PLAYING IT KOOL
It’s been over a decade since KIELL SMITH-BYNOE first started appearing regularly on UK TV screens – pulling focus in everything from comedy staples Stath Lets Flats and Ghosts, to cosy whodunnit Death In Paradise and chaotic game show Taskmaster. Now he’s returning to his first love of improvisation, and as his hit show Kool Story Bro gets set to tour stages around the land, we talk fan-spotting, his grime MC past and performing without a safety net.
Interview Adam Mattera Photography Christian Trippe
You’re currently shooting the new Ghosts movie, right? (Ghosts: The Possession of Button House to be specific – Ed). It’s been seven years since the show started on BBC and became this massive ratings success. I know you’d been working for years before that, but was that a big change in being recognised on a level you hadn’t experienced before?
Definitely. When I came out of drama school in 2010, I started doing lots of YouTube skits and would get approached by kids when they came out of school who couldn’t believe that the guy on their favourite YouTube channel is on their street or whatever. Later on, it was fans of things like Friday Night Dinner and Stath Lets Flats, cool Hackney types around my age group, and then with Ghosts that’s when it really changed. I’d have whole families come up to me and want to take a picture or whatever.
Can you generally profile your fans if you're being approached in the supermarket, say – like ‘oh it’s an old lady – must be Death In Paradise!’
I'm getting quite good at it, yeah. I was in a queue outside North Face recently and this guy in front kept turning around, so I just said, ‘Man Like Mobeen, right’? And I was right. It would have been weird if he was like: ‘I’m not looking at you. What the hell are you talking about?’
I want to talk about your improv show Kool Story Bro. You're about to start touring the show again. In a way it’s you going back to the beginning – weren't you still in school when you first started doing improv?
Yeah, I first did it professionally, in front of a paying audience, when I was 14. I was part of the improv troupe Junior Blaggers, which was the kids’ version of Blaggers. A lot of black comedians and actors on the circuit were part of it – people like Richard Blackwood and Curtis Walker. Then I was in an improv group called Acting Up – we used to have a game called Ghetto Disney, where someone from the audience would shout out a Disney film, and then we’d reimagine it in Peckham or Lewisham or wherever. A couple of years back, I had this idea for my own show – Kool Story Bro – getting the whole story from the audience, rather than just a word or location, and going from there, so it’s obvious it’s totally spontaneous. We started in 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it's just grown and grown since then. It’s me and a few other regulars who alternate, plus a different special guest every night (previous big names have included Lily Allen and Mo Gilligan – Ed).
“At the end of the day it all comes down to showing off. We’re making up characters and doing silly voices – basically it’s an extension of what we used to do in our bedrooms 20 years ago!”
A lot of performers would be scared to go on stage with no script, no safety net – but obviously that’s not the case for you.
Not at all. I love the idea of just playing with no restriction. You don’t need to worry about props or costume – you can be anyone, anything, in any period at any time. It's sort of cartoon-like in that way. At the end of the day it all comes down to showing off. We’re making up characters and doing silly voices – basically it’s an extension of what we used to do in our bedrooms 20 years ago!
I know there are these improv rules like ‘yes and ..’ and active listening when you’re in it, but is there anything you can do to actually prepare for the show?
The only thing really is to prepare your brain to go anywhere and to avoid restriction. It’s all about thinking outside of the box, being in the moment.
“I was listening to those adult conversations, and mimicking them, and then at school being able to get a teacher's voice spot on, and making the other kids laugh.”
You mentioned before about showing off. I was wondering if that was where it all started for you? You were an only child, right? Maybe it was a way of getting attention?
I was not only an only child growing up, but I was constantly around adults too. I didn't have many friends my own age outside of school, I grew up pretty much in my grandparents’ house and seeing their friends on a daily basis. So I was listening to those adult conversations, and mimicking them, and then at school being able to get a teacher's voice spot on, and making the other kids laugh.
Talking about school, didn’t you have your first moment of stardom as a grime MC when you were a teenager?
Yeah, that's right. In the school I went to, everyone was an MC. Honestly, everyone, I’m not joking. Tinchy Stryder went to my school. I was in a crew and we had a cult hit (Junior Spesh by Red Hot Entertainment) so we were performing up and down the country, over in Europe. Tinie Tempah opened for us one time.
“ I always wanted to act. I felt like you can be an amateur grime MC, but if you're an amateur actor, you're not fulfilling your dream. Unless your dream is to be an amateur actor.”
So did it come to a point where you had to actively choose between the music and the acting? Or did one just naturally fade and the other take over?
A bit of both really. I was just happy knowing that I was good as a grime MC, it wasn't about mainstream success for me – that didn’t seem possible till later when Tinie and Lethal Bizzie were having number ones. But I always wanted to act. I felt like you can be an amateur grime MC, but if you're an amateur actor, you're not fulfilling your dream. Unless your dream is to be an amateur actor.
Your first big TV break was a part in the crime drama Whitechapel, right?
That’s right – it came out on my birthday in 2012 and all my friends came round to watch it – like a two-minute scene. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is it – next stop, Hollywood!’ And then I didn't work for two years. It was back to the call centre.
So in your experience, is it all about ‘right place, right time’ or was there any kind of master plan?
I always had a vision. Back when everyone was telling me that I should have my own YouTube channel, I didn’t want to do that because I didn’t want to get stuck as one character. I wanted to show my versatility, like those great character actors you’d see in the ‘90s.
“The idea of stand-up terrifies me. I’m happy being solo on a stage with a microphone hosting, but the idea of going ‘here's an hour of things that I thought were funny’ makes me feel sick. But then a lot of stand-ups say that about improv.”
I actually knew you more from game shows like House of Games and Taskmaster, and assumed you were a stand-up cause you were always funny. But there’s a big distinction between stand-up and improvising, right?
Absolutely, I mean the idea of stand-up sort of terrifies me. I’m happy being solo on a stage with a microphone hosting, but the idea of going ‘here's an hour of things that I thought were funny, I hope you think it's funny too’ makes me feel sick. But then a lot of stand-ups say that about improv.
You’ve got a lot of multi-hyphen stuff going on – I saw you were in the writers’ room for the last Mitchell & Webb series, and then there’s the straight acting, the funny stuff, the improv… what’s next for you?
I want my own show. There's nothing I’d like more than for Red Flag (premiered for Channel 4 Comedy Blap a few years back) to get picked up. We had great writing and got to mess about and pretend, and that's what it's all about for me. And I want to do more of that, but also more straight drama as well. If I can keep doing that, I’ll be a happy boy.
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Kool Story Bro is touring the UK this May, then returning to Edinburgh in August and doing a second leg in October. All details here
Team credits
Interview: Adam Mattera
Photography: Christian Trippe
Photo assistant: Jack Burgess
Grooming: Shanice Noel
Clothing: Levi’s & Percival
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