Mark “Tiger” Edmonds exhaled smoke through his nose and mouth, simultaneously.
“I’m the old, dead guy,” he said.
And I always just thought of him as old.
Dave McGinnis, assistant professor of English and theater at Saint Leo University, deserves credit for seeing more in the retired English professor. McGinnis met the hippie/author/caustic social commentator a couple of years ago, just before Edmonds retired from Saint Leo.

While trying to cast the Sam Shephard play “Fool For Love,” playing at Saint Leo’s Selby Auditorium next Wednesday through Saturday, McGinnis said he immediately thought of the ponytailed, denim- and bandana-wearing biker. “It took about 2.3 seconds for me to realize” who should play the part, McGinnis said. “It’s a Western-style role. Either you have that, or you don’t. Nobody can really teach you what you need to know. I was like, ‘That’s pretty much Tiger.’” He described Edmonds’ role as “sort of a metaphorical type of narrator.” A film version of Shephard’s play, featuring fighting lovers and a desert motel, was produced in 1985. “He doesn’t provide direct narration,” he said. “He basically tells stories of times he was out on the road. In a metaphorical way that will relate to what’s going on.” McGinnis’ logic seems sound. Edmonds has literally driven his BMW motorcycle around the United States and Canada, and other parts of the world, and his written books, including “Longrider” and “The Ghost of Scootertrash Past,” chronicling his experiences. However, in recent weeks, Edmonds has whined about the number of lines he is required to remember and has worried of making a fool of himself in public. As if that’s never happened. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, and if I ever learn what I’m supposed to say I have to go back and learn when to say it,” he said. “I may show up too drunk to go on; that seems to be a theatrical standard.” It has been 32 years since Edmonds swallowed a drop of alcohol. “But I’m retired,” he said. “I don’t care anymore.” Admission is free.