“Sometimes,” says a bemused Rahul Subramanian, “I don’t even know how to react.” The comedian has been left dumbstruck at a show in Mumbai when someone holds up a little photo cut-out of their friend who couldn’t make it to the gig. It’s an absurd sequence, entirely ad-libbed, as it gets progressively weirder with every passing sentence. This friend was in a minor accident, where she was apparently hit by a car. Or maybe not. She just got whiplash after her car hit a pothole. Rahul then spends a couple of minutes having a conversation with the cut-out.

It’s the sort of farce that Rahul cranks up to 11 on Rahul Talks To People, his new special where he ditches the traditional setup-punchline format for an interactive crowd work show. It’s an inventive approach, one previously taken by Daniel Fernandes as well, and makes for a very enjoyable one-time watch. 

Rahul has, in general, a goofy, flamboyant style of delivery, showcased most memorably on his 2018 special Kal Main Udega. A lot of comedians have routines that are premised on a theatrical contract with the audience, where the crowd agrees to pretend that the comedian is speaking on serious matters and listens intently. And in turn the comedian upends that staged agreement by finding points of humour within the faux-seriousness. Rahul, though, is in on the joke with his audience. The suspension of disbelief is itself suspended. He owns up to the fact that he’s making jokes; he’s there to make you laugh. And he commits to it. There’s no intermediary layer between the delivery and the laugh.

That’s been his trademark style. He’s willing to go broad, be silly, push a premise far beyond normal just to get that big laugh. So it’s a bit jarring at first to see Rahul playing the straight character here. On Rahul Talks To People, less is more, as the comedian becomes a receptacle for the audience’s stories. He’s the one listening and reacting; the stories of the audience take centre-stage. It’s a series of vignettes filmed at different shows, from an older marketing professional in Delhi narrating his professional travails to a woman in Kolkata who wants to make a lot of money and “buy” Rahul, and make him do private standup shows just for her. Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru, too, feature on this special—directed by fellow comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath—with a clever Super Mario-like animation, complete with 8-bit music, serving as transition between sequences.

On Rahul Talks To People, less is more, as the comedian becomes a receptacle for the audience’s stories.

While comedians spending their time shooting the shit with the crowd can be a lot of fun in a live setting, it’s a risky strategy for a filmed one-hour special. The comedian is the funny one, not the people in the crowd. Do I, sitting at home with multiple subscriptions and endless choice, want to hear about the jobs of random members of an audience that I share no connection with? On its own, the answer is bound to be a big fat no. But this is where Rahul’s spontaneity and wit come in.

He is pretty much inserting a comedic rhythm to the delivery by audience members. He adds the pauses; he breaks for crowd laughter. He makes digressions to stories that aren’t his own, conducting the whole event. As on the never-ending tale of a kid in the crowd who jumped off the first floor because he was being chased by monkeys, Rahul modulates the story, periodically highlighting the insanity being described, and involves the crowd in the session, making sure it doesn’t drag or meander. Rarely, if at all, does he crack jokes at the expense of the audience members. Instead, he holds their hand through their stories and finds moments of comedy within them. The entire thing is based on the connection he shares with the people watching on; there’s a sense of warmth and comfort that he shares with the crowd.

And thus Rahul Talks To People is best seen as an experience rather than a spectacle. You’re watching in on people talking, making jokes as they would in real life. The ‘performance’ aspect of standup is sacrificed for an intimate exchange of conversation. We don’t get the standard, pre-prepared one-liners we’re used to. In fact, the only time there’s any scripted delivery on the show is in the cold open, as Rahul’s inner monologue announces that he no longer wants to make jokes. Now he wants to make money.

Instead, the show is an experimental attempt at stitching together sequences from a series of shows performed by the comedian, serving to showcase a different aspect of his comedic persona. We see Rahul keenly listening to the stories, and interjecting and spitting out impulsive punchlines. The casual, unstructured flow of Rahul Talks To People runs the risk of the viewer at home zoning out from time to time, but Rahul’s enthusiasm, even when it’s been toned down as on this special, is such that he keeps you engaged in the narrative. This is a set that’s best understood as a one-off experiment; a stylistic departure and an attempt to seek humour in places you wouldn’t normally expect.