SmartLess - "RE-RELEASE: Nate Bargatze"

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Untuck your button-down; it’s Nate Bargatze. We discover the wonders of Magic, the Easter Bunny, a KFC-catered family reunion, and an elevator in the ocean. You can’t take your eyes off a mime… it’s an all-new SmartLess.    This episode was originally released on 7/15/2024. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you want anything? One second, I'm just going to... Do you want something? Okay. Okay. Great. Can I get one crispy chicken? Two crispy chicken?

For you, because I don't know. You want two for yourself. Okay. No judgment. That's fine. And... And ice cream. Do you guys even serve...

You know what? Do you mind if we just do this after? Welcome, it's an all-new smart list. We were just talking about Shawshank, and I was going to say to Will... Jay Bortoy came on, that my philosophy in life is kind of... Oh, this is good. Hang on. No, this is good. This is good. You'll like that.

Everybody pull over and get out the pen. By the way, this is Shawshank Redemption, I think, is for Tracy. So the end of the movie. So the whole movie, Morgan Freeman is talking about, like, you know, he goes in front of the, what is it called, the panel or whatever, the people who... Parole board. The board. Parole board.

Yeah. And he's the parole board. And he's like, he tells them what they think they want to hear. He's like, no, I've been reformed. I'm good. I've learned my lesson. And they always deny his parole. And then at the end of the movie,

he finally just is like, you know what, fuck it. This is who I am. You people are crazy. I didn't learn anything, blah, blah, blah. And then that's when he gets released. That's my philosophy for life. And that's what full release comes from honesty. Well, two ways.

Sorry. So everybody, go ahead and put your car back and drive and toss that paper either out the window, if you still have an ashtray in the car, use that. Because we really didn't, we really didn't get an end to it. It's nice that Sean's philosophy on life is like, you know, like, you know, don't try to be something you're not.

Yeah, exactly. Right. I agree with you. Authenticity is a thematic that I'm on a project that I'm working on right now. Oh, yeah, very good. That's the theme of the thing. Oh, very good. It's a great evergreen.

Authenticity. Hey, Jason. Yeah, hi. Why did the man fall down the well? Oh, boy. Because he didn't see that well? That's exactly right. Wait, Willie, you got, when we had Jordan Peel on, his film, Nope.

Yeah. I always just thought it was just a fun way to say, yeah, no, I'm not comfortable with flying saucers. It says the main character, and this shit freaks me out. But it's actually an acronym for? It's an acronym. Well, he said it's an acronym. And I just went, and I thought about it for two seconds, and I went, not of planet Earth.

Planet Earth. Remember the look on his face? He was a little mad, I think. Well, no, what you were seeing was the same look that I had, which is a total shock at your level of intelligence. Yeah, just like, that was mine too. Stunning surprise. That's what hurt me the most was the stunning,

the stunned look on everybody's face when I do something. Well, we're going to have a stunned look at your guest when he comes on. Well, he's going to have a stunned look at... Sorry, Sean. Did you have a lunch? he's going to have a stunt look at your when he heard your joke for sure because he tells jokes for a living Oh shit

Yeah, here we go And he doesn't just tell jokes I man He this guy tells jokes This son of a gun This son of a gun And that's kind of the language That he would use too

Son of a Gun Dax Shepherds coming back He does love son of a gun He does This guy uses I don't know There's something about Everything that he does

His delivery His turn or phrase The things he talks about the way he does it. A lot of people call him the nicest guy and stand-up. I think of him as just the funniest dude. I've seen in such a long time. And I remember the first time I heard about him

was through our old friend, Greg Garcia. Yeah. And Greg was like, Greg reached out to me. He's like, you have to have this guy on, blah, blah, blah, and I made some glib remark. He's like, you're going to regret it. I go, I think he's hilarious. Relax, Greg.

And then, J.B., you and I had the pleasure of meeting him really, really briefly. I'm going to make you repeat the glib remark right in front of him. We met him really briefly up at last year up at Pebble Beach, and he's as nice as he is funny, and it's all the shit. I love this guy. He's so funny. I love Ray Romano.

I love the Tennessee kid. I love the Tennessee kid. I love his new special Hello World on Amazon. He's about to go on tour on a new one. Guys, it's none other than the hilarious Nate Bergotsie. Nate Braggotzi! Even better. I was ready for Ray.

I love me. I'll get Ray. Oh, how great. Nate, it's good to see you again. Good to see you, Sean. Hey, just a little fun note, never seen Shawshank. Well, you're young. You're too young for it.

You know, it's before your time. Wait, wait. I'm 44. I should have. It's pretty young. You know what, Nate? I didn't see Shawshank until I was 45. Oh, I'll do it next year.

