Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Man Sings The Same Song Again and Again Over An Hour
Conk and Quiet Riot
Venue: Red Lecture Theatre at Summerhall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
It’s in the title. It’s exactly that. He actually does that. I can’t give away the song because that’s the only thing not in the title. You’ll have to find that out in the show.
Review
Conk describes the show as comedy, music and theatre. I would also say it’s leaning towards performance art. Conk is doing exactly what he promises in the title. There’s a one-hour timer on the screen. Conk enters in a bright blue suit and starts singing. He’s going to continue this until the timer hits zero.
The show unfolds in a very intriguing way. Many aspects of it are funny. He’s doing things to make us laugh. It often works. But this theatrical experiment mostly left me with awe and fascination. Time kept counting down and I clocked how long the song roughly lasted. And I started experiencing the show like a set of pull-ups. Time started behaving weirdly. The first few minutes felt difficult to sit through. Eventually the ears adjusted, the song became familiar and the middle section went by very quickly. Sometime around the forty-minute mark, it once again felt like there was going to be a long twenty minutes remaining. And the last few minutes pass by in a flash. Repetition can create many different kinds of poetry that stay with you. It’s a simple technique that opens up the space for a lot of depth.
We’re left with quite a few unanswered questions. Why is he doing this? Why did he choose this song? Why did he make some of those choices? But Conk doesn’t seem to care about any of these questions. He’s doing the thing that makes sense to him. And somewhere in that hour, it starts making sense to us as well.
While Conk remains constantly charming, I found myself missing an emotional journey. Conk remains cheerful almost throughout, and I wonder if Conk could share an honest emotional response to singing the same song again and again. What if there’s no plan and the interaction between Conk and the audience dictates the journey of the piece? What if the audience gets to surprise him and pick a song? I definitely think this show has potential to create an even bigger impact than it currently does.
Conk has a great presence. And is definitely a wonderful singer. He manages to introduce new moments into the same song and somehow never lets the repetition get boring. He also includes the audience in this project, and makes us feel that it’s our goal as well. It’s so simple, and so impactful. Everyone leaves with a warped sense of time and a feeling of satisfaction of having achieved something.
