Some 25 years ago, an aspiring entertainer named Ed Graham got his start in a production of George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion at the Society Hill Playhouse. In the adaptation of that fable, Ed portrayed the lion that, after befriending a Roman slave who removed a thorn from his paw, taught the world that no good deed goes unpunished.

Recalling a quarter century later that his performance drew a positive review, Ed knows that he'll come full circle next week when an adaptation of the book he wrote about memories of his father hits the same stage.

Today, Ed's better known as Big Daddy: stand-up comedian, sports-radio talk show host and a beach bum still smarting from a recent body-surfing competition loss. And though the man exudes confidence both on and off the stage, he says he's a little nervous about how Last Call … Remembering My Dad will be received during its 10-performance run that starts in the theater's 95-seat Red Room Cabaret next Wednesday.

Directed by Theatre Exile founder Joe Canuso with dramaturge Bruce Graham (no relation) it's a one-man play based on the 70-page book he wrote in 2003. The 75-minute play will mirror the book in that it offers both recollections that draw laughter and others that won't; the picture painted of Big Daddy's father echoes an era in which men returning from World War II had trouble adjusting to day-to-day family life. Having started the book when his sister asked a question about his father that he couldn't answer, Big Daddy says every last memory he has of his father is included. Now, he's worried that he'll be punished for it.

"I'm fighting with the thought of being just another asshole who wrote a book about his dad. I mean, there are millions of them out there already," he says while sipping a Corona (no lime) in a Sea Isle City cottage. "Just like anybody who takes the stage, I'm worried that nobody'll show up."

Both Canuso and Bruce Graham, however, say Big Daddy's concerns are misplaced. While the comedian's the one who'll have to remember both his lines and where exactly to stand on stage for the floodlights, they see a compelling piece that'll touch audience members.

"He had a very strong, dramatic story, the whole idea of finding your father, that person in your life who you feel disconnected from, not knowing who that person is," says Canuso, who directed Bruce Graham's hit play The Philly Fan at last year's Fringe.

Canuso notes that the Fringe's experimental vibe validates the seemingly unusual move of putting a sports-talk host on stage. "When you're doing theater, you're telling a story, and I think he's a good storyteller who knows how to work an audience, what that give-and-take is. … We wanted to play to his strengths. To ignore them would have been folly."

Bruce Graham says he was sold on the prospect of adaptation after, having read the book, he was invited to the first reading about three months ago.

"I already knew it, so I was watching my wife for her reaction," he recalls. "Well, she was really enamored with it, so I thought, "OK, we have ourselves a play here.'"

While Big Daddy hopes the audience connects with his learning about a loved one he never really knew, he has no grand future aspirations.

"Maybe if it's done well, and people like it, it's something we can put on every Father's Day, but I'm not treating it as if it's a tryout for something else," he says, promising a surprise ending that doesn't appear in the book. "I just want everybody there to have a good, moving time."

Last Call — Remembering My Dad, Sept. 7-8 and Sept. 14-15, 7 p.m.; Sept. 9 and 16, 9:30 p.m.; Sept. 10 and 17, 7 and 9:30 p.m.; $15, Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St., 75 min.