• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

Everybody describes themselves as storytellers these days, but one storyteller who stood head and shoulders above the rest was Tom Dreesen.

Dreesen was an A-list comedian for some 60 years. For 13 of them, he served as Frank Sinatra's opening act and in the process became a great friend.

Dreesen, 86, died last week in Los Angeles. One of his oldest friends was David Letterman, who posted a tribute to his friend on Facebook.

“Tom was the first comedian I met at Comedy Store in 1975,” Letterman wrote. “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.”\

Indeed, telling stories was Dreesen's comedic stock-in-trade. His life at the center of show business formed the basis for countless hilarious stories.

The fun part about listening to them was trying to figure out which ones were actually true.

This was especially true for Letterman, who had Dreesen on his late-night shows a couple of times a year for many years.

In a clip reel he posted on Facebook, Letterman curated 30 minutes of Dreesen guest appearances on CBS's “Late Show.”

In many of them, Letterman would jokingly ask if a story Dreesen just told was really true, and Dreesen would laugh and laugh, but would never say whether a story was true or not.

Dreesen was gifted with natural storytelling ability. It is hard to put into words just what that is.

Where Dreesen was concerned, it had to do with the tone of his voice and the words he put together to get the stories across. That sounds simple enough, but it really isn't.

“We’ll miss the stories,” wrote Letterman on Facebook. “God bless you, Tom.”