Extended Interview: Nate Bargatze

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This is Jane Pauley.

Now Bar Getze is hosting the Emmys and in conversation with Sunday morning's Connor Knighton. You're playing these big arenas all around the country. You're bringing out a crowd where I think a lot of that crowd, it might be the first stand-up show they've ever seen live. Do you remember the first stand-up show you ever saw live? Uh yeah, I saw Jim Brewer at Zane's in Nashville.

The way Zany's was set up then, you would have to come off the stage and kind of go through the crowd. And so I remember just watching it and it was, I mean, it was just so funny and then He came up to the crowd, I think, and gave him a high five, and it was just like... I don't know, I loved the whole night. Like even him. The host that went up first, all of it, you were just like...

You just saw it all, and you're like, I just felt like you just want to, you're like, I want to be up there. How old were you at that time? Uh it was I was graduated high school, so I mean I had to be 19 or something like that. Yeah, 18. Would have known him from Saturday Night Live, I assume.

Yeah, yeah, he was on Saturday Night Live, I think, at the time.

So yeah, you knew him back from Den and all that. And so then. You're watching that, like, was it a real thing of I'd like to do that professionally? You're just like, oh, that seems fun. Like, was it a simultaneous click, or were you there because already in your head you thought, let me research this?

Yeah, I mean, I think I already wanted to do it. I don't know if I was. I was like falling in love with it. Almost. And it was like the beginning stages where you were like, I just want to go.

I don't know if I completely like. Had the plan to do it, I was just like. man, I'm really attracted to this kind of thing and I love it. I used to always think, like, you know, the MC, I'm like, oh, that guy's probably doing so good. You're like, I mean, that guy might have been paid $20 for that.

That's what you eventually find out. But at the time, you're like, I mean, everybody on the show is just kind of famous to you. And so I just was. Excited about it and loved it. It was already something I wanted to do, and so it was just like.

reinforcing all of it. You grew up in a performing household. Your dad started off as a clown, then worked as a full-time magician. Did that put performance on your radar as a possible career path? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I was to do shows with him. And so I would do it. You know, it's like I always think back, like, I don't know if there was ever like I was I liked performing. Uh But I think I just did it. You know, I think you you kinda need someone to nudge you to try to tell you to go do it, or I did.

And but yeah, being around it and doing shows with him and uh getting people to laugh and all that, yeah, I think it was Yeah, I mean absolutely. I mean I see it now more. That how much that played a factor into what I ended up doing. But magic, I would see how much work goes into magic, where it's how much you got to practice the tricks and how much you got to do all this stuff.

So I think. Seeing that and my dad would do comedy and his magic.

So I was like, I would just kind of take the part that he's making people laugh and be like, well, I love, you know, that's what I love. that impetus then, you say you needed a nudge. For you, where did the nudge come from? I remember when I worked at a A just not like, you know, trying college and it doesn't work and going just different jobs and whatever. And, you know, there's you just could tell there was like nothing I you know, I'm just doing kind of whatever.

All great jobs, but all like you know, you're just a young kid that doesn't know where he wants to go to. And then I remember I would listen to Bob and Tom Radio, and they were out of Indianapolis. They would have a bunch of comedians on all the time. And so I would hear them a lot. And just be, I mean, I was just like, loved it.

Because I'd be, I was reading water meters. And so I would do it in the morning and I would listen to them, and I just fell in love with it. And then I had a buddy that wanted to go to do improv in Chicago at Second City. And then we had another friend that was like, well, y'all should go do it. And it was like him.

Kind of just like putting it together. It's almost like you want to do it, but you're so scared of trying it that you don't want to say it out loud. And then just someone else that's like, well, y'all go do that. And so then we moved to Chicago and we both took some classes at Second City and then I just kind of went into stand-up and then he did a year of second sitting. Tell me about those classes, because I think There's so many different paths to comedy success that it's not, I mean, if you want to be a doctor, you go to med school.

If you want to be a comedian, maybe you take a class, maybe you don't. Do you feel like those were helpful for you? Absolutely. I mean in Second City was very quick, but then I took a like a comedy college, Jim Roth. And uh he still teaches classes.

Uh he does it in Chicago and Milwaukee. And so I was in Chicago and I did it and I think it mattered so much. Uh a lot of comics will say you don't take a class, but it's They're teaching the basics of joke telling and stuff like that, but the biggest part is you're around people that are nervous and trying for the first time, also. And going straight to an open mic can sometimes be overwhelming. I mean, you're with a bunch of comics that might have been doing it for a long time, and it's all very intimidating, and you're scared, and you just got to get up in front of them.

