The present study deals with the narrative strategy which B. Eikhenbaum explored during the first two decades of the 20th century, and which is closely connected with the spontaneous verbal praxis. The Russian writer Mikhail Zoshchenko (1894–1958) offered a wide scale of application of this strategy in his work, including the communication with his readers. The goal of the study is to examine Zoshchenko’s variable types of skaz usage, and to offer alternative readings of his texts.