I sprinted into the theatre with seconds to spare to watch ‘Kool Story Bro: Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Friends,’ mainly because we were – literally – running late, and also because I was very excited. It was the first night of their UK tour, having previously performed it for a 3-day run at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London. It’s an improv show, with prompts coming from audience anecdotes, and featuring a rotating cast, MC’d by different special guests. It is a testament to the comic chops and TV credits of the performers (between them, the cast have performed in Ghosts, Starstruck and Big Boys) that the show is at The Bristol Old Vic and almost sold-out; it’s exciting and rare to see improv in such an esteemed venue. Sadly, it is rare to see such a diverse group of performers, as even at a professional level improv remains extremely white. The audience are diverse too, in age as much as ethnicity and gender, and I only spotted one person in Lucy & Yak dungarees (the improviser’s uniform.) 

Smith-Bynoe quickly introduces our evening’s special guest, Jordan Stephens, of Rizzle Kicks and latterly podcast and book fame, who functions as an MC, sourcing anecdotes from the crowd. He is merrily baffled by the first story unleashed by the audience, which functions as a prompt and is given the title ‘When I Drugged My Baby Harry.’ Stephens heads backstage as the improvisers start up; as well as Smith-Bynoe, we are joined by Robert Gilbert, Nic Sampson, Alice Snedden and Lola-Rose Maxwell. The group have excellent chemistry and are excellent at quick characterisation – despite the absence of a support act or warm-up performer, the audience are immediately and enthusiastically on board. 

The initial story starts a whirlwind epic featuring lovestruck chemists, chaotic kebab shop colleagues and regretful Tesla owners, the latter becoming a running joke throughout the evening. We move onto ‘A New Meaning to the Word Web Stringing,’ centred around an (initially) true story of a teenage Tom Holland, played with cheerful simplicity by Gilbert. He is taken to a Stratford-on-Avon strip club by his driver, where the offer is conservative – ankles, collarbones and elbows – and the cast amusingly struggle to speak in Shakespearean English. Alice Snedden has several excellent moments as a matter-of-fact patron and as a deadpan, earnest child who keeps overhearing her parents discuss events at the club, timing her appearances perfectly, and Robert Gilbert is excellent as the village squire. 

We have two more stories after the interval, one from Stephens (‘I Never Really Had a Pet Tiger’) about a rogue Mexican holiday, and another from the audience (my notes just say ‘Tank Story’) featuring an audience member’s errant tank-accessing soldier brother, which are similarly excellent fun. The only downside of the format is the lack of a narrative peak in the way of a longform show, but the energy still spikes satisfyingly at the end as the performers try to wrangle the different threads into place. It’s hard to traditionally review improv, as the show is by definition different each night, but it is uniquely appealing in a way I’d forgotten, having not watched longform improv for a while. It’s great fun watching incredibly skilled improvisers pull a narrative and characters out of nothing, with lines that are so good they could be scripted (Gilbert, as half a Mexican hotel resident donkey – ‘I made an assumption,’ which ripples brilliantly through the audience, and Snedden’s ‘I was thinking about starting a small business where maybe I drown people’) but the next moment, breaking into giggles because of the ridiculousness of a scene or being visibly confused as they briefly lose track of what’s happening. It’s merrily collaborative and everyone gets a moment to shine – there’s a glut of skill and talent onstage.

I hope that this show proves there is a market for improv on a bigger stage. Improv in the UK is still a long way from being a cornerstone of comedians’ trajectories in the way that it is in America, but the demand does exist, both on television (Whose Line Is It Anyway, Murder in Successville) and on stage (Bristol is home to the UK’s only dedicated improv theatre.) For theatres, much like stand-ups who perform tour dates or record specials in their auditoriums, improv in its simplest form is extremely cheap to host as it requires no sets, music or complex lighting. But its largely the celebrity power and passion for improv from Smyth-Bynoe that has made this happen; hopefully it trickles down into bigger and better stages at all levels.

Kool Story Bro: Kiell Smyth-Bynoe and Friends is on tour until August.