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Tom Dreesen, the veteran stand-up comedian who toured with Frank Sinatra, combated civil rights-era racial tension with comedy, and championed pay for fellow Comedy Store acts, has died. He was 86.
“It is with deep sadness that the family and representatives of legendary comedian, actor, author, and speaker Tom Dreesen announce his passing,” a statement from the family reads. “For more than five decades, Tom Dreesen brought laughter, heart, and humanity to audiences across America.”
Dreesen died at his home in Los Angeles.
“Tom was the first comedian I met at Comedy Store in 1975,” David Letterman wrote on social media on Tuesday. “We became friends immediately. He had wisdom and endless stories. Everyone admired him, looked up to him and wondered if he ever stopped talking. He never did, he never will. We love him for that. We’ll miss the stories. God bless you Tom.”
Dreesen, a regular on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” and “The Late Show with David Letterman,” made more than 500 national television appearances throughout his career. He opened for musical greats Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Sammy Davis Jr., and most notably, Sinatra, with whom he linked up in 1983 for a few gigs that lasted 14 years.
Dreesen and Sinatra traveled 45 to 50 cities a year together, and the comedian said the crooner became like a father to him. He told the Desert Sun in 2014 that he landed the spot while in Vegas, rushing to Harrah’s to catch Ol’ Blue Eyes’ show.
“I’m running through the lobby and the vice president of Harrah’s, Holmes Hendrickson, was talking to a heavyset guy with a cigar. Holmes said to me, ‘Tommy, come here.’ So, reluctantly, I went over, and he said, ‘This is Mickey Rudin.’ I recognized the name as Frank’s lawyer, and he said, ‘Mickey, this is Tom Dreesen. I think Tom would make a great opening act for Frank Sinatra,’” he recounted to the outlet.
“The lawyer got a pained expression on his face because he had heard that a million times. He winked at the vice president and I caught the wink. He said, ‘Hey, kid, if I gave you a week with Frank would you want more than $50,000?’ I said, ‘Mr. Rudin, put it this way. If you gave me a week with Frank, would you want more than $50,000?’ He said, ‘I like this kid.’”
Thomas Dreesen was born Sept. 11, 1939, and raised in Harvey, Ill., a suburb on the south side of Chicago. The child of alcoholics, Dreesen often referenced his rough-and-tumble upbringing in his comedy sets, telling tales of little Tommy shining shoes in the taverns of the South Side to feed his siblings.
“I was a little boy shining shoes at all the bars. I had eight brothers and sisters from the beginning. We were raggedy poor. We lived in a rat-infested, roach-infested shack,” he said during a 2021 podcast appearance. “There was a mantra in the neighborhood I grew up in that you only deserve in life what you work for.”
His Uncle Frank telling jokes from behind the bar in one of these taverns first piqued Dreesen’s interest in comedy.
“His vocabulary, his vernacular, his inflection on certain words, he could cause this sound to come out of everybody that filled the room like electricity. . . they would all become one in their laughter,” he said. “I used to emulate him. I would tell some of his jokes — many that should not be told on a Catholic school playground.”
When he was 17, Dreesen enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He said it was the first time in his life he ate three meals a day and felt equal to his peers. After four years of service, Dreesen had various jobs and worked for a time as an insurance salesman before he was recruited into the Jaycees, a men’s civic group that sought to solve problems in the community. Also recruited into the group was Tim Reid, a Black marketing representative.
Plaguing the South Side at the time was drug use among the youth. Dreesen and Reid spoke with school kids about drug education. One day an eighth-grade student told the pair that they were funny and suggested they become a comedy duo. Dreesen and Reid took the student’s advice, partnered up and became the first interracial comedy duo — Tim & Tom.
In 2008, Reid joked during “The Late Show with David Letterman” that Dreesen was his first white friend. The two were promoting their book, “Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White.”
“In 1968 when we met, we had just lost two of our great leaders, Dr. King, Robert Kennedy. We’d just gone through the ’68 convention, which was a ride,” Reid said. “There were demonstrations in the streets, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, drug revolutions, sex revolutions, riots, race riots. So we thought, what a good time to go out and do Black and white comedy.”
