In a surprising marriage, the modernist classic novel “Ulysses” by Irish writer James Joyce has been paired in a video lecture with the English Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by four retired American high school buddies—with a little help from their AI (artificial intelligence) friend ChatGPT.

The presentation “Ulysses Meets Sgt. Pepper” debuts for one viewing only on June 19 at 6 p.m. at the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco, 2700 45th Avenue, during worldwide 2026 Bloomsday week. The cultural celebration’s namesake, Leopold Bloom, is a fictional protagonist in “Ulysses.”

“We have reimagined ‘Ulysses’in a unique way; our images have made it come alive,” said Michael Fallon, the Santa Clara resident who initiated the project.

In the 80-minute video (plus a half-time break), an AI narrator introduces AI-generated “Ulysses” characters—rendered like museum paintings of early 1900s Ireland—who speak from the pages of the book. Parallels from the readings are drawn to songs from the Sgt. Pepper album.

In combining attractive visuals with audio readings and rock music, “Ulysses Meets Sgt. Pepper” is an engaging introduction to a challenging-to-read classic book for those who have not yet tried (or have tried and faltered) and a dessert to those who already know and value Joyce’s once-banned novel.

Fallon, with deep Irish family roots, got the idea for a project after spending almost a decade abridging “Ulysses,” a nearly 800-page 1922 tome. Fallon published  “Ulysses Abridged” a century later in 2022.

Joyce’s novel covers 24-hours in the life of Bloom, beginning on June 16, 1904. As Fallon labored to abridge “Ulysses,” he recalled “A Day in the Life”—the final track on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” released when he was a high school sophomore in Toledo, OH,  in the summer of 1967.

Fallon revisited the album, finding parallels with the stories and characters of “Ulysses.”

“Both the book and album present a band of lonely hearts,” said Fallon. “That’s when the idea of a mashup of the two works germinated.”

Then in 2024, Fallon pitched the idea he’d been mulling over to three of his class of 1969 high school buddies—the same decades-long friends who had provided editing, technical, and marketing assistance on his book.

“It was amazing our ability to collaborate with each other and how our distinct talents merged,” said script writer Fallon, a retired San Jose State University lecturer. “Alone, I could not have accomplished but a small part of what this event now entails.”

Team member Ron Nicholas, a retired technology consultant, merged the classic novel with AI technology. He used ChatGPT to generate visual images of characters and scenes from 1904 Dublin, Ireland, and Photoshop to replace the faces on the original Beatles album with the AI images.

Nicholas used free software from ElevenLabs to synthesize Irish voices and match them to the visual “Ulysses” characters created by AI.

Gary Eberle, an English professor with theater experience, focused on editing. Retired marketing consultant Mark Hornung headed project development and marketing.

“At 75, you can be pretty much set in your ways,” said Fallon, “but we collaborated without any disagreement. The project profoundly affected and deepened our friendship.”

“It’s truly been exhilarating,” continued Fallon. “We have a very unique presentation that brings alive the ‘Ulysses’ story with constructive use of AI. People will find it amazing.”

Visit Eventbrite for tickets to “Ulysses Meets Sgt. Pepper,” an unexpected couple, indeed.

And expect more from the four buddies once dubbed the Wazoffs by a high school teacher and who now, in retirement, are having fun collaborating creatively as Wazoff Productions.