Nostalgic comedy joyride as TV stand up takes aim at AI and the tech unreality

Stand up comedy stalwart and BBC Radio 4 veteran Simon Evans brings his latest tour and the age-old question ‘are we living in a computer simulation?’ to The Plough in Torrington this Saturday (February 21).

With the AI singularity looming and ‘reality’ feeling increasingly unstable, Simon’s new show Staring at the Sun looks ahead to the coming shockwaves of technology and back to the analogue pleasures of hitch-hiking, pub bets and getting properly lost.

With a catalogue of broadcasting credits including Live at the Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Stand Up for the Week and Radio 4’s Simon Evans Goes to Market and One Person Found This Helpful, Simon will be a familiar face to most.

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He will be turning his famously dry, surgically precise style on the big modern questions: Are we living in a computer simulation? What happens when your body starts issuing software updates you didn’t request? And is staring straight at a solar eclipse, against expert advice, actually an act of courageous self-sacrifice on the road to true enlightenment?

Part philosophical exploration, part nostalgic joyride, Staring at the Sun is a hilarious analysis of reality and trust from a man desperately trying to keep his balance while the floor keeps moving, despite being mostly sober.

Join Simon Evans for Staring at the Sun at The Plough Arts Centre from 7.30pm this Saturday, when he will join the great thinkers and mystics of the past who had, it seems, the same doubts and misgivings about ‘reality’, back when an adjustable sandal passed for cutting-edge tech.

For tickets and more information, visit https://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/event/simon-evans-staring-sun or call 01805 624624.