Comedy Bar — Restaurant in Toronto

This was my first time coming here with my wife and we originally wanted to see "Laugh at my City" for 7pm on a Sunday. It was her birthday and we both love comedy whether its watching a special or going to a live show so I figured that coming to The Comedy Bar would be great. Unfortunately, the 7pm show was cancelled and the 8pm show was given to us as an alternate which included a free round of drinks, (free tickets and free drinks? Why not?!?!?!). The show that was given to us was The Time Machete. One of the employees at Comedy Bar said that it was her favorite and that we would love it and went on about the fact that it was an overall great event. As someone who loves comedy, as someone who is married to someone who is also a comedy-lover: this show was not funny. The comedians may have given us a chuckle here and there but what really made us laugh were the people in the crowd that were laughing at things that WERE NOT funny! At one point we both thought, "are people being paid to laugh like that?" OR "are those the employees laughing that way in order to get an ambient laugh-environment going?" Regardless, we were both disappointed but I was a bit embarrassed as this was for my wife's birthday and tried to make it special. She loves comedy and I wanted to give her some laughs for her birthday but could not deliver on that because the comedians could not deliver the comedy. The atmosphere and the whole vibe of the place was nice. The staff was super-friendly and accommodating and I enjoyed hanging out in the bar area. However, my wife and I are were saddened and disappointed at the quality of the comedy/comedians that we endured as it was not what we paid for and not what we enjoy on a regular basis. We have been to more than a few comedy clubs over the past few years and developed a liking for them but in this instance, we felt really let down as all the reviews of The Comedy Bar say that it is the number 1 spot in Toronto. Yuk Yuks and Second City and Comedy Bar were all there as options but I chose this place out of every other comedy club only to be let down. I can only hope that they improve the quality of their shows that are not on the Main Stage and also hope that better comedians come through this bar. I can see that this place is popular and a lot of shows have played out here but I seem to have gotten the short end of the stick here. I may or may not come back but I will definitely hit up different comedy clubs before I...

I attended a show on April 26th, 11:30. The after dark show. There was a black male guest who had shared his recent birthday and had recently been released from jail. He maintained good spirit with the crowd work and had a sense of humour with the host and some other comedians in the line up who seemed to understand how not to be racist and respect boundaries despite the shared background of the guest. Each male comedian who followed continued to antagonize him from the start of their set. I am a black woman and I have visited comedy bar multiple times and there has always been an air of racism at each show from the non black comedians. (The exception being the host). This by far was the worst experience I've had. One specific comedian, who started with racialized jokes about black women in reference to his black partner was the worst of all, he escalated matters and decided to argue with and harass the guest blaming him for bombing his set but I would like you to know, he was not funny and I'm sure the audience silence and tension in the room was mostly to the blame of the comedian. It was disgusting behavior, unprofessional, and entirely mishandled. To act like this in front of a live audience and for it to be more than one of the comedians who engaged in this racism from the very start of their sets is the most disappointing. Some I give credit for the few who knew how to read a room and treat people with dignity and respect as opposed to being prejudiced and making light of their racist attitudes and blaming their racism on the victim of it. I no longer wonder why I see so few black people come to these shows and the comedy scene is lacking in Toronto. From this I hope you learn how to have anti-racist escalation techniques and to enforce a code of conduct with your comedians especially when in engaging with guests. People keep in mind how it feels to watch this happen right before my eyes in a place I am supposed to experience laughter and joy only to be pulled back into the bitter realities of being a black person in this city. How easy it came those comedians to behave this way is disheartening. Thank you to the few comedians who did make me laugh but I no longer will come...

We were looking to experience Toronto's comedy scene, so we headed for the cheapest establishment that we could find with some reputation. The Comedy Bar is a relatively small spot along Bloor St with two show rooms (from what I could tell), a bar, and a kitchen. If we're talking about space and size, I'd characterize it as intimate. Not to say that it's romantic or anything like that. Just cozy.

The show that we saw was called the BeerProv. The premise is a tournament where 12 or so local comics battle it out in several varying themed improv rounds to ultimately find the funniest performer. The "beer" portion essentially only comes into play for the winner who wins a sizeable glass/jar of beer. I was happy to find that the quality of the comedy was generally pretty high. The comics fed off of each other often seamlessly, and consistently had the crowd and I laughing out loud. With that many comics though, not everyone is going to be funny, and one or two of them fell short fairly often. Hats off to Rob Norman and Chelsea Larkin for making it to the finals and being genuinely amoung the funniest of the group. From the get go, I though Rob Norman specifically was one of the wittiest and straight up funniest. Love this guy.

It's worth mentioning that I ordered some finger food. I got the Junkyard, which is an obviously ironic name since it's a veggie plate with hummus. Specifically, you get kettle chips, in-house hummus, baby carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, red pepper slices, and cucumber slices. It's a nice snack to keep your hunger at bay while respecting your waist line. Know though that the "kettle chips" could pass for something out of a bag of Lay's, and that the in-house hummus could have been served out of a grocery store tub. Neither was bad, but they have no right bragging about them.

Lastly, I'll note that the Comedy Bar has a much more young/millennial vibe than something like The Second City. Maybe because I'm part of that demographic I found the jokes to hit much more frequently, but I'd say that most people would find the Bar a little more of an entertaining experience.

I'd definitely suggest the Comedy Bar to anyone looking for good...