Tonight we saw my favourite comic who was in town at the Rio Theatre. Here’s a bio I found on the Eventbrite page for his second show here tomorrow night.
Hailing from Old Hickory, Tennessee, rising stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze is selling out shows across America. Nate followed in the showbiz footsteps of his dad, a former clown turned world class magician, who’s influence is seen on Nate’s 2015 debut special ‘Full Time Magic’ and his debut album “Yelled at By a Clown.” Nate’s half-hour Netflix Special “The Standups” premiered on July 4th 2017 to rave reviews. In addition to touring the country as a headliner, Nate toured in arenas with Chris Rock on his 2017 Total Blackout Tour. He currently has a deal with 20th Century Fox to develop his own TV show.
Nate’s comedy is both clean and relatable, evident in his six appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon six times, following four appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He appeared on Conan four times, was a recurring guest on @midnight, and had his own Comedy Central Presents in 2011. Off-screen, Nate was part of Jimmy Fallon’s Clean Cut Comedy Tour, and has done live shows for the troops in Iraq and Kuwait five times. He regularly performs at Bonnaroo, SXSW, Oddball Comedy Festival, Sasquatch, Clusterfest, and the JFL Montreal Comedy Festival, where he’s received critical acclaim multiple years in a row.
Nate was featured as one of Esquire’s ‘Best New Comedians’ by Jim Gaffigan, one of Marc Maron’s ‘Comedians to Watch’ in Rolling Stone, one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch” for 2015, and as #1 on Vulture’s ‘50 Comedians You Should Know’ in 2015. His debut one hour special, Full Time Magic, premiered on Comedy Central that spring, followed by his debut album, “Yelled at by a Clown,” which reached #1 on the iTunes Comedy Charts and remained on Billboard’s Top Ten Comedy Charts for weeks.
He continues to tour across the country and internationally.
I first saw Nate Bargatze on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and he told this joke about a tiger that still, to this day makes me laugh any time I even think about it.
He finally came to Vancouver for Just For Laughs Northwest in 2017 and Kevin and I saw him at the Biltmore. It was fantastic.
Ever since then, we’ve been waiting for him to return, watching and rewatching his Comedy Central and Netflix specials and retelling his jokes around the house. Just before Christmas, Kevin caught word that Nate would be coming back to Vancouver in February and then even closer to Christmas (and after he’d already bought tickets as a stocking stuffer for me) I discovered the same. He told me after the fact that he just sat beside me when I said it and prayed that I wouldn’t go out and buy tickets right on the spot. (Something I would 100% do.)
Unfortunately, in the days leading up to the show, Nate got sick and had to cancel. Tonight was the first of the two rescheduled shows and I’m seriously tempted to go back tomorrow.
Here’s a taste of the reason why.
