Why Nate Does Great: Comedy Chart-Topper Nate Bargatze Is America’s Favorite Funny Man

In the weeks leading up to his Oct. 28, 2023, appearance as host of “Saturday Night Live,” one of the top search strings on Google was “Who is Nate Bargatze?”.

At the time, Nashville-native Bargatze existed in the weird liminal space — increasingly common in an increasingly siloed culture — of being both intensely popular and broadly unknown.

The kind of people who decide who hosts “SNL” were obviously aware of him and no doubt knew his drawing power and his craft. There was a distinct momentum that was undeniable. In April 2023, he set the attendance record at his hometown arena, selling 19,365 tickets at Bridgestone Arena, grossing $1.3 million, In September, as part of the Outback Presents-produced “Be Funny Tour,” he set the comedy record at Salt Lake City’s Delta Center (29,251 over two shows, grossing $2.1 million).

There were plenty of people who already knew the answer to the popular Google search. And there were plenty of people who liked what they saw after they did that search: Bargatze’s episode drew 4.85 million viewers, the top-rated episode of Season 49.

“Be Funny” was already well underway by the time that episode hit and what happened after is astounding. He set the building record at Columbus, Ohio’s Nationwide Arena in January 2024 (26,793 tickets over two shows; combined gross: $2.1 million). The next day, he set the comedy record in Cincinnati at the Heritage Bank Center. Another two shows, another 28,226 tickets; another $2.1 million. Then came two performances at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center: a record 24,588, grossing more than $1.5 million. A record at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania. And then he drew 19,006 for two shows in one day at Everett, Washington’s Angel of the Winds Arena, a single-day record for the building. In February, he set the single-day record at Kansas City’s TMobile Arena, the comedy record at Estero, Florida’s Hertz Arena and broke the 30-year-old attendance record at Fairfax, Virginia’s Eagle Bank Arena.

There’s been plenty more since, which culminates with Bargatze topping Pollstar’s 2024 Comedy Chart. Between Aug. 1, 2023, and July 31, 2024, he grossed nearly $80 million and sold more than 1 million tickets over 163 shows. He bested No. 2 Dave Chappelle by more than $35 million(!).

It speaks volumes about his popularity and the savvy he and his team had in putting the tour together. United Talent Agency Head of Comedy Touring Nick Nuciforo and comedy touring agent Joe Schwartz moved him into theaters relatively quickly — in part because his audience was more comfortable there than in clubs. When he moved into arenas on “Be Funny,” he started performing largely in the round. The set-up suits his style. He’s a lot like your funny buddy telling you stories of the goofy situations he finds himself in as a sort-of overwhelmed naif, bamboozled by life.

“We definitely have been known to shrink a stage to fit more seats,” Nuciforo told Pollstar in March. “He likes the intimacy of what that means as a performer to the audience, and it speaks highly to just how captivating he is that he’s able to command the stage like that in the round.”

Bargatze has appeal broad and deep. He works clean. He doesn’t do political humor. He plays to the middle of the country — geographically and culturally — and what the coasts and edges often forget is that there is a lot of middle.

His January 2023 special “Hello World” streamed on Amazon Prime Video, which raised some eyebrows given the hold Netflix has on the comedy-streaming market. But Schwartz said the move was intentional. Bargatze’s fans often live outside major cities and many rely on Amazon Prime. Since Prime Video comes bundled with the service, his fans were already there.

Bargatze isn’t hokey or regionalist — he does have a slight twinge of an accent that is particular to Nashville’s eastern suburbs — but his jokes are unlikely to start a fight at Thanksgiving dinner. That allows him to play matinees at arenas in addition to standard 8 p.m. starts. He doesn’t have to rely on late-night clubs or age-restricted shows to make a living. 

On “SNL,” he mused about going to the Wilson County Fair in the 1980s to see his magician dad perform on a stage next to high-diving donkeys. 

“Pretty tough to keep people’s attention when my dad is like, ‘Is this your card?’ And everybody’s like, ‘Hold on, this donkey’s about to jump off this high dive.’ That’s something you don’t think you want to see until it’s up there. I use the word ‘jump’ very loosely. These donkeys are falling off this high dive. But, you can’t put that on the sign. Want to watch a donkey fall off a high dive? Like, no. What if he jumped? Well, at least he’s into it,” he joked.

The joke works for the audience who knows what it’s like to go to county fairs and for an audience who doesn’t and he pulls it off without insulting the former or playing into the pretenses of the latter.

Comics who work blue and comics who skewer politicians play a vital role. Their jokes reveal truths about those who lead us — and in election years, they have plenty of fodder to work with.

But sometimes, we need a break. Sometimes, we just need a joke about
dealing with a water heater repairman. Sometimes, the only political joke we want is about George Washington fighting the Revolution to preserve America’s goofy system of weights and measures (Bargatze portrayed the first president in a side- splitting sketch on “SNL” that now leads his live show).

Sometimes, we just want a comic to meet us where we are and as Bargatze proves, when a comedian gets that right, he’ll find a full arena waiting for him.