As COVID chaos set in back in April 2020, I took a deep dive into the local stand-up comedy scene for the Scene. If not poised for a huge breakout at that moment, local comics seemed to be building toward one, with traditionalist funny people, deadpan alt comedians, artsier improv types and many more who jump between these micro scenes sharing stages and comparing notes nightly. Top-flight Music City comics like Dusty Slay were opting to stick around in lieu of chasing the dream in Chicago, L.A. or New York, while veterans like Nate Bargatze were resettling in the area after putting in their time in said Big Three cities.
In the year that followed, creative people of all disciplines were severely hamstrung. Bands could barely function. Solo musicians poured themselves into their recordings. Some put interesting spins on the livestream format. Across all art forms, real ones worked to make lemonade from a sour situation. But few performers, as far as I could tell, were hit harder by the freeze on in-person events than stand-ups, whose whole medium is built on artist-audience chemistry.
Nate Bargatze
Even in pre-COVID days, Nashville stand-ups were birds who made nests of whatever they could find, never making excuses. In October 2020, Bargatze shot his second Netflix comedy special Greatest Average American, loaded with COVID jokes, to a crowd of viewers in parked cars at Universal Studios Hollywood, honking their horns in approval. He may have gotten the idea from alt promoter extraordinaire Seth Pomeroy, who put on a similar event earlier that fall at Daddy’s Dogs in The Nations dubbed Comedy in Cars — a homecoming for Carter Glascock and Laura Peek, both back in town from L.A., and a showcase for current standouts like Holly Perkins and Chance Willie.
“I think comedy’s in as good of a place as it’s ever been,” Bargatze tells the Scene. “Life got so serious. People need to zone out. Some comics are rustier than others. But everybody’s getting back into it.”
This resilience is something to celebrate — the return of Nashville Comedy Festival, even more so.
And there couldn’t be a better voice and face for the event than relative newcomer Josh Black, among the most outspoken figures the local scene has produced to date. A blindspot in my 2020 coverage, Black has since seized the mic with a compelling, undeniable fearlessness. (And, full disclosure, Black has done a series of videos in collaboration with the Scene.) He’ll be the master of ceremonies for the seven-night multi-venue affair, heading up a strong local undercard for headliners including Bill Burr, Janeane Garofalo, Nikki Glaser and Taylor Tomlinson.
Black joined the Nashville Fire Department in 2018 at age 28, following in the footsteps of his grandfather. Around the same time, Black had started doing stand-up. The day job and side hustle did not mix well. “I did a prank phone call to a certain lady at a hat store on Eighth Avenue with a big-as-fuck Trump 2020 sign, right next to a fire hall, to inform her that [Trump] lost,” he recalls.
“That got me suspended for eight days. ... I was resentful toward the department and the toxic, good-old-boy, Confederate-culture system of fear there. It’s not sexy or heroic. It’s a bunch of guys who live in places like Tullahoma and Pulaski — literally where the KKK started — and other deep-red Tennessee towns.”
Josh Black
After that experience, Black “was just fed up — I felt like I had nothing to lose.” He found himself leaning further into his role as a Black comic, specifically. “You don’t have to be Malcolm X,” he says. “But it feels irresponsible to not at least touch on race … to not try to move the needle forward.”
According to local stand-up veteran Brad Sativa — whom I’d last spoken to for that 2020 Scene cover story, and who’ll host a special edition of his regular Zanies Brunch of Laughs gig as part of the Nashville Comedy Festival — “a lot has happened these last two years. With social issues, with everything. There’s been a sense of pride in keeping things going, staying honest.”
Sativa calls Black “without question, the comic from Nashville who blew up the most during COVID. He stands on his beliefs very firmly, which is rare, and I’m glad for that. Josh and I are both Virgos. Outside-the-box thinkers. Socially aware. Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K., they’re Virgos too. Nas a Virgo. Michael Jackson. Beyoncé. We’re coming in expressing ourselves.”
The well-traveled Bargatze — who for the fest will do a live taping of his Nateland podcast as well as producing a performance for his friend and peer Mike Vecchione — looks around Nashville and likes what he sees.
“I first left Nashville in 2003,” Bargatze recalls. “I think it’s good to be proud of where you’re from, of course. But I was scared that when I moved back, people would’ve thought I’d quit. Now, though, Nashville’s blowing up. People in Nashville and in the state of Tennessee are definitely well aware that comedy is a thing, and I love that.”
The growth of the alt scene, he adds, “is an especially good sign. To have a parallel circuit, a different system with so many other shows, that doesn’t even involve having to do the road ... that’s very interesting. I see a lot more comics moving here than leaving. They don’t feel like they have to live in New York now. That’s a good thing. I only hope it keeps growing. I think it will.”
