Times Square Arts Center

02/16/11

Cupid's Comedy Show and Dinner

by jm02cbr

So this Valentines Day (02/14/11) was the first V-day for my wife and I as a married couple. I wanted to do something special and memorable. So went to NYC and I got tickets to Cupid's Comedy Show and Dinner and upgraded to VIP seats, which was supposed to inlcude, a rose for my wife, a dinner each, 2 drinks, and a dessert to split. Thinking this was gonna be romantic I was pretty excited, until we got there... What I expected was a nice theater, with booth seating, like what you see when you watch comedy central and a decent dinner, pasta's and chicken, nothing too fancy, but classy. When we got to the theater, first thing I noticed, this isnt a nice place. Its a bit of a hole in the wall dump. Not at all what I expected to find in the middle of Times Square. There was people harrassing passer- bys to buy tickets to the show, kind of like how they do on the streets of Las Vegas for strip clubs. After a short wait we went inside, and they couldnt find my reservation, and had to see my receipt, no problem really just seemed odd they didnt have it ready to go. Than we went upstairs, and other than a few other out of towners, who looked just as worried as I felt, the majority of the people looked like those guys you see selling crack on NYC cop drama shows, and their obnoxious girlfriends. After another short wait, they called for VIP ticket holders, and we were shown to our seats, which was a tiny end table with two tiny bar stools about a foot from the stage, which meant looking up the whole time, and was pretty cramped. My wife got her rose, fine there. The show started, waitresses started going around for drink orders, and somehow ours disappeared and didnt even take our drink order until the 3rd act started, by which point most of the other people had already been served food and finished eating. Finally our drinks came and they took our food order. Oh and the food they were serving was, get this, chicken tenders, grilled cheese, and burgers... Ya im not kidding... REAL impressive V-day dinner... The fifth and headlining act started, waitress said they had a mix up and food would be out soon, and we ordered a 2nd round of drinks. Well the show ended, we never got the 2nd round of drinks, our food, or the dessert. We had to wait 20 minutes to speak to anyone, and was told nothing could be done to tonight but gave us a number to call the next day. Which I did while waiting on our flight home, and surprise surprise he's not in... I really doubt well ever get our money back... So anyways, there we are, middle of Times Square, on V-day, hungry, and not having a reservation anywhere it was impossible to get a table. Eventually we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours at Planet Hollywood, which had decent enough food, but you can eat at one anywhere, who goes to NYC and wants to eat at a chain restauraunt? I probably could have let the whole food issue slide, but to make it worse, the show itself was just plain terrible... Only 2 out of the 5 acts was bearable, with a few funny one liners. The second comic didnt get a single laugh at all. And as others have said, they did do a pretty good job of picking on the crowd, and singling people out, to me thats part of the show but I could see how that would offend some people. All in all I wasnt the least bit impressed, if your in town or from NYC and want a cheap laugh sure give it a shot. But if your from out of town, or trying to impress a date, i would NOT recommend this place. Spend the extra money and go to a broadway show.

01/05/11

Dreadful!!!!

by Jenlee11204

Recently I went to this place for NYE with a friend of mine. We decided to go here since this place had an open bar from 7pm-2am with the promise of going outside and watching the ball drop. We dont go to Times Square on NYE but we wanted to do something else that seemed exciting to do. Boy we were wrong!! We had got there for the 7pm opening but we had to wait on a line that snaked around the building with people on the crowded sidewalk passing by. As we waited to get inside, we were told that once we get in we cant go out again. This was a disappointment for us since we had been promised that we would have the option to go outside and watch the ball drop from the corner because of the proximity of the place. We were finally let inside after waiting for two and a half hours. Once inside, we were trying to make the best of the situation. The music in all the rooms stunk and one female bouncer was harassing my friend and I the whole night. When we complained to the manager, we were told he could not do anything so we decided to leave. As we were leaving, another bouncer, a male one, harassed my friend and pushed her to the ground. Other patrons including myself saw this and we all became irate. We left after that regretting the decision to go there. NEVER AGAIN will we ever step inside of this place!!! These bouncers and managers have no clue on how to run an event.

12/20/10

Their shows are extremely funny!!!

by TrentJ

Feel down or sad? just get there, sit back, relax and come back home as happy as you should be!

09/22/10

overpriced beers, underfunny comedy

by haroldjaemmerman

Totally not a humorous experience. We were hoping for laughs and good times, but instead these uptight 'comedy' guys were rude when taking our reservation, seating us, and checking us out. I guess they have enough business.

02/18/10

Biggest Rip-Off Ever!

by bunnyguts

Me and two of my friends went to Times Square Comedy over Valentine's Day weekend for a few reasons. A girl came up to us on the streets asking us if we wanted to take part in a special deal for a hair salon, and we weren't interested. After a long conversation with her, (we were bored and didn't have anything else to do but talk), she ended up giving us 3 free tickets to the Times Square Comedy show, telling us that it was good for any night at any time. We told her that we may do it that night, and she made a very convincing phone call, booking our "reservations" for 9:30 that night.

We thought, well we are in New York, why not go see a comedy show? After all, it's free! A night of comedy after a day in the city sounds kind of fun.

Well, we entered the place without a problem, and it seemed pretty sketch. They didn't ask us for our names, obviously meaning that the "reservations" were not required. We entered a very sketchy bar area, and then were taken into a room that was packed with people. We sat against the wall, and were asked our drink order. Not being of age, we ordered cokes and water. We were told that it was a 2 drink MINIMUM and that we were required to buy the drinks.

The comedians started, and the host was funny. However, the first comedian seemed to mimic her jokes IDENTICALLY. Also, every single one of his jokes was played off the audience. He couldn't make a single joke without us. The third comedian managed to start the same way, making the same jokes about the audience's ethnicity. But the 2nd comedian was actually very funny and made a few memorable jokes. By the time the third comedian came out, it was 11 o'clock and we were ready to get out of there. The waitress came back and made us order a 2nd drink, but we kindly asked her for our check because we wanted to leave. She made us wait for about 30 more minutes, and finally gave us the check. Our check was for $45, when all we ordered was 6 cokes. They charged an 18% gratuity, and when we gave our waitress $50, she didn't even try to give us our 5 dollars change. This was ridiculous, because the service was terrible. If I were to have given a tip, it would have been maybe a 2% instead of 18%.

After we FINALLY paid the ridiculously overpriced bill, we were given an exit ticket, then lead down a series of stairs to finally leave. I guess for not being charged for the tickets, it was okay. But honestly, it was the biggest ripoff ever.

Don't go to Times Square Comedy. Seriously, you will regret it!

• Pros: kinda funny?
• Cons: price