Yarns and laughs: Chris Parker
What do Christchurch Boys’ High, felt hats, Celebrity Treasure Island, and knitting have in common? Award-winning comic and Instagram star Chris Parker. Metropol deputy editor Tamara Pitelen sits down with the indefatigable comedian.
In an increasingly AI and tech-obsessed world, knitting is a revolutionary act, says Chris Parker. We are talking on the phone, and he is explaining his dedication to the yarn-based craft normally associated with grandmothers and British Olympic diver Tom Daley.
“I’m the out-of-shape Tom Daley. It’s a big chapter of my life now. How things have changed,” he jokes.
“I was looking for something to do that’s off my phone, and I like the crafting nature of it. With AI being such a big thing and everything’s technology-focused now, to be working on something that’s really tangible, physical, just feels kind of punk and radical; you’re making this conscious decision to stay off your phone and do something,” he says.
“I mean, the irony there is that I’m sharing it on my phone while I do it, but it’s leading to these genuine communities of people who are like, ‘come into my craft shop, I’d love to teach you a trick or two…’ There’s all this great intergenerational knowledge about knitting that I find fascinating. I’ll probably be talking to you soon about a crafting show that I’ve made.”
Trad wife era
If you Google Chris Parker, the internet will tell you that he is ‘a New Zealand actor, comedian, writer, TV personality, and podcaster’. I’d like to tweak that. Chris is a Christchurch boy. He’s one of us. I don’t care if he now lives in Auckland and spends months of every year flitting back and forth to comedy festivals in Australia, Edinburgh, London and more. He grew up here. He’s ours. I’ve become a bit fan girly about him. It all started when we got news of his upcoming show and decided to interview this local-lad-done-good for Metropol. To get a feel for him, I started listening to his podcast, The Male Gayz. Many laugh-out-loud moments in my car later, I am hooked.
Chris started the podcast with his best friend and fellow comic Eli Matthewson in 2006. A decade later, hundreds of Substack subscribers pay to listen to their weekly musings on everything from Chris embracing his trad wife era (“I just wanna be pretty for my husband”) to Eli’s adoration of menopausal women, along with their take on Kiwi politics, pornography, and pets, specifically Chris’ rescue dog Margot.
All the felts
An alumnus of Christchurch Boys’ High, how did he get from the suburbs of Ōtautahi to the glare of the footlights at Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Felting a hat on Instagram Live during Covid-19 lockdown helped a lot (although his star was already well on the rise thanks to a Fred Award win in 2018). Those felting videos were so popular that, in 2020, the hat he made was added to the collection at Auckland Museum, and a photo of him wearing it was bought by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
“I am a bit of a crafter. I didn’t always sort of identify that way, but I felted a hat during lockdown, which was a stupid thing that ended up being a big kind of story,” he says.
“Like anything I do, it’s not really a big thing. It’s just me having a go at knitting or whatever, but I share it on social media, and then before I know it, there’s 50,000 people watching the videos, it’s sort of crazy. Recently, I’ve connected to a knitting community. I feel like I share these stupid journeys and sometimes I’m really surprised as to where they go,” Chris says.
“I would love to do like a road trip where I meet some of the greatest crafters that our country has to offer. I’m really trying to resist myself from doing that, because I know my manager is going to be like, ‘what are you up to?’ but that’s what I really want to do at the moment.”
At this point, Chris and I digress for a five-minute brainstorm on what I genuinely believe is a brilliant idea. If anyone from NZ On Air is reading this, please get in touch. Crafty Kiwis is a six-part crafting road trip comedy-documentary just begging to happen. Other titles could be The Great Kiwi Yarn or Stitch Up.
Back to the future
Building on his Instagram felting success, Chris went from one success to another. In 2021, he was thrust into the mainstream spotlight after winning TVNZ reality show Celebrity Treasure Island and bagging $100,000 for the charity Rainbow Youth. He says it was life-changing. “We were away for 28 days or something. (Fun fact, his sister Liv made it to the 2026 grand finale, finishing as one of the final three contestants alongside runner-up Louis Davis and eventual winner Nix Adams). We actually became really different people from that experience. Very transformative.”
In 2022, he was a contestant on Taskmaster NZ, and he released a comedy-documentary special, Back To School, about all-boys schools in New Zealand, inspired by his time at Christchurch Boys’ High from 2003 to 2008.
“I guess school, back in the day, wasn’t the best environment for a closeted gay guy trying to find his way in the world, especially at an all-boys school. But I feel like we live in a really different world now, and that school has made quite conscious decisions to make better steps. I’ve had a great relationship with Boys’ High since I left, and I’ve stayed in contact with them and worked with the Old Boys’ Association.”
He tells me that returning to Christchurch Boys’ High to make the TV special was a healing experience. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that a few months later, in October 2022, Chris married his long-time partner Micheal McCabe, an Auckland-based designer.
“It was really empowering to go back, even though it’s like, ‘come on, get over yourself, high school was years ago,’ but high school is the formation of you as an individual so if you feel like you have to hide who you are at that time, it can feel really empowering to revisit it on different terms, on your terms.”
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Quick fire with Chris Parker
Instagram followers?
About 135,000.
Memories of growing up in Christchurch?
Riding the number three bus for 40 minutes to go hang out with friends in Sumner. And Java café on High Street; what a legendary place that was. I felt tapped into something in that café. I thought I was so cool having a big mochaccino at Java.
Christchurch now?
I actually made a video about it once that went crazy about how I think it may be like the best city in New Zealand now. It’s just got so much to offer people. I sort of see Christchurch through two lenses. I left for Wellington when the earthquakes hit, so I have this idea of both old Christchurch and new Christchurch.
Life as a standup?
The job itself is the best part of the job. You just get to go out and make people laugh. I just love it. I mean, you just get laughs and applause; how good is that for the ego?
Stage fright?
I do feel pressure to have a good show, but I wouldn’t say those are nerves. I’m probably on stage about 150 to 200 days of the year in some capacity, so there’s just no way I could sustain it if I was sick to my stomach with nerves. I’m usually thinking, ‘wow, yeah, so many people, what is the potential of tonight gonna be?’ I love it. Rest assured, if you come along, you’ll see a man out there doing exactly what he loves at 100% passion and commitment.
Where does your confidence come from?
Delusion and a very supportive childhood upbringing. And because I’ve done nothing else my whole life. From the age of about three, I’ve been in front of people performing, so I have no other skill set. So I guess it’s not so much self-belief, but entrapment. There’s nothing else I can do.
Online haters?
Obviously, you get the odd weird comment. I don’t see that so much as a reflection on me, but more of a reflection of where we’re at. I’m always just more like, ‘wow, people are so easily aggravated now,’ they’re so easily insulted or offended or whatever. There are just so many people who are so reactionary, and I think it’s interesting.
How has marriage changed you?
We were together for eight years before we got married, so we were well settled in by the time we put the rings on our fingers. The wedding wasn’t really about us, it was about our world. We felt like our families hadn’t met, our friends hadn’t fully overlapped, and we’d been together for eight years, it felt crazy. So we’re like, ‘let’s have a wedding to bring everyone together.’ Everyone is on their best behaviour at a wedding, so it’s the perfect time for all the parents to meet.
Chris Parker performs his show Take A Good Hard Look At Me on 5 September at the James Hay Theatre, Christchurch Town Hall. For tickets go to www.chrisparkercomedy.com.
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Main image: Take A Good Hard Look At Me: Comedian Chris Parker brings his new show to Christchurch.
Photo by Andi Crown.
