In 1980 and 1981, my wife and I went several times to a club in Bryn Mawr called The Main Point, an intimate coffeehouse and live music venue that operated from 1964 to 1981, hosting prominent folk, blues, rock, and country musicians, including Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt very early in their careers.

Before closing its doors due to financial problems, The Main Point tried some new things to attract customers, one of which was “Open Mic Nights” on Sundays, in which almost anyone could get up on stage and sing, play a musical instrument, do stand-up comedy, juggle, do magic, etc. Not much was expected, but it was fun watching gutsy ordinary community folks have their moment in the sun.

The last time we went, the final act was a tall (6-foot-4), handsome young man who did something I had never seen before or since. He performed a comedy act while playing a tuba, and the audience was laughing hysterically. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy really becomes a star,” I said to my wife. “He is no amateur.”

After his act was over, I rushed up to him and asked if I could interview him for a newspaper article. (I was doing a daily column, “The Peep-le Page,” at the time for the Philadelphia Journal, a daily sports-heavy tabloid similar to the Daily News.)

Since The Main Point was closing for the night, we went across the street to a Pizza Hut to sit in a booth and do the interview. I found out his name was Thomas Francis Wilson Jr. He said he was born in Philadelphia (I forget which part) in April of 1959 but grew up on the Main Line. He said that he had graduated from Radnor High School, where he acted in school plays and was president of the debate team. (Also on the debate team was future New York Times columnist David Brooks.)

Tom said that he played the tuba in the Radnor High School band and was the drum major in the school marching band. “I thought the tuba sound was funny,” he said, “so I decided to put together a stand-up comedy act that incorporated the tuba. I was pretty sure that no one had ever done that before and that people in the audience would always remember it, even if they didn’t remember my name.”

Tom said he majored in international politics at Arizona State University and had also taken classes at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. He said he tried out his comedy tuba act for the first time in 1979 and that the audience was very responsive.

“My parents want me to go back to school and become an accountant,” he said. “That way I would have a steady, predictable income. They thought the tuba thing was crazy. The odds are a thousand to one that I could ever make any kind of a living from that, they said. So I told them I would compromise. I told them I will go to Hollywood for one year. I will audition for everything I can get an audition for and maybe wait on tables at nighttime so I can bring in some money. If nothing significant happens in that one year, I will come back to the Philly area and go back to school to become an accountant. They were OK with that.”

Shortly after that, Tom did go to California and went to audition after audition. I found out years later that he shared an apartment in Los Angeles with Andrew Dice Clay and Yakov Smirnoff and later joked that he “taught them both about America.” Both of his roommates went on to have successful stand-up comedy careers, appearing often on late night TV talk shows.

Every so often I thought about Wilson and wondered if he was back in the Philly area taking courses in accounting. Then one day in 1985 my wife and I went to the movies to see “Back to the Future” with Michael J. Fox, which had been getting great reviews. Fox played Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by an eccentric scientist, played by Christopher Lloyd. It later earned several Academy Award nominations and became the highest grossing film of 1985, earning $381 million worldwide.

The villain in the movie was Biff Tannen, a tall, very unpleasant high school bully made up to look particularly nasty. After watching him in a few scenes, I said to my wife, “That guy looks awfully familiar. I have a feeling I may have interviewed him at some point.”

“Oh, sure,” she replied. “You interviewed a guy in a Hollywood movie. When were you last in Hollywood? (Never) You’ve probably seen him in a TV show, or maybe he just looks like somebody you interviewed.”

When the movie was over, I watched carefully as the credits rolled. Then it came up: “Biff Tannen, played by Tom Wilson.” I could have jumped out of my seat and hit my head on the ceiling.

The next day I wrote a letter to Wilson, congratulating him on his movie success. (He was also in the sequels “Back to the Future Part II” and “Back to the Future Part III.” In each film, his character ends up in a pile of manure after trying to kill or injure Marty McFly, and he reprised his role as Biff in a later animated series.) He wrote back, “Yours was the first interview I ever did. The reaction from people who saw it in the paper really boosted my confidence and made me believe I could actually do this. I really do appreciate it.”

Tom is now 66. If you Google his name you will see that he has been in dozens of movies and TV shows and has had a spectacularly successful career in the entertainment business. “The third ‘Back to the Future’ movie was my favorite,” he said recently, “since I got to learn western skills like riding, roping and quick-draw shooting, a great adventure for a guy from Philadelphia.” After returning to TV recently, Jimmy Kimmel referred to President Trump as “a backyard bully, like Biff in ‘Back to the Future.’ ” In the late 1980s, we also saw Tom Wilson do his tuba act on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.” The audience roared. So when you need an accountant to help with your tax return, you will have to call someone else.

You can contact Tom Wilson at tomwilsonusa.com. Len Lear can be reached at Lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.