Hello. I am da Huskie Bear, the world's cutest stuffed animal
and I'm here to tell you all about my Dad, Tom Smith. I might
need a little help (OK, a lot of help - you try typing with your
nose! [*poof!* *poof!* *poof!*]) from my Mom on this (actually,
she's my twin brother's mom, but since we share the same brain,
it's kind of confusing sometimes - you can ask Dad to clear it up
when you see him), especially the parts before I was born.
A-hem! My Dad.
My dad is a wonderful, generous, kind and loving person, who
always buys pizza for little bears. (watch it Bear!)(what's wrong
with a little sucking up, Mom?)(maybe I'd better take it from
here...)
Way back in the mists of time, about 10 years ago, legend has it that Tom picked up his first guitar, sat down in an unsuspecting filk room at a small Michigan gaming con and perpetrated some acts even he agrees are best forgotten (what kind of acts?)(songs, Bear, songs). Eventually he figured out that if people were laughing, they had a harder time chasing him down for the kill, which let him survive long enough to polish his guitar skills, his comedic timing and his natural songwriting talent. He continued to improve to the point where people started running screaming from the room, not to avoid his performance, but to escape the blast radius of some of the worst puns they had ever heard. These have become one of his trademarks, along with his Instant Songwriting (tm) ability, which causes people to whip out stopwatches in a Pavlovian response whenever he picks up a pen in the filk room. I think his record for a specific parody is about 12 minutes and change, but it's infinitely more impressive if you happen to be there when he does one on the fly. I've learned to tell when he's making it up as he goes, but most people can't tell it from something that might take a normal (Dad's not normal?)(not even close, Bear) person hours to write.
Tom showed the world his other side at Marcon '90, where he wrote and performed "A Boy and His Frog" as a tribute to Jim Henson who had recently passed away. He also comfirmed just how twisted his mind is by writing the Who parody "Bimbo Wizard" within the same hour. (no wonder he likes pinball - his brain is one!). That performance was recorded and released on the first tape from Dodeka Records, "Who Let Him In Here?" He has since released another tape, "Domino Death", also available from Dodeka. (when's the next one coming out, Mom?)(never ask that question)(no. really. when?)(you'll know when you hear the loud, drawn out "EEEEEEEP!" coming from Ann Arbor)(Oh Goody! Bab 5's been renewed!)(hopefully, Bear, now shush!)
In between winning Pegasus awards and attending conventions as GoH (I wanted to go to the UK filk convention with him, but I heard they have lousy pizza)(then it's probably all for the best - can I finish now?)(sure, Mom, go ahead!)(thanks) he divides his copious free time (what's 'copious'?) (something very, very tiny, Bear) between his beloved Amiga, Babylon 5, MST3K, very good and very bad movies, and discussing all of the above at great length with many close friends. He also recently upgraded his modem and has become a GEnie junkie (check out his topic in SFRT3), as well as working on the continuously evolving web page which may or may not be active at the time you read this.
In between all this, he has finished most of the MIDI arangements for his next tape, "Tom Smith: Plugged", and is trying desperately to find the time to record the vocals. Please don't pester him about it (that's my job!). We won't keep it a secret when it's finished!
Oh, yeah. He also likes pizza. (Yay! Can we get some now? Huh? Can we?) (No, Bear, not until we finish writing this bio)(Drat!)
