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A creative comic whose career takes him far from Metro Detroit still heeds the pull of his roots.

Keegan-Michael Key, an actor, producer, director, writer and Comedy Central star, was in Detroit last week as co-grand marshal of the Thanksgiving Day parade and returns in three weeks with six fellow cast members of The 313 long-form improv group.

The Los Angeles-based entertainers will present an improv show Dec. 22 at the Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit Institute of Arts, as they did on the same date last year. Word to the wise: All 1,150 tickets to that show sold out.


Keegan-Michael Key, shown in last Thursday's holiday parade down Woodward Avenue, is a 45-year-old Southfield native who grew up in Detroit. (Facebook photo)

The opening act is local comedian Tim Meadows, a Highland Park native who studied broadcasting at Wayne State and began his stage career at Detroit's Soup Kitchen Saloon (toss back a shot if you recall that downtown spot.) 

The 8 p.m. show's headliners will riff on the new DIA photo exhibit, "Detroit After Dark," and interact with the audience. Key will be joined by Nancy Hayden, Andy Cobb, Maribeth Monroe, Larry Joe Campbell, Tim Robinson and Marc Evan Jackson.

The ensemble, whose members have roots in Detroit's stage and art communities, performs regularly at the Second City comedy club in Hollywood.

Key, a 45-year-old Southfield native who grew up in Detroit, graduated from Shrine High in Royal Oak and earned a theater degree at the University of Detroit Mercy, He's best-known from the Emmy-winning Comedy Central sketch series "Key & Peele" (2012-15) with Jordan Peele. The two funnymen star in "Keanu," a 2016 film that Key produced. 

The Christmas week performance is presented by The Detroit Creativity Project and the DIA Friends of Detroit Film Theatre.

General admission tickets are $20 to $55, priced by four sections. There's also a $135 priority seating ticket that includes a pre-show reception at 5:30 p.m. with light refreshments and a chance to meet members of The 313 while viewing "Detroit After Dark."

► Buy tickets here ($1.50/seat fee)