Chris Hendrix
I lost touch with Tom several years ago after our lives took different directions and while trying to reconnect with him I found this obit. I read this back just a few months after he passed and am just now leaving a note.( 3 years later) ...clearly I still think about him even after all this time. Tom was a friend from our stand up comedy days. We had a lot of laughs over the 12-15 years I knew him. We were both night owls and after a local gig it was not uncommon that we'd end up back at his place having a few drinks and bullshiting till sun up. We'd talk sports, politics and comedy and agree only on sports. I remember visiting Tom in Vegas when he was doing his radio show and I was still doing stand up. He was also kind enough to put me up at his parents house in Miami one time when I was traveling thru doing gigs. We had good times there too!! He famously used to call other comics hacks and unsophisticated and brag about his own intellectual prowess as a cerebral comic. He had a bit about Rene Descarte and then something about a horse and the tag was about putting Descarte before the horse.....Yes, he thought he was brilliant because he was the only comic referencing Descarte....The idea that it was with a painfully cheap pun seemed lost on him. I'd love to say this to him today, He'd argue for hours I'm sure about how wrong I am....I miss you, brother. Tom was the first grown man I had in my life that I used to share actual hugs with when we'd greet. Tom, you were a sweet warm friend and I look forward to sharing a hug and setting you straight on politics and comedy when we meet on the other side someday.
Chris