The character arc of Nate Bargatze
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 25 March 1979 in Nashville, the son of a clown and a woman who worked the Vanderbilt ticket office. Between then and now sit being cut from the basketball and golf teams, a year of community college, every course flunked at Western Kentucky, a job reading water meters, comedy begun in 2002, flyers handed out for stage time from 2004, a sitcom scrapped in 2014, a special that premiered against a world title fight in 2015, Netflix in 2017, an arena record in April 2023, Saturday Night Live in October 2023 and the biggest comedy tour ever counted in 2024. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Nate Bargatze?
Cut from every team, and the biggest tour ever counted.
His father was a clown, a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and a motivational speaker, and practised magic tricks with him as a boy. At school he competed in track and field, tried out for the basketball and golf teams, and was cut from both. He graduated in 1997, did a year of community college, worked construction, manned a phone kiosk in a supermarket and delivered furniture. He enrolled at Western Kentucky University and flunked every course. He waited tables, then took a job reading water meters in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
A radio show that booked comedians gave him the idea, and a fellow meter reader had the same one, so the two of them quit together. He started in 2002, moved to Chicago, tried improvisation, decided against it and enrolled in a stand-up course instead. In 2004 he moved to New York and became a barker for a comedy club, handing out flyers in Greenwich Village in exchange for stage time at night, walking dogs and driving a delivery van by day. It took about a year to get a paying gig. He spent those years playing to single figure crowds.
The climb is long and full of doors that closed. A sitcom deal with a major network was scrapped in 2014. He reached the final two for a correspondent job on The Daily Show and was not the one hired. His first hour special went out in 2015 on the same night as a world title fight, and by his own account nobody watched it, including him. He moved home to Nashville and kept the move quiet so the industry would not assume he had given up. Netflix put him in the first episode of The Standups in 2017 and he has said it changed everything. In April 2023 he drew 19,365 people to Nashville's Bridgestone Arena and broke the building's attendance record. He hosted Saturday Night Live that October and again in 2024, and in 2024 he was the highest-grossing comedian in the world, with 82.2 million dollars from 1.1 million tickets across 148 shows, the largest one-year comedy gross ever recorded.
The moments
Nate Bargatze's timeline.
The 1970s
Born in Nashville
Everyday. His father did magic tricks with him. It turns out that counts as training.
The 1990s
Cut from two teams
Setback. Not the athlete, then. Something else was going to have to work.
Every course flunked
Setback, and it changed his direction. Not a wobble. Every single one of them.
The 2000s
Reading water meters
Everyday. Walking between houses, writing down numbers, thinking about something else.
He quits with a workmate
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two men reading meters agreed to stop, on the same day, for the same reason.
Quit the meter round
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: quit and try comedy, taken, or keep the round. He was the highest-grossing comedian in the world in 2024.
Flyers for stage time
Setback, and it changed his direction. A year of unpaid nights, to rooms of four people.
A turning point year
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Six years in, and somebody finally put a camera on him.
The 2010s
Scrapped, and passed over
Setback, and it changed everything. Two doors in one year, and both of them shut.
The special nobody watched
Setback, and it changed his direction. A career special, up against the biggest fight of the year.
The Standups changes it
Milestone, and it changed everything. One thirty minute set, and the rooms started filling.
The 2020s
An arena record
Milestone, and it changed everything. The hometown arena, and he took a chair home so nobody could break it.
Saturday Night Live
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A clean comedian from Tennessee, holding the most watched stage in American comedy.
The biggest tour counted
Milestone, and it changed everything. More tickets than any comedian has ever sold in a year.
Nashville kept him, and the rooms just kept getting bigger. What it has set moving is the most encouraging shape in this whole gallery: a man who flunked out and read water meters, who was cut, scrapped, passed over and ignored, and who is now the biggest touring comedian there has ever been, without changing a thing about the act.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His had a decade of single figure crowds in the middle of it, and the arena record came at forty four. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Nate Bargatze: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Nate Bargatze's character arc?
What did Nate Bargatze do before comedy?
How did Nate Bargatze get stage time?
What was Nate Bargatze's breakthrough?
What setbacks did Nate Bargatze have?
What record does Nate Bargatze hold?
Why is Nate Bargatze called a clean comedian?
Where does this timeline of Nate Bargatze's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Nate Bargatze, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Billboard Boxscore, highest-grossing comedy tours, 2024.
- Pollstar, highest-grossing comedian of 2024.