Prakash At what point do you stop caring about what the audience thinks? It’s hard to grapple with that and also worry about what your hands are supposed to be doing.
Rachel It’s so much to balance. You have to be on your toes with everything because of the audience. The whole time, you’re making small tweaks and adjustments. My character changes a little bit depending on the room.
Prakash For example, if somebody’s heckling you, you said you want to wait until they give you permission to attack them. At what point do you be like, “You know what? F--- it. This guy deserves whatever he’s going to get.”
Rachel How long do I wait? Are you asking about time or glasses of wine? I don’t know. That’s hard to define. If you feel like you’ve given the audience enough magic, laughter, entertainment… I like to play a push and pull game throughout my act. It’s always ping ponging back and forth a little bit, I’m pushing the audience away and winning them back. When do you think that you’d stop caring? Four, seven, eight seconds in?
