Have You Heard the One About the Biking Comic?

Cyclist Tom Snyders, who has been crisscrossing the country on his bike for 12 years, will cross his 100,000-mile mark at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood tonight. Why the Laugh Factory? Because he is the one and only itinerant bicycling comedian.

Snyders, 38, unrolls his sleeping bag on baseball diamonds, on beaches and in cemeteries. He rides up to 100 miles a day, braking for comedy gigs, which he schedules through a voicemail number he can access on the road.

“There are 3,000 working comedians in the U.S.--you have to do something to stand out,” he said. “Although sometimes I wish I had picked something a little more painless.”

His routine emerged in 1987, when he was living in Las Vegas and his car blew up. Snyders had a show booked in Des Moines, and no way to get there.

“I played a marathon 23-hour session of blackjack,” won enough to buy a bike, “and three days later I was riding across the desert.” He had 16 days to cover 1,600 miles, and when he got there, the club had burned down.

Many of us would have given up on comedy at that point (possibly even on life), but Snyders stuck with it. (It helped that other comedians told him he had the best gimmick around.)

Over the years, he has traveled to 49 states. “People were just amazing. They took me in and fed me,” he said.

But in 1995 in L.A., his good fortune ground to a halt under the wheels of a Rolls-Royce. The accident left him in a coma for three days and forced him to take a break. He recovered at his parents’ Illinois home and, eight months later, was back on the road.

“The things that have befallen him are both touching and hilarious,” said Lisa Morbete, a spokeswoman for the Laugh Factory. “That and the fact that he made the commitment to biking from gig to gig is really interesting.”

Along the way, Snyders has photographed hundreds of weird road signs (“Tank Crossing,” “Live Bait and Pizza”) and has written an autobiographical screenplay.

What’s kept him pedaling all these years is the same goal that motivates most comics. On his bike, mounted between the handlebars, is a little plaque that says it all: “Tonight Show.”

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Between applying lipstick and foundation the other morning, with the “Today” show blaring in the background, I overheard Advertising Age’s Scott Donaton say that television has embraced the same frat-boy humor that made Adam Sandler a millionaire and “There’s Something About Mary” a hit.

Oh great, I thought, that’s all we need.

A new ad for 7-Up features a teenager wearing a T-shirt that says “Make Seven” on the front, and “Up Yours” on the back. He struts down the street, leaving irritated passersby in his wake.

A second trend, Donaton said, is the advent of the painfully long disclaimer: The recent TV spot for dietary aid Xenical warns of more than a dozen possible side effects including “oily discharge.”

I can’t decide which of these gross trends is worse.

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Looking to abandon the rough and tumble of L.A. for the quiet life in the Lone Star State? Sharpen your pencils. Anne Weigers of Fredericksburg, Texas, is holding an essay contest to rid herself of her two bed and breakfasts, Texas 2 Step and A Little Waltz. Instead of selling the properties to the highest bidder, she will give them to the person who writes the most creative essay about why he or she wants to own a B&B.;

“I’m retiring and I want to play fairy godmother,” Weigers said on the contest Web site. “I want my Texas 2 Step property to go to someone who really wants it, but who may not otherwise be able to afford it.”

But with a $100 entry fee per essay, it sounds more like a money-making raffle to me.

Information: https://www.tx2step.com.

Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.