New York Comedy Club - Midtown — Restaurant in New York

Nice comedy club, but I'm pissed that they scammed me into tipping twice, as well as double charged me for tickets.

They include an 18% gratuity in the bill, but after taking your card, they present you with a tipping screen showing tipping options.

I knew that a tip was included, but I figured this was an option to upgrade your tip percentage, so I selected 20%.

Which was an entirely second tip. I checked my credit card to be sure, and while initially they only charged the amount before the added tip, a few days later it was updated to a higher amount, including the added 20%.

So they ended up charging me a 38% tip in total- $20.90 plus tax on a $55 subtotal, for a total bill of $80.78 on a $55 subtotal (and one of the drinks was also more expensive than advertised on the menu). And that was for two cocktails and two beers, not exactly cheap prices.

Two of my friends made the exact same mistake, independently, so it's not like it was super obvious and I'm the only one that screwed up.

It seems obvious in retrospect, but at the end of the night, when you're on the spot, a bit buzzed, and not expecting to be deliberately conned at a reputable establishment, it an easy mistake to make. You think surely they're not going to ask you to give 20 - 25% ON TOP of 18%, without even saying anything, but that's exactly what they do. Search the reviews and you'll see many such reports. And if you don't think about it and never check your credit card statement, you'll never be the wiser.

They know damn well what they're doing. They're maliciously taking advantage of our kindness and generosity to cheat us. They could easily turn off or modify that tipping screen, or at least warn us not to use it. It's 100% deliberate, there is no way that this is an accident or honest oversight.

Oh, and on top of the tipping scam, there was a duplicate charge on my card for the tickets. That's right they charged me twice- and I purchased 4 tickets, so I got charged for 8. The only good thing about the tipping scam is that otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.

Maybe it was just a technical glitch on the website, I remember it timed out on me while I was checking out on my phone, but still it charged me twice, but I only got one confirmation email, and no indication of the duplicate charge.

I disputed the duplicate charge with my credit card company of course, and I'll probably dispute the added tip.

If you go here, be very careful about billing, check your receipt for discrepancies, skip the tip screen, and be sure to check your credit card statement carefully after a few days!

Next time I'm paying cash only, but for tickets I will still check my credit card activity carefully.

Edit- the response from the management is despicable, these are lying scoundrels with no integrity or shame.

They could easily remove / disable the tipping screen entirely, every platform has that option. And they almost certainly could set lower custom amounts (say 2%, 3%, 5% etc) if they wanted to still have the option to add an additional tip.

If nothing else they could also simply tape a note to the pad itself warning people not to double tip. And/or, they could have one person make a very short announcement to skip the tipping screen unless you want to give an extremely generous double tip, or the servers could say something.. (but again, this isn't necessary, since they could just remove the tipping screen).

It's not a mistake or an oversight that they haven't taken ANY of these steps, this is 100% deliberate deception. And the staff are culpable as well as the management, they're the ones that directly benefit and they want customers to make this mistake, though ultimately the management is most responsible.

And they probably could also fix or replace their web software to prevent double charging, most checkout systems are designed to prevent this from happening, and are very effective at that. It's funny that all these glitches work out in...

It saddens me to write this negative review. Going to this comedy club was supposed to be one of the highlights of my NYC visit. Unfortunately, due to a series of circumstances, that wasn't the case. In reflecting upon the events that lead up to my friend and I being escorted out by a very large intimidating bouncer, I am rendered confused. For some reason I thought comedians were able to "think on the fly", taking situations as they come and make them funny. Not so much with Mr. MIKE CANNON. Our evening began with arriving 40 minutes before the second set and sat down at the bar for a drink. No bartender...he was serving guests in the first show. Apparently he wore two hats. Bartender and cocktail server. I found it curious how the didn't have an additional person making cocktails for the group gathered around the bar waiting for a drink. Lost revenue is what came to mind. Anyway....my friend and I were seated directly in front-arms reach from the stage. The first at was a fun young lady who was easy going and entertaining. Next came Mike Cannon. He was talking about how tired he was from sleepless nights with a new born.... just getting into his routine when he asked a woman in the audience how old she was. Much to my own surprise, I audibly said "What does that matter"? I realized how loud that comment came across, being so close to the stage it was easy to hear. Mr. Cannon was visibly upset by my interruption, and took that opportunity to shame and embarrass me for having ruined his lead in to his 'joke'. He went on to insult me and make reference to my vagina being a clam. Needless to say, that was horrifying. Through my nervousness and humiliation, I apologized. The audience was hysterically laughing. From there I really don't recall what happened. After ordering our second drink, the very imposing and intimidating LARGE bouncer escorted my friend and I out stating we were 'heckling' the comedian. Definition of heckling: interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse. Asking why age matters while perhaps created a hiccup in his lead in could easily have been ignored and he could have moved on. I do not believe I was being aggressive or abusive in any way. Quite the contrary. He then later made a comment about 60 year old women coming to a comedy club being inappropriate. Mr. Cannon. I'm guessing people in the audience may offer their own stupid comments at times. It takes a PROFESSIONAL who creates an environment of COMEDY to rise above it. You are crass, thin skinned and sadly immature. You have done nothing more than make me feel sorry for you and your boorish, uneducated boring comedy. Thank you for having the big bad bouncer remove 2 '60 YEAR OLD' women from your audience.....you saved us from having wasted any more of our time. I hope your wife's 'clam' is happy with your stupidity. There is so much better...

Not my favorite night. I paid $25 + $3 service fee(online purchase) to get in and I found out that a lot of other people had either gotten in for free or discounted tickets.

Mind you this was a Wednesday night so only half the theatre was full so they obviously wanted to fill seats so I can see their reasoning.

I would of been happy with the price if the show had stopped at 8 comedians, but someone had the great idea of doing 17 comedians. Ten comedians in over half the audience had left.

Twelve comedians in 3/4 of the audience had left. They had obviously scheduled the greener or less funny comedians at the end. They did have one or two funny comedians at the end, but mostly duds. The last 2-3 comics were very appreciative of us staying which was nice.

I would be bothered less, except it seemed like two of the comics near the end were berating us of not being a very good audience. First of all, their jokes were just falling flat, and second we'd already seen so many comedians that we were a little laughed out. Third we were only an audience of 6.

It could of been a good experience if I didn't feel like I was being held hostage by my politeness and they ended at 8 comics.

The other side of the coin which was a little frustrating was the drink situation. Waitress was great. Seemed very on top of it.

They have a "2 drink minimum" which really means a $17 minimum which really means a $23 minimum. That's only if you choose the $17 unlimited soda option or the Budweiser option. The minimum you can get away purchasing alcohol is 2 Budweiser(cheapest option) $8.50/ piece $2 tax $4 mandatory tip. $23 total.

I don't mind paying that much, but at least tell me it's going to be that much instead of jerking me around with price.

Lastly of all, it almost feels like it's industry practice to be able to walk out on comedians especially when they have so many in a row(with no break). I don't like that idea, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it in the future, I'll just try to be...