Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn 945: AI is a Joke, with Joel Beasley
26 snips
Dec 2, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Joel Beasley, a former software engineer and current CTO who hosts the Modern CTO podcast, dives into his unique journey into stand-up comedy using AI. He explores how he measures laughs per minute using AI, turning comedy into a data-driven craft. Joel shares valuable tech leadership insights from his podcast and explains the memory palace technique for memorizing jokes. Plus, he tackles the ethics of AI in the workforce and advocates for transparency and model nutrition labels in machine learning.
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Rapid Rise To Touring Comedian
- Joel Beasley met Jeff Allen and auditioned for his tour, landing three sold-out theater dates then joining the rest of the tour.
- Less than a year after starting comedy, Joel secured about 20 tour dates across the U.S.
Quantify Comedy With Laughs-Per-Minute
- Record every set and run video through an AI to compute laughs per minute and other metrics.
- Track each performance in a spreadsheet with laughs per minute, notes, audience size, and earnings.
Laughs-Per-Minute As Universal Signal
- Joel found laughs per minute is a cross-audience metric that correlates with professional success.
- He benchmarks four-to-five laughs per minute as the mark of a full-time pro comedian.
