THE BIZ : A Wheel Rock ‘n’ Roller

Barbara Goodman’s midlife crisis came a bit early. She was 28 when she quit her job as an executive secretary and headed to Washington’s San Juan Islands to drum in a dance band. “I was ready to stop typing and start living,” she says.

Goodman’s experience as the drummer for minor Hollywood bands got her the job, but it was her unicycle skills that really got her moving.

“I started hyping the band off-hours by passing out flyers and selling CDs from my unicycle,” says Goodman, now 30, who mounted her first unicycle at 15. “Riding my unicycle is the freest thing I know how to do. It’s like walking for me.”

After returning to L. A., Goodman put the two talents together again. She got a part-time job pedaling through Pasadena’s Old Town, decked out in black tails, stretch pants, ruffled shirt and a gold lame bow tie, promoting the three bands she now drums for and handing out pizza coupons. She mostly plays Friday nights at Pasadena’s Old Towne Pub with Snotty Scotty and the Hankies, the band that leads the November Doo Dah Parade. They first noticed Goodman a few years ago when she became the parade’s official crasher.

“I never had the 10 bucks it took to buy a spot in the parade,” Goodman says, “so I modified crash cymbals from my drum set, whacked them together and unicycled around other entries.”

Goodman also rides her one-wheeler in an annual 50-mile bike ride in Baja California. During that 10-hour trek, she records interviews with other riders for Southwest Cycling magazine, where she works as an associate publisher--just one more job that makes ends meet.

Altering the course of her life “was a lot like learning to ride a unicycle,” says Goodman. “For a long time I could turn right, but not left. After a while I learned to look where I wanted to go--and then just steered myself in that direction.”