Seventy-five years ago a $50 scholarship was awarded to a senior at Newtown High School; today 75 students are sharing $189,000 that was awarded in scholarships last year. “And we hope we can give more this year,” Julie Savino, president of The Newtown Scholarship Association, Inc., said last Thursday evening following “An Evening With Billy Fellows,” a special fundraiser for the association. Over the past five years the association has awarded an average of $200,000 per year, bringing it to a total, since NSA’s creation beginning, of over $4 million in financial support for Newtown’s students.

Mr Fellows’s September 20 performance, which was held in The Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall, was preceded by a pasta dinner starting at 6:30 pm.

Billy Fellows, a well-known entertainer who has played to audiences all across this country, on cruise ships and abroad, sang a collection of songs he had written over the years including “Waitin’ In Line,” “One Bad Clam,” “Old Dog New Tricks” and “Whatever Happened To MYYASS?”

“I just love singing these silly things I have written,” Billy, a 43-year resident of Newtown, said. On several occasions he began each number with a tale of how it came about, in particular one number he was asked to write for a celebration at the Statue of Liberty. “They asked me to write it, but not to sing it,” he mentioned.

Billy, who started his performance with a lop-sided wig in place, sang “You’re Goin’ Bald” about losing all his hair and, while singing, kept positioning the wig on his head until the audience had seen all sides, from brown to white. His “Our Town” won a solid round of applause as he sang about the things he loved about Newtown, with the screen behind him filled with all the familiar sights and landmarks.

As a special treat Steve Bruner — comedian, comic writer and a longtime friend of Billy Fellows — did one of his routines and kept people laughing with his precision delivery about things we are familiar with in every day life.

“Things just seem to come to me and I spend most of every day writing, and about an hour working on my routine,” he said. Steve and his wife were leaving Newtown on Friday, heading for New York City followed by an engagement in Pennsylvania, and “then a couple of weeks on a cruise ship where I perform two nights a week,” he added. He sometimes writes for other entertainers, mentioning, “Jay Leno has used some of my stuff.”

This was the second time Billy has performed to benefit The Newtown Scholarship Association, and, he promised, “It will not be the last.”

—RSS