Anyway, Nate Bargazzi. Nate, this is really nice. Great to see you again, because we did meet. We did meet up at Pebble. Yep. Do you live in a nice house or are you in a nice hotel room? Where are you? In a hotel room.

I'm in Syracuse. Okay. Working? I get a show in Syracuse. This is a... Can't make it here. Can't make it anywhere, you know? That's what they say.

They don't... That's what they say. I like... Nate, I like that Sean said, you said, I'm in Syracuse. No. He's just... He's just hanging out with the orange man. This is the vacations I can afford in Syracuse.

You go, it's nice. We took a bus up. But it's, you know. We spent on the hotel room. Yeah, everything went to this. Now, what kind of... My family of 30 is right off camera. They're just right there.

I said, if y'all talk during this, I will kill you all. When you are traveling around and you're doing these shows, what size is your group footprint? What's your posse size? We have probably like 10 guys. Because I bring four openers. Actually, tonight, we've got a surprise opener. He won't be here till later.

Jimmy Fallon. Fallon is coming to the show. Oh, that's great. He's going to jump on the bus. Where do I know? To tell me what we've been to know him from? That movie. Taxi.

Taxi. Pitch fever. Pitch. Fever. Taxi. With Queen Latifah. Yes, I remember taxi. Jimmy right now, by the way, he's hearing this. He's sharpening his knife hearing us say this.

Well, Nate, I have to say this. We developed the show together. years ago. And you are very successful then. But to see you over the years, just kind of like, and then SNL, and then like, it's so exciting to finally be like,

yes, this guy has been brilliant, has always been brilliant, and now more and more people can see it. And you sell, Nate, you sell out arenas like 20,000 at a clip, which is just unbelievable. And on top of this, and I'm going to say this,

and I really, and I've said it a bunch since it aired when you're on SNL, your sketch, your George Washington sketch is to me, just in my opinion, the funniest SNL sketch I've seen in 15 years. I totally agree with that.

I totally agree with that. It is remarkable. Now, your TV just went on, which tells me that you're bored. The family's bored. The 30 men are getting itchy. There's no one in here. It's just you and Jim Benheim, right?

Is that his name? Jim and turn it off or doesn't matter. No, no, it's give me something to watch. But you have, to echo what Sean's saying, And you have just like kind of finally, thankfully, thankfully the rest of America is just like understand what an awesome, awesome, hilarious dude you are. So how do you start? You're the Tennessee kid.

You're from Old Hickory, Tennessee. Am I right about that? Yes. Old Hickory. Is it next to New Hickory? No. News is a little bit farther. Was it ever New Hickory?

No. He's got this great joke in his new special on Amazon Prime where he says I'm from old Hickory's where Andrew Jackson's from and people are like, he wasn't a good guy. and Nate goes, well, we didn't know them that well, but we didn't know them at all. It's hilarious joke. But Nate, talk to me about when you were a kid and stuff, like, did you always into comedy?

Did you watch SNL? Like, what were your inspiration? That's what I was thinking. That's what I was getting to. How did you start? I just got there faster. It's, uh, I grew, my dad's a magician. What? And does comedy. Mine too. Mine can disappear on the drop of a hat.

Sean Hayes. You are talk show quick. Get out of here. Sorry, Nate. Thanks, you guys. Keep going. No, I mean, I grew up around that. I mean, so that was like, you know, I was funny, but then also growing up around, you know, my dad being a magician. You learned patter.

Yeah, it just kind of leads you to it, I guess. Wait, wait, wait, so Nate, so you grew up, your dad's magician. He obviously loved you. Sorry, Sean. And he, I mean, to the extent that he wanted to stick around. I'm friends with Sean's dad. Yeah. Oh, so you know where he is.

Yeah, yeah, he's a pretty good dude. I got it. Yeah. I don't know the whole backstory, but I know. I just know from what our hanging out is. He's got no tread left on his tires, but he's a good guy. He checks you a pin to his location. So what was that like growing up with your dad being a magician?

That's pretty rad. An illusionist. Yeah, yeah, it was the best. You know, I don't know if I even understood it. Like, I'm sure, I think of it like my daughter and I'm sure your kids. Like, it doesn't seem not normal. Like, it just felt like it's like, that's all I ever knew. And it wasn't until you got older that you're like,

yeah, dude, nobody's dead's a magician. Yeah. Start saying you don't know when you're asked what your dad does. Right. Yeah. So he would make a living room. I mean, I have people do magic. Like, magicians would show me magic trick.

I've just seen them all, too. And I'm just not a good, I'm not a good person to perform for it because I'm just like, all right. You know, it's like, is this your card? You're like, it's always my card. It's always been my card. Every time I see magic, every time I see magic, I freaking love it.

