I read an item a couple of weeks ago about an event with Steve Martin disappointing its audience. I was a little curious to hear the details of the event since I hold Steve in high esteem and couldn’t imagine such an event failing so.

Well, Steve has responded and explained the evening’s happenings in more detail.

What I wasn’t told was that the viewers were going to be encouraged to send in e-mails during the discussion; what I didn’t expect was that the Y would take the temperature of those e-mailed reactions, and then respond to them by sending a staff member onstage, mid-conversation, with a note that said, “Discuss Steve’s career.”

Steve sums up the situation in a gracious way.

But I can’t help wondering what we might have said if we hadn’t been stopped. Maybe we were just around the corner from something thrilling. Isn’t that the nature of a live conversation? It halts, it stutters, it doubles back, it soars.

[via 37 Signals]