Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Directors often don't get enough credit at Second City, but it's clear what Ryan Bernier has done here, with a layered and textured show that doesn't get snagged by its own, excessive ambition but really flies along. The one lengthy audience-involvement improv - which gets a couple up to re-enact their first date - is one of the best such pieces I've seen, not least because everything is set up to empower the volunteers, who are carefully protected and made to look like heroes of their own story, however they might mumble through it. It's an unusually generous scenario that connects this cast to its audience and offers the emotional underpinning you always find in the best Second City revues."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...In one of the funniest sketches, three American Apparel sales clerks (Breit, Kosinski and Witaske, all spot-on), try to outdo each other in their “creative” alternative lifestyles. Each is a case of arrested development, as one boasts of being a “Freegan” (eating only from dumpsters), another riffs on his fashion innovations, and another talks about buying Tom’s shoes (the trendy charity-connected brand that supplies shoes to poor Third World kids)."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...DO NOT MISS A Clown Car Named Desire at Second City e.t.c. You might want to go sooner than later, before Lorne Michaels steals the talent - even though there is a seemingly endless supply of talent to come up and fill any gaps that SNL might create."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...A Clown Car Named Desire is at its best when if fully embraces the whimsy of its name, as in a short sketch that shows a soap-opera style fight between a couple due to the man's obsession with squeaky shoes. Even better is a scene at a Laundromat that shifts from idle conversation between two guys into a surreal circus that shows off Sarah Ross and Kyle Anderson's scenic and lighting design."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Lead by the quirky, nerd-like Mike Kosinski, A Clown Car Named Desire is much more than a riff on Tennessee Williams. It is a couple hours of non-stop laughs. The stage chemistry and wonderful comic timing along with the instant smart ad-libs produced a tightly spun revue. This show is an entertaining show that is a most popular venue that features splendid food and drinks deftly served by a fine serving staff making The Second City a landmark spot for fun. Come to The Second City to enjoy a fun evening of comedy."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...As is the case in Second City E.T.C. Shows, you will find yourself laughing at things that you are not even sure you understand, but in your sub-concious, you do get it! Directed by Ryan Bernier with music direction by Alex Kliner, "A Clown Car Named Desire" really has nothing to do with the circus or a clown car, it is a title of a Tennessee Williams play gone Second City which does set up a spoof they do on an unheard of Williams play ( in our case, it was the "Hairy Triangle") that is created by words the audience throws out to the actors."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Ryan Bernier gets high marks for directing the show with a nice comic flow. He gets a special gold star for his shaping of the American Apparel sketch, which could have turned obvious and repetitive with less energy and pacing. Sarah Ross designed the set, Kyle Anderson the atmospheric lighting, and Alex Kliner the sound design (he also composed the original music and serves as musical director)."
