Dave BrooksBobby Von Merta said he usually...

Dave Brooks

Bobby Von Merta said he usually gets the same reaction from promoters

when they hear about his musical talent.

“First they laugh in my face, then they call security,” he joked

during a recent interview in Downtown Huntington Beach.

Perhaps it’s his alter ego Bobby Badfingers, the self-proclaimed

world’s faster finger-snapper, or maybe it’s his Magnum PI meets

Elvis Presley persona. But don’t be fooled, he can snap anything.

The Miami Sound Machine, Wipeout, even dueling banjos. If it has a

beat, just put a microphone near his hands and try to watch as he

snaps as fast as 30 times per second with the song.

“I was 4 years old and I was watching flamenco dancers on

television. I couldn’t see their castanets in their hands and I

thought they were just snapping their fingers,” he said. “So I told

my parents that I wanted to start practicing snapping, and they said

‘sure, whatever son.’ But within a few years, I could snap any song.”

And snap he did. For years Von Merta would perform at the Santa

Cruz Beach Boardwalk and even appeared as a musical guest on David

Letterman, but he said it was difficult to pursue his passion full

time because he owned and operated an RV sales business in Santa

Clara.

Five years ago at the age of 42 he cashed out of the trade into

early retirement and pursued snapping full time.

He landed a show at the Las Vegas Hilton performing on the stage

once used by his idol -- Elvis Presley. He would appear in national

advertising campaigns for Yahoo! and RoadRunner and A-list

celebrities like John and Rebecca Romijn Stamos would name drop him

on television shows.

“I think our family has pretty much adopted him,” said John

Stamos’ mother Loretta Stamos. “He was hired to do a party for my son

and we’ve really fallen in love with him. We want to see him make

it.”

Stamos said she even enjoys his signature, the “promo shot,” a

staggered pose with his middle fingers up at the audience, his thumbs

pressed on their rear as if he was getting ready to snap.

“You can do it and get away with it,” he said.

Now he said he’s preparing for his biggest snapping feat to date,

the launch of his new line of snap related merchandise. He has

instructional DVDs including Snapology 101, a line of T-shirts and a

series of bobbleheads. He’s even hired a team of graphic artists and

writers to put together a book on snapping.

“I’m basically going to take the whole package and try to make it

work around the world,” he said, pointing out that finger-snapping is

not language specific. “Everybody snaps,” he said.

His plan is to produce everything himself and present the books

and DVD to a major media company for marketing and release. He said

he has to do it all because it’s hard to find someone to sponsor him

through the creative process.

“You don’t know how many people I’ve gone through with this,” he

said. “It’s hard to get people to even look at me.”

Von Merta recently scored a big victory when he convinced William

Morris Agency, a major talent broker in Beverly Hills, to represent

him. He said he is now hoping to launch a cartoon series revolving

around his Badfingers persona with him giving snapping tips between

commercial breaks.

“There’s even a potential hit record in this thing,” he said. “It

would be an instant freaky hit. We could call it ‘snap rap.”