For Immediate Release: May 15, 2003

"Bicycling Comedian" Performs in St. Augustine

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

Sixteen years, 119,000 miles, 49 states and 11 countries later, "The Bicycling Comedian" is still at it! His next stop is St. Augustine, Fla., where he will perform a show at the Ramada Inn Historic, 116 San Marco Ave., on Saturday, June 7 at 9:30 p.m. Snyders will arrive at the show by bicycle, pedaling in from Daytona Beach, Fla., on his way up the East Coast to New York City.

Snyders' specialty has become taking color slides of weird road signs from his journeys. He now has a collection of more than 6,000 -- 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 at 60 miles an hour so I see a lot of strange stuff," Snyders explains. "Some of it's incredibly funny and I always keep my camera loaded and ready."

Snyders has made nine national television appearances along the way, including three on "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee." He's also appeared on Comedy Central and ESPN. He's been a featured performer at the "Just For Laughs" International Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada.

Last summer, after performing 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've 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; and tried to figure out how to possibly have a steady relationship while on the road for 16 years.

Snyders has also written a screenplay, coincidentally 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!"

# # #