This happened in my art class once. Our kooky art teacher invited an ex-student in without any prior warning and we were supposed to ask him questions on his art (he did book covers).

Silence, no one was having this shit. Out of pity I asked him questions on some tiny details I noticed on the spot. More silence, I ask about different tiny details. And so forth.

I’ve realised that there’s a large portion of the populace that are perfectly comfortable in excruciating silence if it’s not at their expense.