Kiwi comedian Chris Parker has been making the most of his time in lockdown by creating light-hearted videos on social media - and they're striking a chord with Kiwis.
The time spent inside has created huge restrictions but Parker's anecdotes have been putting a smile on the faces of many in uncertain times.
Parker has been offering a fresh take on the issues Kiwis may be facing by using humour to put the smaller struggles into perspective.
His skits include pretending to be the warm-up act for the 1pm daily COVID-19 press conferences, and making a joke out of situations that can arise in a level 4 lockdown like bubbles tackling household chores together.
"We are all going through something and I have found that to be interesting in terms of writing comedy or writing content because we are all experiencing a similar thing," Parker told Newshub.
"We've got different experiences of it, but that means that lots of people can access it."
The comedian is generating creative content almost daily, and Kiwis can't get enough. He's garnering hundreds of thousands of views and he's glad others are finding so much joy in his anecdotes.
"People enjoy it and people share it around and people have a laugh and I think that's really needed at this moment."
Throughout his Instagram, Parker is seen portraying a range of characters - from an overbearing mother making the most of the kids being at home to the post-press conference optimist.
And he even appears as a personified version of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
"COVID-19 is like this friend that you did not invite to a party or has turned up to a party and no one wants it there and so I just made that video and thought I'd see what happens."
Entertaining was always in Parker's destiny, putting on shows as a kid for his parents and dressing up in mum's shirts.
"I love the transaction of being a performer, I love that I could do something and get a response from someone else and they are often grateful for that. I just love making people's days or making people laugh."
His short skits and hilarious antics became widely popular when Auckland was thrown into lockdowns throughout 2020. Parker jokes that when COVID-19 re-appeared in the community last month, he felt there was an expectation for his videos to make a comeback - which he was happy to provide after gaining a stronger understanding of his limits from previous alert level changes.
"I'm honestly not being too hard on myself, I spent the first lockdown thinking 'you need to have outcomes and goals and be achieving XYZ and always go for a walk and always exercise', and this time I'm like 'it will be what it will be' - it is really hard out there, it's tiring, it's stressful, it's scary - if I just can have a good day that a tick," he says.
"This is something that I've built on my own and it's my thing and I'm kind of working for me now. I am so proud of that and I hope it will enable me to keep being able to work for myself."
Parker's videos give him something to do each day while his work as a stand-up comedian has ground to a halt.
He was supposed to be performing live comedy on the Tuesday night New Zealand was moved back into lockdown, and Parker was thrown into limbo like many others in the arts industry.
Now filming videos is a way to keep busy and keep him thinking of fresh ideas.
"I'm honestly just trying to stay creative. I can make five videos a week while I've got no gigs on, while I can't tour, while I can't work. It's a way as a freelancer that I can keep myself inspired," he says.
"It's a fun little activity for me to do, it doesn't take me all day, it takes me like an hour to come up with a video idea and film it and edit it and upload it."
Doing what he can to make the most of the challenges, and bringing joy to others at the same time.
