Talking About Art is the Most Boring Thing in the World. Ask Anybody.

(Steve Martin has not aged well.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/nyregion/02refund.html

 ...Sol Adler, the Y’s executive director, [...] “We acknowledge that last night’s event with Steve Martin did not meet the standard of excellence that you have come to expect from 92nd St. Y,” he wrote in an e-mail to ticket holders. “We planned for a more comprehensive discussion and we, too, were disappointed with the evening. We will be mailing you a $50 certificate for each ticket you purchased to last night’s event. The gift certificate can be used toward future 92Y events, pending availability.”

About 900 tickets to the event, which cost $50 each, had been sold; all ticket buyers received the offer.

Perhaps the audience saw that message coming. Midway through the conversation, a Y representative handed Ms. Solomon a note asking her to talk more about Mr. Martin’s career and, implicitly, less about the art world, the subject of his latest novel, “An Object of Beauty.”        

Interestingly, The Author suffers this same sort of opprobrium, except in reverse, in that he is often offered (as much as) Pocket Change if he will stop trying to be funny, and get on with the Art.