So, this is a Controlled environment where it's a little more encouraging. You do have to go to Open Mics, and you're going to bomb, and it's going to be brutal. You're going to go through all that, but it's nice. to kind of start in a safe way, to get you like kind of hooked. And then when you go through the hard times you're just you're already Obsessed with it, so you're like, I don't care.

I'm gonna just keep going. These days, I'd imagine it's been a while since you've bombed. Like, are you nostalgic in some ways for those early days of getting up at 1, 1.15 in the morning to four people and maybe doing great, maybe not doing great? Yeah. I mean, it's always, I would never trade it and I would never go back.

Yeah, it was the best. You just didn't know no better. There's nothing better than when you don't know that there's better. I feel like I would bomb if I went to an open mic now. Weirdly enough.

Why do you think that is? It's just a different setting. I think in an open mics, you really learn how to tell jokes. And so you're just kind of like, it's all kind of quick jokes. And you need to learn that skill set to where you get at where you're now where I'm trying to be as conversational as I can.

There's all jokes in it, but I'm just trying to be super conversational. I'm trying to make it where you don't realize I've switched topics and make everything kind of blend together. It's just a different, completely different world. The I think to an outsider, to look at it at least. If you take a band, like a Cold Play or U2 or something, they were doing a very different show in clubs than they were in theaters, than they were in arenas and stadiums.

For you, for all of those, it's just you and a microphone.

So from the outside, it looks the same. Do you feel like you perform differently in those different types of environments? It's wildly different. It's wildly different. At clubs, I would just stand.

I didn't move at all.

So I would just stand. And even when I went to theaters, I was kind of doing that. And I then I would kind of just start walking back and forth.

So I'm really not moving much. In my head is like, Um it's out of control. But it doesn't, the audience won't be able to tell, but you're kind of moving back and forth. And then now we got into the round.

Well, the round I'm pacing the whole time.

So you gotta make a circle. And when I do that, it's helped me really like. I don't know, just get into movements. I have cameras now because we have screens because of the arenas. I mean, I play to those cameras so much, and you get bigger laughs because people can see your expression and stuff like that.

So you can really use the cameras, and I can wait and deliver a joke right into the camera, and so it makes it. I think feel more personal and I'm also trying to make it feel Like, how can I make it feel like it's this? It's just us hanging out. I want everybody to feel like it's just me and them hanging out, and you're just being funny for them. It's a very.

Specific compliment, but I've heard other comedians note your pauses and be very complimentary to the way that you pause. Is that deliberate? Are you really thinking about that? Is that just natural?

Well, that's very nice to hear. Yeah. No, no, it is. Timing is just one of those things that. You're like, I don't even know.

You got to just feel it. It's all going to be different. If I do a corporate gig somewhere and it's a big, big ballroom and high, high ceilings, well, I can't hear them as good.

So their laughs kind of get lost in the ceilings.

Well, I'm going to be a little bit quicker in that scenario. They might be laughing the same way as an Arena is, but I can't tell. When you can really hear their laughter, you can then sit a little bit more and let them come to you. Fortunately, I started that way, especially because I was in New York City. And I talked so differently and was southern and slow, and I was following so different acts, I would have to learn how to.

Go up pretty quick and let them hear my voice, know that there's about to be a switch. From what you just heard. And I need them, I'm gonna get them to come to me instead of me trying to go to all them individually. Did it take you time to find your voice? In those early years?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I got good. I think I learned how to tell jokes first and uh. And the voice just kind of goes and changes. And now it's like the peak.

They know me a little bit more, so you can use that as your advantage. They know where I'm going. I can get, I have a joke now where I can get a laugh off of, like it's just kind of looking, which is nice because then you're able to really use, I think, a lot of skills that you don't have at the beginning because you're trying to prove who you are. I mean, every time you go up, they're like, well, I don't know who you are.

Now I can make them feel more. Like my friend, and more conversational because I can take some liberties that I wouldn't have been able to take. Um When I was younger. When you're hosting something like the Emmys, does that kick back in again, where all of a sudden, that night at least, it's not people who bought tickets to see you. People are tuning in who might not know you.