After five years, the two decided to go their separate ways and pursue solo careers. Reid pivoted to acting on television and landed a career-defining role in 1978 as Venus Fly Trap in “WKRP in Cincinnati.” But for Dreesen, this meant sleeping in a Nash Rambler, a broken-down car that was up on blocks, and hitchhiking up and down Sunset Boulevard hoping to get a five-minute set at the Comedy Store.
“I wouldn’t give up,” Dreesen told “United Podcast.”
“I believed in my dream.”
On Wednesday, Reid shared a tribute to Dreesen on social media, writing, “My friend and partner has left the stage.”
The longtime actor and director continued: “He was the kindest human being I’ve ever known. I would not have the success I enjoy if we had not started the journey together in the trenches.”
By the mid 1970s, Dreesen had convinced Comedy Store head honcho Mitzi Shore that he was worth his weight in jokes. “I was working every night with all these unknown comedians, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Gallagher, Michael Keaton, the girl waiting tables was Debra Winger, Elayne Boosler, this was the show every night,” he said. “I don’t know what ever happened to those people.”
In 1979, stand-ups working at the Comedy Store started getting antsy. The tickets were selling out, and Shore was charging $5 at the door, but none of the comics were getting paid. Dreesen helped organize his fellow stand-ups and led the landmark six-week strike that ended with Shore agreeing to pay $25 per set to performers.
Steve Lubetkin was one of the comedians who picketed alongside Letterman, Dreesen and Leno, and when the strike ended, he panicked after he couldn’t get stage time in the following weeks. Dreesen told him not to worry and promised that he wouldn’t go back to the club until Lubetkin was invited back too, but it was no use, and the comedian leaped to his death from the Hyatt Hotel next door.
Dreesen didn’t return to the Comedy Store for more than 40 years.
Dreesen carried the weight of Lubetkin’s death with him for years. He drew on his early days with Jaycees, channeling his grief into action and giving motivational speeches to comedians in cities across the country.
“I’ve known five great stand-up comedians who committed suicide. I know another 20 comedians who destroyed themselves with drugs and alcohol,” he said. “If you’re an insecure, neurotic, sometimes psychotic, love-starved wreck, when you’re poor and unknown, when you’re rich and famous, it doesn’t get better, you know? It gets worse because you thought rich and famous was going to take away all that angst. So that’s what I talk to them about. I help them develop these perceptions and how to visualize and self-talk, what to say when you talk to yourself.”
Dreesen also headlined sports functions, often without fee. According to The Times’ archives, he joined golf’s Celebrity Tour and was its permanent master of ceremonies. “He emceed Mickey Mantle dinners, Billy Martin’s retirement, NFL alumni dinners. But golf was his passion. He was the pro’s pro. Other guys were masters of the one-iron, Dreesen, the one-liner,” wrote The Times, adding that Dreesen was as integral a part of the successful golf tournament as any most valuable player or Masters winner.
In 2020, he added author to his résumé once more and released the memoir “Still Standing…: My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra.” The book, co-authored by Darren Grubb and Johnny Russo, featured a foreword by Letterman.
No matter where he performed or how big his star shone, Dreesen was always that kid from the South Side: “I performed at the White House, I performed for five or six different presidents, I performed for years with Frank Sinatra and 40,000-seat arenas in Hawaii. I performed on Ellis Island, where my ancestors came from. No matter where I was, if I close my eyes, I see a little boy with a shoe shine box trudging through the snow in the bitter cold, going from tavern to tavern, trying to make enough money to feed his brothers and sisters. That’s who I am.”
In a statement shared with The Times, his family said that beyond the stage, “Tom was a devoted father, brother, grandfather, friend, mentor, storyteller, and motivator. He gave generously of his time, supported countless charitable causes, and inspired others through his motivational speaking, his writing, and his personal example.
“Tom Dreesen’s legacy will live on through the laughter he created, the barriers he helped break, the entertainers he inspired, and the countless lives he touched. The family asks for privacy at this time and is thankful for all the heartfelt condolences.”
Survivors include his daughters, Amy and Jennifer, from his marriage to Maryellen Subock, which ended in 1984, and seven grandchildren. His son Tommy preceded him in death.
