- [Voiceover] What happens to a comedian
when you take away their audience?
This is a show where comedians perform
to a camera alone in a room
while the audience watches from an entirely different room.
All the comedians will be wearing
noise cancelling headphones
so they'll have no idea how their set is going.
This is 7 Minutes in Purgatory.
- Are we ready to start the show?
(cheering)
Please put your hands together for Ms. Aparna Nancherla.
Yeah.
(clapping)
- It's good to be here.
I'm sorry I'm still wearing my coat.
I realize it's rude.
Sometimes people when you wear your coat
when you get somewhere, they're like,
you got to take your coat off.
You seem uncomfortable and like you want to leave.
I'm like, that, that's accurate.
That's the look I'm going for.
It would be inauthentic to take it off
so just living my truth.
I personally like rainy weather especially in New York.
The smells really open up.
You're like, oh, notes of diaper.
It's very subtle but it's nice.
And also sometimes when it rains here,
you see,
you see dead umbrellas everywhere on the streets
like it's kind of like a massacre
but I find it kind of charming
because I feel like
when you see a dead umbrella, you're like,
at least you died doing what you loved
which is not working
so it's nice.
I actually,
I like rainy weather because for me
it reminds me why I got in the whole depression game.
You know?
Yeah, you guys look sad.
For me, it's just like when the weather is miserable,
if you walk outside as a depressive,
you see any random optimist on the street,
you can just be like,
hey, you're in my world now.
What?
Join me, it's a process.
And then you offer them some Zoloft.
Just one day at a time.
I like winter as a person
and it's not a very popular opinion.
It's like, I'm a minority again.
Big deal, it's not a big deal.
But I was trying to think why I like winter so much
and I think it's because
in the winter, you can keep a low profile
like what do people wear in the winter?
Everyone more or less wears the same thing
which is just like potato sack sleeping bag.
You know?
Everyone more or less just wears an indoor Snuggie
and everyone just huddles by each other on the street
and you're just like, good day.
You don't even have to make eye contact.
All your secrets are safe.
I feel like summer is the opposite of that.
Everything is out there.
Everything is exposed.
In the entire season, it's just like,
sponsored by skin and sweat.
It's just like a deodorant commercial
that nobody signed up for
and in the summer, everyone has this carefree attitude
where it's kind of like there's this unspoken vibe
in the air that's just like,
I could start a podcast about anything.
What?
No.
Slow down.
Do you have a concept?
Just reel it in a little bit.
The one thing that stresses me out about New York
in general is
it is the fashion capital of the country
so one thing that I've never been able to get onboard with
is that there are just models walking around all the time
just like unregulated,
just like feral models wandering the streets
that nobody warns you about.
Models to me feel like self esteem pickpockets.
They're fine at a distance
but then you directly walk by one
and you're just like,
no.
I have nothing.
Even my personality's the wrong shape.
You really, you just question everything.
It's like you have to just grab an OH magazine
and rebuild from scratch.
Just like ground zero for self esteem.
What if while someone was in here
like someone just came in and kidnapped them?
It would just like,
it would just taint the experience for you guys
and then you would have to be like,
was that real?
You would just question that for the rest of your life
like was that a bit?
Was that real?
And you'd be like, that's art.
That's what art is about.
I think pretty much every other comic
of all time, I am recently still single.
Thank you.
You guys knew.
You're like, what is it about her?
She's,
she's lonely.
I was thinking recently
one of my pet peeves as a single person in the city
is sometimes you're walking,
it's like we walk too
and you'll get stuck behind couples on the sidewalk.
It happens in every neighborhood every time of year
and you'll try to get around them but then you can't
because their love is so strong.
And then you'll just be trapped
walking in the credits of their movie
and you'll just have to follow them home
and become their child.
It's a real hassle.
Thank you.
I hear Ian.
Thanks, Ian, thanks.
- Keep it going for Aparna.
Yes.
How did that feel?
- It felt honestly terrifying.
It was like a lucid nightmare.
(light music)