Behind those 'Big Dumb Eyes': Nate Bargatze's comedy and plans for after standup is over

USA Today

06-05-2025

Behind those 'Big Dumb Eyes': Nate Bargatze's comedy and plans for after standup is over
HOUSTON ‒ On April Fools' Day, comedian Nate Bargatze steps to a lectern at a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. Before Bargatze, historian and author H. W. Brands, novelist Victoria Christopher Murray and "Frasier" actor and author Kelsey Grammer shared publishing anecdotes and advocated for the power of books at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.
Bargatze – who had the highest-earning comedy tour of 2024 and has been vocal about a disdain for reading 'because every book is just the most words" − wasn't at this high-brow event as a joke. Though he told plenty. Wearing a black tracksuit, unzipped to reveal a casual white T-shirt, and sneakers, he opens with, 'I didn't know y'all wore suits. My business casual's different than your business casual. It's the most ties I've ever seen in my life.'
The standup comic known for his clean jokes and witty observations, was in front of this crowd talking about his new book, a collection of essays called 'Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind' (now available).
Bargatze's book cover might advertise 'a Simpler Mind,' but he certainly isn't stupid. There's a genius required for what he does on stage and his burgeoning entertainment empire.
Nate Bargatze says 'Big Dumb Eyes' is 'not a book that's better than anybody'
The boy who made good from Old Hickory, Tennessee, has standup specials, the Nateland Entertainment production company, a podcast with fellow comics Dusty Slay, Aaron Weber and Brian Bates, and will emcee this year's Emmy Awards.
On stage, Bargatze flips through his book filled with stories about meeting his wife of nearly 20 years, Laura; falling 62 feet down a cliff; having NBA ambitions with church basketball talent; and the early days of chasing his comedy career in Chicago splitting a basement apartment with a roommate and a rat.
'I kind of jumped around,' he says apologetically to attendants. 'Again reading is … just a hard thing. I really do want to do it; I love the idea of it.' And if only he'd known about the Literacy Foundation, 'I probably could've used some of the help,' he says to howls and applause.
'I never really thought I'd be writing a book,' he says in a separate interview conducted in a room that has 'great basketball carpet' that reminds him of the church league he played in. 'We're not a book that's better than anybody. We're the one that just sits there, and it's a fun read. And then after us you go back to the books that you're actually going to learn something from.'
It's also how Bargatze's comedy could be described − a sort of deprecation without derision. Watch any of his specials and witness his strategic pauses, how his Southern drawl artfully wraps around thoughtfully chosen, grammatically jarring phrases creating just enough tension that laughter erupts.
In his 30-minute set on 'The Standups,' he remembers a frightful visit to North Carolina's now-defunct Cape Fear Serpentarium, where a 10-foot crocodile escaped its cage. 'It's like a 'Godzilla' movie,' Bargatze quips. 'Everybody's dead behind you, you just assume it. … Some lady was like, 'My husband …' I was like, 'Your husband's gone, lady!' He's gone!'
'The Tennessee Kid,' Bargatze's first hourlong Netflix special, memorializes a fight he had with his wife about chocolate milk, after which they did not speak for a full day. Laura wasn't buying a commercial telling people to drink chocolate milk after working out. 'She said, 'That's just the milk people pushing chocolate milk,'' Bargatze tells the audience. 'She went to college, all right, and I did not. But she did not study chocolate milk, when is it good and not good for you.'
A gamble on comedy after flunking college
School proved to be a challenge for Bargatze. After a year of remedial classes at Volunteer State Community College, he received all Fs his first and only semester at Western Kentucky University.
Bargatze, now 46, began hosting at Applebee's at 20. There he met Laura, a waitress who reminded him of Jennifer Aniston's character in 'Office Space.' He also worked as a water meter reader, managed by a friend who encouraged Bargatze to pursue a career in comedy. Bargatze grew up watching Sinbad and seeing his dad, magician Stephen Bargatze, incorporate jokes into his act.
Nate Bargatze's revelations about his dad's upbringing in 'Big Dumb Eyes' are the tenderest parts of the book. Stephen's mom neglected and physically abused her son, he writes. Once she left the toddler unattended at a bowling alley while she played. A bulldog attacked his face, biting off part of his tongue.
'His jokes came from a place of darkness,' Bargatze writes. 'He believed we needed to laugh at ourselves − and at each other − otherwise we'd probably cry.'
Stephen's discovery that God would 'love my dad no matter what,' changed everything, Bargatze continues. It's a faith instilled in his own standup.
'When you're on stage, it's a lot,' Bargatze says. 'It's 15,000, 20,000 people and they're all cheering and they're going crazy. I just don't think you can sustain it if you make it, like, 'It's about me.' It's just about the gift I was given and just doing it and putting it out there and hopefully making people laugh.'
Bargatze also felt inspired by the comedians who appeared on Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold's syndicated radio program, 'The Bob & Tom Show,' which Bargatze listened to between reading meters.
'You get influenced by that and you just kind of fall in love with it,' Bargatze says. 'I didn't really know how to start, and my buddy wanted to go to Chicago to go to Second City. I think I needed someone with direction, and then I was like, alright, 'I'll just follow you and go from there.''
Nate Bargatze's dad wanted to confront his abusive mom as she died. Instead, he gave mercy
A life-altering move to New York: 'You've got to see people make it'
In Chicago, Bargatze took three eight-week courses before being convinced by Jerry Seinfeld's 2002 documentary 'Comedian' that he needed to be in New York City. There he witnessed other standups breaking through.
'That's a giant thing,' he says. 'You've got to see people make it. Because if you can see people … become big, then you at least can see that there's a path. Otherwise, it's very daunting.'
Bargatze attributes his success to 'being around, not stopping, not giving up.' And where he is today eclipses the biggest dream: playing Bridgestone Arena on Nashville's famed, honky-tonk lined Broadway Street.
'When I started in New York, I would stand on the corner handing out flyers and I would get stage time if you could bring people into the show,' Bargatze says. 'So I would always daydream about that, but it was a safe daydream. It wasn't like I thought it was going to happen.'
Bargatze has not only performed in the arena, on April 15, 2023, he set a record for most people in attendance, with 19,365 in the crowd. There will be three Bridgestone performances on the Big Dumb Eyes World Tour.
'I didn't imagine it to be the level that it has gotten,' Bargatze says. 'It's kind of weird because you hit a moment of, this thing has been driving me for 20 years. And so now you've got to think about what is the next thing that's going to drive you. And that's where the Nateland company and all the other stuff came in.'
The next chapter: Nateland and his final standup bow
With his production company Nateland, Bargatze aims to create family friendly content across film, TV, podcasts and more that can be enjoyed by everyone. 'Good, clean, funny!' as the tagline says. It has produced comedy specials released on its YouTube channel and curates a weekly lineup of comics at Zanies comedy club in Nashville.
As a newer comic, Bargatze had doubts about his future as a clean standup.
'There (were) times you would feel like, 'All right, if I went another route, maybe I would get to jump up,'' he says. 'But fortunately I always just would (tell) myself, 'No, just stay the course,' and just trust that it's going to work out.' And creating entertainment that you can experience with the entire family isn't a bad strategy when it comes to ticket sales.
Bargatze is also using Nateland as a platform to promote new acts as he prepares for his retirement from touring.
'I could see five more years of standup,' he says. 'I want to build all this other stuff.'
Coming up in entertainment, he says, 'you get stuck behind people that don't really get out of the way. I think your job as an older showman ... is to be able to step somewhat out of the way and really try to get the new, next wave coming in.'