For comedian Nate Bargatze, creating clean comedy that a range of people — from kids to grandmothers — can enjoy is a fulfilling “calling,” he said in a recent interview with The New York Times.
Appealing to nearly everybody goes against the grain of the comedy world, but Bargatze has always been up for the challenge. And he’s excelling at it.
In 2024, Bargatze put on the highest-grossing comedy show of the year, outperforming comedy juggernauts like Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler, per Billboard. He has hosted “Saturday Night Live” twice.
“When I started in comedy, some comics would be like, ‘Well, I’m not for everybody,’ and I’d be like, ‘Why would you not want to be for everybody?’" Bargatze told The New York Times.
“Most of the comics I was around were the complete opposite of everything I did,” he added. “I didn’t want you to notice that I was clean... You learn how to hide it, because if you walked up and said, ‘I’m clean,’ it‘s going to be like, ‘This guy’s not cool.’”
Creating clean comedy is “very, very hard” work, Bargatze says, but he is motivated by “a bigger purpose.”
“I am second to God. Second to your family, second to the audience, second to everybody,” he told The New York Times. “You live to serve, so it‘s very much a calling in that aspect.”
He continued, “I just want to make something where all of them can be in the room together. It‘s driven by a bigger purpose for me, but everybody has their own things.”
“I do really good with grandmothers, and I always loved that because I don’t think there’s much being made that they could go to.”
Bargatze said he is “grateful to be a vessel” for the work he is doing during a January appearance on stand-up comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes’ podcast, "Funjelah."
“It can’t be about me,” Bargatze told Johnson-Reyes. “Because if it was about me, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. That‘s why I can handle it, because it‘s not about me… what I believe, it‘s on God.”
Nate Bargatze and religion
On several instances, Bargatze has shared how his Christian upbringing has guided his comedy.
“I come from a Christian family and Southern Christian, so I wasn’t allowed to watch anything,” he told Fox News in 2023. “And so growing up and only watching clean comedians, it was just how I was going to be. And it would feel forced if I was not.”
During a 2023 conversation with comedian Joe Zimmerman on his “Nateland” podcast, Bargatze said, “My parents grew up Catholic, but I was raised Baptist.”
He added, “So I have all of the Catholic guilt, without any of the fun of Catholic, and then just the strictness of Baptist. Which is the most strict. Not as much now. But when we were growing up, Baptist was the most... they could get disappointed real fast at you.”
When is Nate Bargatze coming to Utah?
On his upcoming “Big Dumb Eyes” tour, Bargatze will stop at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for three shows, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
Bargatze will perform at the Delta Center on Friday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., he announced.
Salt Lake City is one of just five cities Bargatze will stop in on his upcoming tour. New York City, Dallas, Las Vegas and Hollywood, Florida are also on his schedule.