Dean Haglund sounds like a fairly chipper guy, and despite the role that brought him international, conspiratorial renown, it’s easy to see why.
His casting as one of The X-Files’ Lone Gunmen turned out to be a sweet gig, but his long-standing passion has been for all things comedic. You can see this in the flesh at Celebrity Theatresports, where Haglund and a host of others will be taking to the Enmore Theatre stage in the name of bringing free Theatresports events to rural indigenous communities. As the Canadian comic and now Australian resident explains, the quality of local talent is second to none.
“There are some amazing improv people here in Australia, that’s for sure,” Haglund says. “I spent my uni years in Vancouver, and my early days of doing improv and stand-up, and I gotta say Sydney feels so much like the early Vancouver ’80s and ’90s, which was an exciting time to be there. I love it – even the weather, frankly. Rain, cold, then a little bit of warmth. It’s just like Vancouver. I guess there are differences in improv from country to country, but they’re as slight as [what you hear] in jazz music. There’s Dixieland, there’s Kansas City blues and all that, but if you’re not into the minutiae, it all just sounds like jazz and you’ll still enjoy it no matter what. So there is a certain feel to different games onstage and stuff like that, but it’s all great.”
Haglund also isn’t afraid to put his money where his mouth is. At his own shows, he champions an approach to performance that many other comics would balk at: pay-per-laugh.
“When I first arrived here I was going to check out some comedy shows and I realised, ‘Well, I didn’t know any of these people.’ Should I pay $25 or $40 to see a comic when I don’t know if they’re funny, if they’re worth $40? Then I thought, ‘Well, if I’m having that experience, I’m going to have the same problem if I do a show, and people think, ‘I don’t know if he’s funny. He’s been on the telly, but what does that tell you?’’
“So we reverse it. We put the onus on the performer to deliver what he or she promises. If they promise laughter, and it bombs, instead of having some money-back guarantee, you just don’t pay. It’s kind of like Lentil As Anything right there on King Street, the same concept – pay for what you think the meal is worth. And those guys are sold out all the time, so it’s been working out great as a concept.”
Celebrity Theatresports is almost inevitably set to be the star of this season’s comedy circuit, and since it’s for a fine cause, you get to laugh and feel like you’ve ticked off your good deed of the day at the same time. It doesn’t hurt that you’re also guaranteed some of the freshest material you can hope for, with Haglund appearing alongside the likes of Alex Lee, Jay Laga’aia and Bjorn Stewart.
“I really try to empty my mind in a Zen Buddhist kind of way and just be present,” says Haglund. “You’re always listening to your other performers, so there are a lot of moments that you’re going to make as real as possible. If you’ve got, say, a back pocket of gags and stuff, you’re not engaged in the scene. You’re looking for ways to jam pre-existing shit in, and I’ve seen groups do that, and it’s a bit sad. It’s not really improv, it’s more like playing pool on a tilted table. Real improv is more risky, but the pay-offs are way larger. Just you and the audience going somewhere that nobody has predicted – there’s nothing like it.”
Celebrity Theatresports is held onSaturday August 6 at Enmore Theatre.
