Nathanael Bargatze (/bɑːrˈɡɑːtziː/bar-GOT-zee; born March 25, 1979) is an American comedian. His comedy is characterized by references to his family, comedic encounters, and life anecdotes.
Bargatze began his stand-up comedy career in Chicago[4] and later moved to doing comedy at The Boston Comedy Club in New York City. Bargatze cited the Jerry Seinfeld documentary Comedian (2002) as "life changing" and a "big reason why he moved to New York".[5] He has appeared on Conan[6] and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[7] He was part of Fallon's Clean Cut Comedy Tour in 2013, also winning New York's Comedy Festival and the Boston Comedy Festival that year.[8][9] He wrote for the Spike TV Video Game Awards and has performed for American armed forces in Iraq and Kuwait. He was mentioned by comedians Marc Maron and Jim Gaffigan as one of the top up-and-coming comics.[10][11]
Bargatze's first stand-up album, Yelled at by a Clown (2014), was on the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts for two weeks, peaking at No. 2.[12][13] He released his second album, Full Time Magic, in coordination with his Comedy Central special in May 2015.[14] In 2017, Netflix released a half-hour Bargatze special as part of The Standups.[15]
In March 2019, Netflix released an hour-long Bargatze special, The Tennessee Kid, shot outside Atlanta, Georgia.[16] Bargatze began hosting a podcast called "The Nateland Podcast" in July 2020 along with Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, and Dusty Slay.[17][18] His next stand-up special, The Greatest Average American, was released by Netflix in March 2021. It was filmed outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood and was nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.[19] Bargatze was featured in an article for The Atlantic in 2021 which designated him "The Nicest Man in Stand-Up".[20] In 2022, Bargatze voiced the side character Grady in the short Portal spinoff game Aperture Desk Job.[21]