Tale of a Porter.

I first met Mr. A.B. McGregor in Uglahoma and we immediately clicked. Over the next several years, we became quite the comedy team, channelling Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and Laverne & Shirley. During our innumerable drinking sessions, we could finish each other's jokes (even original ones) and on stage, it became a contest as to who could make the other giggle first.

After My Fair Aggie, Blair became one of the head playwrights composing the next 3 Curtain Calls, with minimal assistance from others. (He couldn't write songs well, but everything else was his.) He'd write it and we'd perform it.

 

The drunken porter a la Foster Brooks. Most of the characters he played were drunks. No typecasting there.

















After we all graduated, he went on to finish his Masters thesis, while working part-time as a Residence Porter. He eventually published "MCGREGOR, BLAIR/COWAN 'Aberdeen and Conservatism: The Scottish Revolution, 1625-1650' - M.A. (1986) Thesis." After acquiring his M. Arts in History, he continued working as a porter and does so to this day. It's sad really, for I'm sure he could have scripted for TV or movies but he became more cantankerous and curmudgeonly as he got older. I popped into see him several years back and his only comment was, "I could never live in Japan, there's too many Japanese there." The next time I was in town, I arranged to meet him but due to inclement weather, had to cancel. He has not responded to any emails since and continues to waste away.


I miss him, (but his racism and misogyny, not so much.)