SKETCHES OF KINGFIELD

How can the gap between political parties be bridged?
Danger Boat Productions and the Minnesota Humanities Center are using laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
The statewide Sketches of Minnesota Tour included Kingfield on Saturday, Sept. 6. The event was held at the Center for Performing Arts, and included a meal and conversation before the improv troupe took what they heard and brought it onstage. About 60 people were there.
“The purpose was to facilitate conversations, including with members from the community who aren’t always the most vocal, to recognize where people want to take action,” observed Kingfield Neighborhood Association Community Coordinator Ashley Annett. “I noticed many people stayed after and were talking about new things they could do in the community. A couple were inspired to come to the neighborhood association’s meeting to talk about issues they would like to make moves on.”

"The Minnesota Humanities Center and Danger Boat Productions launched Sketches of Minnesota during the summer of 2024 to encourage active listening, facilitate real conversation, and to have a night of fun. This unique initiative allows attendees to enjoy a night of conversation with their neighbors – along with a healthy dose of improvisational comedy – about the concerns, hopes, and dreams of their community," stated Jessica Rust of Minnesota Humanities Center. "The event went really well with good engagement between people who attended."

Kingfield resident Tane Danger co-founded Danger Boat Productions and co-created the nationally renowned civics-inspired improv comedy show, “The Theater of Public Policy.” He shared his perspective about how the statewide Sketches of Minnesota events are going.

What is the goal of the Sketches events?
Danger: We built Sketches of Minnesota to bring communities together; to listen and share stories with one another, and to laugh together. In a time when there’s so much division and polarization, we think it’s meaningful for neighbors to sit together and share what they love about their community, what’s challenging, and what they think its future might be. That can also actually be really fun, too – especially when you add in improv comedy. No matter who you are or where you live, we find everybody could use a good laugh, and it brings us together in unexpected ways.
We are finding that the things people love about their towns and communities is not so different anywhere in the state. “Whether in a neighborhood like Kingfield Minneapolis or a small town like Little Falls or Braham, people value knowing their neighbors, their local businesses and the art and festivals people come out for.
The challenges different places face have a lot of similarities as well. People in almost every place have said it can be hard to break-in – the “Minnesota Ice” phenomenon is as real in the Twin Cities as it is in Greater Minnesota. Affordable housing is an issue almost every place we go.
People in almost every place really don’t appreciate it when folks from somewhere else craft a story about them they think is wrong. People in small towns don’t appreciate the narrative that there’s nothing to do there or worse, that people are somehow uncultured. People in Minneapolis don’t appreciate the perception that their communities are unsafe or unfriendly. In all these cases, people say these narratives that get created about their communities by people not from those places are wrong, detrimental, and easily disproven if you actually spend a little time in the place.
Sketches also helps show that neighbors disagree about things and that’s okay. In the conversation portions of the events, people will often share different perspectives or even completely 180 takes from each other on hot button issues in a community. At these events, people listen and then ask each other questions about that. We have yet to have anyone get into a shouting match. We say in the opening of these events we want people to hear and value difference, and we find they really are doing that.

How did the one in Kingfield go and how does it compare to elsewhere?
Danger: Every Sketches event is different, and Kingfield MPLS was no exception. If you just look at voting patterns, South Minneapolis would seem to be pretty homogeneous politically. Yet we found that people who came to the event got into some deep conversations about differences on key issues that don’t always show up on a red/blue map. If it feels like everybody around you thinks or believes the same things, it can be harder to express a dissenting point of view. So there was something really valuable and refreshing about creating space where people could share how they view some issues or challenges differently from one another.
People and communities are complex. That is just as true in South Minneapolis as it is on the Iron Range as it is on the Western Prairies. The mistake people often make is thinking everybody in one place all believe the same thing because of where they live. And that is almost never the case in our experience.

How does humor help audiences address complex topics?
Danger: Laughter is literally one of the oldest forms of language. Millions of years ago, our ancestors were doing something akin to laughing together about something funny they all saw long before they had words for it. By laughing together, they were creating a shared experience and understanding with one another. That’s how I think about humor today. If we can get a group of people to laugh together about a shared experience or issue, they will connect and even bond over that. It doesn’t mean they will agree about the solution or path forward. But through laughing, they will see each other as human in a deep way. That’s the basis of trust and everything else that we want community to be about.
Stephen Colbert has a line I borrow a lot about the power of humor to address issues and topics: “It is nearly impossible to laugh and be scared at the same time.”
If we can use humor to unpack and reflect issues, our audience is much more likely to lean in and listen. By using humor as a light, we’re dispelling the darkness that can make the tough issues feel insurmountable. It requires being thoughtful and having good intentions, but there are few things I’ve found as powerful as humor in tackling tough subjects when done right.

What did you hear from attendees?
Danger: Folks are often amazed after a Sketches show that our improv cast is able to take so many different aspects of a community and turn them into an entire comedy show, right off the tops of their heads. “How is that possible?!” It is pretty remarkable to create a show that in real time covers everything from the affordable housing crunch in town to the turkeys that “terrorize” joggers all in an improv show. I’m so grateful and lucky Danger Boat has some of the best improv talent in Minnesota working on this project.
Just a couple days after Sketches of Minnesota Kingfield MPLS, I got an email from a neighbor thanking me for the event. They shared that the program inspired them to start some conversations with other neighbors who weren’t at the event. That was something I really appreciated and valued. If this project can get more neighbors talking to each other, listening and sharing stories with each other, even after our show is over, the impact will be profound. We want people to walk away from a Sketches show not just thinking “That was hilarious” (though hopefully they think that). We want them to see the value of connecting with neighbors, on good stuff and even tough stuff.
That’s what community is all about.
We’re just a little comedy spark to help make more of those connections happen.

What’s next?
Danger: There will be a scripted recap show in early 2026! We’re traveling to 10 communities across Minnesota this fall. Over winter break, we will take things we learned in each community and piece it all together into one final scripted sketch comedy show. It’ll be like a tour of Minnesota (including Kingfield!) in 60 minutes of sketch comedy. We don’t have dates for those shows yet, but they’ll be in early 2026 and there will be at least one show in the Twin Cities. Stay tuned for more details: https://www.mnhum.org/program/sketches-of-minnesota/
We are also already planning for another tour of communities in 2026. If you are connected with a community in Minnesota that you think would benefit from and enjoy a Sketches event next year, please email info@mnhum.org