{"id":133095,"date":"2025-09-10T15:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133095\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:43:11","slug":"nate-bargatze-on-hosting-emmys-adhd-quitting-standup-theme-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133095\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Bargatze on Hosting Emmys, ADHD, Quitting Standup, Theme Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tI notice Nate Bargatze<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0car before I notice him.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe burnt orange Porsche has just pulled up to the bustling Nashville restaurant where we\u2019ve agreed to meet, and the valet is signaling for Bargatze to park out front. Once he\u2019s made his way inside, he\u2019ll tell me that his primo spot is a perk of driving a stick shift \u2014 what he won\u2019t say, and what he\u2019d hate having to read here, is that it\u2019s also a perk of being the most successful touring comedian in the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Bargatze, 46, has climbed to the top of that comedy food chain \u2014 slowly at first, then lightning fast \u2014 he\u2019s wrestled with many things, none more so than: How does a guy who\u2019s parlayed his everyman persona into a burgeoning empire remain an everyman? After all, an everyman doesn\u2019t sell out arenas; he doesn\u2019t star in movies; he doesn\u2019t host Saturday Night Live<\/a>; he doesn\u2019t get tapped to emcee this year\u2019s Emmy Awards; and he certainly doesn\u2019t have a burnt orange Porsche parked out front.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n

\n\tTruth is, Bargatze loves the car. He spends so much time on tour, it\u2019s nice having something he looks forward to driving when he\u2019s home. And frankly, at this stage, he could afford a whole fleet of them without noticing a dent in his bank account. But there\u2019s also a genuine discomfort that comes with the spoils of success. \u201cI\u2019m embarrassed,\u201d he says as a few restaurant-goers do double takes. \u201cI hesitate to even talk about it because I don\u2019t want anybody to think that I think I\u2019m better than them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze has spent a fair share of his time lately grappling with concerns like this one in therapy, which is another thing that he\u2019s embarrassed about. He\u2019s terrified he\u2019ll come off as some out-of-touch elitist and not the comfortably relatable, oafish dad that\u2019s earned him his legions of fans. But he has just come from his therapist\u2019s office, and he had a good session, maybe even a breakthrough, and once he starts talking about it, he can\u2019t seem to stop.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have to understand this is all relatively new territory for Bargatze, who was raised \u201cupper lower class\u201d in Old Hickory, Tennessee, where nobody spoke about shrinks, much less saw one. \u201cWhere I come from, the only reason you\u2019d go to therapy is if you, like, set your house on fire,\u201d he says, \u201cnot because you\u2019re, like, managing life.\u201d But who else is he supposed to talk to about this stuff? These aren\u2019t exactly everyman problems.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNate Bargatze was photographed Aug.\u202f13 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. He\u2019s performed on the famed stage many times over the years, but his first job included sweeping the Opry steps.
