There’s always something a little different about comedy clubs. For a start, they want you to come in, drink up, and get out and leave in a couple of hours, so they can get the next show underway. And then, of course, there’s the whole thing with someone standing in front of you on a stage, telling jokes and trying to make you laugh. What’s that all about?
So, as you might have guessed, the Punchline, on Battery between Washington and Clay in downtown San Francisco, is a comedy club. I was there on Monday night to see a trio of comedians. I guess it’s not really appropriate to judge the bar itself by the quality of the entertainment, but I’m sure you’ll want to know whether Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari is funny or not. Well, mostly not. On one hand, he was trying out material for a DVD filming to follow in a few weeks, and on the other, well, people had paid upwards of twenty dollars a ticket. Plus, comedians setting up impressions of things that don’t really exist isn’t really funny, and is mostly just lazy comedy. Still, he did have some fairly hilarious stories, and the audience was laughing all the way through, so maybe I just didn’t get it.
So, the bar itself. Well, the service is slow, if friendly; they offered to hold my bike helmet behind the bar for free (were they worried I might use it as an offensive weapon? I can be pretty dangerous when I’m only injured), but then the wait staff pretty much ignored us for twenty minutes before coming to see what we wanted to drink. It is table service only, so you don’t get the option of going up to the bar. The drinks are not cheap, and there’s a two drink minimum. They have the basics at four dollars – Budweiser, Coors, and light varieties, and then bottles at five and more palatable pints at six. Cocktails is where it starts getting pricey – my friend had a couple of eight dollar tequila gimlets, which she assures me were tasty. As well they might be, at that price.
They also have a limited menu priced at around eight to ten dollars – pizza, nachos, and the like. We didn’t eat, but the people sitting at our table did, and their pizza sure smelled good, for what it’s worth.
So, they have comedy acts pretty much every night of the week; it seems like they sell out, so I’d advise booking ahead (the full schedule can be found here, you have to pay the traditional service fees, but at least it’s not Ticketmaster, huh), and then getting there early to secure yourself a decent seat. Also, if you’re found of more than two beers without having to take out a second mortgage, you might consider going somewhere else first. There are a couple of bars along the Embarcadero, for instance, that would do the job nicely.