Dallas Comedy Club — Restaurant in Dallas

I generally like Dallas Comedy Club. As a venue, it is pretty solid. As someone noted, the food is overpriced and not great, but it's a comedy club so that is pretty standard. And there are plenty of worse places in Dallas, with actually bad food. The staff is generally courteous and professional. Also, I have taken two classes on stand-up here and enjoyed them. I would recommend that. The biggest issue as an audience member is that parking sucks, but that's not the Club's fault.

The real problem is for anyone trying to get into stand-up and do open-mics. The Club claims that it is a lottery system (and may even respond to this with the same claim), but a little observation shows that that is partially true at best. Watch a series of open-mics, and you'll see the same 15-ish faces filling the first 10-15 slots. It isn't always the same people every week, but it's the same group. The end of the night slots are reserved for people paying for a comedy class, so the last 5-10 slots are closed. That leaves 10-20 spots in the middle (it is usually a 30-person list) that could potentially be open for a lottery system. I tried for months, signing up time and again, and could not get on. When I was paying money for the classes I got on the list (at the end of the night, so I could wait three hours to practice in front of an empty room, but whatever). But once the money stopped coming in, I stopped going up. Perhaps I made a mistake or insulted someone at one point, but nothing was ever said. I just couldn't hone my craft if I wasn't paying or friends with someone.

Basically, the Dallas Comedy Club is fine if you are wanting to watch a comedy show, and don't mind fighting the parking. You see some up-and-coming comedians, although not a lot of really famous names, but it's a smaller club, so it is what it is. It's not the best in the world, but it is fine. But if you want to be a comedian, it is very cliquish and not particularly open, unless and until you're paying. I learned a lot in the class, but I don't care for the pay-to-play...

I'm giving the DCC 2 stars only because of the facility, patio and wonderful bar staff. Arrived from dinner and ordered our 2nd drink of the evening and took our seats.

The 2nd act told a relationship joke that solicited some cheers and jeers from the crowd. He then engaged the audience, including my wife and even asked specific questions. Jokes were made, laughs were had. At no point did we interrupt, holler at the stage or artist or disrupt the show. Heck we felt like we were part of the show. There were other tables engaged the same way.

My wife was seated to my right and stage was to my left. I didn't notice that DCC staff came up from behind and told her she needed to shut up. Then some guy comes in, stands in front of us and tells us that if we said another word or made another sound we would be removed. I had no idea what he was talking about, nor did any of the folks at our table/area. But my wife had enough and went to the restroom. After several minutes I went out to find her in tears and apparently had been accosted by staff AGAIN.

The actual comedian we apparently "interrupted" was at the bar and apologized 20 times and really didn't understand what was going on.

Needless to say I lost it. I found the two rude staff and gave them every opportunity to speak to me the way they spoke to her. I'm glad I didn't escalate things over a $25 comedy show but boy I wanted to. Settled my tab, tipped the wonderful lady back there well and we left. Won't ever go back.

Just know, if you go - don't say anything. Lord, don't laugh too loud apparently. And watch your women, apparently the tough guys that work there like to verbally...

The Comedy Club was a good experience as far as service, organization, and the show itself. Where this place falls off is the food and beverage category. The club appears to make its money off the food and beverages, which explains the minimum purchase requirement, but it is insanely expensive for the low quality. If I go back, I'll stick to beer and avoid the mixed drinks.

More detailed review below.

Service and venue organization. This was the best part of our experience. The staff was super knowledgeable about how things worked (this was our first time here) and once the doors opened, people were seated promptly. Shortly after seating, the staff came by to start taking orders. I will say the one shortfall here is that they seemed to only pay attention to certain tables at times. They gave the table next to me 4 refills on beer while walking right past my table eith empty drinks each time.

Food and drinks. This is the part that I struggled with. While I understand the house needs to make money to keep the lights on, the value is just not there for the customer. I ordered a Paloma and the bartender just dumped unmeasurable amounts of alcohol into a pint glass, followed by a mix, and topped off with grapefruit juice straight from the jug. My drink wasn't even so much as stirred (which should have been shaken because it's fruit juice and alcohol). This was a signature drink.

I would recommend that the club looks into a batch cocktail program and perhaps serve them on tap. It may take a little more prep time but service should be quick and above all else, consistent and...