Comedian Nate Bargatze went from being a college dropout to a water meter reader to a nationally beloved comic, hosting Saturday Night Live twice these past two years.
How did he pull it off?
Writing in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Nate says there’s nothing funnier than making yourself part of the punchline. But he attributes this ease with self-deprecating humor to his mother and father.
“My mom is very funny, more like me in terms of setting up jokes,” he writes in the Journal. “Dad is more slapstick in his delivery. But what I always admired is how he made fun of himself.”
Growing up in Tennessee, Nate’s dad, Stephen, was a professional clown and magician. “We were different,” he says with a smile. He’d watch his father tirelessly prepare and practice his routines.
It was amid his meter reading job that Nate took a shot at improv comedy. He worked at a club for eight weeks, deciding it wasn’t a good fit for him. He then took a stand-up comedy class, found his rhythm and started the climb.
But his father and mother were never far from his mind, especially how hard his dad worked at perfecting his craft as a performer.
“I think that work ethic was huge and that’s what I’ve had in comedy,” Bargatze said. “When I went to New York, I would go out every single night and do shows every night for nine years because I had to keep doing this if you want to get to a high level.”
It was a grind. “You got to get on stage a lot,” Bargatze says. “A lot of reps, you got to do a lot of reps. That’s the biggest way to practice and get better.”
That’s good advice for any line of work.
Raised up in Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Nate’s father, who was raised Catholic, was at one time studying to be a minister before becoming a professional clown and magician.
Bargatze finds some humor in being raised by “cradle” Catholics who were born-again.
“So I have all of the Catholic guilt, without any of the fun of Catholic, and then just the strictness of Baptist. Which is the most strict. Not as much now. But when we were growing up, Baptist was the most … they could get disappointed real fast at you.”
To this day, Nate Bargatze cares a lot about what his mom and dad think. In fact, the Nashville-based comic says his goal is “To be funny on stage without saying things that would embarrass or upset my parents.”
He then added:
“Being nice to others was a household principle. Insulting someone for a laugh was frowned upon.”
It was Aristotle who believed humor should involve blunders that don’t cause someone else pain. The best and enduring comics laugh with us, not at us.
Modern culture often dismisses guilt as an unnecessary burden, a social construct that somehow shackles us to living under too many constraints. Instead, we hear about the liberating nature of living as we wish regardless of other’s expectations, let alone God’s ever watchful eye. We’re warned about being “people pleasers” and instead encouraged to please and satisfy ourselves.
From the outside looking in, it appears that Nate Bargatze has a strong conscience. As a believer himself, and a father, he has an appreciation for the words of 3 John 1:4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” He obviously also has a strong conviction regarding the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).
Nate has said it gives him joy to look out an audience and see children laughing along with their parents.
Our culture would be in a healthier spot if more young adults sought to please both the Lord and their parents with their words and actions on a daily basis.
Married to Laura for 18 years, the Bargatzes have one daughter, Harper, who is 11.
Mark your calendar or set your DVR for “Nate Bargatze’s Nashville Christmas” on December 19th on CBS at 9:01 p.m.
Stephen Bargatze often joins Nate on his comedy tour, performing as a warmup to his son’s act as well as introducing him. It often makes the father cry.
“Because of realizing how great God is,” Stephen explains. “We know as a family, and I believe Nathan believes this in all of his heart that we can’t take any credit for this success. I mean, come on. We’re just regular people talking about our family. … We just know it’s a God thing.”
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