Any of us familiar with travel writer Rick Steves just has to hear his name to picture that boyish haircut and glasses – oh, those glasses – and imagine him riding a funky old bicycle along some cobblestone path or dangling his sensible shoes off a pristine cliff talking about sheep.

Now picture Steves, our mild-mannered travel docent, at a piano banging out the fight song for North Korea.

That made you smile a little, didn’t it?

Steves and the people at Seattle Town Hall are hoping for smiles, chortles, belly laughs and good fun when Town Hall presents “Seattle Follies: Rick Steves’ ‘Axis of Evil’ Tour” on Thursday.

The event is billed with Steves as a co-host to the Seattle Follies, a popular cabaret, taking the audience on a “whirlwind tour though satirical and topical stories of the day.”

Steves said those topics would include different hot spots, and he doesn’t mean hot as in French Riviera hot.

“These are what’s hot on Condoleezza Rice’s short list of trouble zones,” Steves said.

“There’s nothing funny about the Iraq war,” Steves said in a phone interview from his Edmonds office. “But there’s something absurd about our foreign policy. I don’t have a problem poking fun at that, and I think I speak for the world when I’m laughing at President Bush.”

Steves is well-known as a travel authority, and his travel column first appeared in The Herald back in the early 1980s. Steves also is the host, writer, and producer of the popular public television series “Rick Steves’ Europe” and a best-selling author of 30 European travel books. He recently launched a weekly public radio program, “Travel with Rick Steves.”

In addition to his guidebooks, Steves is also a contributing writer for ABCNews.com and is a regular on the op-ed page of USA Today.

But a comic? Steves said that remains to be seen.

“I’m just going to follow their lead,” he said. “It’s all improv. I can do a straight man who reads my script or take it anywhere I want. I’m hoping for a fun-loving vibe in the audience.”

Steves said he was surprised to learn that on Youtube.com people have turned his travel television shows into satire by producing their own home videos that imitate him.

“So I do have a caricature of me,” Steves said.

Steves said he will weave some of his common-sense travel tips into his skit. Such as, while traveling in the axis, it is best to pack a flak jacket along with a money belt.

Or make sure to carry in your luggage a one-size-fits-all inflatable burqa and wear your “I heart Fidel” button.

And always bring a current phrase book to look up, “Please stop beating me with that hose. I’ll tell you what you want.”

“I’m also going to play the piano and sing,” Steves said. “It will be the fight song of North Korea. And I’ve never even sung karaoke.”

Steves said he’s looking forward to the experience, no matter how it turns out.

“If you were to have turned down a request like that, you are pretty much done with life,” Steves said.

Steves will be joined by co-host Mike Egan, voted funniest man on Capitol Hill at an event in Washington, D.C. Egan now works for Microsoft for its new corporate affairs team.

Also on the bill is Stephanie Pure, who made a first run for elected office as a candidate in the hotly contested 43rd District Democratic primary. She will talk about the experiences and absurdities of running a political campaign.

Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.