‘Not so famous’ Nate Bargatze brings act to the Bartlett
Comedian Nate Bargatze has performed stand-up on “Conan” and “The Tonight Show” and has had an hourlong special on Comedy Central, and he’s hitting the Bartlett stage on Friday night. We spoke to the comic about his father the magician, the perils of being only kind of famous, the stigma of clean comedy and the proper pronunciation of “Spokane.”
The Spokesman-Review: I know you’re from Tennessee. Do you still live there?
Nate Bargatze: Yeah, I’m back here now. I started (stand-up) in Chicago in 2003, and I was there for two years, then New York for nine, then L.A. for two. We’ve been back in Nashville for a year and a half. My whole family’s here, so I’ll stay here as long as I can.
SR: Have you been to Spokane before?
Bargatze: I don’t think so. I’ve been to Seattle a few times, and Tacoma. But I haven’t made it all the way out to Spo … It’s pronounced “spoken,” right? I was saying “spo-kane.”
SR: It’s “spo-CAN,” actually.
Bargatze: “Spo-kane” is a super Southern way to say it. But I’m excited to be there.
SR: I was reading about your dad, who’s a magician. Do you think his work influenced yours?
Bargatze: Yeah, I think it did. I never wanted to do magic. I saw how much he had to work on it. It’s like if your dad was a construction worker, you probably wouldn’t want to go into construction. … He was doing it before I was born. It never stood out. That’s just what he did. But there were all those nights when he would be gone doing gigs, and now I go do them.
SR: When did you decide to focus on comedy?
Bargatze: I wrote in my senior yearbook that I wanted to be playing in the NBA, for some reason. That was probably my first joke. Then I said I wanted to perform at Zanies, which is the local club here. But I don’t remember ever thinking, “This is what I live for.” I went off to college, and I had a job where I was reading water meters. I had a buddy who was going off to Chicago to do improv at Second City, and I was 22 so I went with him. I got into improv, then into stand-up. I just kind of went with the flow.
SR: Would you say that your style or material has significantly evolved since you started?
Bargatze: When you’re in New York, you get used to tight sets. You can only do 10 or 15 minutes a night. You might do six different shows, but each show is 10 minutes. Now that I go on the road, I’ve been doing longer sets. One joke might take 10 minutes to tell.
SR: Do you change up your routines pretty often?
Bargatze: It’s weird, because I’m in a position where I don’t know where the crowd knows me from. I don’t know if they know me from my special or from “The Tonight Show.” I don’t know if they’ve seen five minutes or 45 minutes. So I try to balance it out, throw in whatever I think the hits might be. … Louis C.K. knows people have seen his special. When you’re not so famous, it’s hard. I don’t want to act so arrogant that I think everyone’s heard everything I’ve done.
SR: Your comedy is noticeably clean. Is that a deliberate choice?
Bargatze: I don’t think I ever could have been dirty in front of my parents, so I just started clean. Now it’s just in my brain. It’s not like I intentionally try to not write a dirty joke. … There aren’t as many clean guys as there used to be. The best compliment I can get is when somebody doesn’t even notice I’m clean.
SR: It’s odd that there seems to be a stigma against clean comedians.
Bargatze: If you’re labeled as a clean comic, it can really put you in a hole. But I think it goes either way. I always point to Bill Burr. He does dirty stuff, but I don’t think of him as a dirty comic. (Jim) Gaffigan’s a clean comic, Brian Regan’s a clean comic. You try to stay in the middle and not point it out. I mean, I’m Southern and I’m proud to be from the South. But I don’t want to be a “Southern comedian.” I just want to be a comedian.