This whole event (at the 92nd street Y, no less) sounds like a scene from a Woody Allen movie, in which the protagonist is trying to rise above the comedy geniu

This whole event (at the 92nd street Y, no less) sounds like a scene from a Woody Allen movie, in which the protagonist is trying to rise above the comedy genius that made him so famous and is genuinely, if perhaps misguidedly, befuddled when his audience is upset when he doesn't give them any laughs.