Interviewing an improviser: Kiell Smith-Bynoe on Kool Story Bro

Written by: Kat Mokrynski
Published: Wednesday 26th March 2025

Kiell Smith-Bynoe & Friends: Kool Story Bro is going on tour across the UK before coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. The show, created by Smith-Bynoe, has a group of all-star comedians and a surprise celebrity host improvising unscripted sketches based on stories from the audience members, ensuring that no two show ever the same.

How did you first get started in the world of comedy?

I left drama school in 2010 and I had some friends from school who were doing YouTube videos, sketches and skits and stuff. They actually started out on Facebook, but when I finished in 2010 they were doing stuff on YouTube. My friend Tolu, who went by Don't Jealous Me on socials, was looking for someone. This was when you put stuff on Facebook and be like, "Hi, is anyone available to play a character?" So I saw that. I was out of work, I'd just finished drama school and had no money. These were the days where you left drama school without a showreel. Now they make sure that you have a showreel when you leave, which is what they should have been doing from ages back. So I said 'yes' on the basis that I'd get something to put in my showreel. And then we just kept doing more and more sketches and skits and stuff.

I never thought that I'd be doing comedy when I was in drama school. I always thought I'd be doing serious plays, like Shakespeare. So there was that trajectory, but there was also auditions, because I was auditioning for pretty much anything. I think my first audition out of drama school was Psychoville. I think I was still in drama school when I went to that audition! But I didn't know anything about acting on TV - my whole training had been about acting on stage. But I was auditioning and I met a company called 2LE Media and they wanted to talk to me because I'd also done music. But, whilst we were doing quite serious grime music, we also did a parody song. The producers had seen that song and they wanted to meet us. They got in touch via YouTube. And then I remember we had a meeting at the O2 and they were like, "Yeah, we want to do something with the parody!" And we were all like, "Oh, we're not a comedy act. We're serious grime artists and we just made that one song." And then I was like, "But I do act!" And at the time, I think they were like, "Well, this guy's trying to get a chance just because we met him about something else." And I was like, "No, I actually went to drama school - I did the training!"

Then they introduced me to Kayvan Novak and I auditioned for a pilot of his that he did for the BBC, and then I was in that. I used to do loads of the stuff that he did. I was involved from 2011 until recently, really.

So there were two journeys at the same time. There was an online thing, and then there was getting into TV with Kayvan and then meeting other people and meeting comedians, and that's how I got into the stratosphere of Jamie and Tash [Demetriou] and Cardinal Burns and all those guys. That was all through Kayvan.

What made you want to create Kool Story Bro?

Well, I've always done improv. I went to Theatre Royal Stratford East, which was a youth theatre in East London where I'm from. All of their methods were about improvising and devising, so I'd always done that. And then I joined a group called Junior Blaggers, which was the younger version of the show, Blaggers, which included a lot of comedians from the black circuit at the time, like Richard Blackwood and Curtis Walker and Jo Martin, who was one of the creators of the show - The Doctor in Doctor Who. It was her company who'd created the show, and I was in the junior version of that. Then I really wanted to do more improv comedy, so I joined a group called Acting Up in 2008 and we did shows up until like 2015 and I joined BattleActs!. I started doing some shows with Nic Sampson and a few of those New Zealand guys, and that's how I met Steen [Raskopoulos] and Rose Matafeo and Mae Martin. That was all through improv shows.

So then I really wanted to do my own improv show, but I wanted to make it slightly different to the ones I had been doing. What those previous shows had done had really focused on the guest, and I did still want guests, but I wanted it to be more focused on the audience. I wanted everyone to feel like there's no possible way that we could have rehearsed anything, and if we did have time to rehearse, why would we rehearse this? So we wanted to create something that was like that.

What I came up with was getting the entire story from the audience, rather than just a word or location or something like that. So that was the inspiration for creating the show, and then I just tried it! Literally got three nights in Edinburgh with [promoters] Berk's Nest and we were trying it out. We didn't know how it was going to do, we didn't know if it would work. I still hadn't really thought of the format in its entirety - maybe about half an hour before we were about to go on stage. Lara Ricote was our first celebrity guest host and she was incredible. That show was just electric, and I knew immediately that I was onto something.

So there's no rehearsal process at all before the show, or do you meet up before?

We meet up and we do warm-up games. We just play silly little games that keep our minds going. The show's at 11:30 at night in Edinburgh, for example. On the tour, it's like 7pm, but in a way, 11:30 in Edinburgh is 7:30 anywhere else! [Laughs] But if you've gone through a whole day of doing other shows or things and you get to that time and you're about to perform in front of 300 people, you need a little something to warm you up. So we do some games.

Occasionally, if we haven't seen each other for a few months and we've got shows coming up, we might book in a rehearsal where we just tell each other stories that might have happened to us in the last few months and then we improvise based off that. So that's the only "rehearsal" process that we have.

And how has it been performing Kool Story Bro?

I love it! It's my favourite thing. It's what I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to walk onto the stage not knowing what's going to happen, but also get to travel around with my friends and really laugh. I really laugh in these shows. There's always something that I find funny, whether it's from the audience, other performers or the special guest - it's just a lot of fun. And also, anything goes! We've had terrible stories before and been able to make something out of it, and we've had great stories. So sometimes the show becomes more about one story that one person told than any of the stuff that we do on stage. But it's all really fun.

Do you have any favourite stories that you remember?

There's a story that a lady told in Edinburgh where she said that she met a guy in a club and then went to the car park to have sex with him in her car. And, when they'd finished, she put a curvy grip in her mouth and she was holding her hair back. He went to kiss her and she moved her head back and swallowed the curvy grip by accident! And then he had to give her the Heimleich to get it out... after they just had sex in her car. So stories like that - as many details as you can get!

I remember there being a lot of chat about which supermarket car park it was, what if it was Waitrose, and what would happen if it was in ASDA. Also, the special guest host for that show was Mat Baynton, and he was asking a lot of details about how they got from the club to the car park - he didn't realise that it happened immediately. He was like, "What was the courting process? What was the dating process?" And she was like, "I met him, and then we went to the car park," and he's like, "But you got to know each other?" She's like, "No, there was no getting to know each other." [Laughs] So picking up on those details or that interaction and making that a much bigger thing than it was is always a really fun thing to do.

Do you have any advice for those looking to go into comedy, specifically improv?

Keep doing it! The more you do it, the better you'll get at it. I don't watch much improv, but I like doing it. And sometimes I make a choice and I'm like, "Oh, that wasn't the best idea." What I get more of is when I've left a show, I go, "Oh, I could have said that!" But you just keep doing it, you keep playing with different improvisers and groups and get your name around. That's exactly what I did.

And finally, how would you describe Kool Story Bro in one word?

One word... Inimitable. Everything that happens in the room happens one time. You could get exactly the same people on and off stage, and it would be a completely different show.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe & Friends: Kool Story Bro is touring across the UK from 10th April until 22nd May and will be at Edinburgh Fringe in August. koolstorybro.co.uk