Married at First Fight was an offbeat, personal affair. Much dark humour delivered in such a light and casual way, married couple Katharyn and Mark compete for the audience’s favour to see whether they’ll still be married at the end of the season – with an unexpected set by local talent (unsure as to how he fits into their marriage).

From lockdown to immigration to drugs, Katharyn and Mark do have really good banter, and their energy together is really sweet. They’ll regale you with the tale of their $15 wedding and tell each other’s jokes. It would be almost wholesome if they weren’t joking about yeast infections and alcoholism. The guest star was a true local, speculating as to how cranes work and trying to identify a weed dealer.

Roasting each couple added a personal touch to the performance. Varsity is an intimate venue, so Katharyn and Mark could make their innocently truthful observations about the couples in the room. This is one show where I actually encourage you to heckle the performers because they love to chat and we all built a kind of rapport with each other.

Meanwhile, Mark told us a bit about our own city and asked who had been in a ‘K-hole’ (only my plus-one seemed to know what this meant… perhaps the rest of us were too innocent). I feel this show would be particularly funny if you were Irish like Mark or from the USA like Katharyn, although we appreciated their efforts to explore the peculiarities of Boorloo/Perth.

Comedy is notoriously hard to judge, and I can say with certainty we all came out of it knowing each other better, but if you don’t like dark humour, this one isn’t for you. If it is… well, you better come, or Katharyn might quit comedy and become a mass shooter.