The Speakeasy — Local services in San Francisco

What a disappointing experience. If you are thinking about going, please do not waste your time. Super mid-experience, run by amateurs and amateur actors/ performers.

We got there on time and the email you get tells you to not be late. The problem is, they are really disorganized at the door and made everyone wait in long lines. Which is fine if they know what they are doing and have a process, but clearly do not. They only had one woman working the door with the paper cards and despite the fact that we checked in with a prior woman and our names were listed on the ipad, we didn’t get a ‘prescription card’ to get in. Whoever was printing these just messed up and didn’t make one for us. She told us to stand aside and she would write a physical card, and proceeded to let everyone else in. After 10 min of watching others get in, I asked what was going on and she said she had been trying to radio the manager for 10 min and wasn’t getting back to her. I asked if we could just get in, or if it was mandatory that we wait for literally everyone who came in after us to go inside before she could help us. This would likely be the next 30 min based on line size, and wrong to punish us for a mistake the venue made. She let us in, and I found this lack of door protocol to be very unprofessional. You should have a process created for a missing card.

We went down inside the venue and was asked again by a man working the seating for the cabaret if we had a card. I said no, we did not have one. He walked us all around the venue looking for someone to help us and many of the staff had no idea what to do. Pretty disorganized and I felt bad this staffer was trying to help and didn’t get answers. I was told to just meander about around and go to the cabaret the second showing.

I attempted to still have a good time despite the venue messing up my ‘card’ and went to take a photo with the moon. I was asked for this card again, and then was directed to a chips lady. I was AGAIN asked for a card and honestly, it was exhausting and so irritating at this point. I demanded to speak with the manager immediately because I paid to come to a show and it was difficult to do anything without this card.

The manager came over and offered us some free drinks and explained this mistake had never happened before.

And now for the quality of the show itself-

The cabaret was really terrible:

The bluebird dancers were really off sync- must have had substitutes the night we were there. Not on beat with each other and some were regularly delayed The MC for the cabaret was awful- zero stage presence, terrible voice and not that funny. All the jokes were mid The act with 2 men telling jokes stone faced was boring. Some of the prior act dancers didnt turn off their mics so we heard their voices- super unprofessional and like I said, amateur. Literally have never been to a performance where the prior act forgot to turn off their mics. The venue had a tough time controlling the drunk crowd who despite receiving ‘shushes’ from others, kept talking loudly. One girl was dancing standing on a chair blocking others’ view. They had actors going through the cabaret show in and out but it was distracting and often you couldnt tell if it was someone rude im the audience talking loudly or an actor doing their bit

Nice attempt at some semblance of sleep no more from nyc, but you need to get your logistics and operations down. Pretty awful experience. If you’re thinking about attending, don’t. If you go, I hope you dont succumb to ‘not having a card’ and only have to sit through some amateur...

I have to agree with all of the reviews that say this was very average. If you have gone to sleep no more in NYC, and had the expectation it would be similar to that. It definitely is not. I was excited since I love the immersive theater experience, but I have to say, it wasn't immersive at all! They had a couple of scenes.. One was in the casino room, and you couldn't hear them at all, and I was right next to them. There was a bartender still serving, card tables still talking, the table we were at the dealer told us to pay attention, but looks like the other tables didn't. I had no idea what they were saying. There was another scene in one of the rooms next to the tarot reading. Which is when I totally felt like this was poor production and planning. They were talking about how they need to take more chances, yada yada, they talked to the crowed, okay! I'm getting excited! Then they say they are going to take a chance and walk off.... I follow them thinking they are going to walk into the next room. What the hell.... she walks into the lobby and talks to someone with a clipboard quietly.. lol seriously? We wandered around to find things to do other than just the casino, and didn't find much and expected more. One of the "house" people saw us, and offered us suggestions, we said, yeah we did that.. yeah we did that... the scenes that we did see made no sense and just felt like they were yelling at each other. I think in total we saw about 5 scenes? 1 of which I couldn't even hear. My suggestion would be to turn off the lights and shine it only at the people performing so people can pay attention and maybe having mics. Finally, the cabaret show was the best thing there was, but I truly hate the seating if you are just GA. Overall, we were disappointed, expected more, and it was just a very okay experience. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone, but would tell you to experience it for yourself since some people really seemed to love it, just don't expect it to be like...

Strongly discourage anyone from attending any future events held by Speakeasy, especially if you went to any of their events prior to "closing" in August of 2019. They're still claiming their pop ups are a highly immersive experience, but they've become an overpriced bar with mediocre service, poor management, an average show with an outrageous cover charge.

They got rid of nearly everything that made the experience so unique and instead kept two forms of stage performances and activities that require an extra charge. One show lasted about an hour and was held in their largest room. I didn't sit through it, but the snippets I saw were about what you would expect (chorus girls, etc), not anything spectacular. Definitely not anything warranting the $125 entry fee. The "vaudeville" stage was poorly done and the main room actors appeared confused about their performance schedule, scrambling to get on stage no later than they already were. Neither room had enough sitting room to accommodate. I don't fault the actors for any of this, they use to do a wonderful show. This seems to be a management issue. Other lows: -Lines for everything. You need to line up for the main show at least 30 minutes in advance or pay an extra $30 to get a seat. This is in addition to the line to get in, line to the photo booth (extra $), line to fake gamble where the house always wins (also extra $), lines at the understaffed bar. -Actors walk around with their phones out, despite the fact that they literally have you lock your phone in a bag upon entrance to protect the 1920s vibe -Asked a bartender what a drink was like and was told quite flatly "it's weird." I guess when 18% tip is automatically added to their very limited selection of $14-$16 drinks, why bother with the pleasantries. Again, most likely a management issue. As mentioned, the bar was very understaffed.

All in all, they're a waste of time and money in a city that has endless forms of entertainment. Do yourself a favor and...