Building code then breaking from script, Bot Party is a pioneering improvisational comedy showcase, mish-mashing robotics, theatre, puppetry and magic. Produced through Austin’s hybrid arts Fusebox Festival, Bot Party features human performers improvising alongside robots including Annabelle, an original intelligent conversational robot run through a network of Android tablets, and PUMA, a 30-year-old industrial arm repurposed to play party games. Can theatrical robots be trusted with autonomy while keeping their human counterparts relevant? Can a machine responding to audience feedback generate a perfect joke? Show creators discuss challenges and hacks of character and circuit.