Review: Chris Parker - Lots of Love is an exuberant, high-speed and hilarious show

Chris Parker's latest comedy show is funny, fast and so very relatable.

Watching Chris Parker’s Lots of Love comedy show is ever so slightly exhausting.

From the moment he walks on to the stage the energy is incredible. As he races from joke to joke, random scenario to random scenario, only pausing briefly for either breath or a drink of his wine, it feels as though you are on a never-ending comedy roller-coaster.

There is no chance to stop laughing and give your sides a break as every line he delivers, every facial expression he pulls, every action he mimics, is as funny as the last.

While watching and listening to him can feel a little bit as though you are in a room with an oversized toddler high on chocolate, candy and every e-number under the sun, this isn’t kindergarten humour. His jokes are actually more nuanced than you first think, and every part of the show perfectly segues into the next, despite that roller-coaster feeling of wildly veering from one scenario to the next.

From skydiving while eating a six-inch (15cm) sandwich, to hiding out in a car on a tow truck, every story he tells will have you laughing every time you think about it, even days after the show.

The magic of the show is in the way he manages to make everything so relatable. So what if you aren’t a married millennial considering getting a handbag-style dog - that doesn’t mean you won’t find his musings on his big gay wedding any less funny. Somehow, he bridges the gap between gender, sexuality, age, nationality and even Auckland vs Taranaki and leaves you feeling as if you’ve just spent an hour with one of your best, and funniest, friends.

He has an innate knack of finding something everyone recognises, from civil defence alerts (I hear from them more than my parents) to overused phrases - live, laugh, love must have actually been meaningful the first time it was said, he muses - and then drawing out the silliness and humour around them.

By the time the show ends, you will have sore sides from laughing, and despite the fact a lot of his show contains a serving of existential dread and millennial angst, you will leave feeling not just optimistic about the future, but also understanding the importance of the word laugh in that old live, love, laugh command.