48 Facts About Nate Bargatze

Nathanael Bargatze is an American stand-up comedian.

Nate Bargatze has been called a clean comedian, and has been noted for his deadpan, monotone delivery.

Nate Bargatze was the highest-grossing stand-up comic in 2024, with over a million tickets sold across his shows.

Nate Bargatze was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Carol and Stephen Nate Bargatze, on March 25,1979.

Nate Bargatze's father practiced magic tricks with him while growing up, and Bargatze stated he performed in skits with his church group, beginning when he "was around 11".

Nate Bargatze attended DuPont Elementary in Old Hickory, Tennessee until fourth grade, when he transferred to Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville, where his father had a day job as a history teacher.

Nate Bargatze competed in track and field at DCA and tried out for the basketball and golf teams, but was cut from both.

Nate Bargatze then attended Volunteer State Community College in nearby Gallatin for a year.

Nate Bargatze enrolled in Western Kentucky University, but flunked each of his courses and dropped out.

Nate Bargatze had a stint working at Applebee's and later landed a job as a meter-reader for a water company in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

Nate Bargatze's parents were supportive of his decision and attended his first open mic event.

Nate Bargatze began his comedy career in 2002, and moved to Chicago to attend The Second City, an improvisational comedy troupe.

Nate Bargatze soon decided against improv, and instead enrolled in Jim Rauth's Comedy College, which focused on stand-up comedy.

Nate Bargatze performed fill-in spots at Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago, and performed at Zanies Nashville.

In 2004, Nate Bargatze moved to New York City, where he became a barker for the renowned Boston Comedy Club, handing out flyers in Greenwich Village in exchange for stage time at night in the club.

Nate Bargatze worked as a dogwalker and a FedEx delivery driver during the day to support his comedy career.

Nate Bargatze has called the Jerry Seinfeld documentary Comedian "life-changing" and a "big reason" why he moved to New York.

Nate Bargatze stated that it took "about a year" before he received a paying gig in New York.

Nate Bargatze spent most of his early years performing for single-digit crowds.

Nate Bargatze had a turning-point year in 2008, featuring on Comedy Centrals stand-up show Live at Gotham, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.

Nate Bargatze toured extensively with the USO, performing for American troops stationed in countries such as the Bahamas, Greenland, Honduras, Iraq, and Kuwait.

Nate Bargatze co-hosted a podcast, It Could Be Better, with Chris Laker and Yannis Pappas from 2009 to 2013.

Nate Bargatze won both New York's Comedy Festival and the Boston Comedy Festival in 2010, and released his first 30-minute special in 2011, as part of an episode of Comedy Central Presents.

Nate Bargatze decided to move to Los Angeles in 2012, taking inspiration from Jerry Weintraub's quote "as soon as you feel comfortable that's when it's time to start over".

Nate Bargatze released his first comedy album, Yelled At By A Clown, in 2012 on Aspecialthing Records.

Nate Bargatze received effusive praise from Marc Maron, and appeared on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2012.

Nate Bargatze was booked on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2013.

Nate Bargatze was part of Jimmy Fallon's Clean Cut Comedy Tour that year.

In 2014, Nate Bargatze developed a deal with NBC Universal to create a sitcom based on his life, with Fallon serving as producer.

Nate Bargatze initially kept the move to Nashville quiet as he did not want people in the industry to think he had quit comedy.

Nate Bargatze had a breakthrough in 2017, when Netflix launched The Standups, a series with each episode containing a 30-minute set by a different stand-up comedian.

Nate Bargatze said it "changed everything" and that there was a significant increase in attendance at his first gig following the episode's release.

In 2019, Nate Bargatze released an hour-long special, The Tennessee Kid, on Netflix.

Also in 2019, Nate Bargatze filmed a pilot of a multi-cam sitcom for ABC based on his life.

Also in 2021, Nate Bargatze was featured in an article in The Atlantic that called him "The Nicest Man in Stand-Up".

Nate Bargatze stated that after his show he took a chair from the arena to his house to prevent anyone from breaking his record.

Nate Bargatze hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time on October 28,2023, and for a second time on October 5,2024.

Nate Bargatze said hosting SNL led to a "giant, giant leap" in his career.

Nate Bargatze was the highest-grossing comic in 2024 according to Pollstar.

Nate Bargatze topped Billboards Boxscore ranking of the highest-grossing comedy tours, with $82.2 million gross income from 1.1 million tickets sold across his 148 shows, setting a new record for largest one-year gross by a comedy performer in Boxscore history.

Bargatze returned to Netflix to release his next special, titled Your Friend, Nate Bargatze, which premiered on Christmas Eve 2024.

In March 2025, Nate Bargatze stated that he would make his first feature acting role in The Breadwinner, a film he co-wrote with Dan Lagana.

Nate Bargatze announced the film's release date as March 13,2026.

Nate Bargatze has named Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin, Brian Regan, Bob Newhart, and Bill Cosby as being some of his comedic influences.

Nate Bargatze's second cousin Ronnie Nate Bargatze was a three-sport athlete who later became a basketball coach at Vanderbilt University in the 1970s and was inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame in 2018.

Nate Bargatze drank heavily while starting out as a comedian, and said he "got very close" to sabotaging his career due to alcoholism.

An avid golfer, Nate Bargatze participated in the pro-am of the Simmons Bank Open in 2023, and is friends with professional golfer and fellow Nashville resident Brandt Snedeker.

In 2024, Nate Bargatze contributed $1.15 million to the development of an indoor athletic facility at Donelson Christian Academy, his alma mater.