Do you feel like you have to win over a new crowd all over again? I'm going to still get it into my rhythm of what it is, but very much so. And I'll I will I will have to go prove myself very early that night. And I'm prepared to do that. Like Saturday Night Live, when I hosted for the first time, it was that.

I came from Oklahoma City in their arena to Saturday Night Live. But I knew, even though I was in front of this arena, in front of all these people, That were there to see me. I knew I was going to a world with television and SNL and the more mainstream kind of place that there's people going to be watching that do not know who I am.

So I can't go in with this energy of like, I'm doing arenas, man. Like, I need to go win all these people over.

So when I went and did that set, For the first time, I went to all the New York clubs and I ran it all week just to get back into like a club rhythm. And I needed it to get tighter, so I needed to just come in and be like, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. And the immune system that exact same situation. I'd imagine a lot of people watching it. You know, they even if they either don't know me or they're like, maybe they don't really know me and so it's let me get there.

I'll reintroduce myself. to this new audience and try to grab them and then try to then take you along for the ride for the rest of the night. When you look back at that first SNL appearance, what was the aftermath of that like? turn into a career milestone in terms of sort of putting you on a different level, opening you up to a new audience after that? Uh yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I mean people start wearing George Washington stuff. People come up to me now and Yeah, you can just see how much more people come up to you and say SNL or George Washington sketch to me than they do even. My stand-up. It's the Probably the biggest thing I've Done in the fact of just so many people seeing it.

You see it on memes, you see it unattached to you. And so it completely changed everything. And we were, as this, I was very proud to be as a stand-up. I made it to the arenas with just a kind of a traditional, no big, you know, doing tonight show and stuff like that. But nothing crazy had really happened.

But then when I got to SNL, Like we had a show in Indianapolis I had to reschedule that weekend. and we had one show at the arena. And then I'd do SNL and then when I went back to Indianapolis, A few months later, we added an entire second show. And so it was that. That's how much it.

added. When you're in those early days and you're working on your voice, were there other personas you experienced? Was there a Nate Bargetti prop comic ever? Were you ever working dirty? Did you pretty much lock into what worked well for you?

I've never really dirty. I was always going to be clean. I think that helped me because it's with writing, it's like it's the only way I've thought.

So I don't even have to, it's not like I have like dirty jokes that I have to. not do. I just don't think in that direction. But yeah, I would sound like, you would really sound like a lot of other comedians. In New York City, when we were all there, a lot of comics would sound like David Till.

And because we would, he was just one of the best comics ever. And we'd all watch him every night. And you could end up getting to his rhythm and sound it. Brian Regan's another one. Seinfeld, I assume.

He's got a way of speaking. And so when you would see all of them, and you would go, I mean, I remember Brian Regan at one point. I was. I was like, I gotta stop watching him because I could tell that I was. I was using his, you know, the way you make people laugh is kind of what you, that's your essence.

That's the thing that you got figured out. And that's the hardest thing to figure out is what you do to make them laugh. And so it's the easiest to be influenced by when you're young because. you're like, you see them and a lot of comics haven't. And then you kind of start doing it.

And you just have to be aware, like, And it's okay, when young comics, it's like, you're going to sound like a bunch of other comics. Do that. You go do it, be aware of it. and then just slowly start finding your own and then you won't have to worry about them. And what we're talking about, that's not stealing a joke.

It's more of like a persona or a delivery style you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's honestly. Should be Um Worse, because it's like, I mean, that's everything. That's the thing that you're. Got to go on stage for years to figure out how do you, what's the, what, how do you make.

Tell the joke, is how do you do it? It's like, it's a way that I don't even know if I could tell you what it is or what you do or why do they listen to you. Why do people come? You know, even when people say, why do they, you know, they're like, I don't know why I laugh at his stuff. Like some of it doesn't, if you read it on paper, it might not seem funny.

It's like, yeah, well, that's the thing that you got to go get over the years. Writing jokes are. It's got a You gotta learn how to do it, but that becomes quicker. It's the grind of just being in open mics and being in bar shows and clubs and all these different situations. That's where you really learn.

how to tell a story or a joke. A lot of your jokes Are at your own expense. It's about you being dumb. Your book is called Big Dumb Eyes. And yet, when I hear you talk about comedy, it is smart almost to a surgical level, where it sounds like you're going word by word, you're very specific about it.

Is that accurate? Are you really crafting every sentence of every joke? Yeah, yeah. I mean I'm I'm s very very prepared. I I gotta know how to get out of each joke.

