Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Friends: Kool Story Bro review – eccentric improv antics

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghFrom a nude life-drawing class to a Colombian kidnapping, with help from his Ghosts co-star Lolly Adefope, Smith-Bynoe uses audience members’ stories to comic effectThe involvement of big-time performers such as Kiell Smith-Bynoe – he of Ghosts fame – has been credited with reviving UK improv. On the flipside, hobbyist household names don’t always reveal the art form in its best light. Happily, Smith-Bynoe proves no mere dilettante in Kool Story Bro, which cooks up entertaining antics from personal stories volunteered by three audience members. I doubt even its host would claim this is improv at its most meticulous; he himself referred to the previous night’s offerings as “dogshit”. But it’s hard to imagine it ever not being good fun.The format accommodates a guest quizmaster, and – what a treat – tonight it’s Smith-Bynoe’s Ghosts co-star Lolly Adefope. Her role is to solicit and interrogate each audience member’s kool story, and she so revels in doing so, the show’s talky part (supposed to be just a prompt) threatens to swallow up the whole hour. That tale is about a nude life-drawing class; a later one features a solo holidaymaker ambushed at sea in Colombia. Once (or, thanks to Adefope, long after) the team have enough to go on, they bring these scenarios to comic life. Continue reading...

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