Meeting Tom Dreesen

Monday August 20th, 2007 - Chicago, IL/Bloomington, IL

Back on the road again. I’ve been taking much of the summer off from any kind of hard road schedule and mainly working stuff in and around the Chicago area. It was nice to get to take some time off but now I need to get back out there. The radio job isn’t going to be an issue and I have a wide open schedule so I hope to fill it with quality work in fun places for good money. That’s the goal, and I don’t see any reason I can’t achieve it. I’m ready.

Tonight at Zanies I got a chance to meet Tom Dreesen. He is someone I’ve heard about for many years and never met. He’s originally from the Chicago area and has appeared on The Tonight Show 61 times. He has been on TV over 500 times and was also the opening act for Frank Sinatra for many years. He also was the partner of Tim Reid who was Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati. They had the first black/white comedy team which I think is a great gimmick. He said they were the first but I think another one could work again.

I’d seen Tom many times on the Tonight Show back in the 70s when I started watching regularly. The comedians were always my favorite and now getting a chance to meet many of them is a real thrill. I’ve met and/or worked with several guys from that era like Johnny Dark and Bobby Kelton and Kelly Monteith and Kip Addotta and David Sayh and George Miller and Jimmie Walker and Avery Schreiber and even George Carlin and Robert Klein.

Tom Dreesen was one of those guys too and meeting him in person was a definite thrill. I know some of the names I mentioned aren’t huge stars but they were the people I saw at the age when I had no idea what I wanted to do and they showed me that it was actually a possibility to make a living by making people laugh. To me all these guys are true heroes. I never get tired of meeting comedians I’ve admired and we always hit it off immediately.

I didn’t get a chance to visit with Tom or get to know him because he was in town to do a motivational speech at Zanies. He has done them for young comedians and I have always wanted to attend one but for whatever reason I was never in town when he did one. I got a chance to see it tonight and he is now expanding it and making it more for the public and that’s probably very smart. He’s got great stories and a lifetime of stage experience and he will probably get booked in corporate venues just with the credit of opening for Sinatra.

There wasn’t a seat available at Zanies when I got there and Tom was just getting ready to go on. He was in the back of the club as I walked in and I got introduced by Bert Haas who is the General Manager. It meant something for Bert to introduce me as someone that is a comic and also teaches classes and Tom’s eyes lit up when he heard that. He was very nice and very classy and I learned a lot by just the way he carried himself. He’s a winner.

I hope to get to meet him again and spend some time talking. I hear he’s great to comics and I try to be that way myself. I respect Tom a lot and was glad I got to meet him and get to see his presentation too. After that I hosted the showcase show and that was fun also. It was a full night and then I fired up the Cougar and drove to Bloomington and got a Motel 6 so it wouldn’t be such a long drive to Topeka tomorrow. I’m glad to be back out again.