Donny’s Skybox at The Second City

This place is tiny tiny tiny. I had a front row seat. The front of the chair touched the stage and my husband’s knees were touching the back of my chair so I could not scoot back. I had to have my legs to the right or left of the chair. VERY uncomfortable!
DO NOT SEE THE «DEFIANT THOMAS BROTHERS.» Waste of time and money. I had a straight face during the ENTIRE performance.

Verbal Straight Jackets…4 Amazing women entertaining you! Incredibly funny… you must go… running the next 2 Friday’s. Don’t miss it!

If you’re buying tickets to a show at Donny’s Skybox, it’s probably a student performance. This can be a great deal — I attended a «Coached Ensembles» show, which consisted of four different improv groups performing for ~15 minutes each. Tickets were only $ 10.
The theater itself is fairly small, and seating is general admission. Be sure to show up early enough to snag a good spot!

Zero stars for the roulette show on Dec sixth. Seriously not even close to humorous. Luckily only cost about twelve bucks each or would have asked for money back. Two dramatic skits out of six. for a so called comedy show. I feel for the people paying for «schooling». Goes to show, if you are funny, you are funny. Can’t teach sense of humor.

Best little dive theatre in the area. My daughter is a student at THe Second City so we went for her performance.
There is plenty of room to be comfortable and the stage is small so everyone has a good view. Drinks are available for purchase.

A group of us came here to see our friend’s performance. Donny’s Skybox showcases The Second City students’ sketches. Some students are great and some are… working out the kinks. It’s a learning experience and you can’t get better if you don’t put yourself out there. You have to give all of them credit for trying and I liked it well enough to justify spending $ 10 on local theater.
Parking in the area wasn’t too bad. I had to circle a couple times, but I found a paybox spot nearby. We waited for the seating area to open up, grabbed a drink and shared some laughs. We met up with our friend and went to dinner nearby.
This is a good option if you’re looking for a cheap, casual show and want to grab dinner and drinks in the area.

I find the Second City theatres difficult to navigate, as the set up is very maze-​like. I went to the DeMaat theatre for an audition once and spent most of my pre-​audition times wandering up and down the stairs, having no idea where I was and hoping I didn’t miss the whole thing. I didn’t, so that was a plus.
The Skybox theatre is on the 4^th floor, and as with most theatres, you’re never really sure just how big, or small, they’re going to be. It was a decent size, with chairs crammed into every corner in which a chair could possibly fit. However, it was quite comfortable, and seems that there is really no bad seat in the house.
The stage has a very cool structure to it. The show we saw was fantastic, and I felt like, even when the improvisers were out of the scens and standing on the sides, the design of the stage still gave them (the resting players) a fantastic stage picture.
I don’t know much about the drinks/​bartender/​etc, as I stopped in at the Starbucks on the first floor prior to the show.
I do enjoy the way the space itself felt, and think that, if you’re invited to a show here, you should definitely check it out. Or, if you’re a performer and you want/​can afford (not sure how much the space costs for a run) to play at the Skybox, you probaly should. NOTE: though I didn’t see a musical show, there was a lovely piano in there.

Hey people, check the heading ~ this is review of the THEATER, not the bartenders, not the students, not the performances.
The theater is located on the 4^th floor at the back of Piper’s Alley. Yes, this is where students get their first stage time. You can take the escalator up to the 3^rd floor and then walk up, or you can ride the elevator. Tickets are purchased right inside the double glass doors of the theater on the 4^th floor.
Theater is small with your standard stacking chairs. Nothing fancy.

I came here for a show a few weeks ago. First, I walked into the regular second city and they had to direct me into this one, which is next door. Kind of confusing, but I ended up getting there a couple minutes before the show started. Got a drink (no drink minimum) and found a couple of seats in the front row since the show was pretty full. So front row, just to warn you is very close to the stage. Like literally, spitting distance. Which actually happened to me during the show by one of the students!
Other than that, I found the show to be pretty funny except for one skit that was a bit painful/​awkward to watch because it just wasn’t funny. But it’s a student show and my expectations were not that high. Overall great job that they did! I’m not sure that I would necessarily come back, since this time was for a coworker’s family member who was in the show. But it was really good for what it was.

Well, when you attend a show here it is either hit or miss. It depends on the performers., but honestly the stuff her is mostly miss. I know they are students, but some of them are horribly unfunny. This would be fine if you had time to kill and the show was free, but they charged $ 10/​ticket at this event which makes me feels like I got ripped-​off. I am used to seeing comedy students performing all over NYC for anywhere from free to $ 15, but they have also been decent and somewhat entertaining. Also the Skybox seating is composed of uncomfortable folding chairs to make the whole experience more excruciating.

This review is for the bartender only!
Donny’s Skybox shows have yet to impress me. As other reviews here have said, they are student shows so expect student material. Drinks help make the experience much more pleasant!
And boy is the bartender there nice. There are so many people coming from the ‘burbs who order ridiculous drinks and then act like douchey big shots and after all that bull, don’t tip.
On the times I’ve gone here, I’ve ordered a simple Mike’s Hard and always tipped because the bartender is nice and always does his job with a smile, regardless of who you are or where you come from.
If shows were better here I’d come more just cause of the bar service. Well done, comrade. Well done.

I don’t really understand marking Donny’s Skybox Theatre down because of the content taken from a sample of exactly two student shows. Student shows are mostly attended by other students and their families for a reason — to showcase the students’ work and help other students learn from the mistakes that were made.
If you do some research and avoid walking up to the box office without a clue of what you’re getting into, you should be able to find a show that suits your comedic tastes.
Now, as theaters go, the acoustics are pretty crumby and the stage is laid out awkwardly. But there’s a bar at the door and the shows are pretty cheap.

This rating is based on the 3 shows I have seen at this theater.
Donny’s Skybox is a Second City theater is where the students of the training center present their work. The theater is like any comedy theater, with some tables facing a stage area. From what I gathered, these students are training in hope to be actors/​writers either on the Main Stage, or on SNL.
I am a big fan of jokes and the funnies. I like The Office, Parks and Rec, Peep Show, Coming to America, Bill Murray, LOLcatz etc. I hardly turn down an opportunity for an evening of comedic entertainment.
My experiences at Donny’s Skybox include 2 sketch shows and the Sunday improv musical show. Perhaps my comedic tastes differ to those of the actors and writers of the Second City training center, but of those three shows, I cannot recall even once laughing out loud. Instead, there was a lot of cringing, at the race jokes in the sketches, and at the bad jokes in the musical improv. Unfortunately for the latter, all the jokes could have been rammed into the quadrant of bad jokes, had the evening been described as a Venn diagram. And without jokes, it was just a bunch of people on stage singing a lot about nothing.
I myself do my fair share of singing a lot about nothing, mostly naked, in the shower, in the comfort of my own home. Although I could be convinced to see another sketch show at Donny’s I would pass on the musical shows, and rather stay at home, naked.