If you haven’t watched Netflix’s new comedy series The Standups, go do so immediately. Especially the episodes featuring Fortune Feimster (“Owie, no!”), Beth Stelling and Tennessee-native Nate Bargatze. In his 30-minute special, Bargatze laments his inability to be understood by Starbucks baristas, the terribleness of Facebook (he’s right, no one wants to see a murder video when they first wake up in the morning) and whether or not dog medicine can expire.
Bargatze moved to Chicago to pursue comedy in his early 20s — also spending time in New York and Los Angeles — and toured with Jimmy Fallon as part of the Clean Comedy Tour. He’s appeared on Conan, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and WTF With Marc Maron. Now that he’s settled back in Music City (well, Old Hickory, specifically), he’s entertaining the Nashville Predators and hanging out with country superstars. (He’s a featured comedian on Brad Paisley’s Comedy Hour, also on Netflix.)
Bargatze has three dates at Zanies booked through the fall and winter — Oct. 18, Dec. 12 and Feb. 14 — and tickets are going fast. In fact, his October date is already sold out. So, now that he’s moved back to Nashville, is he going to ditch the comedy career and run for Senate? The Scene recently caught up with him by phone to find out.
Do you feel like you started your comedy career here in Tennessee, in the Nashville area, or did you have to get out of town to make that happen?
I started in Chicago. I moved with a buddy because he wanted to start comedy, and we were working in Mt. Juliet reading water meters. I wanted to do comedy, and my buddy Michael wanted to do comedy, he wanted to go to Chicago to Second City. So I moved there first — I never tried an open-mic in Nashville before. It wasn’t like I was like, “I can’t start here.” We just moved to Chicago, and when I started, Kumail Nanjiani was there, Pete Holmes, Hannibal Buress, T.J. Miller — they were all part of the scene when I started stand-up.
I bet you have some great stories from that period of all of you starting out. We don’t always see the struggles that come with starting a comedy career, the empty open-mic rooms, or the flops.
Yeah, when you first start, you just want the room to laugh. It’s not like you’re even thinking, like, “I want to play Madison Square Garden.” Because it’s so nerve-wracking, you’re just sick to your stomach every single night. It’s one of the hardest things to get through. I definitely don’t miss that. I would never want to start over.
So what drew you to comedy in the first place?
My dad does comedy with his magic. He’s very funny, so I think it has to come from that. I did stuff with him some when I was a kid, like, at our church, sometimes we would do a sketch. I was around it, even just being funny at school. It was just like, almost like it’s in you. It’s in your blood, and you just want to do it.
You’re known as a clean comic — you were on Jimmy Fallon’s Clean Comedy Tour. And it doesn’t seem like you say much in regard to politics. Is it hard to keep people’s attention when they’re so focused on everything else that’s happening in the country right now?
I don’t talk about politics, and a huge part of it is just because there’s enough people doing it. It is on every television show, late-night show. No one’s complaining they can’t find enough opinions on what’s going on. I’ve never talked about it, I’m not smart enough to talk about it. I just leave it alone and hope to be people’s break. It’s hard to even get a break anymore, because sports are now getting political — no one can go anywhere without it being some kind of message or something.
In the shows you’ve done, does it feel like people appreciate having that intentional break from politics?
Yeah, I absolutely think so. They can just laugh, it’s an hour they don’t have to think about it. It’s not like they’re sitting there like, “I wonder what’s happening,” or, “I wonder why he won’t talk about politics.” I’ve never really done politics. So if they are fans, I don’t think they’re even expecting me to do it.
So, no interest, then, in getting into politics? ’Cause Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker just announced his retirement, leaving a Senate position open. You can always switch from comedy and throw your hat in that ring.
[Laughs] I think it would be pretty tough to run for something that you don’t even know what their job really does. I’d probably be, like, “So, how long do I get to be in this?”
Like, “Is this two years? Four? Do I get a house with this one?”
[Laughs] Yeah, “What is this one? Do we get to move?” That could be my running platform, just, “Guys, I don’t know what’s happening. So, vote for me. I’ll let you probably decide a lot of things, because I don’t even know what I can decide.”
Your dad is a magician, but he was also working as a professional clown at one point. In pop culture right now, clowns are being featured as scary characters. The remake of It with Pennywise, and there are killer clowns in American Horror Story: Cult. How does that feel? Are you like, “Nope, clowns are not homicidal. They are my dad.”
We’ve been through all of the highs and lows of clowns over the years. [Laughs] Clowns are always a bit scary. My first album was Yelled at by a Clown, and I have a picture of me and my dad on the album. I say a joke on the CD where people are always like, “Oh, I hate clowns.” And I’m like, “Hey, remember that time I just said that was my dad? I just told you that was my dad.” And they’re like, “Oh, I hate clowns.” [Laughs] You have to sit there and take a lot of that. Some people don’t like clowns, and they’re gonna tell you. Even if you’re telling them, “My dad’s a clown, so maybe he’s sensitive around the subject.”
So you don’t have a clown phobia, but what are you afraid of? Do you have any phobias?
I’m sure I do. Like, uh, heights? I don’t know. Do I have to know?
Bachelorettes on pedal taverns. Is that something that frightens you?
Oh, yeah. No one likes that stuff.
