Review by Annie Aslett
Pleasance Courtyard: Forth; Tickets
Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats, Taskmaster) brings his new improv show, Kool Story Bro, to the Edinburgh Fringe festival this year. His mission: make improv kool again. This is a show about stories, taking embarrassing tales from the audience and recreating them. Having performed this show around London and now arriving in Edinburgh, the show features some regular players and the occasional special guest who oversees story-harvesting. Smith-Bynoe has made great use of his industry contacts; previous special guests have included Rose Matafeo, Munya Chawawa, Guz Khan and Lily Allen. The show I saw featured Smith-Bynoe, Emma Sidi, Graham Dickson, Lola-Rose Maxwell, Nic Sampson, Steen Raskopoulos and special guest host Stevie Martin.
Martin is charm personified, making each storyteller feel listened to and appreciated, gathering stories from the audience about dreamatoriums, whooping cough and Mr Darcy. Martin and the cast ask various questions of the storytellers, usually merging a couple of stories together to then recreate these bizarrely named narratives on stage.
What a line-up of improv talent. Graham Dickson is chameleonic, stepping in and out of various characters, each funnier than the last. Emma Sidi is consistently hysterical and deranged as gardener Derek, who reappears in various stories to the audience’s delight – her upcoming series of Taskmaster is certainly not to be missed. Steen Raskopoulos is quietly contemplative at the side of the stage until he springs into action, dropping the perfectly unhinged nugget into a scene. Lola-Rose Maxwell is set up by her co-stars as she’s forced into a dramatic recreation of an accident in a broad Northern accent – Maxwell rises to the occasion, leaving even her castmates in stitches. Sampson brings warmth and great reactions, hilarious during the final story, which sees a member of the audience brought on stage to shout ‘rewrite’ as many times as they like, forcing the cast to change course on the spot. Rounding out the group is Smith-Bynoe himself, the master of mic-drop one-liners that have the audience roaring.
Given the success of their sold-out performances at the Fringe, keep an eye out for the KSB team as they run with this gem of a show. With these world-class improvisers and the endless potential of stories, Kool Story Bro is sure to be different and engrossingly hysterical every time.
Review by Annie Aslett (contact@corrblimey.uk)
Annie is a not-so-recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh with a degree in French and Spanish, along with a Masters in Translation from the University of Glasgow. A Spanish teacher for three years, she decided to leave the classroom behind to pursue personal goals and has since been regularly reviewing for Corr Blimey’s Glaswegian wing. Annie is a life-long lover of musical theatre, whose childhood performances included a rousing production of Snow White in The Hall and a heartfelt rendition of Go, Go, Go Joseph in The Living Room.