I always say like when you write it, when you write, tell a story or joke, you just want a bunch of exit ramps.

So there's ways I can get off.

So if this story doesn't feel like it's going as good, well, I might not want to take it all the way to the end. I need to be able to get off and then get into something else.

So you kind of build these little things. And if the crowd's amazing and they're getting it, well, now I can go as far as I want because they're so good. Plotting all those exit ramps. That's not a dumb guy thing. Just so you know.

That is a smart guy thing. I hate to tell you. Look, I mean, I'm dumb in like. I don't know, the way we're all dumb, and the way we all do dumb stuff, and your brain doesn't work the same way. And I mean, I love it.

Like, even as we build Nateland Company, I can see where we're going, and I know what to do, when not to veer. And I think that's what I've learned was because this took. You know, as I've been doing comedy for 21 years.

So I kind of went through the whole system and I've just kind of done everything. It's all through experience. That's why I like doing all this stuff: hosting the Emmys or selling it live or do a movie or whatever it is, because I want to. Build this world where the next generation of entertainers that come up. I want to be able to stand there and go, like, hey, I did this.

And so you can really help them and show them what to do. And it's not like, You know, a lot of times we have to listen to people that have not done what We're doing. You know, you get told no by a lot of people that have never done stand-up.

So I would always now think, well, I want to go. Do it. And then when the next generation comes up, And they're like, I don't want, you know, I got to host a game show or I got to host Demys or something or whatever there is. And they're like, I'm nervous. I'm like, Hey, I did it.

I was nervous too. It's okay to be nervous. And you felt this, and you felt that, and just be there. For them, so they can come when they go do a small show and wherever in South Dakota in front of a parrot. I done that, like when they go, this show was terrible.

You're like, yeah, I did that too. Remember, and it was awful. And I thought that's only where I was going to be. But it just keeps going. You just keep going, and that's the best.

That concerns For a younger generation of comics, that sounds like something that someone in their 70s would be thinking about. Rarely is someone sort of at the height of their career already thinking about who's coming up beneath them. It seems like a lot of what you've been doing now, you're doing showcases where it's a bunch of unknown comics, but sort of under your umbrella who you're elevating. People who might know you already. Where's that come from?

That idea to not just stay on your own stuff, there's plenty going on for you, to think about other people as well and help them come up. Uh I just don't think People looked out for you, like coming up. And it's not that anybody, people would take you on the road or they would do all this stuff, but a lot, like everybody's got their own careers. And it was, like, when you came up, it just felt like no one was getting out of the way.

So, like, there wasn't a graduation. I think before me, it was, you know, you had Seinfeld and them, they went to sitcoms or Ray Romano went to sitcoms. There was like, there was a world where they would come up and then they would get big and then they would move on to the next thing. And then the next wave would come into the comedy clubs.

So when I was coming up, trying to get in all these comedy clubs in New York and then there was a lot of comics that wouldn't, they would just stay doing those clubs and you're like, well, I can't even get into that club to go learn what it's like to be in that club because no one's getting out of the way.

So then the alt scene in stand-up, which was like they had comedy clubs in New York, and then when they started going to like a lot of bar shows or this other kind of world, I think it was a lot of that. It was comics that can't. You know, they just They just got stuck and so then it was like, all right, well, I guess I got to go figure out another way to kind of keep moving forward. And I think about that a lot. A lot of times I think you're coming up in your career and you're just looking for guidance and help and you want someone that's you can talk to that's been through all this stuff and done all this stuff and I think that was kind of hard to find.

I want to be that for people. I don't know where that comes from. Like, I mean, even on the showcase, we have a lot of comics that have been doing it for a long time.

So that's great, because I can use those comics to my advantage, because they're very seasoned and experienced. And maybe you don't know who they are.

Well, Let me show you who they are. Every show we ask how many people are Are new to stand-up comedy in these arenas. And it's a lot of people clap that have never been to a stand-up comedy show. Stand-up comedy as an art form is still pretty new. as where it's at now.

You know, you had Carlin, I mean, Carlin was alive when I was. Started. I mean, Seinfeld, like these guys were, they weren't doing, there were no comedy clubs. They were just doing rooms. And then it became comedy clubs, and the comedy boom.

When Seinfeld started, they weren't going to theaters. And uh they were Jakov Smirnoff, I remember Seinfeld told me he opened for him in a theater and there was like 3,000 people. And this is 70s, maybe early 80s or something. And it's like he was...

