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Fasano Family

Déjà Post – Documentary Film about the Last 10 Years of My Brother’s Life

posted Nov 14, 2025 by Tom Fasano

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Six years ago today, my twin brother, Tim, died from sudden cardiac arrest. He left behind more than 1,500 videos and hundreds of blog posts about his search for Florida’s version of Bigfoot—the Skunk Ape. In the Tampa area, Tim became a kind of local folk hero, and his obituary even ran on the front page of the Tampa Bay Times.

Grief is a strange thing, and even after six years, it’s still hard for me to believe that this larger-than-life guy—someone who grabbed life with both hands no matter what he was doing—is really gone. All I can do now is keep his memory alive.

That’s why I made a documentary from his footage, our family’s old 8mm films, interviews, audio, and newspaper clippings. The film covers the last decade of his life, showing how he worked to lift himself out of poverty as a cab driver while discovering a late passion for videography and for searching the Florida swamps for Bigfoot. It’s filled with wild stories, unforgettable characters, strange dreamers, and big ideas about human existence.

 

The Winter Solstice – a Spiritual Journey

posted Dec 21, 2023 by Tom Fasano

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My Brother’s Take on the Winter Solstice

Hi, folks. Tim Fasano here. The sun is setting on the winter solstice.

It is also the time of year where we celebrate the birth of the divine child and savior. Other civilizations throughout history have had a similar form of mythology: Horus in Egypt, Mithras in Persia.

All speak of a rebirth and a regeneration. All things that are born must die. All things that die will be reborn.

It is something central to human nature to tap into the mysterious and the universal. It is an archetype that seems to be consistent with all civilizations and all humanity. It’s okay in this modern world to believe in myths, to have strong belief in religion.

I mean, myth in the classical sense, not to step it on anybody’s religious sensibilities. It’s okay to believe. That is what makes us human.

The Cabbie’s Tale

posted Feb 2, 2020 by Tom Fasano

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Tim Fasano, who died last November of cardiac arrest, penned a memoir of life at the margins of society.

Before his YouTube page became a sensation with over 1,300 videos of his search for Bigfoot, Tim Fasano wrote a popular blog called Tampa Taxi Shots. The blogging craze was at its height in 2006, and Mr. Fasano began documenting his view of life on the streets from behind the wheel of a United Cab.

Mr. Fasano often said there was more philosophy in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven than in a college lecture hall.

He often wrote about ne’er-do-wells and down-and-outs, strippers and prostitutes, nightclub patrons, and guys looking for a late-night date. He wrote of vacationers who thought they were long-routed, sick people headed to the emergency room in the wee hours, and the mentally ill. There was no shortage of surly drunks, bums with no money, and addicts who believed Mr. Fasano knew where to score drugs. Several newspapers wrote articles about his blog, and often Mr. Fasano appeared on local television — once for finding a suspicious package at the Tampa airport. News outlets from around the country published obituaries about him, including US News & World Report.

His short, concise posts were compelling and bewitching in their effort to find meaning in the hustle of cab driving. A student of philosophy at the University of South Florida, Mr. Fasano often said there was more philosophy in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven than in a college lecture hall. An amateur photographer, he filled his blog with photos of the road, billboards, and graffiti. He took dozens of photographs of his fellow drivers, many of whom have passed away.

We at Coyote Canyon Press had the pleasure of reading his manuscript a few years ago. Based on his blog entries but fleshed out significantly, his book focuses on the unglamorous lives of people on the margins, people whose stories are rarely told.

The Cabbie’s Tale will be published in the summer of 2020.

Dad’s Postcards #3

posted Mar 28, 2018 by Tom Fasano

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This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Dad's Postcards

March 24, 1958
Hello Mom & Dad:
We got your letter and the check too. Thank you. Janet is going to buy clothes for the babies. They need summer clothes. Marylou is all fixed up already, except she wants a pair of loafers, which she will get. Mike needs a couple shirts and ties, so they aren’t bad off. So we will spend the twenty on the babies. I brought home a little metal car which has a friction motor. I wanted to see how they would like it. We had to take it and hide it ’cause you never seen such a fight, pulling, pushing, hitting, rolling all over and both of them crying and madder than wet hens, and they broke the front wheels off while they were dong it. It doesn’t pay to buy two because one gets broke and they fight over what’s left. Gotta go. Your son, O. Jr.
P.S. Mom xxxx!

My Thoughts

 

This postcard speaks volumes—gratitude, family budgeting, a house full of children, and the good-natured frustration of a father trying to bring home a little fun, only to see it dissolve into a squabble. It’s written with warmth and immediacy, as though he dashed it off in the middle of a loud afternoon.

All in all, a gem of domestic storytelling, full of love and gentle irony.

Dad’s Postcards #2

posted Mar 21, 2018 by Tom Fasano

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This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Dad's Postcards

Hi Mom and Dad
We have been listening to and reading about the bad weather. It seems that from just north of us on up it has been one of the worst winters ever. The weather man last night said high winds and several inches of snow for the great lakes. For us he said fair and warmer. Right now it is snowing NO KIDDING! TEMP is 39° Real screwy weather. Good for breeding colds. The list goes Mommy, Mike, Thomas and Timothy, then I guess Marylou and I will get the virus next. Boy I can’t wait! I can see the Doc wringing his hands right now. Well got to go folks. See you soon. Love your son Orlando Jr.
P.S. Mom xxx x! U.C.G.O.T.P.

