Chris Parker’s debut book is funny, but it’s not a joke. “If it was just a joke book, I don't think you'd want to read it – like, you do have to share personal insights, as well as have something to chew on,” says the award-winning comedian over coffee at Auckland cafe Queenies Lunch Room.

Here For a Good Time: Organised Thoughts from a Disorganised Mind was released this week. It’s a collection of short stories and essays that explore different experiences from throughout Parker’s life – from being the only boy in his childhood ballet classes to navigating the gay dating scene, to the pros of sulking as an adult and his love of malls.

They’re all personal and entertaining while covering themes many of us can relate to such as burnout, marriage, friendship and aspirational journal-buying.

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If you’ve watched any of Parker’s stand-up, seen him in TV shows or are among his 97,000 Instagram followers, you’ll be reading it in his voice in your mind. It’s got a charming, almost stream-of-consciousness style, and Parker uses the same knack for tapping into our collective psyche that made him famous during lockdown.

“It's always by offering something about myself, [that I’m] connecting with others,” he says. “And people go, ‘Oh yeah, that's like me too’ – without being like, you are like this - because I don't like to be told how I am. But if I can share, maybe people might relate.”

It’s slightly surreal talking to someone so familiar from TV and character monologues on Instagram; as you’d expect, Parker in conversation is hilarious and his rapid-fire sentences are peppered with mini-impressions, anecdotes and self-aware observations.

He was approached to write Here For a Good Time after winning New Zealand’s 2021 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. Now aged 32, he wasn’t ready to write a memoir but thought he could try and create “what is essentially a stand-up show – but in a book form”.

The short story and essay format appealed because he could cover a bunch of different subjects and formative experiences – and stay focused with the varied pace. “I am, like all of us, a victim of being on the internet for too long. And my attention span is that of a goldfish,” he says. “Tiktok has turned my brain into mashed potatoes.”

He says that, but then he wrote Here For a Good Time while creating a comedy special, doing panel show Taskmaster, touring a national tour, making a documentary, writing a sitcom, creating Instagram videos … and getting married. Parker’s wedding photos with his now-husband Micheal have been all over the internet including on Vogue Australia. “Yeah, whoops – nailed the wedding!” he jokes.

In writing Here For a Good Time, Parker says he liked being able to explore thoughts in a deeper way than he can when he’s writing his stand-up; with the book, he did not have to adapt his material to the audience’s response. “I really enjoyed that process, because you didn't have to sort of sacrifice the idea that you were trying to express, just to get that punchline.”

But, the priority was that it would still be funny to read. “I’m a storyteller and in my storytelling, I’ll always throw jokes in there so you might not necessarily see the joke – but it’ll make you laugh,” he says. “That's what I've been trying to perfect over the years – how you can just throw in a little joke without people realising it. Those are the books that I like to read as well. And I think if you can make someone laugh while reading a book, you’ve cracked it.”

It's been said many times that one of the most effective ways to talk about important topics is with humour and this rings true here too. “There are quite a few things that I learned about myself – even in chapters I didn’t expect, like the haircut one, which I thought was just going to be trivial and kinda funny,” says Parker.

In that chapter, he categorises formative haircuts in his life, from early bowl cuts to his bleach-blond era. “A lot of the time I spent in salons growing up, be it me getting a haircut or my mum getting a haircut, was me being exposed to gay men for the first time because they were always the hairdressers,” he says. “And that was weirdly significant for me because there wasn't a representation of gay men in media growing up, specifically in Aotearoa in the ’90s."

As someone who finds “significance in the most insignificant stuff”, how did he decide what to include?

“In terms of what fought to the front, it's always stuff about identity,” he says.
“It's about being a ballet boy in this very feminine institution of ballet, where we presume every boy is gay. Being forced to be a strapping prince and dance with girls was really conflicting for me. And it's why I gave up dance at that age. And so that fought its way into the book because it is about identity and about finding out who you are.”

“And then – maybe weirdly – there's a dream about Julia Roberts in there just [to break things up], you know – a little refresher.”

Here For a Good Time: Organised Thoughts from a Disorganised Mind is available in both Australia and New Zealand now.

Chris Parker’s Auckland Favourites
Favourite restaurant: “Omni. Dom Road. The best – intimate, great food, cool vibe.”
Favourite for coffee: “The Candyshop in Newmarket, they make great coffee. I’m always at Atomic, Kingsland – mainstay.”
Favourite outdoors activity: Otumuheke Stream in Taupō. “Everyone’s there just having a spa, for free.”
Favourite Store: “If it’s down south, it’s Frances Nation… Up here, I love walking through Everyday Needs... or Mecca.”
Current favourite beauty product: “You know, Emma Lewisham – that girlie is everywhere, but the 72-hour moisturiser is chef’s kiss." Also: La Roche Posay sunblock and Ellis Faas skin veil foundation.
Favourite cheap eat: Number 87, hand-pulled noodles with cumin lamb, at Xi’an Food Bar, or kao soi noodle curry at Ruang Thong Thai Canteen.
Favourite for a cocktail: “I’m making it the summer of the Martini for me, I’m all about it. I had a supreme one at Ahi in Commercial Bay, that was incredible, and a good spot is The Churchill on top of Four Points – it's the summer of the rooftop bar.”