For Immediate Release: May 1, 2003

"Bicycling Comedian" Still on the Road After 16 Years!

Comedian Tom Snyders left Las Vegas, Nev., by bicycle on June 20, 1987. Since then he has been pedaling the back roads of this country on his "Smile America Bicycle Comedy Tour." He's performed at more than 200 comedy clubs -- arriving at all of them by bicycle.

With 16 years, 122,000 miles and 49 states already under his wheels, "The Bicycling Comedian" is still at it! Snyders has made nine national television appearances along the way, including three on "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee." He has also appeared on Comedy Central and ESPN. Tom has been a featured performer at the "Just For Laughs" International Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada.

After a recent performance at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City, Snyders climbed on his fully-loaded touring bike and pedaled from New York to Las Vegas in 31 days! His pedaling through the Stardust Casino and into the Avalon Ballroom marked the opening event of the "Las Vegas Comedy Festival."

In August 2000 Snyders left Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on his bike and pedaled the 6,100 miles to Key West, Florida. That would have been a lifetime adventure for anyone else. But for Snyders, a comedian/adventurer who takes the term "road work" quite literally, it was simply an interesting two months within an incredible, ongoing 16-year bike trip.

In 1995 Snyders spent four days in a coma and on a respirator at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after being hit by an elderly driver and dragged 30 feet. "Apparently he didn't think I'd had enough yet, so then he backed up over me," Snyders says. After eight months of physical therapy, Snyders returned to the open road with a plate and eight screws still embedded in his left ankle.

On this journey Snyders has also: been attacked by a police dog; pedaled up a mountain in the middle of a raging snow storm; looked a grizzly bear in the eye from 15 feet away; been run out of town by local police in Georgia; tried to figure out how to possibly have a steady relationship while on the road for 16 years.

Snyders' specialty has become taking color slides of weird road signs from the back roads of America. He now has a collection of over 6,000 of them -- the best of which are featured in his live performances using a slide projector and a large screen. "I'm off the interstate and not going by things at 60 miles an hour so I see a lot of strange stuff," Snyders explains. "Some of it is incredibly funny, and I always keep my camera loaded and ready. After 16 years out there, I have the ultimate collection of pictures of funny road signs."

Snyders has also written a screenplay -- coincidentally, it is about a comedian who travels around the country to all his stand-up comedy performances by bicycle while trying to get on the "The Tonight Show" or the "Late Show with David Letterman."

As Snyders likes to say, "It's not just a comedy show, it's an adventure!"

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