“I’ve never respected a script in my life” - Kiell Smith-Bynoe talks about new improv tour

With an all-star cast of comedians and some very special guests, Kiell Smith-Bynoe is out on tour with his smash-hit improvised show. - Kool Story Bro. It sees them taking stories from the audience and turning them into unscripted sketches and scenes.  

Heading out across the UK, the star of Taskmaster, Ghosts and The Great British Sewing Bee will be joined by a rotating cast of improvisers. This includes Starstruck favourites Lola-Rose Maxwell and Nic Sampson, Afterlife and Austentatious’s Graham Dickson, Big Boys’ Robert Gilbert, Mock The Week’s Emily Lloyd-Saini, Shadow and Bone’s Anna Leong Brophy Taskmaster’s Emma Sidi, with more to be announced.  

As this hilarious and unpredictable show heads towards Brighton Dome Corn Exchange on Sat 12 April and London’s Soho Theatre Walthamstow on Tues 22 May, we caught up with Kiell to find out a bit more about his process and the unpredictability of performing.

Is comedy improv an actual superpower? I’ve seen a lot of people doing it, and there seems to be a lot of chances for everything to collapse into chaos. Or is that the appeal?

When you know the science behind it, then it's actually really easy, and it's just about your instinct. But mainly it's about listening and remembering and also just going with whatever someone else in the scene has brought to you.

And I don't think it really can go wrong. I think as long as you're up there with performers that you trust and that you enjoy working with, then I don't really think it can go wrong. I mean, that hasn't happened yet, but we have got 16 tour dates where there’s the potential.  

Do you take an improv approach to your dramatic acting? Or are you more of a “respect the script” kind of performer?

I’ve never respected a script in my life.  

I think it’s always good to know - I learnt this very early on in auditions, that the better you know your lines, the more you're able to improvise if someone was to throw something in. You never really know, unless you’ve worked with someone before, if you’re in a scene with someone who likes to do that or someone who really doesn’t like to do that. So, I think once you've learnt your lines, you are in a position where, if someone was to throw something, you would have a response for it. But I wouldn't just do it out of the blue, unless I really thought it needed it.  

How much workshopping time went into creating the framework for Kool Story Bro? Did the development take longer than if it were a standard comedy work?

When we did the first show of the first Edinburgh run, the first time we ever did Kool Story Bro, 20 minutes before the show started I still hadn't thought about where the special guest would be whilst we're improvising the scene. We’d thought about a few things, but we hadn't thought of everything. And it was only about 20 minutes into the first show that I realised that the show really works, and that was just because we got such a good story straight out the gate for the first show... So, it was all a work in progress.

I've done improv shows before - I did They Seem Nice with Nick Sampson and I did Jacuzzi with the FA but I really wanted to create something that meant the audience couldn’t feel like there was anything pre rehearsed or pre planned, and not that there is with any of the other shows, but I think it's clearer to tell for an audience that there's nothing prepared, because everything comes from the audience members.  

You’ve assembled a team of heavyweights for the show. Are they all mates, or was there an Ocean’s 11-style process in gathering them together?

There’s nobody on the tour that I haven’t improvised with before… actually apart from Janine Harouni! But I've been a fan of hers for such a long time. I first saw her in a Comedy Central sketch show, and I'd never heard of her before or seen her before, and I was a big fan instantly. And then I saw her in Edinburgh, and I also wrote a part for her in a show that I created a few years back. But I haven't improvised with her, but I know that she comes from an improv background, that she did a UCB and I sort of also feel like all American stand-ups can improvise. I mean, I hope I'm not wrong, but I'm sure I'm not.

But there is quite a specific vibe to the show, and as I've been described by various exes, I am ‘too chill’, but I think that it's a good energy and it’s about finding people that also match that energy, or can work with that energy, because some people can't, and that's fine, but finding that has meant that I've got what I think are just the best people for the show.

Has there ever been a suggestion that was just too weird? We obviously want to know what that was…

It's really interesting what people think is a good story… And sometimes you have to hold their hand when you tell them “that's not a story”. Or you could do it the Lily Allen way, which was: “Do you actually think that's a story?” which was really fun. Or there is the complete opposite of that with Charlotte Richie, going “Oh, um, okay, lovely. Well..” and then turning to us to find out if we can possibly do anything with it.

And sometimes we merge stories together. If we get something that we're like: “Oh, okay, we didn't think we were going to go there today,” and then we're able to merge that with something else.

Actually, we once had someone tell a story that basically ended up being a confession to a crime, and we sort of had to take a sharp turn and change that into something else before they incriminated themselves too much. But we've never been in a situation where we get something we can’t do anything with. We're always able to find something.  

Any regrets about coining the term “Platty Joobs” during the Platinum Jubilee? It seemed to have caused a few tantrums amongst the usual suspects.

No. I’d do it again. And if I can think of something else, I will do it again.

Not trying to wish this tour away, but when can we see you on our TVs again?

The new Mitchell and Webb sketch show I’m in is out some point. I did a film last year that I'm really excited about, that I'm waiting to be announced, and I'm also in Time Travel is Dangerous, a film which is out in cinemas now, that was really fun despite the fact that I shot it three years ago sort of forgot about it. But I’m really excited now it's in the cinema, and it's my first thing in the cinema.  

Any hope of being the next James Bond? He has to be quick-witted and adaptable… Have you any other transferable skills?

I'd rather be a villain. That’s too much pressure to be Bond. Also, Bond is very serious, isn't he? He's not much of a joker. He’s not about the laughs. He's all like:”Oh gosh, we're gonna die, blah blah blah, let’s save the world…”

Kiell Smith-Bynoe brings Kool Story Bro to Brighton Dome Corn Exchange on Sat 12 April and London’s Soho Theatre Walthamstow on Tues 22 May 2025.

www.brightondome.org  

www.sohotheatre.com/walthamstow

All image by Elliot Huntley

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