Throwback: Our 2012 Interview on We the People
Back in 2012, The Theater of Public Policy was featured on We the People, a Minneapolis TV program hosted by Joan Higginbotham and produced by the League of Women Voters. It was an exciting time—we were gearing up for our Fringe Festival run, where we mixed improv comedy with serious policy discussions.
The format was simple but powerful: we interviewed public figures, including Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Kaywin Feldman of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and others, about pressing issues like voter ID laws and public art funding. Then, our team of improvisers took the discussion and turned it into live, unscripted comedy.
Why? Because we believe that civic engagement should be fun. Important issues deserve our attention, but that doesn’t mean they have to be dry or inaccessible. Our Fringe show aimed to bring humor into the conversation and show that policy impacts real people in real ways.
Now, more than a decade later, that mission still drives us.
Transcript:
Joan Higginbotham:
Well, as I said before, this is a little different because we're interviewing and being interviewed at the same time. These gentlemen, Tane Danger, Brandon Boat., are going to do their fringe performance is going to involve interviewing public figures and then doing a little improv based on what they've learned in the interview. So is that sort of a description?
Tane Danger:
Yeah, that's perfect. So we have got five nights as part of the Fringe Festival and we've got five really terrific guests. We've got Secretary of State, mark Richie is going to be on one night, K one Feldman, the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Chris Farrell of American Public Media, Tom Horner, who was the Independence Party candidate for governor. And then we have one final guest who we have just recently confirmed that I will be sort of a surprise.
Joan Higginbotham:
A mystery guest.
Tane Danger:
Guest. So yeah, we're really excited and just like you said, we take everything that we talk about with those folks and then we have a team of really talented improvisers from all over the Twin Cities who bring all those stories and issues and big ideas to life. So it's a little bit of serious issues. It's a little bit of improv comedy, and most people have a really good time. You would have a good time.
Joan Higginbotham:
So it's sort of like a Dudley Riggs kind of thing where it's topical humor.
Brandon Boat:
Everything that's brought up in the interviews is then given kind of a narrative. It's kind of brought to life and suddenly all the different policy issues are breathing and they're about real people that the audience can relate to. It's not just, here's my pie chart of my figures, and this is why we need to have more of blank in blank.
Joan Higginbotham:
So, now, Kaywin Feldman, the Rembrandt show, no doubt is going to appear or something. Maybe Rembrandt will be
Brandon Boat:
Himself. He's going to be there.
Tane Danger:
He himself has said that our show is the best show other than the other two people who are here in the studio with us at this particular moment. But no Kaywin's going to come on and we're going to talk to her about Rembrandt. And I'm actually really excited to talk to Kaywin. We are currently serving as artists in residence at the MIA. So Kaywin is our boss and princess son. Exactly. So I cannot ask the same difficult questions, but what I really want to ask is public art and we are suffering from such deficits, you know, defend yourself. But that would be that I'd lose my job.
Joan Higginbotham:
Well, maybe not. She probably would like the opportunity to say why public art is important.
Tane Danger:
Yeah.
Joan Higginbotham:
That might be a good question. Now what about Mark Ritchi?
Tane Danger:
Mark Ritchie? We are going to talk with Secretary Ritchie about the voter ID amendment that's going to be on the ballot this fall and about both why it's on the ballot and then what the potential implications of if it were to pass or fail would be.
Joan Higginbotham:
Now you said earlier, before we got started that you're also going to do something for the League of Women Voters.
Brandon Boat:
Yes. We're going to do a show in collaboration with the League of Women Voters on the 17th in July, sort of a collaboration to raise money for the Minneapolis chapter. And we're going to be interviewing Lori Sturdevant of the Star Tribune.
Joan Higginbotham:
Well, that should be interesting. So now how did you decide, maybe you asked Ms. Feldman because she was your boss, but how did you come up with these other people?
Tane Danger:
Well, I mean, we're really interested in talking to folks who are immersed in some of these really big issues that people think about, but maybe they don't think are necessarily fun or interesting all the time. Right.
Joan Higginbotham:
This could be true.
Tane Danger:
Yeah. And I'm sure that all of your viewers are extremely excited to hear ad nauseum about voter ID amendments.
Joan Higginbotham:
It's never ad nauseum.
Tane Danger:
And No, it's not. And they are so excited. But there's a lot of people out there that maybe just talking about voter ID amendments or talking about good government isn't necessarily what they would imagine spending their Friday evening doing. But we want to show it can be fun. It can be something that people really enjoy. And then we will give them all a reason to tune into this program week after week.
Joan Higginbotham:
But now tell me this, so now you're, you're going to have five guests and then will they be on more than once or how each…
Tane Danger:
One is a one night only
Joan Higginbotham:
And you're going to only do this five times then?
Tane Danger:
Well, we actually perform on a regular basis. But for the Fringe Festival, yes. We've only got these five and we have put together this all-star lineup for
Brandon Boat:
This fringe festival. Each guest will close after
Joan Higginbotham:
Each night ever again. Never. So can we know somehow who's going to be the guest the right that we come?
Tane Danger:
Absolutely. It'll be both on the Fringe Festival website, under our page and on our website, which I'm sure will be linked.
Joan Higginbotham:
Okay, great. So that way we'll know we won't be there on the wrong night and see somebody that we're really not that. Well, of course we'll all want to hear this. You will announce a special mystery guest before the show. Now, how did you come up with this
Tane Danger:
Concept? Well, I think that both Brandon and I are folks who are really interested in big ideas and policy. And I mean, there's sort of a whole class and a whole group of people kind of out there who say, oh, politics or policy is boring, or it's dirty, or it's something that I don't want to be involved with. And I've felt for a long time, it doesn't have to be that way. This is actually something that's fun. And in all fairness to those folks, I think sometimes we, in the public policy realm, don't do a good job explaining why it's fun and make it important to them. And so that's the kind of worlds we've been trying to bridge.
Joan Higginbotham:
Well, I am especially glad as a League of Women Voters person that you're going to work with us and that you are making public policy issues interesting to people all over the place. And so now you've got the first part of the show, which is getting the facts out, and the second half, which you'll see if you go to the French Festival, is when the improv actors put it all together and make it fascinating. So hope you'll tune in again. This was Big Thinkers, Serious Issues, improv, comedy, and this is the Theater of Public Policy. Thanks so much.
Brandon Boat:
Yeah, thank you.
Tane Danger:
You're welcome.