The new long-form narrative improv show Whose Mind is it Anyway? will be led by the Stomping Ground’s unique 3D animated AI character, AImee, through a “grand experiment” onstage. Throughout the live performance, AImee will be fed audience suggestions that will be used to generate characters for the performers to embody throughout the show. In addition to incorporating their AI-created personas, the performers must interweave their unique characters’ pasts to form a compelling story for the audience.
“At Stomping Ground, we are always wanting to explore different ways that we can do long-form improvisation,” says Lindsay Goldapp, Stomping Ground's executive and artistic director. “And there's so much unintentional comedy that comes from artificial intelligence that we wanted to sort of explore that and see the different places we could go with it.”
Whose Mind is it Anyway? isn’t the first time AI has ventured into comedy, but it may be the least controversial. Since 2021, Netflix has released several stand-up comedy specials “written entirely by bots,” but some have speculated they were written by human comedians to merely emulate AI’s disjointed voice. Earlier this year, comedy podcast Dudsey released a stand-up special “written” by late comedian George Carlin via AI. The creators, who later said the special was actually penned by humans, are now being sued by Carlin’s estate.
Although AI’s comedic history has been rocky, Goldapp says she and others at Stomping Ground have been committed to creating an authentically new and funny show for Dallas improv fans. Since Stomping Ground has many members who are tech developers and software engineers, finding an onstage connection between comedy and AI has been a longtime goal of the theater. Aside from the group’s surprising level of tech savviness, Goldapp says her team’s passion and commitment to their newly acquired AI-generated craft is what will make Whose Mind is it Anyway? a uniquely genuine journey into techy comedy.
“I'm so grateful and really lucky that these people love what they do,” Goldapp says. “We’ve felt really passionate about this, so a lot of passion and a lot of work went into this, and I think it shines through in the final project product.”“I was blown away at how creative that AI can be and how quickly it will just adapt and come up with this stuff." – Mike Christian, Stomping Ground Comedy Theater
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The technological star of Stomping Ground’s new show, AImee, was developed by one of the theater’s own alumni, software engineer and performer Mike Christian. Christian’s first foray into combining tech and comedy came from an AI improv partner he crafted for himself on ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, to practice comedy in his spare time.
“I was blown away at how creative that AI can be and how quickly it will just adapt and come up with this stuff,” Christian says. “And if there's one thing that the AI is a complete genius at it's improv and making stuff up.”
Out of the Trenches, Onto the Stage
Last February, Christian began to adapt an existing AI created by his virtual training company, From the Future, to teach trench safety. He took some qualities from “Judi Trench’s" persona, like the character’s history as a Shakespearean actor, and molded her into Stomping Ground’s AImee over the course of a year. After receiving input, AImee uses both an OpenAI system to produce a response and a custom AI server to retain memory for her character. Once a response is fully generated, it is sent through one more system that generates AImee’s voice. Then, she is able to speak back to the audience. To make AImee ready for the Dallas comedy stage, Christian has consistently practiced with and made tweaks to the system over the course of a year and is now “more than excited” to perform with her for a live audience. Although Christian is AImee’s creator in the real world, he will act as the AI system’s “befuddled lab assistant” onstage. AImee is capable of automatic speech, but because of the noisy nature of improv shows, she will instead receive audience suggestions by having Christian type them into her system’s feed.
“We've been rehearsing for a few months with her live and she's evolved over time, as far as the format, and so it's really cool to finally have her ready,” Christian says. “Because of all the technical elements I'm a little scared, but I think that's probably true of any improv. You never know how it's gonna go, so it’s a mix of fear and excitement at this point.”
From Hollywood writers' strikes for protection against AI to Twitter debates over the legitimacy of AI artists, AI has been at the forefront of a number of controversies in the art and entertainment world. Christian says he hopes AImee and similar creative uses of AI can help show others that not all AI is harmful. The term “AI” shouldn’t always be associated with evil robot uprisings, he maintains, but instead should be regarded as a modern and helpful supplemental tool.
“I'm hoping they see how AI can be integrated to enhance an experience without taking anything away,” Christian says. “I think there's a real danger of AI being misused, and we’ve seen that. But I’m hoping people can see there’s a good path and a dark path to take with AI, and view what I’m doing as an example on how to use it for good.”
Goldapp says she is fortunate to be working in an art form in which “robots can’t literally take [their] jobs.” While AI can make attempts at writing jokes, she feels they don’t have the same punch and connection as human-made ones often do. For Goldapp, what really makes comedy and joke writing special are people’s unique life experiences and points of view — one thing AI has yet to accurately emulate.
“AI can write some really simple things, but I don't think it can capture the wonderful complexities of a stand-up comedian and their background and culture,” Goldapp says. “Human comedians, I think we’re too special to be replaced. Sorry, AImee.”
AImee will take on the Dallas comedy scene at 1350 Manufacturing St., No. 109, on March 22–23 and March 29–30. Tickets start at $15 and can be found at stompinggroundcomedy.org.