\nArtistic and Fashion Director Alison\u202fEdmond
\nCanali suit, shirt, pocket square; David Yurman lapel pin, ring; Christian Louboutin boots.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy; Fashion Assistant: Elliott Pearson. Hair: Eric Miller. Makeup: Katie Barr. Tailor: Mariana Vasiltsova.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Bargatze\u2019s high school yearbook, students were asked what they thought they\u2019d be doing with their lives in 10 years. His response? Performing at Zanies, the preeminent comedy club in his native Nashville. On its face, it\u2019s an obvious answer for the funny kid in class \u2014 it also reveals an ambition that he\u2019s always had but has only recently been comfortable discussing. \u201cI think it used to feel stupid for me to want to dream this big,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsk the same question of Bargatze today, and he\u2019ll look you in the eyes and tell you that he\u2019s trying to build \u201cthe next Disney\u201d \u2014 a destination for the kind of wholesome content that he grew up on and wishes were still available to enjoy with his wife, Laura, and their 13-year-old daughter. A decade from now, Nateland, as he\u2019s named his company, should have TV shows, movies, podcasts, specials, live events and, yes, even an amusement park. He laughs off the notion that it may be too late for mass-appeal entertainment in an era of niche. \u201cEvery weekend, I look out [at packed arenas] and I see that it\u2019s OK to be for everybody,\u201d says the comic, whose family-friendly act grossed more than $80 million last year, outselling everybody in the business, including Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld and Sebastian Maniscalco combined.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, he regrets how he articulated his vision for Nateland and, more notably, its competition in a springtime interview with Esquire, telling the magazine: \u201cNow Disney is run by a guy that\u2019s just a businessman [and] doesn\u2019t care about the audience.\u201d It wasn\u2019t exactly what Bargatze meant, and when he saw his comments making headlines, he was frustrated, mostly with himself.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat was me dumbly not knowing and just saying something,\u201d he tells me. \u201cBut when I said it, I was also kind of seeing, like, does what I say have weight? And it turns out it does.\u201d According to Bargatze, it led to him texting directly with Disney CEO Bob Iger, which was, admittedly, wild. It was Bargatze who fired off the first text: \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do interviews.\u201d The two are hoping to cross paths Emmy weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow that he has the industry\u2019s attention, Bargatze wants to meet everybody. \u201cAll the people who came before me,\u201d he says, \u201cand just learn from them.\u201d He already peppered Adam Sandler, a role model, with questions at the SNL50, and he picked Mark Wahlberg\u2019s brain on the golf course. He\u2019s also sat, spongelike, with top executives like Peter Rice and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and he keeps an encouraging voice note from Seinfeld, an idol turned mentor, saved on his phone. Bargatze may make jokes about his \u201cbig dumb eyes\u201d \u2014 the name of his current tour and his best-selling book \u2014 but the college dropout is ferociously competitive and now deeply committed to building a behemoth.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNate\u2019s got that \u2018aw, shucks\u2019 thing to him, but he\u2019s taking it all in,\u201d says Felix Verdigets, a friend and neighbor who recently left his partner role at the prestigious consulting firm KPMG to be the CEO of Bargatze\u2019s company. \u201cI love being in business meetings where people start to get like, \u2018Hey, buddy, are you with us?\u2019 Like, \u2018You following us?\u2019 And then he\u2019ll just turn around and ask the smartest questions, and everyone will go, \u2018Oh.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in order for him to get to the next level, Bargatze says he\u2019s got to do some real work on himself, which is where the therapist comes in. For about a year now, he has been carrying around ADHD meds. A doctor prescribed them because Bargatze has many of the symptoms \u2014 \u201cI can be hyper-focused on things like comedy, but then everything else feels overwhelming,\u201d he says \u2014 and he had every intention of taking them. Then he got scared. \u201cSo scared,\u201d he tells me. \u201cBecause what if ADHD is my superpower?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s also a part of Bargatze, one that he isn\u2019t particularly proud of, that worries that this very conversation makes him weak. \u201cLike I should be able to just grow up and handle it,\u201d he says. At the same time, what if the meds could quiet his brain? What if they could even help him get a handle on his diet and start committing to being fit and healthy once and for all? These are things he wants, and as the demands of him and his time continue to grow, things he needs.<\/p>\n

