A longtime SeaWorld mime claims he was fired after a disagreement with a security guard, but was never allowed to tell his side of the story to superiors.
Lynn Frey, better known as “Lynn the Mime,” was a regular at SeaWorld Orlando, where she rose to fame performing in the water park and in front of the animal exhibits.
But last month, after a security guard reported him to human resources, Frey was fired and told he would not be allowed back on SeaWorld property.
“I’m no longer with SeaWorld. That’s their decision, not mine,” Frey said. Post to TikTok, He said it took him a month and a half to announce the news because he wanted to make sure everything was ready.
“I’m telling my side of the story and this is exactly what happened to me,” he said in the video, which has been viewed more than 2.8 million times.
Frey claimed he drove to work with his bike hanging on a bike rack in the back of his car, as he does “every day” at the park.
After parking his car, Frey cycled through security, greeting and chatting with several of the guards he sees every day.
Frey recalled a man passing the group and yelling, “Hey, come over here!”
Frey wasn’t sure what the man, a security guard with a “sergeant’s bar” on his uniform, wanted to do, so he went over and was told it was illegal to ride a bicycle on park grounds.
“I’ve been cycling in and out of this park for years,” he told a security guard, but another guard angrily replied, “You’re not allowed to ride your bike here.”
Frey tried to get a better answer from the guards, but repeatedly heard the answer “No trespassing.”
“Again, to me, ‘You’re not allowed’ is not an answer. He’s just saying you’re not allowed,” Frey explained. “I want to see the papers or the books, and there’s nothing.”
The veteran mime, who has more than 82,700 followers on TikTok, said there was no rule in SeaWorld’s handbook that banned riding bikes on sidewalks.
The security guard allegedly told Frey to park his bike in a bike rack, which meant he was no longer able to ride it in the park.
“I had no place to park my bike. Right now there are other bikes on the bike racks, but I have a place to park my bike in my dressing room so I don’t park my bike there,” Frey said.
“I ride my bike through the backstreets to the dressing room and park it there,” he explained. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
SeaWorld Orlando has installed bike racks for visitor use outside the park’s main gate plaza.
As Frey walked away, he “muttered, ‘Oh, if you give somebody a Sergeant’s gun, he’ll go crazy,’ or something to that effect.”
Frey alleged that the security guard went to human resources to complain that the mime man had sworn at him, thrown his bike and bragged that he was going to fire the security guard.
Just a few days after the violent confrontation, Frey got a call from his boss, the owner of a company SeaWorld had contracted with to hire mimes.
“He called me and said I couldn’t go on SeaWorld property again because I’d yelled at security,” Frey said. “I didn’t yell at security and everyone knows I wouldn’t do that.”
Frey denies the allegations and claims he was never allowed to speak about his experiences – and that his 36-year career at SeaWorld came to an abrupt end.
“SeaWorld never lets me have my side of the story and they quickly become the judge, jury and executioner,” Frey said. “I’ve worked for SeaWorld for 36 years and it doesn’t seem to mean anything to them.”
Frey said he asked the company if he could perform one last show and fill the venue with friends and family, but was turned down.
Frey’s Daughter Launching a GoFundMe for his father, from whom Frey had sought help in starting his own roadshow company.
“Audience members should chant ‘Lynn the Mime’ before every show,” one outraged park-goer wrote on TikTok.
“36 years on it’s worth rewatching,” added another viewer.
“Unfortunately corporations don’t care about loyalty. I’ve spent so long not being able to voice my opinion so it’s disappointing to be treated like this,” a third fan said.
