I feel like I am watching the most beautiful and perfect dynamic a couple could possess, as Robyn and Chris complement each other, and passionately discuss their art as they sit across from me. In the Fitzroy cafe, which slowly fills up for last-minute afternoon coffees, Robyn explains how she tied her bright red polka-dot shirt into a makeshift crop top on the walk from work—Chris on the other hand, recalls struggling to leave their home because of a fault in their gate. The newlyweds almost appear to be complete opposites. Chris relaxing in a dark plaid jacket contrasts against Robyn’s bright red shirt—black cat and golden retriever energy, Robyn calls it. Yet from the moment they sat across from me, I had never seen a couple be so perfect for one another. They do say opposites attract, don’t they?

The award-winning couple have been planning the final touches of their joint comedy show, Romantic Comedy, which they will be performing at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the coming weeks. With Robyn’s iced coffee rapidly cooling her down on a Saturday, and Chris’s latte warming him up, the pair allow themselves to breathe and relax in the cafe—reminiscing on the history of their romantic relationship, their comedic work, and where they’d like to see it go.

You guys have been working together for a while, you had your act Relatable Material at Sydney Fringe back in 2019: did you meet through your open mics or was it just something you had in common?

ROBYN: Do you want to tell the story? Chris loves to tell this story.

CHRIS: We did meet at an open mic... which I don't recommend meeting anybody at, really. It's really... it’s an interesting place to meet somebody.  I mean you meet really interesting people at open mics, because you've got people that obviously want to do comedy, and they might not be funny, but they’re drawn to it. It’s kind of like hate speech disguised as comedy, but everybody must go through the open mic scene—it's [a] rite of passage.

ROBYN: When people find out I met my husband at an open mic comedy night, and that he was performing, they're like, “Oh, is that a good place to meet men?” And I’m like [face shaking and wide eyed] absolutely not. I just kept hearing proper comedians talking about doing open mics—so I found a night, I went down in person...and I think there were 20 guys in front of me and...a few of the performers were just awful. And then this one guy got up, and he was very non-threatening. I always say that my first impression of Chris was he was a non-threatening, well-dressed man with nice cheekbones—and he just crushed it. The crowd felt so safe and everyone was instantly laughing. And none of his jokes were about women—I know, the bar is in hell. I found myself laughing and then I ran up, just after he got off stage, to him and—what was the first thing I ever said to you? What was it!

CHRIS: Well, Robyn made a bee line towards me and was like, “Oh my god, I love you” and I said, “Thank you” and left. But we ran into each other weeks later at open mics, and I guess we became each other's emotional support at these places, and that kind of just turned into friendship, relationship, and marriage. 

So, I guess that leads me to my next question: working together, did it bring you closer?

ROBYN: Definitely.

CHRIS: Yeah.

ROBYN: And we get a lot of people saying “How?! How do you do comedy together, I would kill my partner.” But Chris is incredibly easy to work with, and I feel like I spent so long trying to get back to who I was before doing comedy, so this show is probably the most together we’ve ever been on stage. But I will say, massively, and this is my main quote, Chris is incredibly easy-going and that’s why we get along so well.

The first Sydney Fringe, did that influence your take on comedy and your work?

CHRIS: It's difficult because when you’re new to comedy, you’re still learning how to do comedy. And a lot of that is finding your own voice. So, for me, it was difficult to navigate, “Okay so, we’re different on stage”, and it's taken me a long time to talk about my feelings on stage if that makes sense.

ROBYN: Chris is always so shocked and surprised people want to know about me and my relationship with you. And in a way, it’s been quite scary for you.

CHRIS: Yeah, because you can hide behind jokes. And that’s why Robyn is great as a comic, she really speaks about her experiences—I kind of talk about myself in a universal way, in a way that’s relatable to people.

You obviously have different comedic approaches, was it hard to navigate this? Did you clash at all?

ROBYN: Oh, of course. There’s been stuff that I really want to put in the show and Chris is like, “Is nothing sacred?”

In your relationship?

ROBYN: Yep. Like, is nothing just for us? Is it all for the stage?

CHRIS: It’s hard in the sense of what we're both comfortable discussing on stage. I’m trying to be more open-minded because to grow as a person you kind of need to go beyond what you think you are.

ROBYN: I think what's helped a lot is going back to the first Sydney Fringe—I really wanted to do it. I don’t know why, I just had this feeling in my stomach. I wanted to chase that high, and I, lovingly, bullied Chris into doing that first show with me, and afterwards he said, “You were right.”

CHRIS: I know that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. So yeah.

ROBYN: And he said the other day, if I [Chris] believed in me [Chris], as much as you [Robyn] believed in me [Chris], I [Chris] would be insufferable.

So, Robyn, you’re known for taking a funny twist on your experiences: does it make you more resilient in life?

ROBYN: Definitely, and there’s also my solo show last year—it was very emotional, and the things I was talking about were 10-15 years old. And it takes a long time for those things to be funny. And that’s why passionately, this year, Chris, you know, everyone in my circle was like, “Oh what's your next solo going to be” and I said, “No. I want a really light-hearted, fun show.”  We have a line in our opening song that says, “The world is on fire but tonight you’ll feel the heat of our desire.” And I think it’s just fun, silly, take-your-mind-off-everything. We’re just a couple of newlyweds, and here's some fun, light-hearted stories. It’s been really nice to write a show that’s just mushy and good times, and there's no deep emotional trauma. There's just a deep emotional love.

Does it come naturally to both of you to make light of your past struggles?

CHRIS: I think it becomes second nature to the point where you forget not necessarily everyone has gone through these sorts of things.

