Nate Bargatze on Prepping a Special During a Pandemic, and Why It Really Does Pay to Be Nice to People

Published by Sara Dahms at April 2, 2021

Nate Bargatze has been a comedy force since his first special debuted in 2015 and everyone who knew him saw it coming. He’s that talented and that funny.. He’s back with his second hour-long Netflix original comedy special, Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American where he shares stories, anecdotes and incredibly relatable moments that we all share but never thought about in quite the way Nate puts it.

After you watch Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American you should go back and watch his 2015 debut special, Full Time Magic, his 2017 Netflix half hour which is part of The Standups series, and his first solo Netflix Special, The Tennessee Kid, which debuted to rave reviews in 2019. You can also go to YouTube and google any of his great appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon– Nate is one of their favorite guests, or one of his four Conan sets. And you can play Twenty One Questions with Nate Bargatze and listen to his podcast, Nateland, on the All Things Comedy Network

Sara Dahms talked with Nate just before the special dropped about putting together a special during a global pandemic.

The Interrobang: Congratulations on your new Netflix special! “The Greatest Average American” was filmed during the pandemic, but you did not skip a beat! It is right up there at the same level, if not higher, than your other specials. How did you manage to work out all that material during the lockdown?

Nate Bargatze: Well, thank you. That is wonderful to hear. I was really nervous before it came out because this is such a weird time but my plan, even pre-Covid, was to film a special and release it around this time. We planned to do a big 100 date, theater tour but had to make a lot of changes. When everything closed, I went out and started doing a lot of drive-in comedy shows. I did about 22 of them and was able to run the set that way. Luckily, Zanies in Nashville, where I live, was able to do some very limited capacity shows so I was also able to do a couple indoor shows and being able to hear the audience laugh helped a lot.

The Interrobang: Would you be able to take ideas and edits that came to you during those shows and then work them out at Zanies to see if they got a laugh or would you just have to trust your instinct and inner sense of comedic timing that your material was funny?

Nate Bargatze: I only got to hop on a show or run my hour a couple of times at Zanies but one of the coolest drive-in shows I did was in Chicago. They would honk and flash their headlights for laughs. No other place “got it” the way Chicago did. It was awesome. I walked out and there were 500 cars, flashing their lights and honking their horns. It was weird but it just worked. If you would have told me beforehand that they were going to honk for laughs, I would have been like, “No!” but I learned that all I needed was a response. That Chicago show really helped me with the timing of my jokes.

The Interrobang: That is so cool! I’m a Chicago girl and am so glad you had a good experience out here.

Nate Bargatze: It’s funny but after doing all those drive-in dates, the truth is, filming the Netflix special was one of the harder shows I had to do. After so many dates with cars, I knew what that was and what it felt like. There would be people who would sit outside their cars, so I’d hear some laughing, not much, but a little bit. Then, with filming the special, there was only 100 people, and everyone had to get tested, but they all still had to keep their masks on for the whole show. I couldn’t really hear them laugh and I couldn’t see their faces. If I could see their faces, I’d be like, “Ok, it’s going good.” Instead, there was a bunch of eyes staring at me! (laughing)

The Interrobang: Creepy! (Laughing) The good news is that all your hard work paid off and your special is hilarious! Let’s bring it back to Chicago for a second. You’re from Tennessee but wasn’t Chicago where you got your start in comedy?

Nate Bargatze: Yep. I love Chicago. I moved there from Nashville and that was the first place I ever did stand-up. I was there with Hannibal Buress, Pete Holmes, TJ Miller and Kumail Nanjiani. I moved from Nashville to the big city with a friend of mine, but he wasn’t doing stand-up. I didn’t know anybody in comedy, so I took some classes. It was nice to meet people who were also starting out and nervous like I was. We’d run around and do shows. Zanies was the first club I worked at. I hosted there. Chicago was awesome. I loved Chicago but I was only there for about two years before I moved to New York.

The Interrobang: Well, for only being here for two years, you certainly made a ton of all-star connections. To be in Chicago at the time of Hannibal Buress, Pete Holmes, TJ Miller and Kumail Nanjiani is epic!

Nate Bargatze: We all ended up moving to New York and I did exactly what Pete did on the show “Crashing.” I went to Boston Comedy Club and started handing out flyers and came up in that type of world because of Pete. I remember helping run a room with Dustin Chafin at The Broadway Comedy Club and I’d get Hannibal in because we were all new comics looking for spots. I loved it.

