Thursday, October 2, 2008

Tim and Tom Take Richmond

Tim and Tom appeared at perhaps the classiest venue of their tour so far Wednesday night, the elegant Library of Virginia near the state capitol in Richmond, where a crowd of about 75 people included Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and the legendary civil-rights activist State Senator Henry Marsh.

This was a homecoming for Tim, whose home and studio are located in nearby Petersburg, and who greeted many old friends invited by his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid, who worked so hard in putting the event together.

After signing books at a reception, Tim and Tom entertained the enthusiastic crowd for close to an hour, cracking people up with their by-now well-practiced back-and-forth banter about their days as the first, and last, black-and-white comedy team in the history of show business.

But for all the laughter they brought forth from the crowd, they were also questioned on some serious matters. How had they managed to stick together through all the adversity they encountered? someone asked. Maybe it was because they had both been so poor as children, Tom said. We found that we could survive together in a way we might not have been able to do individually.

What do you think of race relations in America today? another questioner wanted to know. It’s the elephant in the room, Tim said. We like to think we’re beyond the problems of the past, and we certainly have made progress, but they are still with us. As comedians, he said, they tried to use race as a vehicle to examine racial attitudes, rather than as simply the punch line to jokes. The audience nodded appreciatively.

Afterwards, Tim and Tom joined Daphne and a party that included Tim’s daughter Tori Reid for dinner at an Italian restaurant during which Tom deserted the table from time to time to see how his beloved Cubs were doing in the first game of the National League playoffs. He did his best not to allow the final score (Dodgers 7, Cubs 2) to ruin a memorable evening that was a highlight of their tour.

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