Pittsburgh (CNN) -- The comedian, a small robot named Data, takes the stage.
Rising from a crouch, as if psyching himself up for his audience, he waves. "It's an honor to be here," he says in a voice that makes him sound like a geeky adolescent boy with a helium-sucking addiction.
He launches right in to his routine, telling a doctor-patient joke, a Swiss army joke, old chestnuts from Fred Allen and Groucho Marx such as the line about why television is called a medium -- it's neither rare nor well done. (Rimshot, please.) His owner and programmer, roboticist Heather Knight, looks on with amusement.
To a human's eyes, Data is engaged in rudimentary improvisation: "the ability to respond effectively to the unexpected and unplanned," in the words of creativity consultant and DePaul University instructor Pamela Meyer.
The audience applauds (or doesn't) and flashes colored cards handed out by Knight before the performance -- green for approval, red for disapproval. Data adjusts accordingly, his sensors noting color and noise level, tapping into his programming to adopt from a variety of options -- changing jokes, expressing disappointment.
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Well I ain't first class
But I ain't white trash
I'm wild and a little crazy too
I have seen a lot of things in my life time.
That is why I walk the line I walk.
But I ain't white trash
I'm wild and a little crazy too
I have seen a lot of things in my life time.
That is why I walk the line I walk.
