Life
Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers review: High-octane musical comedy like nothing you’ve ever seen before ★★★★
If pop music, klezmer, and Weird Al had a baby, it would be this Edinburgh Fringe show
August 13, 2025 15:44
If pop music, klezmer, and Weird Al had a baby, it would be this Edinburgh Fringe show
August 13, 2025 15:44Normally I would balk at a performance that begins with a game of Simon Says.
It’s after 10pm and there is not a child in sight – just a room full of adults, plastic cups of beer in hand, standing and sitting and waving their arms according to “Simon’s” whims.
“Simon”, in this case, is Ryan Simpson, the Jewish performer behind the Edinburgh Fringe production Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers, and he might just be the only person with the charisma to pull off a show this wacky.
The Vienna-based American musician, who earned the reluctant affection of Simon Cowell after a short-lived 2023 audition for Britain’s Got Talent, puts on a stunningly energetic performance with just his voice and his accordion, an instrument he shrewdly pairs with crass pop songs for maximum comical shock factor. I mean, who’s ever heard Y2K hits like Low by Flo Rida and Baby One More Time by Britney Spears played in the reedy, klezmer-esque style of the accordion?
It shouldn’t work, but it does, not least because a key component of Simpson’s Fringe show is getting the audience to sing along, which is easy to do when the songs are almost all hits. But it’s also Simpson’s warm presence, his impeccable comedic timing, and his admirable commitment to the bit; he spends much of the show stomping rhythmically around the small room with his accordion, pausing to twerk or gyrate or give a spectator a peck on the cheek, tossing his mane of curly hair hither and thither. Simpson's dedication to entertaining is such that he even performs the entirety of Rihanna’s song Umbrella under a literal umbrella while audience members squirt water at him with spray bottles.
One particularly surreal moment came during Simpson’s rendition of the laughably vulgar song My Neck, My Back by Khia, which had the audience of some two dozen strangers singing in unison to sexually explicit lyrics while the high, folky sound of the accordion laid the tune.
Simpson isn’t a show-stopping vocalist, but that’s not really the appeal of his performance anyway. In fact, the show becomes oddly more amusing the more breathless Simpson gets from dancing around the room with his accordion strapped to his chest, his vigour never wavering.
Interspersed throughout the show are some of Simpson’s original songs, which demonstrate that he is not only a captivating performer but a clever lyricist to boot. His originals manage to balance humour and profundity; the breakup song I Miss Everything About You But You, about longing for a past relationship not out of love for an ex but because it’s just nice to be in a relationship, is both funny and a little heartbreaking, and his song I’m Brand New Here, about the exciting but lonely experience of moving from city to city, actually made me well up.
A long day at the Fringe is truly best ended with Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers, a show that is sure to make you smile, if not blush. At the very least, I promise you’ve never seen anything like it before.
Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers is on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until 24 August at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower.
To get more from Life, click here to sign up for our free Life newsletter.