Few comedians have the success of Nate Bargatze. The Nashville native is the highest-grossing comedian in the United States, setting an attendance record in 2023 at Music City’s Bridgestone Arena, with 19,365 people, beating a record previously held by Morgan Wallen. He also tours the country, appears on primetime and late night TV shows, and sells out his shows almost immediately after tickets go on sale.
For most comedians, a notoriously challenging profession, they would enjoy their reign at the top, making others fend for themselves as Bargatze had to early in his career.
Fortunately, Bargatze isn’t like most comedians, or celebrities. The 46-year-old is notorious for helping others, including with his Nateland shows at Nashville’s Zanies, a popular comedy club. Bargatze chooses the comedians to perform, and sometimes even shows up himself. He also invites comedians to reach an even broader audience by appearing on his Nateland podcast.
“I want the next generation to have a chance to come up behind me,” Bargatze tells The Tennessean.
Indeed, Bargatze is having unprecedented success, including hosting the Emmys on September 14 on CBS/Paramount+. He is also building an amusement park, appropriately called Nateland, in Nashville. It’s a lot for a former meter reader, who first moved to Chicago in 2001 to devote himself fully to comedy, later spending a grueling seven years performing in comedy clubs in New York City.
It would have been understandable for Bargatze to give up, but he had an inner belief in himself, even if it went against all the odds.
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“I always believed in myself,” Bargatze maintains. “I always believed I was going to get to a high level. But I remember going to TV show [producers] and wanting to pitch shows and you’d get told ‘No.’ I felt frustration — why didn’t you pick me?”
It’s that memory that fuels Bargatze to help those coming after him. But even he admits his path is unconventional.
“Before, people had to do sitcoms to do arenas,” Bargatze acknowledges. “I’ve gone this other way. Now, hey, you can just become a stand-up comedian. I want to be that path for the next group that comes up. You have comics coming up and don’t know what they can do, and I can help show them.”
The irony isn’t lost on Bargatze that he did it all on his terms, including performing clean, family-friendly comedy that does not intrude on his strong Christian faith. He is soon starring in a movie, The Breadwinner, opposite Mandy Moore. Bargatze also co-wrote the script.
“I just want it in my own hands,” Bargatze tells Esquire. “I’m tired of it being in other people’s hands that can say no.”
“I’ve had to build myself up to this crazy level just for them to say, ‘All right, let’s maybe let you do a movie,’” he continues. “I’m like, ‘What? I don’t even know if I need it.’ And they say, ‘Well, you want to do TV now?’ And I’m like, ‘What? Are you crazy? The whole point of you is that you’re supposed to help me get to the point that I’m at. That’s why you do TV, to get to this level. Y’all let me get to this level without you.'”
Find all of Bargatze’s Zanies’ shows at Nashville.Zanies.com. All of Bargatze’s upcoming appearances can be found at Nateland.com.