The Planet Ant Home Team Improv Troupe
Tipping Point Theatre
Northville, Mich.
July 17, 2025
Other than a handful of episodes of “Whose Line it is Anyway?” in my childhood, I never had much experience with improv comedy, although I was always in awe of the actors’ ability think creatively on their feet. The Planet Ant Home Team’s visiting show at Tipping Point Theatre was my first live improv performance, and I found it delightful.
Founded in 2000, The Planet Ant Home Team claims to be the longest-running improv show in Detroit. While it normally performs every Monday evening at its Planet Ant Theatre home in Hamtramck, it trekked out to Northville for a three-day suburban run at Tipping Point. Led by Dave Davies, the performance featured Lauren Bickers, Quintin Hicks, Nuverre Naami and Scott Sanford with musical accompaniment from Josh Silver.
The approximately 90-minute performance included a series of short-form games and long-form scenes, driven by audience prompts. The intimate group of theater-goers was not shy in their suggestions for locations, feelings, objects, occupations and scenarios to drive the story both forward and in fantastically bizarre directions.
The scenes had us going everywhere from Alcatraz to kindergarten to an Amazon boxing warehouse with an array of character relationships ranging from romantic couples to prison cellmates to work buddies.
In one scene, a man taking a dump proposed to his girlfriend while she brushed her teeth and got ready for work (and she said yes!). Another featured a guilty-looking, blood-covered grandfather asking his lawyer granddaughter to represent him in court; we laughed along as she developed a sense of pride as she learned of his side cocaine business and – gasp – ended up actually being his daughter.
One of my favorite games was a challenge: Two members of the troupe had to create a scene in which each sentence started with a different letter of the alphabet, following in alphabetical order. When one messed up, another actor tapped in. Another game had two actors in a scene which would randomly freeze; a different troupe member would step in to start a new story based on the exact same pose.
The most interactive bit had an audience member come to the stage to share the specifics from her day, which was subsequently re-enacted by the troupe. The prompt resulted in a day that featured a baseball-playing, pee-holding dog named Miggy and a work love triangle with an age-inappropriate boss and pregnancy surrogate employee. I guess you had to be there.
The show also featured improvisational songs, which I found especially impressive, both from Silver on keyboard. The performers not only had to create clever, often rhyming dialogue, but had to put it to music and do their best to sing on key, which they more or less got close to.
If you’re looking for light, funny and interactive entertainment, Planet Ant’s improv show is a great way to spend an evening. If one evening is not enough, the show changes every night, offering an all new set bizarre scenarios for you to guide. And if you miss the limited Tipping Point run, you can catch the show weekly at their home theater in Hamtramck.
