the once dirt-poor Dreesen says a shared sense of purpose initially bonded him and Reid in their pursuit of showbiz success. Both men had tough childhoods and yearned to make something of themselves.

"We both had the dream, we both believed in the beginning," he says. "The second thing is the chemistry that we had between us. When we walked out onstage, you could hear the audience [go], 'Ohhh, what's this gonna be like?'"

Sometimes haters spewed racial epithets, threatened violence or became violent. More frequently, there were laughs and applause and appreciation. Still, Dreesen and Reid struggled mightily, sharing cheap motel rooms on the road and fighting (sometimes literally) to survive and thrive in a society that wasn't always accepting of their racially charged routines. As the opening act for George Clinton and the Funkadelics and Sha Na Na, for instance, they were treated with ugly disdain by patrons, who booed loudly and hurled things in disgust.

Despite several breaks and some good ink -- the team toured Playboy clubs, got their names boldfaced in Irv Kupcinet's high-profile Sun-Times column and even appeared on David Frost's nationally broadcast talk show -- fame never came. Ultimately, they were far more fortunate apart.

When the duo finally split in 1974 and Reid pursued solo work out west, Dreesen was crushed. He says recalling that period of his life during interviews with Rapoport was particularly rough.

"Digging that up again, it still hurt," Dreesen says. "It surprised me that it still hurt. Because it was a betrayal of sorts. My dreams were betrayed. How lost I was at that time. I not only was broke, I didn't even have a car. I was taking a train from Harvey down to Randolph street and walking around trying to get jobs, trying to stay in show business. I was down and out. And now my dream was shattered. I remembered how alone I felt."

Reid -- who went on to star as DJ Venus Flytrap on the sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati," among other high-profile roles -- knew little of what Dreesen was going through at the time. "I had no idea that to break up the act was as intense a situation for Tom as it turned out to be," he says. "It was [intense] for me, but for different reasons."

Rapoport says interview sessions were at times fraught with emotion.

"I didn't tell every single story," he says, "but they didn't want to hold back on any of this. They felt if they were going to do it, that they had to do it right. As a writer, you spend your career waiting for material like this."

One thing Tim and Tom won't be doing while promoting the book is reprising their act. It was of its time and, in many ways, ahead of its time.

"The thing I keep saying over and over is, is it significant that Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen were America's first black and white comedy team? Yeah." Dreesen says. "What's even more significant is we were the last. That was 35 years ago. There's none today. First of all, because if you saw the hardships we had to endure, the dues we had to pay, it'd take two special kind of guys to go through that. I don't know that the racial divide is any better today, but there is that cultural difference and distrust that still exists.

"Besides that, the politically correct police would destroy you today."

Mike Thomas is a staff writer for the Sun-Times

Tom Dreesen, Tim Reid and Ron Rapoport will sign copies of Tim & Tom at:

•  Noon Thursday at Borders, 150 N. State.

•  7:30 p.m. Thursday at Borders, 2210 W. 95th St.

•  2:30 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, 47 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville.

Dreesen and Reid also will appear:

•  On NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, 7-9 a.m. Saturday on WBEZ.

•  On the Late Show with David Letterman, 10:30 p.m. Sept. 23 on WBBM-Channel 2.

For more on Tim & Tom: www.timandtomcomedy.com