So it felt like I've never even seen that many. People come for a stand-up comedy show, but that's how big Yakov was. Yaakov is someone that we've actually done stuff with.

Now that we go to these shows, people are being reintroduced into it. At Designer Shoe Warehouse, we believe that shoes are an important part of, well, everything. Everything. From first steps to first dates. from all-nighters to all-time personal bests.

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Find great jeans starting at $29.90 in stores and at marisas.com. Historically, at least, people have not moved to Nashville to make it in comedy. They come to make it in country music. You go to Chicago, you go to New York, you go to LA, you were getting some attention. Why move back?

You know what, I always thought it was the first thing I did that wasn't for me. I wanted my daughter to grow up in a normal situation as normal as it can be. And so I it was like, all right, let's move back. And when I moved back, I just didn't tell anybody. And were you worried that there was a gonna be an impression that like, well, he moved back to Nashville?

I felt that he's given up. That's why I didn't tell anybody. It's because I thought they would think I would quit. And I was so scared of that, so I just didn't say anything. And then, honestly, with social media.

The one thing that helped is you are kind of in people's faces and you're kind of seeing where everybody's at and what they're doing.

So even if you're not physically seeing them, you're kind of able to keep up with them a little bit more and it shows that you're working and you're doing stuff. And I also thought for writing. Me coming up with stuff, I didn't want to just have material that's very New York or LA or industry-based material or these situations. That were not real life situations.

So, you know, we lived here and we're in a cul-de-sac, and our neighbor, everybody in our neighborhood's like, no one's really. This industry-driven neighborhood, and our daughter goes to school, and she goes, you know, it's all very normal interactions. And as a comic, it's like, well, that's. What you need to talk about the most is Just the normal relatability stuff that you can do. Do you worry about that now with more and more success, that some of that relatability might go away?

How do you maintain that today? Stay aware of it. Stay super aware of it. It helps that I've been here the whole time.

So I was there when I performed for one guy and had no money and slept in this couch and to 21 years later to where it's all at now.

So, I appreciate everything. Even every time I go to an arena, we're just at the Boston Garden. When you go up, I cannot believe that anybody in Boston even knows who I am. I look at myself as it's a service. I'm selling you a product.

So I got to be better than I was the last time. If I want all of this to work, I don't want to take advantage of that audience. The audience pays a lot of money to go to these tickets. It's a whole thing for them to go.

So just. I'm winning them over every single time. Their expectations are higher every time, so I need to be better. I'm not owed this career. I have to go keep it and get it every day.

It can only go down if you take advantage of it. I wrote this last hour before I taped a movie and all this stuff because I don't want my stand-up to be about. I was hanging out on set the other day. I just kind of go, all right, I'm going to go build it because I bet. When I get on this tour, the level of Notoriety: I'm going to have is going to just get more and more and more, and I'm going to be in more unique situations, and I don't want to talk about those situations.

I was like, let me just go past. Pound it out and write it. The decision to be clean, there's a way of looking at that that it's a very strategic decision. I mean, it lets you perform uncensored on late-night TV and do all those spots. You can attract a larger audience, people who might be not served at a traditional comedy club, but it seems like for you it's more than that.

It's more of like a belief, like you feel like that's important, that it's not just a, I want to sell as many tickets as possible. What is it where you feel like that's the way that you'd prefer to work?

Well, I mean, when I started, it was going to be a non-starter. It's like, not that I was perfect. I was coming up in New York clubs, and you definitely could have veered in other directions. I mean, every comic I was around, I was on a lot of uncensored comedy shows.

So the whole point of the show was that it was like, these guys are going to say whatever they want. I could never do it for my parents. I would have been mortified to have my parents there, and I never wanted them to be. Uh embarrassed to go go watch my son. I don't want to betray that trust that they can know that you can you can have your kid watch my stand-up on Netflix and you don't like you see them have it on you don't have to be like whoa what's going on and then but now yeah I can see that how it's panned out but you know that was frustrating parts 'cause it was like I never got to do Letterman And I thought I would get to do all these You know, late night, I was like, well, I'm perfect.

Last comic standing. When they did that, I thought. I mean, I'm clean, I'm built for this. A lot of times I think in during that era it was like kind of when people coming up, it was edgy was cooler than Not cursing or all this kind of stuff.

