Anesti Danelis: Artificially Intelligent
Viral comedian Anesti Danelis asked ChatGPT to write him a show about his life, and this is what we got... After sold-out, and award-winning runs at Toronto, Edinburgh and Australian Festivals, Artificially Intelligent debuts at Edmonton Fringe more chaotic than ever! *Best Comedy Award - The Second City*
A fun afternoon of comedy entertainment. Audience participation was included in a tasteful manner. Not easy to be a standup comedian……Anesti you did a good job.
One of the funniest comedy routines I’ve seen in years. The idea of an AI written show is executed in such a hilarious and ridiculous way, and I can’t recommend this show enough.
Anesti Danelis: Artificially Intelligent, is a quick paced musical stand up comedy show that will leave you with your cheeks hurting from smiling. Anesti is a greek canadian comedian who asks chatgpt to write his comedy show, however to program that AI he tells stories about his life. He shares what it was like growing up with immigrant parents, and queer dating and tells his tales through song. He's so incredibly quick with crowd interactions and does a great job of incorporating audience members into his jokes. His satirical humor is clever and brings light into different aspects of the world. He’s real, raw and relatable while also having the whole room erupting in laughter. His energy didn't falter once during the hour and the room was buzzing even after the show. He possesses all the qualities that give a comedian a long lasting impression on the audience. Ultimately Chat GPT wishes it could write a show as funny and witty as Anesti’s comedy is.
Billed as an award winning show, I cannot for the life of me see why. Doing "my immigrant parents are upset I didn't become a doctor or lawyer" jokes in 2026? Are you kidding me? Perhaps my expectations were too high. Hard pass. Save your money.
Fun and unique. Funny.
Anesti is a very talented standup.
I'm a big fan of musical integration into comedy performances. People like Bo Burnham and Rachel Bloom immediately sprout to mind. Anesti's set is not quite like that, but it's comparable.
He deftly told some very funny jokes about growing up as the child of immigrants, and engaged in pre-planned arguments with pre-recorded segments that felt authentic in the moment. And then jumped on the guitar or sang to pre-recorded tracks some bitingly funny tunes.
If this was just a standard set doing that, it probably would have been a five star show.
Unfortunately the central conceit of the show I didn't really love. The show takes a stance on AI use that appears to be "anti", but the messaging gets a bit mixed and then parts of it do use LLM generation. I didn't find myself enthralled with that aspect, and I noticed a bit of a division in the crowd.
All credit to him though, there were a couple jokes that whiffed, and he seamlessly pivoted that section of the set to stuff that landed better. Incredible adaptability.
Overall, a very enjoyable show.