\n\tFans of Bargatze\u2019s stand-up and his Nateland podcast know all about his affinity for chain restaurants \u2014 he famously met his wife working at Applebee\u2019s \u2014 and for fast food. \u201cI have a major problem. Last night, I even drove myself to get a Sonic Blast because I was overwhelmed and I don\u2019t know where to send that energy except to that,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I look at myself and I go, \u2018Why am I going? I don\u2019t even want it.\u2019 But I don\u2019t know what else to do. Drinking is gone. I was able to address that. So, what\u2019s my outlet now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze cut booze back in 2018, just as he was making the transition from comedy clubs to theaters. He feared if he didn\u2019t, it would sabotage his career. But his relationship with food has proved trickier to wrestle control of. In fact, he says he started taking the weight-loss drug Mounjaro earlier this year, right before production began on The Breadwinner<\/a>, his first feature, because he felt himself spiraling \u2014 but he hates how the shot makes him feel and he hates the fact that he needs it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf he does end up taking the ADHD meds \u2014 which, on this evening, is still a big if \u2014 he\u2019ll want to figure out a way to get off of them as quickly as he can. \u201cIt would just be to give myself a break,\u201d he says, as he forks into a butter pecan doughnut that he\u2019s ordered for dessert. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like I\u2019m drowning, and I need a raft to hold on to, just to let me get my bearings, and then I need to try to swim again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBrunello Cucinelli jacket, shirt, tie, pants; Christian Louboutin shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze used to worry that he would never make it in the comedy business because he didn\u2019t have a troubled childhood to mine. Instead, as he wrote in his best-seller, his upbringing was \u201cpure dumb funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis father, Stephen, was a clown, then a magician, which would yield loads of material as he grew older (including a 2012 special, Yelled at by a Clown); as a kid, it just meant the Bargatze house was full of silly props and Nate and his two younger siblings had reliable birthday party entertainment. Any time he was given a chance to join his father onstage, he\u2019d jump at it, though he never engaged in the magic. Even now, he says, \u201cI only know how to ruin a trick.\u201d (These days, Stephen opens for his son on the road, where he regularly kills; in a matter of weeks, the nearly 70-year-old will tape his first special, which Nateland is producing.)<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was his father\u2019s faith, however, that did more to shape Bargatze. Stephen and his wife, Carol, raised the family Southern Baptist, which, their son has joked, meant that \u201cJesus had more fun than [he] did.\u201d It definitely limited what Bargatze was allowed to watch, and the language that he uses to this day. His friends all say they\u2019ve never heard him curse, on- or offstage. He remembers doing so once, in an early special, and he\u2019s still mad about it. He\u2019d called his dad for permission at the time, explaining how the tag he\u2019d be using \u2014 \u201cdon\u2019t be a bitch about it\u201d \u2014 was the only way he could think to secure a laugh. \u201cI regret it so much,\u201d he says now. \u201cI just wasn\u2019t a good enough comic to figure out something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBargatze with his dad, Stephen, a clown turned magician who now opens for his son on the road.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Subject<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze still makes a habit of going to church when he\u2019s home, and prayer is his answer to many things. At one point, he tells me, \u201cAs a Christian, I feel very much called in what I do,\u201d then stops himself. In his desire to be broadly relatable, Bargatze has learned to minimize his faith publicly. It\u2019s easier to sell out arenas on both coasts and everywhere in between when you\u2019re not potentially alienating anyone. It\u2019s one of the reasons he\u2019s always chafed at the \u201cChristian comic\u201d label, a box inside which he never wanted to be placed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe clean label, on the other hand, Bargatze wears like a badge of pride \u2014 though in an ideal world, he\u2019d rather you not notice that he never touches anything remotely controversial. That\u2019s arguably easier to accomplish these days, when Bargatze and his openers all subscribe to the same PG philosophy. It was significantly harder to pull off early on, when he was coming up in New York City clubs, doing the uncensored midnight shows with jokes about parking and his magician dad. (It\u2019s worth noting here that he\u2019s never been fazed by what others do; the vast majority of Bargatze\u2019s comedian friends and role models are considerably filthier and often political and it doesn\u2019t stop him from hanging out or guesting on their shows. He\u2019s done them all: Joe Rogan\u2019s, Theo Von\u2019s, Marc Maron\u2019s and John Mulaney\u2019s.)<\/p>\n

