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The Reader's Ron Rapoport on Tim Reid & Tom Dreesen
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Tom Dreesen and Tim Reid
You've heard of one and you've seen the other...
But you had no idea how truly important Tom Dreesen and Tim Reid were... ARE... to not only Chicago but to comedy itself.
As America's first, and, as Rapoport points out, ONLY black and white stand-up team, performing in the late 60s and early 70's, they faced boundaries we can't even imagine existed.
"Do you remember what was going on in America then?” Dreesen says. “Vietnam. Race riots. Cities burning. Protests in the streets. About the time we were getting our first gigs in Chicago, for instance, Fred Hampton was killed in an FBI raid and police were using tear gas to break up a race riot at my own high school. And here we were thinking we could make a difference by telling jokes. We must have been crazy."
They parted ways bitterly but have reunited for the release of Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White.
"Remember Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones?” Dreesen says. “Remember how even when they broke the chain that was holding them together, it was still there? That’s us. Everything I am, everything I have, is because I met Tim.”
The authors will be making the rounds locally beginning Monday 9/18 with a luncheon at the Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson, at 11:30 AM ($30) and a song at the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field Wednesday 9/17.
They’ll sign copies of the book Thursday 9/18 at noon at Borders, 150 N. State Street, and at 7:30 PM at Borders, 2210 W. 95th St. And they’ll be in Naperville at Barnes & Noble, 47 E. Chicago, at 1 PM Saturday 9/20.
Learn about them at timandtomcomedy.com.
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