Nate Bargatze on Recording His Special and Playing Baseball With Pizza Boxes
Nate Bargatze has been on the cusp of stardom for a few years now. For a comic whose fanbase includes luminaries such as Marc Maron, Bargatze’s act is much more approachable than his comic’s comic reputation might suggest. Affable and generally TV-clean, Bargatze has a playfully dark sensibility that’s buoyed by the innate comic timing of a Southern accent. He’s appeared on Conan, Maron and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, who also brought Bargatze along to feature on his Clean Cut Comedy Tour. His debut album Yelled at by a Clown made it to the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts and he’s toured extensively with the USO, performing for deployed troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Bargatze has already endeared himself to Denver crowds with a strong showing on last year’s High Plains Comedy Festival. Westword caught up with Bargatze ahead of his upcoming headlining weekend at Comedy Works Downtown to discuss comedy festivals, seeing comedy scenes grow, and playing pizza box baseball at High Plains.