On the 10 March,The Phoenix Remix is returning to Hoopla Impro, The Miller, London Bridge and over the next week we sit down with some of the acts that are performing at the show to find out more about them and what they have in store for the audience. Today we talk to troupe Improbotics.

Hello tell us about your troupe and three unknown facts! 

We are a multinational troupe of humans and robots, based in 4 cities around the world: London, Montréal, Stockholm and Antwerp. We improvise on stage with a real artificial intelligence chatbot that controls some of the improvisers. That’s for the know facts. Now for the unknown bits:

1) If you think of improvisers as “Pirate, Robot, Ninja” (according to Billy Merritt and Will Hines), our robot is actually a Pirate and the humans are Robots!

2) Our latest show, Rosetta Code, which featured improv in many languages and live translation, and which premièred at the Rich Mix as part of Voilà ! Europe Festival of European Theatre, will be back on stage at Brighton Fringe and Camden Fringe.

3) When we do the Turing test, and ask the audience to guess which improviser is controlled by an AI and which ones are not, the audience gets it right only half of the times!

You are performing at Phoenix Remix Live how are you feeling about it? 

We are really grateful and excited to start our 2020 season in London with a bang! We will be fresh from the Edinburgh International Improv Festival the week before and are trying some new experimental work – quite fitting for an AI and science-based troupe!

What do you have in store for the audience as part of your set? 

We promise that you (the audience) will take back control… of the show. Think interactive storytelling and mind control. Come and see by yourself!

Why did you decide to do the show? 

That was one of the easiest decision to make: a wonderful list of performers, a fantastic venue and a great cause. The classifier of our AI said we should do it at 100%.

What are some of your favourite parts of the Phoenix Remix website and why? 

The Phoenix Remix website is a treasure trove of articles about improv, games, comedy, music, film, and a fundamental pillar of the London and Bristol improv scene (the other pillar being London Improv Podcast). Thank you Holly and team for being a rock. I (Piotr) personally love the games part of the website, probably because of nostalgia for all the games I played as a teen 🙂

This months show is all about the future, technology and space. What would be your dream gadget that you are still waiting to be invented?

A CTRL+Z button for our life. Do something, undo, do something else, undo, repeat. Like a new choice, with time travel: let’s end up in a perpetual state of indecision! … Come to think about it, that does not sound very improvy, does it? Scratch that! [CTRL+Z].

The show is also raising money for the Douglas Bader Foundation – why should people donate?

The Douglas Bader Foundation supports people who lost limbs or are physically disabled, and it helps them overcome their loss and regain autonomy. This is one of the most moving testament to the human spirit.

If people want to find out more about you where can they find you on social media? 

https://improbotics.org

https://twitter.com/Improbotics

https://instagram.com/Improbotics

https://facebook.com/ImproboticsLtd

Finally in three Words why people should come to phoenix remix Live?

Holly Bartolo Rocks