HAMTRAMCK — A one-man, one-act show can be very good, or very bad, depending on the actor and execution.

Thankfully, the third and final installment of the Fish Dinner series, Fish Dinner 3: Enough Already, is not just good, but great. Quintin Hicks’ characters are unique and intriguing. The addition of improv and audience participation only adds to the hilarity.

Although this is the third in the series, audience members are not at a disadvantage if they have not seen the first two productions. The award-winning show debuted in 2011 with the second installment in 2013. While there are continuing characters, the play stands on its own and newbie Fish Dinner attendees will have no problem following along. You might be sad, however, that you missed out on seeing more of these goofy and poignant personalities that Hicks so skillfully brings to life with the help of Director Dave Davies, also back for the third time.

Hicks, an alum of Detroit’s Second City, is as comfortable playing a woman as he is a man. In fact, the first character in the performance is the nameless “Southern Girl,” mother of Gordon and much younger girlfriend of Hank. The premise for the beginning of the play is that she has wandered in off the streets of Hamtown in search of fun things to do with Hank. “She” interrupts Planet Ant Artistic Director Shawn Handlon, who is trying to introduce the show, making the customary “turn your cell phone off” announcements, etc.

Musical Director John Edwartowski helps keep the flow going, particularly during Hicks’ several costume changes. The music is often pivotal, such as when it accompanies the tales of Claude Quinn, the vagabond salesman, working his wares out of a suitcase that pops up onto a stand. Tommy LeRoy also deserves a shout-out for his multitasking as stage manager and set designer. The set is sparse, but gets the job done as the scenes change without necessitating elaborate set changes.

Gordon is the only character who reappears throughout the production. The learning-disabled young adult is mostly sympathetic, even when he inadvertently “overdoes it” while serving as the masseuse at the nursing home where he is employed and causes some popping and snapping that goes beyond stress relief. Of course, he manages to blame it on a hapless audience member, who he enlisted to hold the patient (a dummy) while Gordon collapses the portable massage table. Another character that relies heavily on the attendees is the ice cream salesman, who rides his adult tricycle on the stage with a box full of chocolate creamsicles, which he actually sells to the audience for 75 cents a piece.

The only scene that does not seem to fit with the others is perhaps the funniest and best show of Hicks’ abilities for physical comedy. In the mostly silent scene, he plays a Dad who has just put his baby down. He struggles to keep the house quiet so as to not disturb the child. In another interactive scene, the Mighty Quinn, a former wrestler who has sustained career-ending injuries, enlists the help of an audience member to feed him his pudding.

The show is not always politically correct — there’s one ethnic slur by Hank and some mild animal abuse (however it is of imaginary cats in the silent scene) — but it is pretty easy to forgive the uncouth characters for their missteps.

Ultimately, time spent with Hicks’ band of misfits is time well spent, even though there is no fish dinner in sight–only creamsicles.