Chris Parker will host a packed house full of local and visiting comedy greats. Photo / Andi Crown Photography
Chris Parker will host a packed house full of local and visiting comedy greats. Photo / Andi Crown Photography
Kiwi comedian Chris Parker is ready to bring all the drama to this year’s Best Foods Comedy Gala as its host.
The self-proclaimed People’s Prince of Aotearoa, comedian Chris Parker wants a shout out to star in his own movie or perhaps be considered for the new newsreader role on Three’s new 6pm news offering in July.
Before all that, he will be the host with the most at the annual Best Foods Comedy Gala at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre on Friday, May 3.
“For people who work in comedy, the NZ International Comedy Festival is like our Christmas and the gala is like our Christmas Eve dinner,” Parker tells Spy.
Parker will host a packed house full of local and visiting comedy greats including Brynley Stent, Pax Assadi, Abby Howells, Takashi Wakasugi, Nazeem Hussain, Hayley Sproull and Rhys Mathewson.
Hosting the gala is one of the biggest honours in comedy and Parker says he’ll be “bringing all the drama” on the night.
Parker hopes the suit he is being supplied with makes him look like a cool A-list celebrity. Photo / Andi Crown Photography
“We’re talking slamming plates in the sink, storming to my room if no one says ‘thank you’ and refusing all help, but then complaining that everything will be left up to me.”
To bask in the spotlight, Parker hopes the suit he is being supplied with makes him look like a cool A-list celebrity and not a real estate agent, which he says is always a risk.
To really make an entrance, he wanted to fly into the room Pink style but was told there wasn’t the budget, and they didn’t want to risk it with his terrible co-ordination.
Parker’s top picks for the month are local stars Rhys Nicholson, Courtney Dawson, Henry Yan and a new name he is excited to watch and discover - Celeste De Freitas.
“The festival will see Courtney’s debut hour. She is already a huge star, but I’m so excited to see a whole hour from this legend,” says Parker.
Yan won the Raw Competition at last year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival and Parker describes the Mt Roskill native as a genuine talent.
Chris Parker will be touring his stand-up hour Give Me One Good Reason Why I Shouldn’t Throw My Phone off This Bridge around the country in June. Photo / Andi Crown Photography
“So, if you saw me last year, I’d say come again this year, I’ve improved from practising on all those schmucks in Melbourne,” he says.
Later this year he is looking forward to joining Tom Sainsbury, Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester - who he says are the funniest people in the game - when they relaunch their camp cult classic hit Camping with the Silo Theatre.
“Doing that show in 2016 was the most fun I’ve ever had on stage, so it’s going to be a real treat to bring it back this year.”
Parker is also starring with Sainsbury in a comedy web series called This Bites about a divorce party that goes wrong.
Parker, who has been on a number of local comedy shows including Taskmaster NZ and 7 Days, is just as proud of his behind-the-scenes writing work.
He explains he feels very lucky and fortunate to be bringing back Double Parked, the series he co-wrote with Alice Snedden that stars Antonia Prebble and Madeleine Sami, who play a couple shocked to discover they are both pregnant.
The second season finds new mums Steph and Nat struggling to save their relationship while looking after their newborns and will screen on ThreeNow and Three later this year.
Parker’s epic hosting of the Comedy Gala will be filmed live for Three’s Month of Comedy and his June tour tickets are available at livenation.co.nz.
