Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

If you’re looking for something frivolous this Fringe, you could do a lot worse than Ruby Carr’s charmingly daffy Edinburgh debut, a deep dive into the vagaries of a serious eBay addiction. 

From the outset, the show’s daft writing and conceit – she wants to become eBay’s new brand ambassador – is given a leg up by Carr’s manic goofball stylings. 

With her intense positivity and tiggerish bouncing she comes across as a cross between a whole classroom of pre-schoolers and the teacher struggling to get them under control. And she already knows how to use her physicality to great comic effect - check out her protracted impression of a daddy long-legs.

Using eBay as the instigator for a Dave Gorman-style journey through the internet is a good premise. The strange auctions she finds serve as a good source of comedy, and it’s easy to go into comic reveries about why a seller might auction an unopened Christmas present, or write a 14-page description for a dress, or make mysterious claims about a haunted Jigglypuff. 

There’s a lot to work with here, to the extent that Carr’s enthusiasm is perhaps causing her to gild the lily. Influencing the show’s structure is the ongoing saga of trying to become a brand ambassador, but she’s also using a WikiHow article about getting people to notice you, and there’s a subplot with her therapist, and another subplot where she’s trying to get on Love Island… it’s more complicated than it needs to be. 

Even the PowerPoint itself, as fruitful as it is, perhaps doesn’t quite fit her style. She’s so fizzy with energy and so funny off the cuff that she could easily hold a room for an hour without it, and there’s an extent to which it even breaks her flow a little and slows her down. In compering gigs I've seen, she's shown a fluidity and spontaneity that this format doesn’t allow.

Which is not to say the show doesn’t work as is – it’s bags of fun, and a promising debut. The real-life Ruby won’t have to worry about people not noticing her. As she says herself: ‘Personality? I’ve got buckets of it!’

Review date: 18 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Underbelly George Square