Vanessa 5000 is an hour of physical and indecorous comedy in which Courtney uses her unique clowning skills to take you on a journey through the uncanny valley.
Comedian, clown and star of 2019's Gutterplum, Courtney Pauroso will return to Edinburgh playfully exploring the hot topic of AI, and the moral and ethical questions it raises through the lens of a friendly sex robot. Vanessa 5000 is designed to fulfil her users every desire with her programmed-to-be-pleasant personality and convenient dishwasher safe holes but over the course of a product demonstration, grows increasingly conflicted about technology, modernity and her own existence.
What happens if Vanessa starts to have desires of her own? If we are all slaves to the algorithm, then who is really in control? Could android companions be a positive advancement in an increasingly atomised society, or have the industrial revolution and its consequences been a disaster for the human race?
Directed by Corey Podell (co-creator of Gutterplum, and director of John Norris' 2022 Fringe hit Mr Chonkers) Vanessa 5000 is an hour of physical and indecorous comedy in which Courtney uses her unique clowning skills to take you on a journey through the uncanny valley.
Courtney studied sketch and improv at the prestigious The Groundlings school in LA (which boasts Will Ferrell, Kristin Wiig & Melissa McCarthy as ex-students) and then went on to teach there. Prior to that, she was a company member of Washington D.C.'s internationally renowned physical theatre company Synetic Theater. Her spoof SNL Character Reel was featured on The Huffington Post, Nerdist, and Cracke and Courtney has appeared on Like & Subscribe (Amazon Prime), Jackass Forever, Reno 911, and Key and Peele (Comedy Central), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC), Florida Girls (PopTV) American Housewife (ABC).
Courtney Pauroso: Vanessa 5000 will be performed at 9pm in Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath) from 2nd - 27th August (Not 16th)
Booking link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/courtney-pauroso-vanessa-5000
Videos