Our Values: How Danger Boat Uses Comedy to Build Connection, Creativity, and Trust

An African American person in green pants and a block patterned long-sleeve shirt stands next to a white man in black pants and a red button-up shirt onstage at a conference. — *Danger Boat co-founder* *Brandon Boat* *explains how our values inform the work we do every day.*

Our Values: How We Make Comedy That Works

I’ll admit it: early in my career, I didn’t understand the importance of organizational values.

Drafting them took an entire day. An hour might be spent discussing whether you should use “and” vs “or”. Then, once they were finished, they’d go on the website and you’d never see them until the next strategic plan rolled around.

But I’ve come around.

I now believe an organization's values should function as a roadmap for everything it does. They help clarify where you’re going, guide your thinking through difficult decisions, and show clients, partners, and audiences what matters most.

At Danger Boat Productions, our values shape how we create comedy, design workshops, collaborate with clients, and show up in communities. Here’s what we believe, and why it matters to our work.

Professionalism

We strive to be reliable, respectful and practice integrity in everything we do.

Comedy may be playful, but this isn’t a hobby for us. We take our work very seriously.

That means we’re going to communicate with you on time. We prepare thoroughly. We show up with care for the client, the audience, the space, and the purpose of the event. We get just as excited about a great joke as we do about maintaining liability insurance. That’s showbiz, baby.

Professionalism also shapes the kind of humor we use. We don’t punch down. We don’t rely on inappropriate material. We create comedy that is thoughtful, inclusive, and safe for work.

Sustaining Creativity through Business

We believe in the arts as a professional enterprise and that artists deserve to be compensated for their talent.

We’re not in this only for the money, but we do believe creative work should be sustainable. That means paying artists fairly and building a business model that supports high-quality work over the long term.

Over our 15 years of operation, we’ve paid performers more than $608,000 for their work. We value their talent, and we believe others should too.

This also means our pricing is intentional. The rates we offer are carefully calculated to support the people, planning, preparation, and creative expertise that go into each project. We occasionally offer discounts or reduced-cost services, but those decisions are made thoughtfully and at our discretion.

Celebrating Diversity and Promoting Collaboration

We believe in the power of diverse perspectives coming together, fostering spaces where collaboration and growth are both possible and celebrated.

Almost none of our work happens alone.

Whether we’re interviewing a guest in a Laughing Matters show, drawing on audience ideas during an Improv Cafe, or leading an interactive workshop, our work depends on collaboration. We need clients, audiences, participants, performers, and partners to help shape the experience.

We also believe the people on stage should reflect the people in the room. That’s why we draw from a roster of 23 performers with a broad range of backgrounds and lived experiences. We think about diversity expansively, including age, race, class, profession, geography, urban and rural experience, and more.

We don’t always get it perfect, but it is something we strive for every time.

Empowering Change through the Arts

We believe the arts have the power to educate, inspire, and connect people — and ultimately transform both individuals and communities.

Our typical improv show does not begin with someone yelling out a random suggestion from the audience.

More often, it begins with a scientist explaining their research, a public official unpacking a transit challenge, or a community conversation about people’s hopes for the future.

We are not afraid of complicated or difficult subject matter. In fact, that’s where we think comedy can be most useful. A thoughtful comedic performance can help people explore complex ideas, see new perspectives, and stay engaged in conversations that might otherwise feel intimidating, abstract, or heavy.

Joyful Engagement

We believe fun and creativity aren't just nice to have, they are fundamental to our work.

There are plenty of ways to grapple with complex ideas: newspaper editorials, policy panels, political talk shows, community forums, and Saturday morning breakfast roundtables.

We see ourselves as part of that ecosystem, but we want to carve out a space that makes room for joy.

That does not mean we treat every topic lightly or make jokes about everything. It means we believe people are more likely to participate, listen, and stay open when the experience is engaging, human, and even fun.

Joy is not a distraction from serious work. Sometimes, it’s the thing that makes serious work possible.

Living our Values

Recently, I’ve been looking for ways to keep our values more present in our day-to-day work.

I’ve started adding a “Pop Quiz” to our weekly all staff meetings. Sometimes I turn them into Mad Libs. Sometimes I make them into a puzzle. Sometimes I sneak them into another game.

The point is not to memorize them perfectly. The point is to keep reading them with fresh eyes.

We make dozens of choices every day that intersect with our values: what projects we take on, how we price our work, who we put on stage, how we collaborate with partners, and how we use humor responsibly.

Our values help us make those choices with more clarity and care. They remind us that the work is not just to be funny. The work is to use comedy to create connection, build trust, and help people engage with ideas that matter.