A beloved longtime SeaWorld mime claims he was fired from his position following a disagreement with a security guard — and was never allowed to share his side of the story with his bosses.
Lynn Frey, known as “Lynn the Mime,” has been a staple at SeaWorld Orlando for 36 years, where he performed around the aquatic park and before animal exhibits as he became a viral sensation.
But last month, Frey was let go from his position and told he wasn’t allowed back on SeaWorld property after one security guard reported him to human resources.
“I am no longer at SeaWorld, it was not my decision it was theirs,” Frey said in a post to TikTok, saying it took him a month and a half to share the news because he wanted to make sure all his “duckies were in a row.”
“I will tell the story, now this is my side of the story, but this is exactly what happened, to me,” he said in the video, which has been viewed over 2.8 million times.
Frey claimed he drove into work with his bicycle hanging off the bike rack on the back of his car, just like he’s done “every day” at the park.
After parking his car, Frey rode his bike past a security checkpoint, greeting several guards that he saw daily and making small talk.
Frey recalled a man shouting, “Hey come here!” as he rode past the group.
Frey wasn’t sure what the man — a security guard with “sergent bars” on his uniform — had wanted so he went over, where he was informed he wasn’t allowed to ride his bike on the park’s property.
“I’ve been riding my bike in and out of this park for years,” he told the guard, but was met with another angered “You’re not allowed to ride your bike.”
Frey tried to get a better answer from the security guard, but was met with repeated answers of “you’re not allowed.”
“Again ‘you’re not allowed’ to me is not an answer, that’s just him telling me I’m not allowed,” Frey explained. “I would like to see some paperwork or a book. There is nothing.”
The veteran mime, who has over 82,700 TikTok followers, said there wasn’t a rule in the SeaWorld handbook prohibiting him from riding his bike on the path.
The security guard allegedly told Frey to park his bike at a bike rack, meaning he couldn’t ride the bike inside the park anymore.
“There was no place to park the bike, now there’s other bikes there at the bike rack, but I don’t park my bike there because I have a place to park my bike in my dressing room,” Frey said.
“I ride my bike in on the back road, go to my dressing room, and I park my bike in my dressing room,” he explained. “Again been doing it for years.”
SeaWorld Orlando provides bike racks for its visitors, which are located outside the park’s Main Gate Plaza.
As Frey walked away, he mumbled, “‘Oh give some guy some sergent bars and it goes to his head,’ or something to that effect.”
Frey claimed the security guard went to HR and complained that the mime had cussed at him, threw his bike and bragged that he was going to get the man fired.
Frey received a phone call from his boss, the owner of the company contracted by SeaWorld to hire the mimes, just days after the heated confrontation.
“He called me up and told me I’m not allowed on SeaWorld property anymore because I cussed at the security guard,” Frey said. “I didn’t cuss at him, everybody out there knows that I wouldn’t do that.”
Frey denied the allegations and claimed he was never permitted to share his story. Instead, his 36-year career at SeaWorld abruptly ended.
“SeaWorld never let me say my side of the story, they just judge, jury and executioner that quick,” Frey said. “And 36 years at SeaWorld, that evidently means nothing to them.”
Frey had asked the company if he could do one last show and pack the house with his friends and family but was told no.
Frey’s daughter set up a GoFundMe for her father looking for help for Frey to start up his own road show company.
“Patrons should start chanting “Lynn the mime” before every show,” one outraged parkgoer said on TikTok.
“36 years, deserves a second look,” another viewer added.
“Unfortunately companies don’t care about loyalty that’s a lot of years for you not to be able to share your side so sorry they treated you that way,” a third fan said.
