Kiwi comedian Chris Parker is having a very modern existential crisis: he’s finally had it with social media, but it’s hard to break up with the very thing you used to build your audience in the first place.
It’s still early in this show’s development, but for most of the night you wouldn’t know it. While Parker’s prompts are notes on post-its, the ideas play to his strengths and he uses them to often very funny effect.
He’s a genuinely likeable presence. Parker’s not afraid to be open with his audience and has the comic chops to know when to lean into an idea, or when to dismiss it – as he does having started a section on watching rugby. Realising no one in the room cared about the sport, he good naturedly binned it and moved on.
His status as a gay married man runs through the show, and his take on hetero marriage being ‘about the gayest thing a man can do, as it means you spend all your time with your girl bestie’ gets a huge laugh, as he stands and bellows ‘I’m so jealous!’.
While Give Me One Good Reason Why I Shouldn’t Throw My Phone Off This Bridge is very much a work in progress, Parker’s ability to be naturally, and at times more subtly (as when ice cream servers became younger through the night, while the temperature outside got hotter) funny keeps it all moving.
Social media, love, sex and the messy parts of growing up and finding ourselves are all here, and Chris Parker’s an easy recommend if you’re looking for a night of Fringe laughs.
4 out of 5 stars
Drama Llama at Rhino Room
Until March 2
