I did one taping at NYC. I called in advance and spoke with the manager (Steve?). He ok'd it but didn't want me to video record. So with that prior approval I brought a mic stand in with no problems. Later I found out that I probably could have set up a tripod with a video camera but my hands were pretty full and I was taxi-ing it over to the Knitting Factory.
Probably a good idea to call any place ahead of time and feel relieved that you might be about to even bring in a tall recording mic stand. One employee even got me a chair which was really cool of him.