ROBYN: And not everyone uses comedy as a coping mechanism. People genuinely ask, “What do you guys have in common?” And I would say we have so much in common, and right at the heart of that is we both use comedy as a coping mechanism—we don’t even think about it.

CHRIS: It’s good to laugh, you know.

Could you tell us a bit about what your show, Romantic Comedy, is about?

CHRIS: Well since we just got married, people are always kind of interested in the dynamics between us. Since we’re very different onstage, there's always a natural curiosity, “You guys are performing together, how does that work?” And I guess people are just interested in love. So, this is probably our most personal show as a couple—I know [Robyn] you've delved into things in your solo shows—but for me I'd say it's probably the most real show I've done.

Considering you normally talk about everything universally?

CHRIS: Yeah, I'm usually talking about things in a general sense, which might be grounded in some truth, but it’s not me talking about something that happened to me.

ROBYN: This show is truly a fifty-fifty mix of both of us, which I’m finding very interesting, and I have my favorite parts of the show where I’m like—that’s pure Chris.

Most comedians typically practice their jokes at open mics, are you two each other's open mics?

CHRIS: I think it's fun sometimes for Robyn to see me do jokes on stage.

ROBYN: I do love that, but I also love the flipside where we'll be out together, and I can immediately tell when he's noticed something that he's going to use in comedy. Because he will literally start [mimicking him practicing talking into a microphone].  I love seeing that, and a few hours later he’ll be like, “Babe, how's this?” And then I hear the idea for the first time, then I'll hear it on stage, and then I see it put online.

Are you too nice to each other, in terms of feedback?

ROBYN: No, no—Chris gives me some really good feedback. He directed my last show, and he was ruthless in the most perfect way. He'd say, “You always say this line and I know that it's for you and I know that you love this line, but no one ever laughs at it—it’s too English of a reference, and you’re going to have to cut it”, and he’s right. I think why we work so well together is because I have the most utmost trust and faith in what you think is funny, and I think vice versa.

CHRIS: There is a nice happy medium to be like, “These are my thoughts, but at the end of the day it’s your words. If you really believe in it, just do it.”

So, are you two funny at home?

ROBYN: I’ve been in relationships before where I wasn’t allowed to be silly, and I was actively trying not to be silly.

CHRIS: You don’t want to censor yourself

ROBYN: Right, and it’s been absolutely lovely to discover fun and games and being silly with Chris. You actually get to be yourself and not ever scared that what you’re going to say is going to be met with judgment. You get to make noise.

CHRIS: And you have a great laugh

ROBYN: I have a loud cackle, and my family used to cover their ears when I laughed. And Chris—the first time I laughed properly around Chris, he went, “That is the most amazing laugh I'd ever heard”. If anybody is reading this, and you’re in a relationship with someone and you’ve felt like you had to tone it down: don’t tone yourself down. Wait for your Chris. They’re out there.

Chris, you were in New York for the Very Big Asian Comedy Festival: are the crowds around the world different? Do you have to change your work?

CHRIS: Oh, for sure. I think comedy in Australia is still very much in its infancy, not in terms of talent. There are great comedians in Australia, but in terms of audiences and their education of comedy. I’ve been at so many gigs in Australia where the MC asks the crowd, “Has anyone been in comedy before?”, it’ll be a lot of the crowd, but there’ll be a bit of an education process in how the night works. Whereas when I was in New York, they were just there for comedy. There's a comedy club, they know what they want, and they were great.

ROBYN: I was raised on live comedy in the UK, and my friends and I were booking tickets to see comedy live. But that being said, I feel most comfortable in Melbourne. I was scared to go to Edinburgh, even though everyone was telling me the crowds were going to be amazing. I was scared to go to Scotland—my neighbouring country—and perform at the biggest comedy festival in the world because I was scared they wouldn’t like me as much as Melbourne. I feel so home in Melbourne. I love performing [here].

Robyn, you were shortlisted for best newcomer last year at Melbourne International Comedy Festival. How did it feel to be among Australia's biggest comedians and being back there this year, making a name for yourself?

ROBYN: It felt like I wasn’t delulu. Like, “Hey! Maybe I’m not delusional”. It's really nice to have some external validation, and that’s why again I'm so happy to live with my biggest comedy cheerleader, who I trust the opinion of. And at Melbourne Fringe, when I got best newcomer, I was like, “Are you joking? Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe it. I thought this was a joke. I thought, who could prank poor Robyn? And it was real.

Where technology is prevailing today—for example people are watching Netflix rather than going to the cinema—do you think it's important that people come to these live shows?

CHRIS: There's something about watching comedy live that you cannot replicate watching on the screen. There are things you’ll laugh about in person that you won’t catch on screen. There’s like, electricity in the room where you as an audience member and everyone else– you’re basically kind of just one organism. And I just wish more people would go out and experience it because it’s just such a wonderful thing to watch comedy live—to be in a room where everyone is laughing, there’s just something special about it.

ROBYN: Even bad comedy, there’s so much value in it. Just watching live comedy—just going out and being part of a comedy show live.

CHRIS: You can see something that you'll only ever see that night, and people in the room can understand that. There's something special about that. So, I would say technology has definitely had an impact, in terms of TikTok and styles of comedy. A lot of people do crowd work to get little clips, but it’s a live art form, essentially.

ROBYN: Because you’re not in the room when scrolling online, you’re not feeling that experience that you get from just seeing the neighbour next to you in the theatre who you’ve never met before, both of you laughing together and forming that connection.

So, in saying that, what do you want your audience to get out of your show?

CHRIS: If they cannot think about their problems for a little while and enjoy themselves—that's all you want really. Life is about moments of just having fun.

Chris and Robyn will be performing their comedy show, Romantic Comedy, at the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival from March 26 until April 19.

Photography by Elisa Duong