Alva Review-Courier -

Their city is under siege, their age group at particular risk and their lives increasingly isolated. But every Monday morning, one group of older New Yorkers is finding plenty to laugh about.

In a raucous hourlong kickoff to each week, the moment's gloomy news disappears into a staccato of jokes, impressions and asides at a senior center's comedy workshop. Time and again, they look for humor in the realities of masked faces, shut-in existences and worries about infection.

"It releases a valve," says Jo Firestone, a 33-year-old professional comedian, former "Tonight Show" writer and frequent TV...