So you just kind of, I kind of just stayed my ground and uh Yeah, there was points in your careers where you would see people Maybe they got political or they got more topical or they got more opinionated and all this kind of stuff. And you would have the temptations to see them, because I mean comics would just, you'd be at some level and a comic would just boo, just fly right by you. You could see a little temptation to go, well maybe, I mean, could I do a version of that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely.

You know, it was probably when I was in LA, when I first moved back here, and I was just going out at all the clubs, and you would see people just. Uh I don't know, just give their opinions on a lot more stuff. Fortunately, I felt you know I shouldn't do that and I got to just trust myself and... You know, I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to I feel I'm You know, you feel like you're being asked to do this in the career that I have, and so you just got to trust that. Your path is going to be the path.

And Just stick with it? When you say asked to do this, do you mean in like sort of a religious calling? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You feel, you know, I feel it's beyond me. I mean, I don't ever like to, you know, like.

tell anybody how to you know But I feel very much, you know. called and I mean, this stuff, it just gets, it just happens. You feel, it's crazy. Why would I stay this path? I go back to look at every single thing and all the little temptations of, and I was not perfect at all.

Like, I made bad decisions, and I was, I used to drink, I used to do all this stuff. And then you can just, but you can just see it now. And like, now is it all like pans out? It's like, Insane that you just this door opens and you're like, oh, that's crazy. And that was a door that was like maybe a fantasy that I didn't even think I could doing arenas.

was, I mean, I kind of had a fantasy of playing Bridgestone Arena in Nashville when I first started. I didn't think I could do it. And then you do it. And then you're like... That's crazy.

And then, so now it's like all this stuff that you kind of have, you just feel like. You know, you're being asked to go do, so it's like, it helps actually take the relief off myself. Because I don't feel it's about me. Like it's I got to just go do I'm just doing shows.

So, everything else is kind of taken care of and it's going down a path. I just got to be the best version of what I'm doing in the moment. And um Just follow along. where I'm supposed to be going and just trust you know, just trust that Your path is there. You mentioned that you used to drink.

Was there a point where that became a problem for you? Yeah, it was like when I was doing clubs, I could tell that it was just in, it was, I was not going to get where I wanted to go. It was, you know, I wasn't the best at having control of it. I'm not, I have it with food now that I'm trying to work on it with, but it's. I'm not the best at stopping myself and you know, having a reasonable relationship with it.

If I wanted to go where I needed to go or I felt I wanted to go. If this is in my way, it's not going to happen. I mean, like, when I think back about all the stuff that I didn't get. Like maybe I audition four movies and all this stuff early on. And it's like, thankfully, I mean.

It's unbelievable that I didn't get this stuff. Not that I should have got it or whatever, but it was just like, it was always dirty, it was always down. I mean, I just would have. Gone down just such a different road. And I mean, I would say Kaleem is a stand-up or whatever.

But now I'm in so much more control. And so I can go in. And when I come up, if I write a movie or if a movie gets brought to me, I can very much be like, it's going to be this way that I want it to be. Uh Or I mean I don't have to do it. That's why I thought my Saturday Night Lives did good because I was able to go in there and go, I'm not going to curse and I'm not going to be political.

And it just gives people direction. If people have direction, they can go right towards that direction. It's when you're like, you can do whatever you want. that's very hard to write for. And that's where with Nateland, like it's like, yeah, you have to be clean.

Not everything's going to be. Where if you're a Christian, you're gonna say it's completely the clean way you might want it to be clean. I can't Please everybody, I'm gonna live in a PG PG-13 world and I'll do my best in what just I can feel like I need to go do. It's It's a great tool for comedians to know how to be clean and how to work. And I think when comics come up now and they're on YouTube and there's no restrictions ever, really, and then they can go to Netflix where you can kind of say whatever you want and you go down a path that like, you know, you don't know how to be that professionalism and that professionalism is what I think made old Hollywood and old all that stuff so great.

So it's just a matter of like kind of, I think, bringing that back. You just shot a movie, what was that like? It was amazing. I liked it more than I thought. I was very busy.

I was in every scene.

So I think that was good. Uh No, because downtime would have been different. I think downtime I would have trouble with. That's what I always heard with acting is like, because there is a lot more downtime than you think. But being a writer and a producer on it and starring at it, I liked being busy.

I liked having stuff to do. And that's how it's always been, kind of been for my career, is you're always kind of on the go and going. I think that very much helped me enjoy that process. We were touring during it.

