Little Lark of London

“For the last fifteen years, I have been an eBay enthusiast, and it has NOTHING to do with my mental health”

Ruby Carr: eBae has a simple presence – Carr is obsessed with the online auction site eBay and she is ready to share her passion with the rest of the world. But Carr’s work does have an underlying purpose – she dreams of becoming eBay’s Brand Ambassador and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means usurping the current ambassador – Love Island. To help prove her point, Carr has brought along a PowerPoint presentation including but not limited to her strengths and weaknesses, examples of her favourite sections of eBay, Venn Diagrams and some truly terrible puns (my personal favourite was a Segway zooming across the page as Carr segued into her next bit). 

A particularly spectacular bit has Carr using a car boot sale as a metaphor for eBay, as she has found that there are quite a few people who are unfamiliar with the site, which means she must explain both its literal and emotional aspects. We are given the example of a woman selling lizard enclosures, which leads to many questions and ends in tragedy with being outbidded, which then has Carr saying my favourite line of the night, “There’s only lizards!”

As one might expect from a show about eBay, Carr is more than happy to provide some examples of things she has bidded for on the site, ranging from a Pokémon plush haunted by a man named Robert, old family photos from people she doesn’t know and, one of her favourites, unopened gifts uploaded to the site on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. There is a segment about a man selling his beard hair on eBay that gets to be a bit too gross for my taste, especially when it comes to a joke about selling cupcakes. But, this segment is brief, and leads into another highlight of the show in which Carr goes into detail on Victorian mourning jewellery and her desire to see it involved in a crime scene. 

An unexpected highlight of the show is seeing just how delighted Carr is with the show and the audience. She is clearly having the time of her life on stage talking about her passion and is quite happy to bring the audience on this journey with her! There are a few times in which Carr stumbles over lines, but these moments are quickly forgotten by her laughing them off and moving on to the next joke. I also love how she uses the PowerPoint to her advantage, including adding “unexpected” text messages from characters mentioned in the show including her therapist and housemate.

Ultimately, Ruby Carr: eBae is a silly hour of comedy about the joys and pitfalls of becoming obsessed with a site like eBay. Carr has a strong handle on mixing stand-up comedy with a multimedia presentation, making for some delightful moments as she explores her relationship with an online auction site and the impact it has had on her life. 

Ruby Carr: eBae ran on 8 November at Pleasance London. More information on Carr can be found here.