\n\tHis commitment to staying clean has always impressed Jimmy Fallon, who once headlined his own Clean Cut Comedy Tour before taking over The Tonight Show, and recruited Bargatze to join him. \u201cHe could go dirty if he wanted to, but he\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m going to choose not to,\u2019 and it\u2019s harder to make the choice not to and be successful,\u201d says the late night host, who\u2019s had Bargatze on his show more than a dozen times and later recommended him to Lorne Michaels to host SNL.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHis viral \u201cWashington\u2019s Dreams\u201d sketch from his first SNL appearance is widely considered brilliant.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWill Heath\/NBC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, it was a slog. For years, Bargatze watched as the careers of his edgier peers took off. \u201cWe all knew how good he was, but the bookers took a little longer,\u201d recalls fellow comic Julian McCullough, who came up with Bargatze in New York and now emcees his tour. \u201cYou sort of always knew it was going to be a longer road for him because he wasn\u2019t a noisy, flashy guy and he wasn\u2019t going to change to fit tastes \u2014 he was just going to keep writing better jokes than everybody else, and that\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Bargatze\u2019s estimation, his career was always moving forward, just never as quickly as he wanted it to or felt it should. In fact, even after he scored a Grammy nomination for his 2021 Netflix<\/a> hour, The Greatest Average American, Netflix is said to have encouraged him to explore other distributors for his next special. Amazon bit immediately, and though Netflix ultimately came around with a bigger offer, he took the Prime Video deal. He was hurt, but not particularly surprised. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that I wasn\u2019t doing well,\u201d he says, \u201cbut everybody started getting a little opinionated, and it was like, \u2018Man, they\u2019re getting all this industry love\u2019 and they\u2019re \u2018the coolest thing.\u2019 And when I\u2019d get offstage, people would be like, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s the funniest,\u2019 but I wasn\u2019t getting any of that and it was really frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze had an even harder time in Hollywood. He spent a decade pitching a series of loosely autobiographical sitcoms without anything to show for it. He even managed to enlist big-name producers, who were genuine fans of his comedy. One had Fallon attached; another had Jerrod Carmichael and Drew Goddard. It was never enough. Bargatze was selling something that L.A. executives weren\u2019t buying.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen everything changed.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBargatze been on Fallon\u2019s show more than any other comic.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTodd Owyoung\/NBC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Bargatze\u2019s career, there is a \u201cbefore Saturday Night Live\u201d and an after. Michaels gave him his first shot as host in October 2023, when the rest of Hollywood was off on strike. And though he was filling arenas by then, there were plenty still googling, \u201cWho is Nate Bargatze?\u201d He took it in stride.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d just sold out the Oklahoma City Thunder arena that week, but I didn\u2019t go in, like, \u2018You should know who I am,\u2019 because why should they?\u201d he says now. \u201cI knew that that was a different audience, and that I had to murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBy all accounts, he did. Bargatze\u2019s monologue, nearly 10 minutes of his best material delivered in his laconic, deadpan way, earned widespread raves; and his \u201cWashington\u2019s Dream<\/a>\u201d sketch, which mocked America\u2019s asinine system of weights and measurement with him as George Washington, quickly went viral. The episode delivered the show\u2019s highest ratings in nearly a year and catapulted Bargatze into the zeitgeist in a way he\u2019d never experienced before. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have gone better,\u201d says Fallon, who\u2019s agreed to open for his buddy at Madison Square Garden later this month and is now back in comedy clubs for the first time in years. As for Bargatze, he was invited back to SNL the following season.