Master of his craft

Comedian Chris Parker has juggled stand-up, online videos, movies, TV shows and even a foray into fun with felt. Now he’s added a book to his CV.

- MICHAEL BOTUR

Chris Parker has delivered hundreds of comedy sets to audiences but claims he has nothing to show for it. This is why, between gigs on a tour to 14 New Zealand cities this year, the 32-year-old wrote a collection of funny essays, Here For a Good Time: Organised thoughts from a disorganised mind.

In recent years, Parker, who describes himself in the book as an extroverted-gay-ballet-boy-grownupjunk-food-eating-skincare-buyingchildless-30-something-show-off”, seems to have been one of the country’s busiest comedians. He won top Kiwi comedy prize the Fred Award in 2018, Celebrity Treasure Island last year, and has popped up on screen in movies Nude Tuesday and The Breaker Upperers.

He’s also appeared in TV shows Wellington Paranormal, Jono and Ben, Funny Girls, 7 Days, Educators and Have You Been Paying Attention? Despite that schedule, he still manages to be world famous in New Zealand”, performing at venues such as the Titirangi RSA.

Parker, who has spent the past eight years building an audience, hasn't had to make heat-pump adverts yet. For the second half of this year, for example, he has been shooting a series for The Spinoff with fellow comedian Eli Matthewson, which he describes as an investigation into New Zealand’s relationship with pornography”.

The man who devoted his first lockdown to being creative with felt is, as usual, keeping busy.

There was plenty of hard work on the road to success, but Parker says he didn't want his book to be a memoir. In fact, it’s more about topics like Farrah Fawcett’s hair, being in your 30s and not having kids, dating app Grindr, and working as a shopping mall Santa Claus.

After graduating from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2011, Parker “floated around” Wellington and his hometown of Christchurch for two years before settling in Auckland.