The X-Files jokes are out there ...

Wow never knew this...

The X-Files jokes are out there ... | Comedy | This is London

It might be nearly six years since Mulder and Scully were last in action but the sci-fi phenomenon that was The X-Files will not die. A new movie is due for release this summer, and for fans who cannot wait - and have a sense of humour - this live, improvised solo comic version starring cast member Dean Haglund plugs the gap.

In the long-running series the lean, blond actor played straggly-haired, bespectacled computer hacker Langly. These days he looks less like Garth from Wayne's World and more like a new-age Kirk Douglas, yet he is still very much the king of the nerds, devising nightly fresh episodes out of thin air, based on nothing more than his quickfire wit and audience suggestions. "My mind is completely blank," he says, which is no drawback when there is no script to learn.

Last night - and probably every night in different ways - the emphasis was on pure silliness. A giraffe-badger-monkey mutant was on a killing spree and had to be tracked down. Haglund enlisted the help of various fans to play his supporting cast and provide sound effects. IT expert Leon from Canary Wharf was a particularly effective creaky door.

Anyone who remembers Channel 4's pioneering Whose Line Is It Anyway? will immediately recognise the beautiful unpredictability of the format. Random lines scribbled on paper and handed over, such as: "Do you know you are not a cockroach?" and "the cat keeps being sick", slotted neatly into a freewheeling plot that was often more potty than paranormal. Somehow I cannot imagine Gillian Anderson's Scully coming out with: "We exhumed your potato."

This is the kind of comedy that demands full commitment from everyone, and all those involved gave 100 per cent even if they had turned up expecting a quiet night in the stalls rather than a busy one in the limelight. The besuited volunteer enlisted to play Mulder at a moment's notice very nearly upstaged Haglund with his deadpan delivery, despite looking more like David Brent than David Duchovny.

The experienced star's slick professionalism held things together throughout, keeping spirits up with a combination of high-energy humour and gung-ho enthusiasm. This is a man who could talk for his country, although he was briefly flummoxed by a rather scary devotee whose references to a character called Manhammer and a talking monkey suggested he knew more about the cult series than was healthy.

Haglund left everyone wanting more. If there was a quibble it was that proceedings ended abruptly. Asking the crowd if they were "all laughed out" the audience shouted "no", expecting an encore that did not come. X-Files-type conspiracy theorists might suspect the star had been using a script all along. The answer is simpler. Improvising for an hour is extremely demanding. He probably needed a rest.

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