Here Are A Couple of Things That Irritate Nice Guy Nate Bargatze
Nate Bargatze insists he’s not necessarily “the nicest guy in comedy,” as he was dubbed by The Atlantic a few years back. “I’m not a perfect person,” he recently told People.
Oh yeah, Mr. Imperfect? Then what gets under your skin?
“I wasn’t a fan of the ‘Let’s goooo!’ phase,” he confessed. “If it were little kids, I didn’t care. But when it was adults, people around my age were going, ‘Let’s goooo!’ I was pretty frustrated.”
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That’s it? That’s the crack in the armor? Jeez, Bargatze, get a real pet peeve.
If there’s one thing that’s irritating, it might be Bargatze’s insistence on not offending, even though he swears that’s not a manufactured trait to sell tickets. “I never tried to market myself as a ‘clean comic’ as a sales tactic,” he insisted. “It was just what I was doing. And I like that families can listen to me in the car, or I can see 10-year-olds at my shows. I’m not making comedy for kids, but if they get a laugh at the jokes they do get, I appreciate that.”
Bargatze is welcome to do his clean sets, but wouldn’t the guy benefit from having a little bit of an edge? He finally started to show off some surliness in his recent Esquire profile by taking some shots at Walt Disney.
Okay, not Disney himself, but Bob Iger, the guy who runs Uncle Walt’s company. Bargatze named Disney, along with Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow, as his biggest showbiz influences. But his hero is no longer well represented by the corporation that bears his name. “Now Disney is run by a guy that’s just a businessman,” Bargatze spat. “Well, that guy doesn’t care about the audience.”
A few more mean-spirited jabs like that might be just what Bargatze’s stand-up act needs. But the comic says he won’t be in that business for much longer. Bargatze has already announced his pivot to the movies, starting with next year’s The Breadwinner.
After that? Bargatze says he wants to be Walt Disney himself, a pretty audacious goal for a nice guy. He not only sees himself making movies and TV shows, producing podcasts and mentoring young comedians. He also wants to launch a theme park that bears his name. That’s not a joke — he’s in talks to turn the old Opryland amusement park (where young Bargatze got his first job) into a new entertainment mecca called Nateland.
“I’ll be honest with you, I bet we’re closer than people think,” he told Esquire.
An amusement park with Bargatze-themed thrill rides? Let’s gooooo!
