Funny Bone Comedy Club & Restaurant — Restaurant in Cleveland

This place has gone downhill in the last year or so. I've been coming to improv for over 10 years and as of yesterday it was my final and last time EVER stepping foot inside. I arrived around 6:15 with my mom for a bit of BDAY pregaming to see Chris Powell (45 mins in advance as usually instructed). Mind you, I have NEVER heard of this comedian a day in my life but the tickets were cheap and I figured why not. I got these tickets on a Tuesday (i believe) for a Friday (08/16) showing at 7pm. In the past, before it switched over to "Funny Bone" it was encouraged to get there earlier (about 45 mins in advance) to retrieve better seating, even if assigned, the workers usually work with you. On this Friday evening my mom and i received nasty treatment from the Black Gentleman, Tall (about 6ft), slender and darker skinned complected. I am giving this description because it is necessary. He is clearly newer to the establishment as I don't recall EVER seeing him prior. I then noticed the long, dark haired (face tattoo) caucasian male is still working there and he's been there since it was "Improv" which prompted me to ask him. The black guy seemed a bit lost on locating my name on the attendance sheet and this took a bit of a while and he proceeds to walk my mom and I over to a table next to the kitchen! I immediately requested to be moved as it was NOT very many people there yet, and I didn't deem this to be a problem (as it's never been before). After all, you're encouraged to arrive 45 mins earlier for seating which is absolutely REDUNDANT when they're claiming that all seats are assigned at booking. Why are guests prompted to show up insanely early if their seats are "allegedly" secured"? The black guy was very rude and spoke some smart mouthy words and walked off as if he was above the situation. I then proceeded to ask the white guy I recognized from working there in the past if we could move and although he in some way allowed us to move one table over, we were STILL next to the kitchen. This guy also proceeds to tell us that the seating is "auto selected" upon booking and that the patrons, nor the workers have any idea on who's going to sit where until ARRIVAL! This immediately raised another red flag because a white family came in and was easily placed near the stage, which inadvertently comes off as DISCRIMINATION and here's why: If patrons have no way of choosing their own seats at check out and are only simply assigned a seat, and the company has no idea where they're going to place them, then why make such a fuss about "ASSIGNED SEATING" when NO ONE knows anyhow?? It's not like someone will arrive and say "oh hey that's my seat"! My mom and I (disappointed) decided to leave IMMEDIATELY and miss out on the show. I plan to take legal action as this is very disingenuous and unethical. I do NOT wish to return back. Also, upon leaving, the black guy blurts out "IT WILL BE $10 TO RETURN"! We're NOT ever returning. The disregard and lack of empathy to loyal patrons is disgusting. I hope corporate finds this...

2/6/25: Another year, another disappointing experience. I’m not sure why the wait staff is so underwhelming here. Unless you order a substantial amount of food and drinks, they don’t even come back to check on you.

We ordered a few soft drinks and an appetizer that was missing the additional toppings that we were charged a premium for. Since the waitress was not the person bringing our order out, we had no way of communicating what was wrong. She didn’t come back our way until another party was sat at our table. We even flagged down another waitress and she harshly responded that she couldn’t help us and would go get our waitress (which she never did). After waiting 40 minutes for our server to come back, we told her what was wrong to which she responded the kitchen was out of the additional toppings (that we paid for). Ironically, after we just said forget and ate our, by this time freezing cold appetizer, she brings us out containers with the toppings she just recently told us the kitchen didn’t have…. Unbelievable!

Update 5/2024:

It happened yet AGAIN!

Another visit, another experience in which the wait staff ignored my table for the ENTIRE first hour of the show, unbelievable!

This time, I reached out the assistant manager, Tina. She mentioned they'd had an issue staffing the kitchen. This was no excuse. Kitchen staffing played no part in either the amount of tickets they sold for the Aries Spears show (all shows sold out), nor the price they charged for tickets (no discounts were given).

There was simply no excuse for this poor level of customer service. The fact that it was the EXACT same waitress both times also speaks volumes.

It hasn’t happened in about four years, but it happened again tonight during my visit.

First off, why do they even put seats behind poles where you can’t see the stage? This was my second consecutive trip here where my party and I were assigned terrible seats. The support beams for the building are clearly in the way of certain areas so that you can only see half of the stage. Yet, they continue to seat people there.

Secondly, after being sat in the horrible seat, I had to ask three different members from the wait staff which waitress was assigned to our table. We ended up getting our order taken during the second half of the show. Even though we were still dining as the show was ending, we miraculously were given our bill on time. It came right out with our entrees. Erika was not having a very good night with us. I had to ask for to go boxes repeatedly, and also had to wait until I could find her again to sign my receipt because she ran my card and left the bill with no pen for me to sign.

So in summary, I was able to see the comedian half the time, was only able to enjoy half my meal, didn’t even receive half an effort in terms of service from the wait staff, but was still charged full price for everything.

Something doesn’t add up. Perhaps a rep from the venue would like to reach out...

The comidan we saw was great! Tony Rock! Had us laughing the whole time! His opener was very funny too. Definitely got us pumped up for the show! Online we were told doors opened at 815. We did arrive at 8 bc we wanted good seats being my boyfriends birthday. They told us doors would open at 830 and figured we would get a drink at the bar. No big deal. There were people sitting around but no one had a drink which we thought was odd. More people arrived and sat at the bar as well but there was no bartender. There was a sign though asking for patience because they were short staffed. After 25 mins went by we wondered if there was even a bartender at all. Shortly after one arrived and did a very good job at handling such the large build up that had happened as we waited. We both received doubles and moved away from the bar so other people could get in easier. Another gentleman had told us that it would be another 25 mins before the doors opened bc the staff needed to clean up and informed us that are seats were pre assigned, which was disappointing since we that was our reasoning for us arriving early so we had to wait even longer since they were running late. We got to our table which was small and close to the next table. Didn’t really give u much space at all. Our show finally started 930. We had ordered more drinks but this time our drinks were very weak even tho we asked for doubles again. We thought maybe the waitress misheard us and we got singles. We ordered another round and made sure to clarify doubles. Again a large Amount of wash was used. Our first drinks we watched him pour and was a very solid drink but when ordering from the table not so much. We checked the bill and we were charged for a double at the table not sure why such a big difference in drinks. The staff was very nice and polite throughout it though. Not sure if it was a bad day for them or if it had something to do with the switch in name? Funny bone? It’ll be awhile before we come back and we will at least have the knowledge to come closer to the start time. Rough start but Tony Rock was so funny it did make...