Strap in: Singles Club season two has a major plot twist

As season two of Singles Club premieres, Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester chat through everything that’s changed since they made season one (spoiler alert: it’s a lot).

In the first season of Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester threw themselves into the deep end of singledom, fleeing the comforts of Tāmaki Makaurau to meet all manner of single folks across the country. Casting the net from a fishing boat on Rakiura to a bowls club in Thames, they went on eye-opening blind dates and attended hectic singles nights to uncover the true state of dating and romance in modern Aotearoa.

Although just over a year has passed since we joined them on their journey, so much has changed. To celebrate the return of Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club, the pair get us all up to speed on what happened after the cameras stopped rolling, and what surprises season two has in store.

Brynley Stent: Back in season one I was a single gal who had recently come out of a very long-term relationship. I was just enjoying doing the dating thing because I had got into my relationship when I was quite young and then I spent my whole 20s with him. I think I was just enjoying going on dates, so it all felt very chill and very low stakes. When you’re single it’s just you, which feels easier to share and be an open book and put yourself out of our comfort zones.

Kura Forrester: I was also deep in the depths of singleton life, but I was hating it. I’d had a pretty gnarly breakup – we were only together three months, but he really did a number on me – and I was trying so hard to be in a serious relationship. So I was pretty sad about being single, and it was pretty all-consuming for me at that time. It was all I could think about, and I was really worried it was never going to happen. I felt like a failure, and I was trying to decide whether I’d be OK to never have a baby. Career-wise? Fabulous. Everything else? Pretty shit.

Bryn: I would say, from the outside, if we hadn’t done Singles Club, and if you weren’t one of my dear, dear close friends having the wines with you on the Friday nights, you wouldn’t know that from the outside. You definitely weren’t broadcasting that as your vibe.

Ku: Thank you, queen. I don’t think so either. I look back on season one though and oh man, it was sore. Through season one I got really real about how hurt I was by it [being single], and by the end of season one I just sort of went, ‘oh my god, I’ve got to relax and maybe forget about this, and stop making it how I identify’. I just love how much fun we had together, and although we spoke to so many people, I actually think my best advice came during our check-ins with each other. There’s nothing like when one of your besties can hold up the mirror for you.

Bryn: Obviously the dream outcome for the series is that one of us meets someone as a part of it, but there was no one even remotely on the radar for either of us. I think it’s a beautiful lesson that we just fell more in love with each other as friends, and I think the greatest strength of season one is being able to show that specific female friendship of two women in their 30s, at a certain time of their lives that you don’t see depicted very often in the media.

Ku: We were so shy to go on dates, too.

Bryn: They had to claw us out of the hotel rooms and the vans most of the time, because we would be holding onto the seats like, ‘no, we don’t want to’. I think the common misconception is that performers are extroverted and confident in all facets of their lives, but the reality is that that is our job, and dating is not our job. In fact, it’s 10 times more vulnerable, because you’re putting your real self out there.

I will say the muscle of approaching people that you don’t know does get stronger the more you do it. It is an art and a practice, and much like how line-learning is a practice, and you can get better at it. After season one, I did find myself striking up random conversations with people – ‘are you single? How do you feel about being single? Do you enjoy being single?’ I started doing that to a lot of people and looking like I was hitting on all of them.

Ku: Because of that, we were so fired up for season two because we thought we were gonna be so good at dating in season two. I was like, ‘fuck man, put a GoPro on me, I’ll have sex with someone on camera’. But then we both got boyfriends. After shooting season one I was just back into my normal life, and I was nearly giving up again as I do in my cycles of dating apps, but then I met Mark on Bumble. It all felt very meant to be.

Bryn: That’s the thing about love and life, right? You can’t pick your timing, or your ideal circumstances. Me and Vinny already knew each other through Dungeons and Dragons, and we’re both ex-Toi Whakaari students. He separated from his partner, came to crash with us, and then we just spent a lot of time together and fell for each other. It was definitely not the circumstances I would have chosen, but if you fall for someone, you just do. What’s even more chilling is that we both got boyfriends, but we had actually already pitched and got the funding for Singles Club season two, so we both had to be like guilty dogs with tails between our legs and say ‘we’re really sorry, we’ve changed the whole series’.

Ku: We had a great pre-production meeting, and I’ll never forget it, because I also found out I was pregnant like two weeks beforehand. I purposely didn’t tell Bryn, Sophie [Dowson, director], or Jin [Fellet, producer] until this meeting because I wanted to tell them in person. I thought I could be cool as a cucumber, but I was being so weird. My heart was beating so fast to tell you all that there’s another chapter to the story. It must have been all over my face too, because somebody was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And I was like, ‘I just… I have to say something… I’m pregnant’. It was only maybe four or five weeks at that stage.

Bryn: It is unbelievable how it all worked out, and none of it by design. Season one ends with me freezing my eggs, and season two just happens to start with your pregnancy announcement. You wouldn’t believe it if it was written into a drama. Some single people might be worried that they’re not going to be represented by Single’s Club in the same way, but I hope season two shows that not all your problems are suddenly solved because you’re suddenly in a relationship. I think people are still going to feel seen and heard, whether you’re single or in a relationship.

Ku: That’s beautiful Bryn.

Bryn: And we’re still single girls for life, ya know?

Click here to watch episode one of Bryn and Ku’s Singles Club S2, made with the support of NZ On Air