Robot luvvies are taking to the stage. Given only basic acting classes and no
script, two robotic actors entertained the American Association for Artificial
Intelligence conference
(www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/1999/aaai-iaai99.html)
recently by performing improvised sketches, carried out in the highly strung style
of鈥� Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street.
The idea was to get the robots to deliver believable, human-like dialogue
within a dramatic context. The robots were put in a husband-and-wife scenario
with only the broadest of instructions鈥攈e should try to leave her and she
should try to stop him. He had to offer a number of lame excuses to leave while
she attempted to get him to stay. The dialogue ran thus:
Guy droid: 鈥淚 need to go out and work late at the office. Yeah, at
the office, that鈥檚 it.鈥�
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Girl droid: 鈥淗ow can you leave me when my mother is on her death
产别诲?鈥�
Guy droid: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I鈥檓 leaving you.鈥�
More EastEnders and Neighbours standard than
Friends or Frasier, so perhaps British and Aussie scriptwriters
should be watching their backs.
If robot improv leaves you cold, the Web can teach you a few role-playing
improvisation techniques to help you on the road to spontaneity. Try
www.lowrent.net/improv/games.html to start with. And gen up on improv lingo at
http://ece.uwaterloo.ca:80/~broehl/improv/glossary.html
If you can鈥檛 join them, insult them. After all, where would improv be
without a bit of heckling? But if you find yourself lost for words, dip into
http://members.aol.com/WordPlays/insultfp.html for some celebrated celebrity
insults.
Desperate for an audience, but even friends and family won鈥檛 humour your
humour? Download a chat package to talk with Erin at
www.extempo.com/characters/erin.html. She鈥檚 a virtual bartender at
an online watering hole who will 鈥渓isten鈥� no matter how bad your jokes are.
