From what was posted, it would seem the audience was sampled too soon. Wouldn't this fall under the 90 second attention span problem? Edit: expansion - This

From what was posted, it would seem the audience was sampled too soon. Wouldn't this fall under the 90 second attention span problem? Edit: expansion - This reminds me of an experience related to me by a concert goer. Dan Hicks was scheduled to follow a classical performance artist (pianist?) - Very poor combination, musically. He played a couple of songs and the audience, presumably there to hear more classical, got quieter and quieter. Before the next song, someone dropped coins and they slowly, audibly rolled down the sloped floor to the front of the stage. Mr. Hicks was reported to have said something along the lines of "I feel about the same," put away his instrument and left the stage. If the audience is not a part of a performance, not giving any feedback, the artist has negative feedback, and I assume this is where the phrase "I died up there" came from (see George Carlin's little talk on violent terms for performance art for audiences). Mr. Martin's complaint is that he was not given the time to react to the loss of audience, once the repartee was interrupted with the first audience-requested conversation topic. The continued interruptions prevented any reboot from happening. I use similar feedback techniques when teaching high-tech knowledge to groups. Very dry stuff, and if not handled carefully, a great chance for a nap.