YOUNGSTOWN — The odds of finding the perfect mate are impossible, even if you’re a statistician with a magic list.

That’s the premise of Norm Foster’s “The Love List,” which opened Friday for a two-weekend run in Youngstown Playhouse’s Moyer Room. It’s a very funny comedy that’s maybe a little antiquated in its thinking and a little long in its running time, but the trio of actors director Ben Gavitt has in his cast wring every possible laugh out of Foster’s script.

The play opens on the 40th birthday of Bill (Brendan Boyle), a divorced statistician returning from dinner with his best friend, Leon (Shawn Lockaton), a philandering author. Leon tells Bill there’s nothing more pathetic than a 40-year-old man spending his birthday with a male friend, so he subscribes him to a dating service called Got a Match that is run by a mysterious gypsy woman.

Bill is supposed to write down the 10 qualities he wants in a mate on the service’s love list, and it will find the perfect match for him. Listening to the logic the two men use while compiling the list was one of many hilarious moments in the opening night performance.

I have no idea how well Boyle and Lockaton know each other, but they’re utterly convincing as long-time friends. Foster often has been described as “the Neil Simon of Canada,” and it’s the banter between this “Odd Couple” — a man guilty of over-analyzing everything and a buddy who loves to “wallow in the shallow” — that makes that comparison accurate.

The two actors play off each other well, and their comedic timing was synced to perfection. They hit every punchline with just the right touch, and Lockaton especially drew laughs from the audience with lines that probably don’t read as jokes on the page. It’s all in the delivery.

As soon as Leon leaves, in walks “Justine” (Jaclyn-Sarah Senich), a woman possessing many of the qualities Bill just listed. She even has the name of his lost love, a woman he met on a post-college trip to Ireland. Bill suspects Leon hired Justine for the night, but she’s delivering the full girlfriend experience, even the morning after.

The guys don’t know how, but they seem to have created the ideal woman. The only problem is, what seems perfect on paper doesn’t always feel that way in flesh and blood. Since the list was written in pencil, Bill and Leon keep tweaking the roster of characteristics.

Senich has to go from ambitious to slacker, from speaking her own mind to neurotically insecure. There were a couple of times it felt like she could have gone bigger with her choices, but it’s a demanding role that she handles skillfully.

The stage in the Moyer Room isn’t big, but the set design (credited to the cast) makes effective use of the space. Gavitt makes fun choices in the transitional music between scenes, picking instantly familiar pop hits from the ’80s (“Maneater,” “I Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”) that served as sly commentary on the action and even had some audience members singing along.

If there was a problem opening night, it’s that the show ran just over two-and-a-half hours (including a 15-minute intermission). Foster’s script is too slight for that running time. Or maybe I was just worn out from laughing so much in the first act.

WHAT: “The Love List”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 9

WHERE: Moyer Room, Youngstown Playhouse, 600 Playhouse Lane, Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $17 and are available online at experienceyourarts.org and by calling 330-788-8739.