ORIENTATION: Begins before dinner. We'll have an overview of the program ahead and review the up-to-date schedule, responsibilities, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, any other administrative issues, and answer your questions. Please be aware that local circumstances may require adjusting program elements. In the event of changes, we will notify you as quickly as possible. We appreciate your understanding.

Menus are contracted for the program and are designed to offer balanced, healthy meals for the participants. In addition to the regular Road Scholar meal plan, this hotel offers a vegetarian meal option. Unfortunately, there are no other special meal options. Participants with special dietary needs should be prepared to avoid certain foods or supplement the regular meal plan as needed.

Enjoy the remainder of the evening getting to know your fellow participants and discovering what you share beyond a love of lifelong learning.

From love songs to social, economic and political satire, this course explores all the music that tickles our funny bones. Along the way, you’ll meet such legends as Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Bert Lahr, Groucho Marx, Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly and more.

In 1884, Peter Donahue completed the extension of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad to Point Tiburon transforming it into a major railroad & ferry terminus and maintenance yard. After the last train ran in 1967, the shoreline and the depot building were deeded to the Town of Tiburon for use as open space and a museum. On the ground floor is a railroad & ferry museum featuring a working scale model of the Point Tiburon yard circa 1900-1910. Upstairs is the restored stationmaster’s residence, 1913-1940. The Depot is the only surviving dual use terminal west of the Hudson River and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Courtesy of the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society)

CLASS: Great Jewish Comedians

From Myron Cohen to Sarah Silverman, Jewish jokesters have had a disproportionate influence on American comedy. At three percent of the nation's population, Jews have made up as much as two-thirds of the country's comics. Learn how and why Jews have been making us laugh for decades.

Stay Tuned for Your Favorite Sitcom! From I Love Lucy to Everybody Loves Raymond, situation comedies have reigned over our prime time airwaves for over six decades. We'll view some of the classics, old and new, and discuss how they have evolved with our social norms.

The China Cabin is the Social Saloon from the S.S. China, a side-wheeled steamer built in 1866 by the William H. Webb shipyard in New York. Commissioned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the China carried mail and passengers from its home port of San Francisco to Asia. The elegant room was salvaged when the ship became obsolete in 1879 and was burned for scrap metal in Tiburon Cove. The Landmarks Society has restored the interior with 22k gold leaf, walnut woodwork, cut-glass floral window panes, and brass chandeliers. The China Cabin was designated a National Maritime Monument in 1978. (Courtesy of the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society)

CLASS: Great Jewish Comedians

As Henny Youngman’s famous line points out, it’s a common theory of comedy (thank you, Freud) that one way we use humor is to exploit the anxiety, tension or anger we have about different things. Men making jokes about women, women making jokes about men, and both making jokes about marriage and sex, have been a staple of our comedy diet since the beginning. Take Aristophanes, please. Over 2400 years ago, his plays were filled with comedy about the genders. And those cave drawings in France? What do you think they were talking about? How he won’t take out the garbage and how she put on a couple of extra pounds. Beginning with a short history of how gender has played out in humor, we will discuss the following questions: In what ways do the genders continue to battle out their differences through humor? What is the difference between “women’s” humor and “men’s” humor? Why does comedy tend to be so dominated by men? How do things change when a male or female say the same joke? How does “gendered” comedy challenge or uphold the values of the status quo? How does the humor of the gay/lesbian/bi/trans community enter into this? Employing audio and video examples and lots of jokes, this workshop, promises a lively, provocative and fun discussion.

The program is concluded after lunch; hotel checkout is by noon.