“Everything happens very slowly, slower than you want, but faster than you think,” he said Nate Bargatzethe American comedian who spent twenty years touring clubs without media attention, and is currently considered The most successful humorist of your country.
“Two more tours and got off the stage,” he warned with certainty in an interview for Esquire. His retirement is already marked on the calendar: five more years, one last joke and a farewell with its characteristic: “Thank you, good Night.”
At 46, Bargatze is not only at the top of the stand-up; It is building an excessive plan for what comes next. Movies, television, products and a Theme Park called Nataland. The type of things that someone with the ambition of Walt Disney I would imagine. About this, he admitted: “It is difficult to say it out loud. They will think: ‘And who are you to do this?’”
For years, Hollywood did not know what to do with him. With failed participations in competitions and pilots who did not see the light, His style did not fit. “They told me that It was too mundane. I had to find what that word meant and it wasn’t a good thing, ”he recalled.
“I tried to be in their system. But they kept telling me no, so I had to create mine,” the comedian deepened. His key decision came in 2014, when he and his wife left Los Angeles to return to Nashville. Regarding this, he added: “I didn’t want them to think that I gave myself “.
From that return to the firm land of his family, he could Build an empire from the shadows. “Either you get career at 20 or 40. No one succeeds in the middle,” he explained safely. Currently, with full stadiums and his name in Marquesina, time proved him right.
In a scenario where others choose to provoke, Bargatze laughs without rudeness, without sex and without politics. “I never thought of a sexual joke. It is not born, ”he admitted. His comedy is familiar, simple and deeply everyday.
The comedian’s humorous style It lies in the connection and not in the search for confrontation. “If I want to give you my opinion about who I voted for, who is that?
Marc Maronwho discovered it at a festival in 2012, defined it with precision: “It transcends the sides. You do not know how it votes, but you see that it is attentive to what happens. Your comedy is unique”.
-The root of his world is in Old Hickory (Tennessee). His father Stephenis a magician with an absurd and charming routine, but today opens his son’s shows. The whole familymade up of his parents, sister, wife and daughter, revolves with him. He also acknowledged: “My childhood was silly and fun, because my dad had already gone through everything miserable.”
Bargatze it Practicing Christianraised in a home of parents born again. According to this, he stated: “I try to go to church everything I can when I am at home. It makes you feel with my feet on the ground.” His comedy does not make fun of his faith, but explores his contradictions with a personal look: “Jesus had more than me in the 80s and 90s.”
About his daughter, Harperof twelve years, he said: “I stopped making jokes on her. He is at an age in which other boys could use that to bother her.” And about his wife, Laurawith whom he has been married, he explained: “If I want to make a joke about something I did, I have to make it clear that it was for a silly reason.”
In 2023, he sold more tickets than humorists like Seinfeld, Chappelle and Maniscalco combined: more than one million tickets, for a total of 80 million dollars. His second monologue in Saturday Night Live, in October, was the most watched of the season.
“I knew I had to destroy that monologue. It was a welcome, greetings,” he explained. And about that idea, he got it: the sketch “Washington’s Dream” was considered by many as the best in fifteen years. Jimmy Fallonwho drove him to drive SNL, said it clearly: “It is the indicated guy. He will achieve it.”
The humorist is not thinking alone. His vision is to build a Large -scale entertainment company: Nataland Productions. It already has a dozen employees and a CEO with a doctorate. The objective is to produce films, series, podcasts, merchandising and a theme park.
According to his vision, he shared: “The most difficult thing is keep upbecause it is not striking. You have to sit and continue. I am frustrated with a system that prefers viral headlines to what I do. ”
The park would be built on the old Opryland land (closed theme park), where the “standupero” had its first job. “I’m going to be honest, I think we are closer than people think,” he said. Before that, he will launch The Breadwinnerhis first film, based on his life. “It’s like ‘Mr. Mom´, one of those that people want to see again.”
After their removal from the stage, the scripts, the productions will come and, eventually, the step back to give space to new talents. “I am tired that others have the power to tell me no. I want it to be in my hands,” said the renowned comedian.
