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This was Motor City Improv's second appearance in Real Detroit.  Read their first write up here.

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Real Detroit Weekly, Dec. 5, 2001 (excerpt), by Kip Dexter

YULETIDE CHEER
Motor City Improv gets naughty, 
and so does The Planet Ant

It's right around this time every year that something magical happens: lights go up on houses, Santas go up in malls, and everyone's mood just seems to get a little bit jollier.  It's the perfect time of year for Detroit's local improv troupes to attack, and Motor City Improv and The Planet Ant both hit hard.  Both groups open their holiday shows this week.  Motor City Improv gives us Naughty or Nice and The Planet Ant delivers The Madness of Kris Kringle.  Both troupes return with their signature style of comedy, both show signs of further growth, and both raise the bar for underground comedy just a little bit higher.  The two companies share a lot of similarities, most directly however, both are deeply rooted in their origins at The Second City.  Both troupes were founded by members of the Second City family, and to this day prominently feature those involved with it.  In fact, both shows were directed by current Second City Mainstage cast members -Jeff Fritz directed Naughty or Nice and Antoine Mckay helmed The Madness of Kris Kringle.

Motor City Improv's Naughty or Nice weighs in on the naughty side, but the show itself is quite nice.  Motor City Improv is the theatrical equivalent of a Douglas Coupland
novel, dropping pop culture references like a lions' wide receiver drops footballs -frequently and effortlessly.  The cast is made up of Matt Gannaway, Mike Lomas, Billy Zakolski, Lesley Braden, James Bonadio and returning co-founder Adam Burkett.  The sextet's cast is a perfect mixture of styles and each member's sensibilities appear throughout, especially Burkett's, whose return gives Motor City Improv an added sense of much-needed sly weirdness.  Burkett's quiet wit nicely congeals with the edgy Bonadio and charming hipster Zakolski.  Gannaway plays a wide array of loveable lugs and Lomas does a great job of mixing his characters and keeping each one distinct.  Once again Braden bears the burden of being the only woman in the ensemble, but she efficiently keeps the boys in check.

Throughout the show, it becomes apparent that the cast is very fond of their youth.  As they did in their last show Drai Hoomph, Motor City Improv loves to relive their childhood.  They don't simply play children (although they do play them a lot), but they also bring the ridiculous rules of growing up to adulthood.  In one scene, when Burkett disagrees with Gannaway's statistics during a meeting, Gannaway threatens to run away forever.  In what is by far the naughtiest scene of the show, we see what affect Britney Spears really has on our children.  Motor City Improv also offers an interesting take on DVD's, the cast visits classic movies and shows deleted scenes that haven't made it to the collector's editions you may have at home.  Did you know Bing Crosby was in The Wizard of Oz?  I bet you never saw the Silence of the Lambs outtake where the creepy, skin-wearing transvestite works at a Baskin Robbins. Thanks to Motor City Improv we get to see what the studio may not want us to see.  As usual, Motor City Improv's perfect use of music blends this show into a tightly wrapped gift.  Motor City Improv is losing the Wunderground next month, now would be a great time tostop by and see them.

Naughty or Nice runs at 8:30 p.m. on Fridays at the Wunderground Theatre in Royal Oak.