Nate Bargatze latest comedy special titled “Hello World” on Amazon Prime dives into his life as a Christian, the dynamics of his childhood, family, his marriage and so much more.
The 43-year-old’s stand-up Christian comedian recently celebrated the fact that he’s offered a clean, family show for the last 20 years and his recent one, holds to that fact. His latest comedy special, taped in Phoenix, AZ, is free of cuss words, crude material, or sexual references.
He’s explained that the reason for his family-friendly show is mainly because he never felt he could tell a dirty joke in front of his parents. Bargatze is the son of Stephen Bargatze, a clown who later became an award-winning magician and international motivational speaker, and Carole Bargatze.
“I think I still feel I will get in trouble,” Bargatze told Fox News. “I’ll get in trouble and I will disappoint them. I don’t want to disappoint my parents.”
“I just can’t imagine cursing in front of your parents,” he added. “Still, even now, I’m 43-years-old and I still just couldn’t do that. So that’s how I write. I think I write my comedy to — a lot of it is to make my parents laugh. I want them to be proud and be like, ‘Oh, come watch my son do comedy,’ and not be offended by it. I just don’t have that in me to want to offend someone or make someone feel bad.”
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In his new hour-long special, there’s only one time where he gets even close to using a harsh word and that’s during a bit about how he will use the word “sucks” in the show as in the saying “this sucks” because he said it used to be a bad word in the 80s. “This is supposed to be a clean show. I’m bringing this filth into it,” he cracked.
The comedian jokes about being raised in a strict family home and said it’s why his comedy is something he would’ve watched growing up.
“I grew up that way,” Bargatze told Fox. “I come from a Christian family and Southern Christian, so I wasn’t allowed to watch anything, which I talk about in the special. And so growing up and only watching clean comedians, it was just how I was going to be. And it would feel forced if I was not.”
At one point in the Amazon special he joked, “I think Jesus had more fun than I did” as he explained his “parents became Christian when I was born. ”
“And everyone’s still Christian,” he added. “But I got them when they were the most Christian. I had 80s and 90s Christian parents. Well, that’s the most Christian you can ever get of the Christian.”
In “Hello World,” he recalled being 12-years-old and being at a friend’s house for a sleepover when the parents put on the R-rated movie “Friday the 13th,” a rating he wasn’t allowed to watch.
“The (host’s) mom came over — She was just trying to save me the embarrassment — and said, ‘Maybe just don’t tell your parents about it,'” Bargatze told the audience, joking that, by that point, he’d already called his parents and said “they are on their way.”
“I didn’t know we could lie to these people,” he added in the show. “This is the first I’m hearing that’s an option.”
Bargatze was born to a Southern Baptist Christian family in Old Hickory, Tennessee. After graduation, he eventually moved to Chicago where he started his career as a stand-up comedian. He would tour the country and perform at comedy festivals for the next decade. And in 2012 he finally got his big break when he was doing a show at a comedy club in New York and caught the attention of Jimmy Fallon and later Conan O’Brien.
Months later, Fallon brought him on his late-night talk show “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” which gave him national attention. Since then, he’s released two successful Netflix comedy specials, one in 2019 called “The Tennessee Kid” and another in 2021 “The Great Average American,” which he’s said changed my life.
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In addition, he’s had success with his two comedy albums, “Yelled at by a Clown” and “Full Time Magic.” The former peaked in 2014 at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 10 Comedy Charts and the latter reached No. 1 in 2015, ABQ Journal noted. On top of that, he hosts the “Nateland” podcast.
Reading through reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, audience critics loved the new special, with fans giving it a 98% audience score.
“Nate’s comedy makes you laugh at yourself, his stories, the world, and the madness of the human condition,” one person wrote. “There’s a current of warmth under it all that makes you feel good having spent an hour with him. Life and loss are hard enough — if we must be mortal, let us at least laugh, and laugh like this.”
Another added, “Was crying laughing and it’s something that can be enjoyed with the whole family! Love it!”
While another person wrote, “He’s so funny, without ever swearing or being a dirt ball. He’s just hilarious. Although I don’t think he is dumb and wish he’d stop making that a focus of his humor. Other than that, he’s super consistent — always laugh-out-loud funny — Hello World is no exception.”
Reflecting on the new special, Bargatze admitted, this time around, he was a lot more personal than in the past, Fox News noted. In his comedy, Bargatze likes to joke about his wife, Laura Baines-Bargatze too and their marriage. The couple married in 2007 and welcomed their daughter in 2012, Celebily noted.
“It’s a lot more about me and how I grew up,” the comedian said. “The stories are a little bit longer and just as I’ve gotten older as a comic.”
“I was very happy about this hour because this hour is built off of the back end of COVID,” he added. “So I was home a lot, and I was able to gather a lot of material.”