Last week’s appearance by Steve Martin at New York’s 92nd St. Y was a “disaster,” according to the New York Times.

a conversation between Steve Martin, the writer and actor, and Deborah Solomon, who writes a weekly interview column for The New York Times Magazine, resulted in the Y’s sending out a next-day apology, along with a promise of a refund.

Ouch!

The audience that watched on close-circuit television complained, via email, that “the evening was not going the way they wished.” Organizers of the event even went so far as to hand Solomon a note telling her that they were bombing… and to pep it up a little. (“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.’ ”

Double ouch!

The Y’s exec director sniffed in an email that the Martin interview, “did not meet the standard of excellence that you have come to expect from 92nd St. Y.” This, from a man who has presented “The Letters of Saul Bellow With Benjamin Taylor” or ” ‘Discovery’ / Boston Review Poetry Contest Winners’ Reading” or “Joe Edley: Scrabble Play by Play,” (… this workshop is ideal for those who have already taken Joe Edley’s Scrabble Master Class.”)?!?

Why did they single out Martin for this embarrassment?

We’ve seen Martin interviewed in the recent past. We know it can be eye-glazingly dull. Martin, perhaps making up for his white-suited, arrow-through-the-head days, can be achingly earnest and jaw-droppingly pretentious. But isn’t that what 92nd St. Y people want? In spades? What did they expect? Haven’t they been paying attention to Martin’s career over the past decade and a half? The only reason he was there that night was to push his book– a novel about the art world. (We dare anyone to read the description of the book on amazon.com and not doze off halfway through it! About the only person on the planet who can make an account of the world of modern art exciting is Tom Wolfe.)

Did they expect a wild and crazy guy to show up? Who are these neanderthals ponying up $50 per ticket, then sending heckling emails? They’d be better off watching Inside The Actors Studio or Charlie Rose. At least those are free of charge. (No one slipped Charlie Rose a text and told him he was bombing!)

Why would they want to curry favor with the people who were disappointed? It doesn’t make sense to refund the money to people because the star (who sold 900 tickets at $50 a pop!) didn’t talk about what they wanted him to talk about! It’s a dangerous precedent! (Or… they figure that, since it was a case of a funny guy… who wasn’t funny… that the complaining vulgarians have a legitimate case. Only a comedian would be dissed like this.) People get mighty pissed when they expect to laugh and then get only seriousness. Mature people, however, go with the flow and appreciate the conversation.