Celebrity survivor

His performances have become notorious and led to many more offers including a secret show he is working on at the moment. Type in ‘Morgan' in Youtube's website search bar and you will instantly receive a flurry of links to the talent show, mostly of Morgan's disparaging remarks towards arguably some of the least talented people in the US. One act, a quick change duet, was on the receiving end of a Morgan verbal earbashing after they had finished performing with him asking them whether they were "deaf, dumb or deluded".

"They had performed the same act three weeks in a row and we had explicitly told them to vary things or else they'd get the boot. It's now become a very popular download on the net, but hey, if they're deluded enough to do that then so what," he laughs.

So does he see himself being a judge on the show forever? Morgan's a realist and knows everything, especially TV shows, has a shelf life, but then again while it lasts why not have fun doing it?

"Do I see the rest of my life judging piano-playing pigs with the Hoff? Probably not. But is it a great laugh in the short-term? Absolutely.

"I've got no problem saying what I do to these people. If they're deluded enough to come on stage in front of three judges and they know that one of them has got an acerbic brain and they want to try it on or are genuinely deluded, or even want to be confrontational that's fine, that's all part of the theatre."

In his short time in TV Morgan has come to realise just that - anything on the small screen is plain and simply theatre for the masses. If an argument breaks out between him and an act it makes for a great spectacle for those sitting at home. They are eating as much popcorn on screen as they are off.

"What I'm doing in passing is theatre, nothing more than that, it's the theatre of television. The best stuff is when it's real but essentially you're performing and you're looking all the time for moments of TV electricity.

"The quick change artists were good but just kept repeating themselves, eventually it all came to a head with me getting more and more frustrated and us having a huge row, well that's great tele, isn't it?" he adds in his well-spoken British accent.

In a few days time 42 year-old Morgan will be the keynote speaker at the Arabian Business Media & Marketing conference in Dubai on November 11 and will once again doing what he's best at, performing, and as he likes to put it, "I'll be speaking about my favourite subject, which is myself".

"Obviously in relation to the media," he quickly interjects and adds. "No, seriously, the interesting thing I'll bring to the party at the conference is that there's been an explosion in the media in Dubai, the Brits are coming, it's all getting very exciting over there now. The last couple of times I've been there I've witnessed a real momentum in the media in the Middle East, and there's a lot of British influence, which can't be bad."

Morgan will be in illustrious company with some of the stars that are rapidly transforming the Middle East media scene into one of the fastest growing in the world. Alongside him will be Wadah Khanfar, director general of Doha-based Al Jazeera, and Rich Jaroslovsky, executive editor of Bloomberg to name just two.

The TV celeb has visited Dubai on numerous occasions and believes that the media and journalist community is now closer than that of the UK.

"The collective spirit of Fleet Street was certainly dented by the fact that no one works there anymore. They still meet up and have their events, what you don't get anymore is the popping off over the street to see your mates all the time because they're all in different parts of London.

"Oddly you probably find in Dubai the way things are going you will have a better community among all the competing journalists than they have in London because you probably meet at the same things more regularly."

He says, however, that even if the right offer came along from the cash-rich Middle East that nothing could tempt him away from the life he has now. And you can't blame him.

"I find Dubai very exciting. There's no doubt when I was out there before I thought ‘wow there's a real momentum here'. It's going to be fascinating to see how it rolls out but I wouldn't change my life right now.

"I'll never do anything as exciting, rewarding and as well paid as that [The Mirror] again and probably on all those levels I would say that I've actually found that life outside is much better.

"I'm physically fitter, I'm healthier, I get to see a lot more of my kids than I did before and I learnt that postage stamps were self-adhesive, which is very exciting because for 10 years I never sent a letter."

Today Morgan is quite literally living in dreamland. 24 hours before we speak he was walking down the street with Lennox Lewis, someone he modestly calls a "real global star"; he spends three months of the year in Beverly Hills in the summer, is about to head off on a five-city tour with America's Got Talent, and travels the globe all year round and more importantly whenever he wants.

"It's this kind of thing which allows me to see places that I never had time to see. You know the pop single and the movie are next, don't you James?" he asks as he has done throughout our chat. "They're the natural steps on the celebrity ladder for me."

I'm not sure if he has much of a singing voice, but after every obstacle he seems to have brushed aside in the face of adversity, I'm inclined to believe him.

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM