Ruby Carr chats to Pepper&Salt about her upcoming Edinburgh Fringe debut, eBae (a pun so solid that we have decided to keep a placeholder title until a pun worthy enough to name this interview can be found), some handy tips, tricks and anecdotes about Carr’s favourite website, eBay. Not included: a fun fact that will mean that you will never look at a microwave the same way again.
How would you describe eBae?
This is a love letter to my favourite website, eBay. Truly. People often think that I might be mocking eBay or taking the mick, but I’m not. This is an hour of devotion to a website that fills me with great joy. Ultimately, I am finding the edges of what is allowed to be sold on eBay, and I am sharing that, but in a way that I love doing.
The show started because I would rant to my friends in pubs about things that I found on eBay, things like, “Oh my God, isn’t this funny!” and it was just, I started finding these things and picking these threads, and it slowly turned into more and more. People often assume, people don’t really explore eBay in the way that I have, and they imagine eBay as like, “Oh maybe I’ve got a phone from there once.” I remember yesterday somebody bought a kilt, and it’s like, “Yeah they got this,” but I’ve found the edges of what is allowed to be sold on eBay and things that are bordering the line. And really cause, eBay is a marketplace for people to come and sell, it’s the car boot sale for everyone to go and sell all of their random stuff. I don’t know if you’ve been to a car boot sale recently, but when you go there you have a chat with the people on the other side and what they’re selling and why they’re selling it and what’s it from. And eBay sometimes, you get a glimpse into other people’s lives and how this item has ended up on this website. And I’ve always been a bit of an internet sleuth and detective and finding things like that is has always been really fun for me.
It’s a deep devotion. The shows that I enjoy seeing are when people are talking about something that they’re really passionate about and they care about, and they love. There are shows that I have enjoyed where it’s about where they tear something about and they’re like, “Oh look at this silly thing or stupid thing,” or whatever big commentary on that. And those can be great shows, but I’ve got a bubbly personality and so being excited by things and finding the joy in things, it’s always my go-to.
What are you looking forward to about making your debut?
There’s lots of nerves and like anticipation and scariness. And one thing that I’ve been working on recently is I often get these little ‘what if’ thoughts like ‘what if this happens, what if this happens?’ and it’s fear and anticipation of like, ‘oh no, the bad!’ but I’m playing this fun game with a friend of mine of ‘what ifs’ but they’re positive. And so, at the moment, for the last month I’ve been, “what if I do my show and everyone really likes it?” And every time I have done the show so far, like previews or other festivals in the build-up, having people come up to me and being like, “Oh my God, I found this on eBay.” I met someone who she was someone who worked as a moderator on eBay forums. She was like, “Let me tell you about the people who I have found,” and it’s just finding this little bubble of people who are the exact same as me, little internet sleuths, who are like, “Yeah, we love the gossip, we love it, we love it.” Finding my people is fun and so doing a whole show that’s a flag of, ‘Hey anyone else loves eBay, anyone else? Come over here! Let’s have fun together!’ That’s what I’m looking forward to.
You title is a really solid pun. How did you come up with it?
This title came about when people were using ‘bae’ as a slang term. It was more common in like… 2021 ? It was just too perfect, it was right there in front of my face just being like, “eBay, e-bae, eBae?” And then me also being a bae! And I love a pun, even though I’ve had people groan at puns, but they’re my favourite, so getting to have my title be a pun was very satisfying.
“I’ve always been a bit of an internet sleuth and detective and finding things like that is has always been really fun for me.”
Throughout this process, have you found your eBay auctioneer voice?
I do speak quickly. So sometimes I’m like, “Maye this is going too fast,” and there is a point in the show where I do a little mock auction with my audience, and I do enjoy that. And sometimes my joke-delivery is sometimes a circle. Sometimes the comparison is the same thing.
What has been your best find on eBay?
I once got a pair of Doc Martins for under £30, which I was pretty pleased with. I haven’t worn them for a while now. But I got them for under 30 quid, which is unheard of for Docs, because the auction ended at 4am. No-one’s eBay-ing at 4am. I had to set an alarm myself just to wake up so I could put a bid in (and win). So that one was pretty good. Furniture I really love doing as well, because if you do by location and then on auction, it’s really unlikely for there to be a big bidding war for furniture, because people have to come and collect it. So, it’s only local people nearby bidding for it. I got this lovely cabinet that I put my laptop on, but I got it for £11 and it’s like real wood and it’s stunning, and when I went to go collect it from the person that I bought it from, he was so mad at me for getting it for £11. And it’s like, “Well, you’re the silly billy who started the bid at a tenner!” I’m fairly certain one time I bought set dressing. So it was like a bundle of lovely skirts, trousers and tops that were all brand new and they were presented in a way that was very brand new but none of them had the labels on it, and they had a very specific style that felt ‘Capture Your Wardrobe Essence,” so I think it was a show runner who had bought this as set dressing for a thing and then they were just selling it. And I got all of it for like £9. I was very proud on that day. It’s always getting it at the right time and spot. Some of my better items are in the show, so I don’t necessarily want to be spoiling those ones.
I was just about to ask, if it’s not too much of a spoiler, what is your favourite prop that you are using in this show?
I recently had to buy a wig for a bit, and I’m not sure if I’m keeping this bit in, but it really made me laugh when I thought about it. There might be a wig. It’s also the impulsive buyer in me was like, “That’ll be hilarious, buy it,” and then a wig arrived, and I was like, “Oh no!”
Any tips for people looking to find things on eBay?
I feel like there’s three circles when you’re eBay-ing. There’s three, you know the Venn diagram things? And that is getting something within the right timing, getting something cheap and getting something that you want. And most of the time, you can only really have two of those circles, you’re not going to be able to find something that you like within that week at that time. So, often I sacrifice the time one. You’re not going to be able to get the wardrobe of your dreams or something that you really want off of eBay instantly; you gotta dedicate a bit of time and a bit of hunting to it. Sometimes if I want to buy a dress today, I will check the early hours and late hours, so I’ll go search auctions by timings and then see which ones start happening like after midnight, when they are closing, cause people aren’t up for those, and you can slip in a little late bid. I’m dyslexic so I make spelling mistakes in trying to search for something, but there are websites dedicated in making spelling mistake generated searches so that you’re able to find auctions that other people who are searching for the same thing wouldn’t be able to find because it’s under a spelling mistake. I think it’s called fatfingers.com and it generates a load of spelling mistakes. So, if I want to find something from Anthropologie- that is a hard word to spell – so that has lots of different options of potential spelling errors and therefore you can find something cheaper. Sometimes eBay would make the correction for them or be like, “I think they meant this,” and so search over, but you can sometimes find a deal by doing that.
In Shakespeare, the role of the fool and the king are very distinct, with the idea that a fool can’t be a king and a king can’t be a fool. How do you think this applies to the modern context?
So with having like ‘kings’ and ‘fools’ within the play, often within Shakespeare’s play, the kings often – in most of the plays – end up doing something stupi, right? They do something that is selfish, and they put themselves above their people and then they end up being the fool and being an idiot. I’m thinking of King Lear mainly, because that was the one I studied at GCSE. And then the fools are often the person who – even though they are foolish, and they behave in a way that’s like, “Oh this is a fool,” – they will often have a soliloquy or some sort of speech that will then speak the most truth of the scenario or the moment or speak of the people. And I think people see that a lot in comedy as well in modern day stand-up is that the stand-up, who would be a fool-type character, is someone for the audience to laugh at or the other characters to laugh at. The fool-type character often feels like they’re making these big speeches and they speak in a way that feels that it empowers so much change and they’re able to make these comparisons that help people understand what’s currently happening in politics or in society and things. And I think that is what comedy does a lot of the time, one of the main strains of comedy is doing comparisons; comparing one thing to another to be able to help either take something that’s complicated and make it feel simple and easy to understand. The bit that I always think about is James Acaster’s Brexit/ Teabag comparison, which was a great bit of stand-up but also it takes something everyone was finding confusing at the time – Brexit- and – pardon the pun – boiling it down to a cup of tea. And that comparison was so strong it resonates with a lot of people, and it feels powerful, but I think the other thing to remember, is that comedians should not be our leaders, our politicians. Because they are silly billies! We are a bunch of silly billies. The reason why what we’ve done sounds powerful is because we’ve just done 55 minutes of jokes before it. A comedian will do 55 minutes of silly jokes and comparisons and make you laugh, make you in this place of joy and then tell you something maybe empowering or a piece of thing that they want to change about society that was connected to their jokes, and then you’ve been laughing and now you’ve had this. That comparison makes it feel so much more powerful, because of the jokes before it. The thing that I’m trying to say is that comedians should not be our kings, they are silly billies. But maybe we should be doing some more speech writing, cause the way that we present ideas. It is more digestible and impactful for more of the general public than not doing comedy. I actually am currently working with Southampton Uni on teaching scientists how to do comedy and stuff, and so it’s really interesting helping them take their really big subjects and boiling it down to comedy in a way to make it more engaging for the general public.
By Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Photo credit: Jack Goldbourne
Pepper & Salt 
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