‘I don't want to give up': Why Chris Parker refuses to join the brain drain
Chris Parker fancied himself a bit of a singer growing up. He was in the special choir, competed in Christchurch Music Festival competitions and even starred as Caiaphas in the Christchurch Boys' High production of Jesus Christ Superstar. But as he got older, he describes feeling self-conscious about it. 'I started to think, 'maybe I'm not actually a good singer at all',' he says. It was only years later that he realised where that insecurity had stemmed from – next to him in many of those choirs, competitions and performances had been his classmate, Marlon Williams.
' That's why I was so hard on myself,' Parker laughs. 'Because I grew up singing alongside our country's greatest voice.'
In a fortuitous turn of events, the pair will be reunited once more in Christchurch's Town Hall, with Williams' Te Whare Tīwekaweka tour in the Douglas Lilburn Auditorium and Parker's Stop Being So Dramatic in the James Hay Theatre on Saturday June 28. 'Huge booking error on my behalf,' says Parker. 'Luckily he has already sold out so I'll just get any riff raff that's left.' While he hasn't talked to Williams about the coincidence, Parker has high hopes: 'afterwards we can swing open the doors and all climb into the big cone in the square, something fun like that.'
He jokes, but there are nerves around performing in front of his home crowd. 'A lot of the show is about Christchurch – doing ballet as a kid and amateur dramatics as a young boy, and the community that you form,' he says. 'It's also about the cringe that makes you give up what you love the most.' There's also a bigger and timelier motivation behind the show. 'I got really bummed out about all the Destiny Church stuff and I felt myself getting quieter,' Parker says. 'I've been driven by that feeling of not giving up – because that's what they want.'
The other thing that keeps Parker going is his love of touring stand-up around Aotearoa, even if it does get lonely sometimes. 'You go crazy because you're just on your own all day not talking to anyone, and then suddenly you're on the Wellington Opera House stage talking to everyone.' While there are some similarly large venues on the tour, he has a soft spot for 'unlocking' the audience in a new small town. 'Especially somewhere like Ranfurly and they come up and say 'you picked a terrible night to visit because it's Jan's 50th and we're all there'. I love that.'
From performing everywhere 'right down the bottom to the very top' Parker has also seen the inside of a lot of shopping centres and malls, and intends to review them on Instagram during his tour in a series called Top of the Shops. 'Growing up in Christchurch I was raised in the mall, so I always find it really relaxing walking past a Strandbags on my way to a Muffin Break,' he says. 'There's some great malls in this country, especially The Meridian in Dunedin. In Christchurch it might be Riccarton, but I also think that South City is a phenomenal mall.'
The flipside of this is that he's also familiar with the 'grim' town centres that have either not bounced back post-Covid, or been ravaged by the cost of living. Paired with a record number of young New Zealanders leaving the country, including many of Parker's comedy contemporaries like Two Hearts, David Correos and Alice Snedden, he's been thinking a lot about why people would want to stay. 'We have to figure out what's going to keep young people here, and I think a big part of that is that our cities are these fun, vibrant and amazing places to live.'
The local entertainment industry has a lot to do with that vibrancy, but Parker likens the current situation to a candle that burns too quickly. 'It tunnels down fast, but then not enough oxygen gets in, and it snuffs itself out,' he says. 'There's just not enough people here who can keep turning up to stuff.' Even with its challenges, he feels a sense of duty to keep championing live events across Aotearoa. 'To an extent, it is up to people like us to be the reason why people want to go out and enjoy their life, rather than sitting at home watching AI videos.'
His current tour includes sold out dates across Australia and the UK, but Parker insists he won't be going anywhere – and not just because he recently adopted a rescue dog. 'I don't want to give up on New Zealand. Whenever I'm in Australia, everyone's like 'surely, you'll just move over?' And I just say 'I love breakfast TV too much. I love Chris Chang, we can't move'.' His only hope is that audiences continue to show the same enthusiasm for live acts. 'It's our local talent who want the best for our country, so we need to keep turning up for them.'
'We want to stay here – I'm gagging to stay here.'
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