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, Bargatze\u2019s touring business exploded \u2014 \u201cI was doing arenas before, but I joke that SNL added the second arena,\u201d he says \u2014 and so did his ambitions. He hired Verdigets, and the two built out a staff of about 15 full-time employees. They already have a talent incubation system in place to identify and grow other clean comics, along with plans to build a sweeping production facility in Nashville and offer Nateland \u201cexperiences,\u201d which include a 2026 voyage with Norwegian Cruise Line and that amusement park. The latter is moving along nicely, says Bargatze \u2014 they\u2019ve completed a market study and are about to start the feasibility one. If everything continues to go well, they\u2019ll have a shovel in the ground in five to six years. To pull it all off, he\u2019s been meeting with Tennessee legislators and potential investors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been with Nate long enough that when he starts talking about a theme park, I know he isn\u2019t joking. I\u2019m like, \u2018Yes, let\u2019s do a theme park,\u2019 \u201d says McCullough. \u201cI also know that not everybody\u2019s going to hear it that way, and they haven\u2019t.\u201d But as Bargatze and everyone in his circle will tell you, naysayers are his fuel. \u201cTell him no and he just winks at you, like, \u2018All right, I\u2019ll show you,\u2019 \u201d says Verdigets, who claims his partner\u2019s competitive side is omnipresent: \u201cEverything\u2019s a game with him. You go over to the house, and he has you in the Trackman [golf simulator] seeing who can hit the target first, or you\u2019re in the pool seeing who can hold their breath the longest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn recent months, the Hollywood end of Nateland\u2019s business has been moving at warp speed. If you believe his reps, it\u2019s because Bargatze\u2019s poised to revive the once vital family-friendly comedy \u2014 think Home Alone or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids \u2014 and he knows how to sell tickets. That he\u2019s never actually acted in a movie, much less opened one, doesn\u2019t seem to faze them. \u201cEverybody recognizes that he\u2019s this unicorn in the world right now,\u201d says Jason Heyman, a UTA partner who works closely with Bargatze. \u201cHe can tap into the left and the right and everyone between the coasts in a way that no one else is, and he\u2019s doing it in a very wholesome, nonthreatening, family-first way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Nicole Brown, president of Sony\u2019s TriStar Pictures, Bargatze was worth betting on. In fact, she couldn\u2019t get the Mr. Mom-esque comedy that he co-wrote, produces and stars in into production fast enough. \u201cThe idea of his first film being so personal and authentic to him and his comedy felt like the perfect foray, and he\u2019d really identified a space,\u201d she says of The Breadwinner, where Bargatze plays a bumbling dad. \u201cHe was like, \u2018I want to be able to watch a film with my whole family. We can go watch animation now, but there\u2019s nothing with real people in it.\u2019 \u201d Plus, he intends to promote The Breadwinner with a preshow teaser video<\/a> in every arena he plays from now until its March theatrical release. That there was also a stunning number of brands, from Walmart to Toyota, that wanted to be affiliated with the film was, as Brown puts it, \u201can amazing surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVerdigets, who calls Bargatze \u201ca corporate dream,\u201d squeaky-clean without being saccharine or cheesy, was considerably less surprised. \u201cLook, Sony\u2019s great, they\u2019re awesome, but these companies didn\u2019t wake up one morning and go, \u2018Let\u2019s do something with Sony today,\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cThey went, \u2018Oh, we finally can get with Nate,\u2019 because he typically doesn\u2019t endorse as Nate Bargatze but he can endorse as Nate Wilcox, his character in The Breadwinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBy Verdigets\u2019 count, there are at least nine more scripts, three animated projects and two game shows in various stages of development at Nateland \u2014 and that doesn\u2019t account for the deluge of IP coming Bargatze\u2019s way. (\u201cEvery classic comedy that studios have in their cellar,\u201d says Heyman.) Given his schedule, he\u2019s already abandoned his own sitcom dreams, though he hopes to produce them for other comics. Bargatze will stick to movies, animation and game shows. At press time, his reps were hammering out a deal with ABC for the latter, which he\u2019s hoping to film at the Grand Ole Opry, as he did his CBS holiday variety special last year. CBS is hoping he\u2019ll do more of those, too, but first they\u2019ve got him hosting the Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt a time when so much comedy is polarizing \u2014 half the country loves it, half the country hates it \u2014 you have this genius in Nate, who\u2019s just trying to bring us all together,\u201d says CBS CEO George Cheeks, a longtime Bargatze fan. \u201cHe\u2019s not preachy, he\u2019s not didactic, he\u2019s just human \u2014 and to me, there\u2019s nothing more refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers might tell you that hosting an awards show is a thankless gig, but Bargatze doesn\u2019t seem fussed. He chuckles at the idea of having to watch all of the nominated shows, and he has no plans to cancel his Denver tour dates on Friday and Saturday of Emmy weekend. A week and a half before the Emmys, he calls me, not from a writers room in L.A. but rather from a golf trip in Pinehurst, North Carolina. \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019m getting jokes sent to me,\u201d he says. (He also says that he\u2019s just started taking those ADHD meds that he\u2019d been carrying around, and it\u2019s been \u201cnice to get some relief.