So, I mean, it was long, it was 12-hour days. All reset, go play an arena and come back. Yeah, yeah, and then come back. And I enjoy, I mean, I enjoy that it's chaotic. Like, I love that it's like insane.

But I'm going to have to figure out some kind of routine. It's all about routine. I just need some. That's all I talk about to everybody. He's like, I have no routine, I have no schedule.

It's like comedy doesn't. It's just all chaos. And so now it's like I'm seeing that like I need to have some structure if I want to elevate and get into this professional world and this business world is like you got to go at it. much differently.

So much of stand-up is figuring out who you are and then convey the act is Nate the person. When you're playing a role in a movie, that's you're acting as another person who I think was probably based off of you. And did that help? That it's like you're not, you know, doing something wheezed into it.

Okay. Yeah. I ain't crying in this movie. I can tell you that. In the movie, I have three daughters, and you know, I have one daughter, but it's so give him the Academy a word right now.

Yeah, yeah, I go.

So it's pretty crazy. Yeah. There's a lot of buzz about it. I'm kind of being myself, and I hope to gradually. be able to uh Go a step farther, and that's the thing: is like with the movie, I mean, I see with picking movies.

Uh in my head, honestly, Like it's not like I want to act forever. It's like but what I want to build with Nateland as a company, I want to pick movies strategically. We're fortunate to get to a place where I can choose movies now.

So all right, this is a great one to start with, because this is, it's it's going to be very familiar to you in how you see me. And then the next one is like, all right, well we can maybe go a little bit like a little bit different, but I want to pick movies. that just move me forward. And what I want Nateland to do. I want Nateland at it as a good, clean, funny.

But I think we can go good, clean, scary, good, clean drama, good, clean action. You know, I don't know, I'll probably make plenty of wrong moves, but the idea of it is not just about me being a movie star. It's about. I think about what I want to build and I want to make movies for The next generation. Especially with how well things are going right now, it would be very easy to get caught up in the present.

Like, hey, this is great, why think about anything else? You sound very focused on the future. What do the rest of those plans entail? It sounds like making movies, specials. I've heard potentially a theme park.

Is that all part of the plan? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The theme park, I mean, yeah, we're figuring it out. It's moving along.

I mean, you know, even talking, I worked at Operland Theme Park here in Nashville when I grew up, and they closed it down when I graduated high school. It was my first job. I was always very disappointed that they closed that down. I like when I go to shows that everybody can Uh any they like we have f People put pictures of generations, like five generations of a family at a show or four, you know, where it's like a 10-year-old to the grandfather, great-grandfather, whatever. And they're all at my shows.

Well, I love that they can all go do that together. And going to Disney World or Disneyland, or when we went to Opriland, you do these things with your kids and you get to watch your parents have fun and laugh and all this. That's the bonding stuff that you kind of, that I remember growing up. I'm competitive. If I'm being competitive, I just see a lane that I don't think is being utilized.

So I'm going to just go after that lane pretty hard. But the lane you're talking about is everybody. It's everybody. That when I first, when I started comedy, you would have comics be like, why, you know, I'm not for everybody. Why would you, who?

I understand it now because You need people not to be for everybody. When George Carlin came out, he needed to be there. When Chappelle came, these guys needed to be there for those reasons. I'm not against those reasons. You're going to need comics in the future to come be those comics.

So we do need those. We also can be for everybody. You know, I'm not gonna be able to go to every city in America for the rest of my life. I want you to be able to come, and if you and your wife and your kids are 11 and they want to go run off on their own for a second because man, you know how exciting that is for those kids? And they can run off from you and they can go be on their own for their first time or when they're 17 or 16, you go drop them off at a theme park, them and their friends, and you just come back and pick.

You used to do that at malls. Your parents would drop you off at a mall and you'd go walk around with your friends. Those were some of your funnest memories.

Well, you should have a place to do that now. The parents can. go do whatever they want to go do. They can go out to eat with their friends and then when it's You know, 10 o'clock, it's send a text to everybody, get in the car, we're going home, and then we go home, and it's just a pleasant night out. I mean At this point, I think it would be Foolish for anyone to bet against you.

But the like. I would like it. Yeah, but no, but so I will not bet against you. And should this open, I assume that you'll have a video you can show at the visitor center of a bunch of different interviewers being like, theme park, really? But like to join that chorus, it's such a big swing.

