A Visit with David Letterman

The limo drove past the long line of people lined up for tickets outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway and turned in on 53^rd Street. Halfway down the block, a phalanx of photographers lined up against a metal barrier swung into action, firing off shot after shot as they pulled up. Fans shouted out their names, held up autograph books and took snapshots.

Tim and Tom signed and laughed and posed for pictures before going into the theater Tuesday night to prepare for their date with David Letterman. They ascended the elevator into the small dressing room that was a remnant of the era when the vintage theater played host to some of the biggest stars on Broadway before being turned into a television studio and the longtime home of The Ed Sullivan Show and The Honeymooners before being taken over by Late Night with David Letterman.

Tom has been on the show more than 50 times over the years and Tim once or twice, but this was their first time together and it would have been normal for them to feel a bit nervous, but they didn’t. Their many appearances in Chicago the week before had made them feel very much at ease as they played off each other and found their natural timing, and they exited studio after studio with thanks hearty handshakes from the producers and radio and TV hosts who were delighted with the laughter and touching stories they had offered from an important and fascinating show-business era.

After Letterman’s Top Ten list, and a visit from the lovely actress Julianne Moore, it was time for Tim and Tom to descend the elevator and make their way through the rear of the sound stage that is kept at an almost icy temperature at Letterman’s request. “I learned when I hosted the show once to dress warm,” Tom said. “You can freeze out there.”

And then, there they were, sitting next to Letterman, who warmly praised the book—“A fascinating, great, fun book to read…A great chronicle of the times and their careers”—and elicited some hilarious responses.

“Tom was my first white friend,” Tim said. “Everything I know about white people, I learned from Tom. It’s tragic.”

They also took the chance of using some of their edgiest material as Tom told the story of the night back in the 1970s when they were working on new routines and Tom said if Tim was heckled by a white member of the audience, he might say, “Hey, buddy, leave him alone. He’s mine. Go get your own. You know how hard they are to train.”

Letterman’s audience groaned as Tom said Reid pointed out that could be construed as racist and Tom abandoned the idea.

But that very night, before a black audience, Tom was heckled and Tim stepped forward to say, “Hey, brother, leave him alone. He’s mine. Go get your own. You know how hard they are to train.”

The audience erupted in laughter, just as Letterman’s audience did now in a moment of self-recognition.

“It’s all about context,” Tim says.

“He’s right,” Tom agreed. “It’s a lesson Charlie Chaplin taught us years ago. A pie in the face of the underdog isn’t funny. A pie in the face of a banker is funny.”

They said goodbye to their old pal and soon they were laughing about the fun they’d had over a bowls of soup and sandwiches the size of footballs at the Carnegie Deli. Their star turn on Broadway was over and they were back out on the road again.

(See Tim and Tom's appearance on Late Show with David Letterman on the See Tim and Tom Page on this blog.)

The Sidewalks of New York

They ran out of books at the Borders in the Loop before Tim and Tom even set foot in the place. They got a standing ovation at the Borders in Beverly on the South Side later that night. They signed and signed and signed at the Barnes and Noble in Naperville. They gave interviews by the dozen, were stopped on the street by fans and asked to pose for pictures up and down Michigan Avenue.

Tim walked out of a Starbucks one morning and looked down at his coffee cup. “I loved you in ‘Sister, Sister,’ the young woman behind the counter had written around the top of the cup.

So is it any wonder that Tim and Tom were a little reluctant to leave Chicago? But duty and David Letterman called, so here they are in the Big Apple where they’ll be on their old buddy’s show Tuesday night and give many other interviews as well as sign books at the Barnes and Noble in Lake Grove, Long Island on Wednesday, and the Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Center on Thursday.

But they still can’t get their reception in Chicago out of their minds. These were their first appearances together since their days as Tim and Tom and while they are no longer doing any of their old routines, they are working with each other as smoothly as ever.

“We really were the first black and white comedy team, you know,” Tim will say.

“Well, at least until McCain and Obama came along,” Tom will answer.

There have been some delightful surprises along the way, too. Vicky Serufka, the 13-year-old girl who attended one of the drug-education programs Tim and Tom put on in schools as members of the Jaycees in Harvey, Illinois, was in the crowd in Beverly and there were hugs all around. It was Vicky who first planted the idea of show business in their minds when, after the program in her elementary school, she said, “You guys are so funny. You ought to be comedians.”

And Tannmy Ruppel, who started the first Tom Dreesen fan club after Tim and Tom split up was in the crowd, too. “I once read a letter Tammy sent me on the Johnny Carson show, ” Tom says. "She wrote that things started slow with the fan club, but they were really going good now. They were up to six members, including my sister Margie."

But while their days in comedy and their solo careers fascinated the members of the audience, Tim and Tom were also delighted to see that wasn’t the only thing people wanted them to talk about. Their presence also generated conversation about the huge topic of race in America.

“Our generation failed,” Tim told the crowd in Beverly about overcoming racial strife and stereotypes. “We jumped into the drug culture, the sexual revolution and so on. This generation is different. Race doesn’t matter to them. They’ll marry whoever they want, they’ll eat with whoever they want and they’ll hate whoever they want. They don’t care.”

Many members of the crowd shook their heads in agreement, happy to see Tim and Tom together again and still provoking audiences to laughter and to thought.

