#1620 - Nate Bargatze

Nate Bargatze (0:15)

Hello. I'm good.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

You're a Nashville resident now, huh?

Nate Bargatze (0:20)

I am, yeah, I'm from there. So when did you move back?

It's been six years. I was, I started in Chicago. I moved from Nashville to Chicago first, and then New York for about nine years, and then LA for a couple. And I started touring on the road like a lot more. And then I moved back to Nashville. It was the first, what I thought to myself, the first unselfish thing I did for my family in comedy was to get... I was being gone so much. We have an eight-year-old. I mean, at the time, we had a two-year-old, so...

And so I was like, just leaving them, you know? And I was like, let's just go. But when I first moved back, I didn't tell anybody.

Joe Rogan (0:58)

Really?

Nate Bargatze (0:59)

I was afraid people would think I'd quit comedy.

Joe Rogan (1:03)

Isn't that weird? I know.

Nate Bargatze (1:05)

I was so...

Joe Rogan (1:06)

Like, you can only do comedy in a couple places.

Nate Bargatze (1:09)

Yeah. I was so scared. I had my buddy Rory Scoville, like, he... I moved, didn't tell him, and he came to Nashville, and I was like, hey, I'll pick you up at the airport. I'm, like, at my parents' house.

And then I picked him up and drove to my home. And I was like, I've been gone for six months. Because I realized you weren't seeing anybody.

Joe Rogan (1:28)

Yeah. If you're on the road a lot, it almost doesn't matter where you live as long as you have a workout room.

Nate Bargatze (1:35)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (1:35)

And you use Zanies? Is that your spot?

Nate Bargatze (1:37)

I use Zanies. But I would do...

Zanies is my workout room. I started changing where I really started working out on the road. Like it was doing just constantly touring. And so I liked building the act, you know, in that long format. Like doing that hour.

Joe Rogan (1:55)

Right.

Nate Bargatze (1:55)

Like I'm doing it right now. And so like having to build it where I would always... I open with new and I like to see how far I can get.

And then so I can have some kind of gauge.

Joe Rogan (2:05)

So you open with new?

Nate Bargatze (2:06)

Yeah, because you're the most excited about it.

Joe Rogan (2:08)

Right.

Nate Bargatze (2:09)

It's fresh. And usually your audiences will give you the most grace at the top.

So you can kind of be like, let me just... I'm excited about them. I'm the most excited about these jokes. I'm going to get a little grace from them because they're excited that you're coming out. And then so I do that. And then I can get a real timing. Because you know, one time I mixed in old and new after a special. And I remember a guy afterwards being like, I did like all old stuff. And I was like, no, I did half new. Because it's mixed in, they don't know.

And so that way, if I do, if I open with it, I mean, I'll even like after a special, if I got like 40 new and I have to close with from 20 from the special, I'll tell the crowd, I was like, all right, that's all the new jokes I got. And then they feel like, oh, then afterwards, they're like, well, I got so many new jokes.

And they feel great about it.

Joe Rogan (2:59)

That's an interesting change of thought process between like the old guard and like the newer comics that are doing specials on a regular basis.

Like the olden days, guys would keep an act forever. They'd keep an act for 10, 15, 20 years.

Nate Bargatze (3:15)

I mean, it was so I when I've started, I've moved to actually, I have a story with you about first starting. Oh, you were responsible for basically the first time I ever went on stage.

I mean, almost an economy. I think Zany Chicago might have been the first actual club I went to is that are the Comedy Store. So I was friends with a buddy of mine, Josh Baker. He was in the band Prom Kings.

Do you remember band? I think. Yeah. And so we came out to LA to stay, hang out with him.

And he and so they knew you.

And so this is I mean, I think it's 2003 or four. And I've been doing comedy maybe a year. And so we come out and then we you invite us to the show at the Comedy Store. So we come watch you. We sit in the front row. I remember all this stuff. That's like a nightmare as a comic. Now when you think back, then I didn't care.