The holiday season can be joyful, chaotic—and, if the Tusten Humor Committee has its way, exactly the moment we could all use a good laugh.
“It’s a complicated question with a semi-complicated answer,” Fred Feibusch said, explaining the group’s origins. “Technically, it’s a bunch of people that get together at the Tusten Cup Coffee Shop on Main Street in Narreensburg every morning starting at 7:00 till about 8:30. And it’s been going on. I’ve been a member for five years and I’m a newbie.”
Feibusch, a part-time resident of Narrowsburg, said he felt honored to be included among the “mostly local town folk characters.” The group, he explained, was dubbed the Tusten Humor Committee by Mike Farrell, a semi-retired sports writer and Feibusch’s partner for the Sage Session show. “Mike said, ‘Couldn’t we use some humor right now?’ And that’s a general thing that’s been going on, I think, for a long time. We could always use humor. I came up with the idea of…let’s see if we can move out of the coffee shop and maybe take it on the road.”
The “committee” has previously performed at local open mics and now brings their humor to the Sage Sessions, a Tusten Social program for seniors 60 and older. “We get together twice a month on Thursday afternoons and have a delicious lunch,” said Knutzen. “[It’s] everything from local authors and performers to talks by local beekeepers, farmers, or the National Park Service. Usually between 30 and 50 folks show up at any session.”
Their upcoming Big Holiday Show is at the Tusten Social Sage Session on Thursday, Dec. 4, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m, marking the fourth Tusten Humor Committee show at Sage. “We’re calling it the Big Holiday Show, which is a little bit satirical,” Feibusch said. “Mike and I are partnering. We do have one special surprise guest which I will not reveal.”
Feibusch promised a mix of humor and music. “We work pretty clean,” he said. “We start off with little stuff about the philosophy of getting old and the meaning of life. Then we launch into the holiday something show… alternative holiday music. Most of it not written by us but this is my own little number.”
He also gave a preview, performing his original “Talking Senior Citizen Blues”:
“Walk up one morning, it was a typical night,
Three times to the bathroom before daylight…
Now as a senior, I’m at the head of the class.
I don’t take no guff, I don’t take no sass.
Most of all, keep on moving.”
“Attending the senior group is sort of like coming out as an old guy,” Feibusch said. “Once you go to a senior group you got to say there’s no escape in it. It’s been an opportunity for me to meet so many people and enjoy being part of a small community.”
For more information, visit tustensocial.org or email hello@tustensocial.org.
Image: Fred Feibusch of the Tusten Humor Committee. (Credit: Patricio Robayo)