WESTPORT–Growing up as the son and grandson of ironworkers, comedian and actor Kevin Flynn couldn’t follow in his elders’ footsteps because of his fear of heights. Now he finds humor in the twist of fate that led him to a career forged not in iron, but in irony.

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Flynn will perform his one-man show Fear of Heights – A Very Funny Phobia at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lucille Lortel White Barn Center at the Westport Country Playhouse. Directed by Conor Bagley, the show is part of the Playhouse’s Barnstormer series.

Flynn grew up in an Irish-American family whose men earned their living on the metal beams of a rising New York City. His grandfather, Paddy Flynn, was immortalized in the famous 1932 Charles C. Ebbets photo “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” showing 11 men casually enjoying lunch sitting on a single beam high above Manhattan.

Flynn started out as a professional soccer player, but launched a career in comedy and acting after winning the Boston Comedy Riot in 1988. His film and television credits include The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller, Me, Myself & Irene with Jim Carrey, and movies with Bill Murray, Russell Crowe and Zac Efron. He also appeared in Sex and the City.

Also a sports host, Flynn has covered World Cup soccer for Fox Sports, ESPN, and ABC. His ESPN show SportsFigures won the POLK Award for excellence in children’s programming, and he created Over the Ball, a weekly ESPN Network sports podcast named MLS Talk Show of the Year.

In 1996, Flynn hosted Discovery Channel’s Go for It, an extreme-adventure series in which he not only swam with sharks, but took on some height-based challenges including skydiving and scaling peaks.

The experience inspired his one-man show, The Go for It Guy, which won Best of Fest at both the Boston Comedy Festival and HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Flynn is also the founder and executive director of the Nantucket Comedy Festival and teaches Stand Up & Learn, a stand-up comedy program for ages 12–16.

Tickets for Fear of Heights – A Very Funny Phobia are $20 for general admission. It is recommended for PG-13 audiences.

For more details or to buy tickets, go here.

Westport Country Playhouse

25 Powers Court, Westport, Connecticut 06880

www.westportplayhouse.org

The Westport Country Playhouse is a non-profit that produces theater from playwrights, actors, directors, and designers of all backgrounds, while entertaining audiences and exploring human and societal issues along the way. Image Robert Benson.