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Bargatze sees it, the Emmys don\u2019t actually require a ton of stage time from the host, and he makes his living on a stage. Plus, he has an A-list team with him that includes head writer Mike Gibbons, who wrote for both Nikki Glaser\u2019s Golden Globes and The Roast of Tom Brady. Still, the fact that a guy who spent 10 years trying and failing to get a television series of his own on the air is now hosting the TV industry\u2019s biggest night is not lost on Bargatze. \u201cAnd there\u2019s probably a little bit of me that wants to feel like I belong,\u201d he says. \u201cI know that I sound different and I live in Nashville and I do these other things, but I want to be accepted by them. I think they\u2019re cool, and I want them to think I\u2019m cool, too. I want all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd he\u2019s about to go all in.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTodd Snyder suit; vintage shirt; David Yurman ring; Jimmy Choo shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tBargatze\u2019s plan is to do one more tour after the one he\u2019s currently on, and that\u2019s it. He\u2019ll turn his attention to Hollywood. \u201cI know how much focus and hard work it is to get where I got with stand-up, so if I want to do that in movies, I can\u2019t do both,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just too much, and I won\u2019t do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s an audacious pivot for someone who sold more than 1 million tickets on the road last year. Ask Verdigets how he feels about the plan, and the CEO jokes: \u201cOn the record, I\u2019m going with whatever Nate says.\u201d Even Heyman, who manages Bargatze\u2019s Hollywood business, acknowledges how much his client leaves on the table when he isn\u2019t delivering stand-up. \u201cIf we looked at it in terms of money,\u201d he says, \u201cit would be idiotic to do movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn reality, Bargatze will still perform, just at a vastly different scale and cadence than he has for the past 20 years. \u201cIt\u2019ll be more like a hobby,\u201d he says, envisioning himself popping in at Zanies or the Comedy Cellar in New York. And maybe it\u2019s all for the best. He\u2019s already concerned about the threats to his everyman authenticity. It\u2019s the reason he set aside time to write the hour he\u2019s currently touring before production on The Breadwinner got underway.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBargatze with his wife, Laura, whom he met working at Applebee\u2019s; she as a server, he as a host. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRich Polk\/GG2025\/Penske Media\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew I was about to get into a world where you\u2019re recognized a lot more and you\u2019re not doing normal things, and you don\u2019t want to get up there and be like, \u2018Ah man, the other day, I was with the Rock,\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019d never want your whole act to be about your career and success. You want it to still be about things that are relatable \u2014 the things that people come to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s also the reason that, in addition to his solo sessions, he\u2019s started going to therapy with his wife. \u201cAs all this stuff changes for me, it also changes for her and for our family,\u201d he tells me. \u201cAnd we want to make sure that we stay \u2018us\u2019 focused. We\u2019re a family, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important \u2014 none of the other stuff matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s getting late now, and Bargatze has to head home. He\u2019s got a slew of things to do in the morning, then he\u2019s back out on the road. Columbia, South Carolina. Jacksonville, Florida. Then, Orlando, where his wife and daughter will join him over the weekend. He plans to take the family to Disney World, just as an everyman would. Of course, he\u2019ll also be doing a little market research while he\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Sept. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I notice Nate Bargatze\u2019s\u00a0car before I notice him. The burnt orange Porsche has just pulled up to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,40064,134,92112,435,33892,17521,92113,92114,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-133095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-emmys-2025","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-nate-bargatze","13":"tag-netflix","14":"tag-saturday-night-live","15":"tag-stand-up-comedy","16":"tag-the-breadwinner","17":"tag-thr-cover-story","18":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}