U.C.G.O.T.P. [You Can Give One To Pop]

This postcard isn’t really about weather jokes. It’s about a young father facing a problem he can’t quite solve. He hated the house we lived in back then — said it was always damp and made us sick all the time. Still, he kept working long hours at the shipyard, hoping for better days even though they hadn’t arrived yet. The humor is still there, but now it carries a trace of frustration.

Dad’s Postcards #1: Introduction

posted Mar 17, 2018 by Tom Fasano

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This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Dad's Postcards



March 17, 1958
Hello Mom & Dad
I forgot to tell you we have three rolls of film to be developed 1 roll of still and 2 rolls of movie take about two week[s] before we can get them up to you. Getting quite a collection now. I feel fine today. I haven’t anything to say today tell you something tomorrow. Love your son. O. Jr. xxx! (U.C.G.O.T.P.)

U.C.G.O.T.P. [You Can Give One To Pop]

The First of a Series

In 1954, my father Orlando moved his young family from Rochester, New York to Newport News, Virginia, to take a job as a draftsman at Newport News Shipbuilding. He and my mother Janet brought along my older siblings, Michael and Mary Lou, and two years after arriving in Virginia, my twin brother Tim and I were born.

During his lunch breaks at the shipyard, Dad would dash off postcards to his parents back in Rochester — quick updates written in a few minutes before returning to his drafting table where he designed boilers, exhaust systems, and gate valves for aircraft carriers and atomic submarines. These cards weren’t meant to be great literature. They were just a young father’s way of staying connected across the miles, letting his parents know the family was doing fine, the babies were healthy (mostly), and life in Virginia was good.

What I love about these postcards is their honesty. Dad didn’t save up only the highlights — he wrote about the mundane stuff too: sick kids, bad weather, grass seed washed away by rain, twins fighting over a toy car, a little boy who wouldn’t go near Santa Claus. He wrote about Mike’s school troubles and his football triumphs, about haircuts that left everyone crying, about loads of laundry ending up in the trash can.

Reading them now, more than sixty years later, they’re a time capsule of ordinary American family life in the late 1950s. Two-cent postcards, written at lunch, mailed from Newport News to Rochester. Brief notes that added up to something bigger: a father’s love, a family’s story, a connection across distance that neither time nor miles could break.

Hunting Bigfoot in the Wilds of – Florida?

posted Dec 23, 2012 by Tom Fasano

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Frank Cerabino has a write-up about my brother today in the The Palm Beach Post. The interview was the result of a cold-call by Mr. Cerabino.



Hunt for Bigfoot yields more exercise than sightings Many of you are probably vowing to start exercising after the holiday season. It happens every year. Gym memberships swell in January. But maybe instead of joining the gym, you should consider hunting for Bigfoot. I thought of this after talking to Tim Fasano, a 56-year-old Tampa, Fla., taxi driver by way of a college philosophy degree.

“I wouldn’t last five minutes on a treadmill,” said the 260-pound cabbie. “But I can spend hours walking around the woods. It’s good for me. I need the exercise.” Fasano walks through Florida swamps, woodlands and forests about three days a week in search of Bigfoot. It’s more than a hobby with him.

He has devoted countless hours to the hunt and posted YouTube videos of suspicious footprints and audio clips of animal howls. His website “Sasquatch evidence.com” makes for enjoyable reading for anybody who has the inclination to imagine that the mythical Bigfoot creature lives in Florida. Fasano says it makes perfect sense for Bigfoot to be here. “Florida contains some of the wildest areas of remote, dense jungle and unexplored areas,” he said. And I’m guessing that if Bigfoot doesn’t live in Florida, certainly Bigfoot’s grandparents do.

(Sasquatch Village?) Fasano is used to the skeptics. But he’s too enamored with the quest, which probably has something to do with his philosophy degree. “I was very interested in exploring the universe and finding out why we are here,” he said. “With all the oceans explored, now the great explorers must look inward to find mythical beasts.” Fasano and a small band of enthusiasts have created something they call the Florida Bigfoot Organization. “I’ve been doing it four years now,” he said.

“I never thought I would be doing it this long. Every time I think I’m going to quit, I find something.” Like a large fresh footprint in a remote swamp. “I was covered with Off that day because the mosquitoes were so thick. So I couldn’t imagine a person would be barefoot out there. And I didn’t see anybody else,” he said.

His YouTube channel, “Fasano-Tampa,” has hundreds of videos posted, and they’ve already gotten more than 1 million views. The videos typically feature the camouflage-wearing Fasano wandering Florida’s swamps in search of clues with his camera. Some of his videos are shot at night, when creature sounds are heard and Fasano narrates to a black screen with a voice dripping with drama. “I’m putting myself in real danger in the middle of the night,” he explains on one video. “There are critters out here that can eat you.” Fasano is not beyond showcasing his own persona as something that might ultimately be far more fascinating than the theoretical beast he is allegedly looking for.

In one of his videos, he spoofs a popular beer commercial by calling himself “The Most Interesting Bigfoot Man in the World.” He says he’s been in touch with reality TV people in Los Angeles. He’s hopeful. But the field of Bigfoot searchers in America is already pretty crowded. So where does it all end? “I think it’s an ongoing quest,” Fasano said. “I don’t know if there is an endpoint, unless you find a dead body.

Until a dead body comes along, it will never be classified as an animal.” If nothing else, there’s always the exercise.