I created Baba when I was a teenager. We lived in a small town in Kentucky where there wasn't much to do, so sometimes on the weekend, my friends and I would dress up like hippies and cruise the mall or go into convenient stores just to see how the people reacted. Most of my friends who I could get to participate were girls. We named them all after bugs. Some of the names were Blind Roach, Skeeter, Tick and Chigger. I called them the Round and Round Girls. My wife Patti, who was just my girlfriend back then, dressed up like Baba's girlfriend once and we named her Lima Bean.

At my sister's birthday and slumber party, I dressed up like Baba and we actually had one of her friends convinced that Baba was our older, crazy brother. I would be Baba for awhile, and then go and take off the costume and come back as Mark. The poor girl was completely freaked out! The next day, one of the girls finally told her that Mark and Baba were one and the same, and she didn't believe until she saw the wig and clothes.

Back in 1990, I dressed up like Baba for Halloween at the oil company where I worked in Eastern Kentucky. I was pretending to fill out an application when the owner came in. She went in the other room and was saying things like "I would never hire something like that!" I had her fooled and had a good laugh about it.

My friend Shawn Tibbs and I once did a rock video where I dressed up like Baba and he dressed up like another hippy. We danced around acting crazy to the song "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" by Geoff Moore and the Distance. We had a mechanical Halloween dummy in the background and we put a mask over its head to make it look like a member of the band.

I portrayed Baba in the video "A Friend Like U" back in 1999 when I first began my Crazy Characters videos. Baba was smoking a cigarette and giving the peace sign in a cameo appearance.
I portrayed Baba in a remake of the video "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music". This time I got the kids involved and dressed them up like rock stars. We named our group Baba and the Renegades. It turned out really funny. We danced around like crazy and Baba did some kicks and got down on his guitar. I also had to play the part of the Devil for this film and wore a mask and a black robe.
I have filmed two more films with Baba and the Renegades where me and my boys and neices dressed up like the Renegades and drove around town. The first was "My Sharona" by the Knack in 2001. Both of my neices helped with this film and we drove all over town playing our music loud and filming people staring at us as we drove by.
The second film involved my oldest neice, Tomara in 2002. We used the song "Bang A Gong" by Power Station. We went up to the walking track near where we lived in Eastern Kentucky and had a picnic lunch. We filmed people staring at us as we walked around the track and used the exercise equipment. My youngest son, Alex, played the part of Baba Louie, Baba's love child.
I got the Sykes call center where I was working involved with the fun and we designated May 2, 2003 as Hippy Day. We had several agents who dressed up for the occasion and we took pictures and had a lot of fun with it.
Baba disappeared for a couple of years and in the meantime I moved back to California. Then I got involved with the independent film "Illegal Smile" and was able to make a cameo appearance as Baba in 2005. Baba and his lovechild, Sunflower, were looking at fish at a local pet store. Unfortunately, Baba never made it to the final version of the film.

"Copyright 1999-2009 by Mark A. Boyd"
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