I think that's why it elicits that reaction of people: oh, and it's a different skill set. Like, what are you doing outside of philosophically that makes sense? Like, that would be a fun thing to exist. Like, how do you actually build that into existence? What do you do to make that happen?

Again, we just went and we did it. I mean, I don't want to talk about so much work, but it's farther than people think. It's beyond when people are like a theme park, and you're like, well, we're deeper than that. We've been in studies where Nashville is a city that can sustain a theme park, a full theme park. You know, there's not a lot of cities that can even do that, but Nashville did.

And we have Dollywood. Dollywood is like two hours away, two and a half hours away, great theme park as well. You have these kind of Markets you go look at, we're one of them that can do it. Neighborhood can become a studio. We can shoot movies there.

I mean, I'm not inventing anything. It's universal studio. It's all this stuff. You can film movies there. We can film, you know.

TV shows, whatever people want to go do, we can start doing that and building it and filming it there and then have it be. Brand that you know that you understand what it is, and then have a place for people to go. And so, yeah, it's you so many people are coming to Nashville now, right now. Nashville is an awesome city to come to, but right now we have a lot of, we don't have a ton of stuff for families. It's you know, there is stuff Broadway with the bars, there's Broadway with the bars, and that's what kind of everybody knows.

And so, I you want to build this other aspect because so many people want to come here with their families, and there is stuff to go do. We got a great zoo, you got all this stuff, but build it to this city where we can, you know, Nashville is exploding, where Titans are getting a new stadium downtown. Like, this whole downtown is going to be unbelievable in five to ten years, and so it's like let's make it be where people are here and it's a community. And when they come here, it's there's there's pride to it in the state of Tennessee. And, you know, I love being from Tennessee.

I grew up here, and I love it. I hear that pride in the act for sure, where there's a lot of comedians or entertainers who I might not know. Where they're from. I don't think I've ever seen a performance of yours in which Tennessee hasn't come up multiple times. That sense of place.

Like Why is that important for you to convey that to an audience? Like that you're telling those stories? Do you feel like it's a place that there's parts of the country that are forgotten about? Like to continue to bring that back throughout from special to special, where's that come from?

Well I mean the beginning was just because it was like I if I sounded like this, I was like I had to tell you where I was from. But I mean I just loved the way I I loved you know I still friends with all the people I grew up with and I always loved people going home. I and I love it. Uh, not that you have to live in Nashville, but I mean, it's uh, you know, when you always hear people would move back, I move back home, and I like to Jersey or to wherever, and I always liked it, I always like people going back to where they. were from because it was like just like awesome.

I knew I always wanted to come back here. Even when I moved, I was like, I'm going to do what I have to go do. I didn't have The plans and the ideas, I don't think they were. Given to me then, but as every door is opened and you see more and more now, and it's like kind of just laid out where it's like I'm in a great spot. to kind of have these uh aspirations.

And uh Want to go try to do this stuff in a place that can sustain it. Part of those future plans, the Uh Right now, you're the top touring comedian in the country, and yet you're considering wrapping up the touring? Tell me about that. Like, you have a plan for when that might finish up? Yeah, I mean, I do.

I mean, look, it's like I'm nervous about it because I feel like I don't want to, but then I feel like I. The fact that it's in there, I mean, you know, I don't know if I completely think of all these ideas. Like, I feel like all the good ideas are not my ideas. And so, I just feel what I'm being asked to do, and I, again, it's like getting out of the way. I need to do this tour, then I need to go.

do movies and I need to build that world up and learn how to do all of that stuff.

So I'm going to dive into that aspect of it especially after this tour and start making movies and try to make the movies always elevate a little bit more and then go through that world. I can see myself being making movies for like another 15 years and then if if it all if I'm allowed to, I mean it might all fall this all could fall apart.

So I'm open to that. But if I can go do that and then stop that. And be out of those movies and then be able to fully run Nateland and the vision that I want it to be. It's just like stand-up comedy is like it's, I mean, it you have to think about it all day, every day, if you want to do it. And so I can see that.

The creativity that I have and the mind and the way everything works, I need to, I flood it all into stand-up and I'm going to need to use that in so many other realms. I need to use that energy and that stuff for something else. And if I did it and try to do both, it's going to hurt the stand-up. And I don't want to hurt the stand-up. I want to be able to, whatever I'm doing, give the full force to and dive into it and not ever feel like I can't stand in front of something that I did and be very proud.

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