And I'll bet everybody listening loves it. I mean, how can you not love when you see a magic trick? I mean, a good one, if it's convincing. But I never think about it. I never, and I always make fun of it when I hear about it. It's like you hear about mimes. But you know what? You can't take your eyes off a mime or a magician.

It gets a bad rap. You can't take your eyes off a line. Yeah, that's the quote of the day. Wait, so Nate, so your dad, Sean was going to ask this. So your dad made a living. as a magician. He was a teacher, too.

So he had a day job, and then he would do that. And then we were always in Nashville, and so he's just always done it. And, I mean, he's very successful, he's very known in the magic world. Really? He comes with me and opens for me a lot on the road. And he will do these shows.

And, you know, it's every little boy's dream. Travel to your dad when you're 44 years old. So you go, got a little CPAP machine hooked up in a tour bus. It's a good time. You got some ramps on the side of that stage? Yeah. I mean, we had her bus parked out one time, and it was my dad, my mom, and my aunt.

And I was like, people probably go by this tour bus, and they're like, it's pretty rocking in there. And I mean, we got, it's lights off, quiet, just the roar of machines keeping everybody alive. And the smell of liniment. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wait, so did you ever perform in the magic shows with your dad?

I did some, yeah. I would help them with magic. You ever get cut in half? No, no, we didn't ever do that. that. He never did that go that for. He just a slight hand. A lot of slight a hand and he does comedy with it. Oh, that's my favorite. Yeah. So then when you, what age were you when you were like, actually kind of to what Jason, you kind of alluded to it, but did you start just like being a wise ass on the side of your dad's stage while he was doing magic? Like, is that how stand-up started

for you? Uh, I think it was just being funny. We would, like, I remember seeing stand-up. It was just trying to, it was trying to make people laugh. I don't think I ever really made. fun of anybody. Right. But it was like I would make fun of myself a lot, which is what I do now in my comedy. It'd be like, you'd be doing stuff like that, making fun of it.

He had, I mean, one time, I've talked about us in a special on one of them, but it was like he brought the Easter Bunny home when I was like six. He was at the mall doing a show. And the Easter Bunny needed a ride home. And my dad goes, I'll give you a ride home if you swing by my house.

And so I remember the Easter Bunny, we had like, my parents had this old red, Mazda, stick shift, you know, and the Easter Bunny's head was bent to the side, because his head couldn't fit in the car. Sure. So he was just, he was sitting like this. And then he got out, and I met the Easter Bunny. And then my dad drove the Easter Bunny home.

So that started your, the Easter Bunny, you say, say, started. That was the, yeah, that was the trajectory. I go, all right. I go, if I could beat that guy, then maybe I can make it as. Now, what, what was your mom's, um, uh, uh, attitude on? on her husband's career. My parents have been together since seventh grade. And they, my mom's very funny.

But she worked at a bank. I mean, she's just been, I mean, it's just stuff. There's like, growing up, it's buying, you know, she has to go up. My dad would be like, go to the store. I need you to buy 12 lemons. And he has to buy for, like, his magic are a bunch of newspapers from that day.

It's like a bunch of random, and it's just normal conversation. You're just, like, it's a Tuesday. You're just trying to grab some bread, milk, and 30 oranges, and then you get on out of there. And handkerchiefs in six colors. He's got a lot of shows this week. It's just stuff like that.

That's cool. Wait, so Nate, so I want to kind of get, again, we're the worst interviewers on the planet. We were just voted. Worst ever interviewers. We nailed it. Of all the time. Yeah.

But I want to go back because we, again, because you play these huge arenas, and it's amazing. And I don't, I don't know if I've ever seen a comic so comfortable. You make it so intimate, even though you're playing a huge... There's something about it that makes it so personal and you're so organic. Yeah, you draw us in as opposed to ask for...

And we're talking about authenticity. You're very authentic. But you... That feels like that you... When you started, you must have started in clubs, like in smaller venues, right? Like most comics, I imagine. Oh, yeah. So I moved to Chicago first for a couple of years, and then I moved to New York.

and I was in New York for the most for like eight and a half years. And so I did all the clubs and all the like going up every single night. I performed for one guy once. Oh my gosh. No way. Like he wouldn't leave. We tried to get him to leave and he's like, nah, it's all right. And you're like, we don't think it's all right.

He really wasn't about him. You're like, I don't want to stand up in front of a guy. Regularly up in front of four people, five, six. Like, I mean, six people was like, got a pretty good show going on. You were excited about six. No way. Yeah. So you just get used to just being in these kind of like, you know,

it takes a long time before you're in front of like an actual pain crowd that's good. But what does that do for you, what does that do for your like rhythm-wise, et cetera when you're just doing six people? Well, I had to learn to get people into my rhythm very quickly. So since I'm talk slower and I was from South and all this, I had to figure out, because I would follow like high-energy acts. And then I'd come up and I'm like, well, I got to come up with this. joke or I gotta say something.

