The Extra Mile Adventure

Name: Morgan Val Baker
Role: Musician / actor / general enthusiast
Age: 25
Hometown: Penzance (Cornwall UK)

Who are you and what do you do?
I am an actor, musician, flag-maker, gardener and odd jobbing poet… I hop between Cornwall, London, France and Spain and scuttle between professions, keeping myself immersed in many different things. Currently been playing music with The Invisible Circus and taking part in the weird and wonderful world of cabaret.

What is important to you in this world?
Sharing and giving. Doing the best you can with what us given to you. Laughing and Sleeping are favorite pastimes of mine. Seeing the wide world… playing MUSIC in every country is some loose dream…

Your childhood dream; your adult dream?
As a child I think I wanted to be a vet, I had a great love for animals, then i think I wanted to be a fireman and then an actor. I became an actor and then I wanted to make music. I became I musician and then I wanted to write. I wrote until I ran out of words and then I started to make flags. Being a Gemini, I am always changing and looking for something new and exciting. Right now, I wanna be a postman!

What inspires you about TEMA and why are you contributing?
Travel is inspirational. Meeting new worlds and having the chance to be involved with different cultures. To help make a difference, however small. To play music with them, and learn from them, to sample their foods and drink their wines…

What are you passionate about?
Music. Performing. Sleeping. Writing. Traveling. Hallumi cheese…

What is your favorite food?
Umm.. I’m not fussy… My sister’s veggie lasagna is to die for. I love Hallumi, limes and a good old chili con carne. I hate OLIVES and BLUE CHEESE. Tequila makes me happy!

Have you ever left the country?
Si… Mexico, Belize, Japan, Australia, Canary islands, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland.

What is your educational background?
I trained as an actor. As a clown. As a performing artist… But I learnt a lot of my creativity from home, I was raised by musicians and painters and bohemians. I grew up in a subtropical valley self-powered by a waterwheel. We lived in chalets and pole-houses overlooking the river. Academia was never my thing. Creativity was.

Tell an extremely memorable moment.
Being on stage is always memorable. We performed MARAT/SADE in London and that was such a fantastic run… It was a very fast and manic show, I played one of the lunatics, I had to cry and piss myself on stage and the entire audience was so captivated in the scene it was incredible. That was the one scene that was really calm and real. It would always seem so out-of-worldly, to have everybody’s complete involvement, to have them all in the palm of your hand. That was magic.
Umm… spending 10 days in the Daintree Rainforest, Northern Australia without seeing another human being was pretty unique and memorable! Isolation…

Tell us a joke.
Paddy is drinking in the local and he’s absolutely sloshed! Mike, the barman, says “that’s enough” and tells Paddy to go home. Paddy finishes his 14th pint of Guinness and gets up to leave but falls crashing to the floor. “Fuck me!” he shouts. He then tries to get to feet but falls on his face again. “Christ!”. He manages to crawl outside and breathes the cool night air feeling a little better, but when he tries to get to his feet once more, he comes crashing down again. “I must be absolutely sloshed - I can’t even walk!” he says to himself. After crawling to his house he manages to shimmy up the drainpipe and open the door, he tries to walk inside but comes crashing down to the floor again. “Fuck me!” he says. He pulls himself up the stairs and into his room, tries to stand again but comes crashing down for a fifth time. “Bloody hell!” he says as he climbs into bed and falls asleep. In the morning Mary wakes him up with a cup of tea. “You were a wee bit drunk last night weren’t you!” she states. “I was, yes, but how do you know?” replies a hungover Paddy. “Well, Mike called from the bar, you left your wheelchair there again!”