Barcelona comedy club charges per laugh

Good news for frugal people in need of a night out: you could attend a comedy show for next to nothing in Barcelona. But there’s…

FILE- A Comedy club in Barcelona charges by the laugh using facial recognition tech. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

Good news for frugal people in need of a night out: you could attend a comedy show for next to nothing in Barcelona. But there’s a catch: you can’t laugh.

Teatreneu, a comedy club in Barcelona, is experimenting with facial recognition technology that charges customers per laugh, as opposed to per ticket.

Through a tablet attached to the back of each seat, facial recognition software can analyze a person’s movements and decide whether or not he is laughing.

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So how much does Teatreneu value a laugh? Apparently, a laugh at this comedy club comes with a price tag of .30 euros, with an ultimate cap of 24 euros per show.

This means that a laugh-happy attendee would likely pay around 30 dollars for a show, while an expert at stoicism could pay next to nothing for a show.

Advertising agency The Cyranos McCann is behind the experiment, which was implemented in order to reverse falling audience numbers. According to BBC News, the experiment is yielding favorable results so far.

The theatre reports an increased earning of about six euros more per ticket with the new facial recognition technology than it had earned by charging a flat fee per show.

While the idea is undoubtedly interesting, the initial success may just be due to the novelty of the concept. Ultimately, the idea feels flawed.

How many people want to feel like they are being watched and penalized for enjoying themselves at a comedy club—where people are supposed to feel encouraged to laugh, not fined for thinking the comedian is actually funny? It seems to verge on Big Brother territory.

However, the idea is catching on. Because of Teatreneu’s success, several other Barcelona theatres are now testing out the technology as well.

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Barcelona Comedy Entertainment impremedia

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