At the Old Ballgame

For many years, Tom Dreesen has been one of those lucky Cubs fans who get to lead the faithful in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field.

“Once, I threw 100 one-dollar bills into the crowd and shouted, ‘Have a beer on Harry Caray!’” Dreesen says. “The next day, some radio guy said I’d been throwing 20s and 50s, and sure enough, people started calling in saying they’d gotten one of the fifties. I wasn’t about to tell anyone I had been that charitable.”

Wednesday night, Dreesen was back at the ballpark where, after he had led the capacity crowd in the song as the Cubs played Milwaukee, he threw nothing more remarkable into the crowd than an autographed hat.

His partner Tim Reid looked on, and waved for the television camera when it was turned his way in the broadcast booth, as Dreesen chatted about their book with Pat Hughes and Ron Santo on the radio and Len Casper and Bob Brenly on television.

Tom told Hughes some stories from the book and riffed on his old pal Santo, whom he hopes will finally, finally, be voted into the baseball Hall of Fame this year. “It was so great to see Ron and his wife Vicky walking arm in arm down Michigan Avenue last night,” Tom said. “Of course, the reason he was holding onto her arm was so she couldn’t go into any of the stores.”

Santo turned out to be a big fan of WKRP in Cincinnati and he and Tim chatted about the show during a pitching change. Later on television, Brenly asked Tom if he and Tim really were the only black and white comedy team ever. “We were until McCain and Obama came along,” Tom said,

Tom was delighted to be able to say hello to his old pal Bob Uecker, the Brewers’ broadcaster with whom he was a guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show a number of times. “Great guy,” Tom said of Uecker. “He was one of the few people who could crack Johnny up. He would just come unglued at some of the stuff Bob said.”

“Hey, I just saw you singing,” one Cubs fan yelled at Tom as he and Tim made their way down through the stands afterwards. “Who are you?”

“Brad Pitt,” Dreesen said.

“Wait, ‘Sister, Sister,’” a young woman shouted at Tim. “‘Venus Flytrap,’” said her father sitting next to her. “I can usually tell by their age which show they remember me from,” Tim said after posing for pictures with the Wrigley Field infield in the background with a number of young fans.

The only downside to the evening was the final score—Brewers 6, Cubs 2. “They’re still going to the World Series,” Tom said. “Just once, I’d like to sing during the seventh-inning stretch while that was going on.”

Oh, What a Night

Tim and Tom had a ball at Gibsons Steakhouse, which once housed the great Chicago nightclub Mr. Kelly’s where they performed in the 70s, as they formally celebrated the publication of the book Monday night.

Did we say formally? Not exactly.

“I didn’t know Tom knew how to write,” Dennis Farina, the one-time Chicago cop and long-time friend who went on to a formidable career in the movies and on television, told the crowd of more than 100. “On the other hand, I don’t know how to read. I understand there are a lot of pictures in the book. And all these years, I thought Tom was the black guy."

Tim and Tom howled with laughter and Tom grabbed the mike, but just at that moment he had to give it up to a higher authority.

“This is an American story,” Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley told the gathering of Tim’s and Tom’s story. “It’s important to tell it to future generations. And comedy is so important in bringing people together.”

Tim and Tom were delighted that the mayor came, and that he stayed for quite some time chatting with members of the audience and enjoying the festivities, but they were equally delighted to see so many old friends, including two members of the Bears’ only Super Bowl champions, Tim Wrightman and Tom Thayer.

Tim and Tom got into the spirit of the occasion, too, as some of Chicago’s top journalists and a couple of television crews looked on.

“Tim came on board to write this book because he thinks he might make some money,” Tom said, ribbing his old pal and partner.

“The saddest part of this whole thing is that if they make a movie of the book, I’m too old to play me,” Tim said to gales of laughter.

“How about getting together again and going on the road?” somebody called up from the crowd.
“Oh, no,” Tom said. “I’m not splitting that check again.”

The evening was not without its commercial aspects as more than 120 books were sold, making it a clean sweep for the day. Earlier, at a Union League Club of Chicago luncheon, they sold out of the supply of books on hand and had to autographs slips to be pasted into books that would be give to customers at a later date.

All in all, it was a great kickoff to the month-long publicity tour they have embarked on, one that will see them give close to a score of interviews and make many appearances during their week in the town where it all began for them.

Their Kind of Town

Chicago is where it all began for Tim and Tom—the city’s support was crucial to their development as comedians during the five years of their partnership—so it’s only fitting that they should kick off their month-long, coast-to-coast publicity tour there next week. And once again, Chicago is opening its arms wide to them.

Tim and Tom will conduct more than a dozen radio and TV interviews, sign books at three area stores, appear at a Union League Club of Chicago Authors Lunch, attend a publication party at Gibsons Steakhouse, sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch of the Cubs’ game against the Brewers Wednesday night and help dedicate CBS’ new studios on Sept. 23 before flying off to New York. (Check Appearances on their Web site for the full schedule.)

In the meantime, they’re beginning to see the results of some of the interviews they’ve already given. Don’t miss their appearance on the Tom Joyner Show on the Hear Tim and Tom link on the Web site. It’s a riot.

We’ll be filing regular reports as Tim and Tom take to the road one more time. Be sure to check back often to keep up with their adventures.