Naked. It’s a loaded word that doesn’t just refer to a person shorn of all their clothes. The term can also refer to someone who chooses to take off the masks that we wear every day to ascribe to acceptable norms of society. That’s the meaning which comedian Papa CJ alluded to when he chose that title for a stand-up routine of his that debuted at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2015. “The ethos behind the word is that as human beings, we constantly build a wall around ourselves to hide our inner desires. But over the course of this show, I remove that wall one brick at a time. I expose my vulnerabilities, which can be exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. But in the end, I am completely free,” he explains.

It’s thus an autobiographical endeavour, and the show will be available for streaming for the first time ever this weekend. “The reason I am releasing it now is that, essentially, this is a show about hope, and I can’t think of anything else that people need more at a time like this,” the Delhi resident tells us.