Carr Crash: Comedy of ChatGPT, the Science of AI and the Web.

Carr Crash: Science Comedy about ChatGPT, AI and the Web

Carr Crash is one part Leslie Carr (Boomer and Professor of Web Science) to one part Ruby Carr (Gen-Z Instaqueen). It's an hour's comedy exploring the human side of Artificial Intelligence.

Leslie's subject is Human Centred AI, and this show is an attempt to explore it with the public. Until recently, the only people who used AI were boffins in University computer laboratories, or characters in Hollywood films. But suddenly, AI’s affecting everyone who has a smartphone and ChatGPT's threatening everyone who has a job. The rise of AI is a complicated story about advanced research, the emergence of data oligopolies like Google and big tech venture capitalism. To make it accessible, I've joined up with my daughter (award winning comedy writer Ruby Carr) and turned it into a story about how our family grew up with tech like AI.

The show’s name - Carr Crash - is a nod to our family colliding with technology and the tag line is “Is it easier to teach computers or teenagers to act like humans?” It's a comedy show that contains genuine insight into how AI works and hopefully makes the audience ask the question "what sort of AIs do we really need?"

Leslie Carr started lecturing in 1998 and started standup in 2017. He is a confessional storytelling comedian with a warm and engaging stage presence. As a Professor of Web Science, he works regularly with audiences of hundreds of students who have each paid thousands of pounds per year for the unique opportunity to skip his live talks and stream them later on the Internet. He performs standup regularly in London and at comedy venues around the South Coast.
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Ruby Carr started standup in April 2017. She is an insufferably delightful, high energy, storytelling comedian and a natural MC. She came to comedy from a background in theatre performing, directing and writing, and is winner of the Funny Women Comedy Writing Award 2022, Funny Women One to Watch 2021 and Finalist for Amused Moose New Act of the Year 2019.
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Carr Crash is a show about a world that's growing up with ChatGPT by two stand-up comedians trying to understand how AI is shaping them, their relationship and our future. Raising children is like training AIs – it’s a nightmare trying to get them to do what you want!

Reviews

The Student **** "Leslie leans naturally into his role as a university Professor of Web Science by delivering a series of humour-infused mini-lectures on the rising uses of artificial intelligence. Explained using a collection of astute, predominantly food based, analogies, Leslie moves with ease from explaining how AI has learnt to be as fundamentally lazy as humans, to how an escapee Roomba vacuum cleaner could be the first step towards an AI takeover, and the surprising use of an artificially intelligent sex toy. Delivered with a nervous gleam, his set was as fascinating and factual as it was funny, and proved that observational comedy thrives when focused on an incredibly nuanced topic brought to life with an energetic and endearing nerdiness."

Professor of Medical Sociology, University of Oxford "We booked the show as part of our new MSc Applied Digital Health, for the first module which attempts to provide the foundations for sociotechnical thinking about digital health interventions." "Your show was a huge hit with the students and the public who also attended, and we are so grateful you were able to perform Carr Crash for us." "Carr Crash is an entertaining and provoking comedy that encourages laughter and learning at the same time – so it was perfect for our students."

Audience Comment "That was a really great night. Part stand-up comedy and part AI discussion. Ruby Carr is a seriously funny comedian, and her dad spoke about AI with humour and insight. The funny little nerd that lives inside me was very happy."

Hampshire Skeptics "supremely entertaining"

Carr Crash on Tour 2023/24

Come and see us at one of these performances - we hope that the show is less like a lecture and more like being invited into our living room: warm, welcoming and full of awkward images of Ruby growing up.

The Attic Comedy Club, Southampton: Friday September 8th 2023 🎫 Book Tickets 🎫
Black Cherry Theatre, Bournemout : Thursday September 14th 2023 🎫 Book Tickets 🎫
Nutshell Theatre, Winchester: Friday September 22nd 2023 🎫 Book Tickets 🎫
The Room Above, Bristol: Friday October 27th 2023 🎫 Book Tickets 🎫
Kings College, London: Friday May 24th 2024 🎫 Book Tickets 🎫

Previous Performances

Brighton Fringe WIP: May 20th 2022
Comedy Cabin, Hoxton, WIP: June 4th 2022
University of Southampton, WIP: July 1st 2022
Angel Comedy, London, WIP: July 16th 2022
Edinburgh Fringe: August 5th – 28th 2022
Oxford University: October 15th 2022
Warwick University: March 8th 2023

Other Performances

As well as this show, Les does high-energy audience-engaging talks explaining AI and ChatGPT with powerpoint and Q&A!

Hampshire Primary Schools Computing Conference: June 20th 2023
Winchester Skeptics in the Pub: My Life in AI. July 26th 2023
Winchester Skeptics in the Pub: All A.I. Want for Christmas is You! December 13th 2023

"Thank you for your very accessible discussion of GPT and ML in general at the Winchester Club this evening. All you need is attention, and you certainly commanded plenty of that."

Podcast

Check out the podcast that accompanies this show - AI DIY