Comedian Nate Bargatze Discusses Cincinnati Connection and More Ahead of Local Performance

This story is featured in CityBeat's Jan. 10 print edition.

Start the year off on a good note with some communal laughter on Jan. 13 at the Heritage Bank Center with comedian Nate Bargatze, who might just be the fastest rising comedian in the world right now and, maybe, the most humble.

Bargatze had a big year in 2023. He sold out a three-night set at Radio City Music Hall, broke the attendance record at his hometown stage, Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, and his most recent special, Hello World, broke Amazon Prime’s record for a comedy special debut with 2.9 million views in its first 28 days, according to Nielsen, all in addition to a critically praised first time hosting Saturday Night Live. Not a bad year.

Bargatze has been steadily on the rise for the last decade or so with late-night talk show appearances on Conan, The Tonight Show and others, as well as comedy specials for Comedy Central, Netflix and 2023’s Hello World for Amazon Prime. He did all of that while finding his way onto more and more people’s radar and into culture at large. He’s moved from appearing in clubs, to theaters and now, onto selling out arenas, which is where he’ll be in Cincinnati on Jan. 13, at the Heritage Bank Center for two shows as part of his most recent outing, “The Be Funny Tour.” CityBeat had the pleasure of talking with Bargatze ahead of the show about career beginnings with a Cincinnati connection, his legendary comedy mentors and now friends, his eventful last year, future plans and more.

CityBeat: What kind of stuff did you grow up on comedy-wise with movies, stand-up, SNL and that kind of stuff?
Nate Bargatze: Yeah, Saturday Night Live was big, especially in my high school years with (Adam) Sandler, (David) Spade and Chris Farley, (on) into Will Ferrell, so SNL definitely. Stand-up, (Bill) Cosby, (Jerry) Seinfeld, Sinbad, the ones that were clean, I could listen to. Big Seinfeld fan.

CB: Does that mean your parents controlled what you listened to?
NB: Yeah, so I wasn’t able to watch Eddie Murphy’s special so I just ended up watching the clean things. We’d do some Bob Newhart, Andy Griffith, a lot of stuff like that.

CB: How about coming up as a stand-up, did you have any mentors in that world?
NB: There’s been many that did it. Jimmy Fallon saw me at a comedy club in New York and so our relationship kind of began there and it's continued for 10 years now with going on his show. So, yeah, he’s been a huge part and somebody I could go to as you deal with stuff, you know? I talk to Seinfeld now too, as well. So, it’s nice to get to talk to some of these guys that have done this stuff before me and just learn, just kind of hear some stories and learn from it.

CB: What has your Cincinnati experience been in the past? Did you do Go Bananas Comedy Club or anything like that?
NB: Yeah, my first album was recorded at Go Bananas, Yelled at by a Clown (2012). Go Bananas is a great club. It was always a great spot for comics because they kind of had an audience and they really had a great comedy base that would come to shows and watch comics that were not known names.

CB: You talk a lot about childhood embarrassments in the past, I’m kind of thinking about the baseball story.
NB: The homer off the walk.

CB: Yeah, I did a similar thing in basketball. I made one basket the whole time I played, for the wrong side.
NB: Yeah (Bargatze laughs).

CB: Do you think that stuff has a hand in molding a comedian, those early embarrassments or humbling kinds of things?
NB: Yeah, I think so because you’re making fun of yourself and the only way for you to control that embarrassment, and be in control of it, is to make fun of it and make fun of yourself. So, it’s definitely led into how I do comedy, very self-deprecating. I just like making fun of myself and then people can either laugh with me or laugh at me.

CB: How about modern life, technology and how crazy everything is sometimes? I know you have the new math bit.
NB: (On) Saturday Night Live, in the monologue, I talk about being from the 1900s. I talk about that in my stand-up and just how quickly the times are turning and changing. The way I grew up versus the way my daughter’s growing up is just, I mean, completely different worlds. I took a typing class in seventh grade; they don’t even do that anymore. So, it’s hard to keep up as you get older, with technology. I feel like you get aged out much quicker now, so I talk about a lot of that in my stand-up.

CB: Maybe because you’re such a calm voice and like an easygoing kind of guy, maybe that smooths that kind of stuff over, in some way.
NB: Yeah, (laughs) I try to ease everybody down. Like, we’re all being left behind so I’m just trying to make it comfortable for us.