The Interrobang: You ran with an all-star crew. When did you end up meeting Jimmy Fallon?

Nate Bargatze: That was a big one. I moved from New York to L.A. around 2012 but New York always had these really big New Years Eve shows so I always came back for those. I was at The Stand with Yannis Pappas and Chris Laker downstairs in the showroom. It was like an hour before the show started and Jimmy Fallon, who was hosting “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” just popped in. None of us knew him personally but he hung out and talked to us and then stayed to watch the show. Everyone knew he was there, so every comic was trying to crush it. I remember that he left as soon as I got off, so I didn’t get to talk to him. Then, I got a call later and he made me an offer to do “Late Night with Fallon” and that relationship started building from there.

The Interrobang: The beautiful thing about your story, Nate, is that the doors just keep opening and everyone who works with you, loves you. You’ve worked with Just for Laughs, Comedy Central, Netflix and now…. All Things Comedy!!! You have so many awesome things happening right now. Tell me about your new podcast, “Nateland” on the All Things Comedy network.

Nate Bargatze: It’s very light-hearted. I remember Burr saying to think of it like morning radio and just be funny. I’m a huge Bill Burr fan. He was just starting to catch heat when I was starting out, so I got a front row seat to watch him take off and I always loved Bill Burr. Then, with this shutdown, we were all stuck and not doing a lot of stuff and being funny is like a muscle that you have to work. It’s easy to get lazy and sit there and get sad, which is not good for comedy. You just have to be funny, and I could do a podcast and be funny, so I started “Nateland” right here in my house. I have a studio we made, and we record it with two comedians from Nashville, Aaron Weber and Brian Bates.

The Interrobang: That’s awesome! So, a new podcast and a new special all in the books during a global pandemic. You’ve had a long relationship with Netflix. Do you think there will be another special in your future?

Nate Bargatze: I hope so. That’s what I want. I would love to continue this relationship with Netflix. I know some of the people who work there from when they used to work at Just For Laughs and Comedy Central so I’ve worked with them at New Faces in Montreal and then doing Comedy Central stuff over the past ten years. You just kind of develop these long relationships with the business side of comedy. I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope this special does really well and I get asked to do another one.

The Interrobang: So, the relationship you have that lead you to this Netflix special started at New Faces in Montreal at Just for Laughs?

Nate Bargatze: Robbie Praw, who books the Netflix specials, used to book New Faces at Just for Laughs.

The Interrobang: Did he book you for New Faces?

Nate Bargatze: Yep.

The Interrobang: The person who booked you for New Faces, at Just for Laughs, in the trajectory of their career ended up being the comedy booker at Netflix and they remembered Nate Bargatze and booked you for one half hour and two hour comedy specials on Netflix?! That is pretty amazing. You are so talented!

Nate Bargatze: Thank you. That goes to show, you have to be nice to everybody. You’re writing this about comedy now, but I don’t know where you’re gonna end up. You may end up running HBO at some point.

The Interrobang: From your mouth to Gods ears, Nate! (Laughing)

Nate Bargatze: But that is what’s so crazy. We are all in a business where we do not know what anyone is going to do next. You should always be nice to everybody to begin with, but I specifically see it in show business because people get pulled. Robbie Praw was the perfect person to get hired by Netflix. I mean he saw everybody while he was in Montreal and Joann Grigioni is there now too. I have known Joann since I did “Live at Gotham” on Comedy Central with her. Then she did my half hour and hour specials on Comedy Central and now she has been involved in all my Netflix stuff, so she has been there for almost every TV thing I have ever done. It is wild, but you don’t just come up with comedians. You also come up with people who work in the business. You meet them when you are all the same age, starting out in comedy and then you kind of grow up and it’s really nice to have familiar faces around you.

The Interrobang: That is beautiful. One of the things I love about your comedy are your stories. You tell awesome stories about your family, your childhood and your experiences in comedy that all have hilarious buttons on them… If you ever decide to do a show or a movie, you are in the Netflix family, so who knows, maybe they’ll look at you for that too.

Nate Bargatze: I would love that.

The Interrobang: I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you, Nate! Congratulations and good luck to you!