For Immediate Release:  May 1, 2007

“Bicycling Comedian” Pedals from Key West to New York
for Bike Month Performances

Tom Snyders, known as “The Bicycling Comedian,” has spent the past two decades pedaling his fully-loaded touring bicycle to all his stand-up comedy performances throughout North America. He’s cycled more than 137,000 miles and to all 50 states. (Hawaii was not easy; he pedaled his bike eight hours a day for five days on the deck of a cruise ship to get to Maui.)

On April 27, Snyders left Key West, Fla., on his bike, pedaling to New York City for Bike Month performances at Caroline’s comedy club in Times Square. He will perform his unique, one-man stand-up comedy show at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20 at Caroline’s, 1626 Broadway, in conjunction with the Bicycle Film Festival.

Snyders will arrive in Manhattan on May 15 and will be available for interviews for the remainder of the week. He will also be available for e-mail and call-in reports from the road while en route from Key West. (Tom and his fully-loaded touring bicycle will be easy to spot while he is in Times Square promoting his performances at Caroline’s.) 

On Monday, May 21, Snyders will start pedaling to Los Angeles for his next performances with the Bicycle Film Festival. He has only 38 days to pedal the 3,000 miles to by July 27.

June 20 marks exactly 20 years that Tom has been on the road by bicycle! He will most likely be in the middle of the desert in Utah on that date.

In June 2006, Tom pedaled across the Sahara Desert in Egypt where, within 24 hours, he encountered heavily armed soldiers, equally armed police and seven just-plain-bad-guys in a white van. “I have some new stories to tell!” Snyders says. He then pedaled from Athens, Greece, to Istanbul, Turkey, where he crossed a bridge from Europe into the start of Asia. He had lunch in Asia and then returned to Europe by bike. For good measure, Snyders then pedaled across Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Tom has now pedaled in 23 countries on five continents.

Snyders snaps pictures of weird and amusing road signs he encounters on the back roads of America (and the world), the best of which are featured in his live performances. (Two hundred of Tom’s funny road sign photos are featured in National Lampoon’s Big Book of True Facts.)

Snyders’ journey and his never-ending “Smile America Bicycle Comedy Tour” began June 20, 1987, when he left Las Vegas by bicycle. Since then he’s been pedaling the back roads of this country performing his unique comedy show at bike events, theatres and comedy clubs.

Snyders is currently writing a book titled Lessons from the Road. He has already written a screenplay; coincidentally, it’s about a comedian who travels by bicycle to all his stand-up comedy performances. “It’s Forrest Gump meets Seabiscuit,” he jokes.

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