CB: I saw you set an attendance record at Bridgestone (Nashville arena) in April, how does working an arena feel different from a club, or even a theater?
NB: It's just not as intimate, obviously, as a club, but I’ve really enjoyed them. A lot of these, we’re doing in the round and so everybody’s kind of around you and so you’re in the middle and you have the screens, and people can think that’s not ideal, but no matter what place you get to, even if you’re in a thousand-seat place, if you’re in the back it’s hard to see someone’s face so the thing that’s great about it is when you have those screens, it’s like watching a special, but live. I notice facial expressions get bigger laughs than they’ve ever gotten because people can see them because they’re on that screen. I think it’s so great for people to be in the room together. A lot of people tell me they’re laughing at the show, they’re laughing at the guy in front of them that was laughing so hard, and you know, it just brings joy to everybody, so it’s fun to be in a big place and do that.

CB: Same thing with going to the movies and stuff. I hear you on that.
NB: Yeah, it’s fun to experience things with other people.

CB: What do you make of the rise in stand-up comedy’s popularity in recent years?
NB: I would imagine Netflix was a giant part of that. The way HBO was for stand-up, Netflix is like that in this newer way and now with social media and these clips going viral, people can consume stand-up comedy easier than they ever have been (able to). I think that’s all played into it. And people wanna go to things, they want to go to live shows and experience things. Stand-up has an authenticity to it because you’re hearing a person talk, it’s not a produced kind of thing, it’s that guy, whoever’s talking, the comic’s mind comes out of their mouth, so I think people like that, as well.

CB: Do you have any interest in doing movies or acting work?
NB: I would like to. We’re trying to figure out a few things now and kind of seeing where it goes and this tour’s been a very big tour so it’s just finding the time to be able to do something like that but I definitely do, I definitely want to create some stuff outside of just pure, straight stand-up. Though I will do stand-up forever, being able to create this stuff that will kind of live on, that’s the plan. I would like to try to shoot stuff in Nashville so I could be home and Nashville's exploding.

CB: Any bombshell news you wanna drop in CityBeat? (Laughs)
NB: (Jokingly) Yeah, I’m doing Forrest Gump 2, let me just drop that.
CB: Print it! (Laughs)

CB: How was your experience on Saturday Night Live?
NB: Amazing. I was told it’s a one-of-a-kind experience and it’s exactly that. I was also told, when you get into show business, it’s a show that you think that’s how all show business will be and that was very much true. I really enjoyed it. Getting to do sketches in front of a live audience is kind of like the multi-cam, the old sitcoms and they do it that way. It was a special thing; just how quick it goes. I can’t speak highly enough of it. It was an honor to ever even get to do it and, yeah, I loved it.

CB: I imagine it is, but is this tour leading up to a new special, potentially?
NB: Yeah, I’m hoping to tape one in 2024, probably come out at the end of ‘24, hopefully. That’s the general plan.

CB: I read something in Variety where you kind of mention manifesting things, speaking things into truth, in some way — how do you feel about that? It seems like maybe it is a good self-fulfilling prophecy to try to manifest positive things.
NB: Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, you just think about what you want and if it’s always on your mind, you just gotta figure a way to get to that thing. When you’re thinking about it a lot, you know, you might not have a clear path to the end goal but everything you do will be a step closer. I would always say, you should have something — a dream you’re embarrassed to tell someone and you should have a goal you’d be embarrassed if you couldn’t reach it — and just slowly put those together and I believe you can get to that dream.

CB: That’s great, man. That’s a nice sentiment, there. How about the reward of doing comedy, what it means to get to make people laugh?
NB: I’m lucky to get to do it. I feel like a lot of this is kind of coming through me. Just to be out there and make people laugh, you know when you hear people really laughing it’s a really wonderful thing to get to hear and people can’t catch their breath and it makes you just smile when you’re onstage and it makes you want to get into it more. I like to hear, you know, when people leave and they’re like, “Oh, my abs hurt” and all this. That kind of stuff is just to give people a break that everybody deserves because everybody has to work very hard and life is hard and so, if I can just go be a little break for them for a little bit, it’s an honor to get to do it.

Nate Bargatze performs at Heritage Bank Center on Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Info: heritagebankcenter.com.