Stage full, room empty

I'm on stage and the house is packed but I can't see a single face — the lights are so hot I'm just staring into a warm white wall. Someone in the dark asks a question I can't quite catch, so I start telling a joke I don't remember writing. The punchline lands and the silence after it isn't awkward, it's the kind of quiet where people are actually listening, and I wake up feeling like I finally said something true for once.