A Comic Walks Into a VR Comedy Club…

Samantha Gilweit, who is used to performing improv comedy in front of large crowds, went with her best opening bit, the one about drunken princesses that never fails. She delivered the punchline, and…dead silence. Her mind raced with how to recover. A second later, smiley-face emoji appeared over the heads of the animated robots and digitally rendered humanoids that stood in for the audience, followed by a gush of hearts. That's how "you knew you were killing it," the 31-year-old said.