I just need you to hear my voice for a second so you can go like, all right, readjust and be like, now we're in this rhythm and then get into the first kind of, you know, come up with a good, like, opening little thing or whatever and just and get rolling. You know what always blows my mind about stand-ups though, like how you can

just walk around the stage for two hours and always have something to talk about and show, like how do you, is it like a monologue you memorize or like how can you just go up and speak God, he's going to love show business, do you think?

Yeah, Sean. Wait, do you get a load of her. He's going to love show business. He's going to love it. Two-thirds of the planet is water. There's a couple of poles. No, you know what I mean? That always blows.

Obviously, you had material that you work on, but do you ever like... There's your answer. Go up and you're like, oh my God, I don't know what's subject to talk about next? Like the flow of... Well, I don't go up. Yeah, I go up prepared.

I mean, I can't do the other... I can't really do, like, crowd work, could go up and so it's very very free-tiling bro no i know but it's gonna work it on it for months i know but nate do you ever switch it Nate do you ever switch the order uh based on the audience oh yeah this this this new hour i've switched it a ton but it's it's worked because now i'm opening on a joke that uh i have closed on so it's like it's great to be opening on a joke that i've actually had to have the energy and the rhythm of a closer and then you just move it up and now it's the front and you're doing those decisions on the fly

Yeah, you just fill it out. It's like, I mean, it's kind of like a song. Like, I'm in love with stand-up right now. Like, I love it so much. And it's, uh, the way I've looked at writing kind of is like, uh, it's a movie. So I'm the main character of this movie. And I'm not, I'm telling the story. I'm not, there's a, you know, a reason for be saying all this stuff.

And everything leads into the other thing. Yeah. So you want to make it where people don't realize you're into another joke. But in my head, I could be on like joke, five. But you're trying I'm trying to make it where like and then that's how you remember it because the only way you know if you're talking about like riding a car

and then you're like my wife bought a car well now that's the only thing I could go into. Right, right. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Who was your main inspiration as far as developing that style of telling stories as opposed to jokes?

Was it like a George Carlin? Because I seem to remember he was kind of like that too, right? Yeah, well, a big, Cosby was one. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, if you go, like, watch his old stuff, it was, it's very storytelling and all that kind of stuff. I'm a big Seinfeld fan. Seinfeld was, he was, I kind of think, because I always looked like I tell stories, but in a joke form.

Like, so it's, I mean, I try to never be too far from the laugh, because the farther you are from a laugh, the bigger the laugh has to be. And I don't want to put that much pressure on a laugh. So if I can just kind of keep it. That's interesting. Going and let it build, it's like, you know, it doesn't, you're just not putting the weight of the world on this. You're like, you know, because if you go silent too long, I mean, there's a point where you're like,

well, this joke better be unreal. Sean tried stand up, and we won't get to his opening joke, but he was, he started so far from the laugh, and then he never got even to the same area code as the laugh. You know what I mean? Like, he never, he never had actual direct sight on the laugh. They never got a, He went right.

He turned into a lecture. And there's no way. You're like, no, he's supposed to go. Well, he'll never get here now. Even with a series of mirrors, he couldn't see the laugh. It was so obscured. That's how I drive around town. I only take right hand turns.

But Nate, biggest bombing story? Like, did you just like, oh my God, this is the worst? Yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch. I mean, you'd blame it on. I had one one time. I thought it was the shirt I wore. And so I'd prove that shirt away.

I had a buttoned down shirt and I tucked it in. I've never done that since. Real? Yeah. I was like, it wasn't me. I was just like, this shirt. Yeah.

This fucking shirt is killing me. What is this guy's shirt? What is this guy's deal? I've done a cruise ship. Say no more. Yeah, I won a contest and your prize was to set your career back five years and do cruises. And so I go out and I'm doing it. And you got to do like, you got to do a bunch of shows.

So you do 30 clean, 30 dirty. I never had dirty. So it's like I couldn't even, and then you would do one, another show. So you needed, honest, because sometimes these people would come back and watch multiple shows. So you needed to have,

you know, two hours of material or do crowd or be able to mess with the crowd or something. And I remember we go up and you would do one show at the beginning of it. You do like five minutes each and it's kind of just like, it's in the big theater

and you're kind of just letting the crowd know, we're comedians, we've got a show back here, blah, blah. So the other guy, just was great and knew how to like, he shined a fly shot on the crowd, like just knew how to like really play with the crowd. Always works. And he was like, coming to my shows,

every show is different. And he like made a big announcement out of they're all different. And then I went up and I said, my, I go come to one. It may be the other one, but the other one will be the same. I had to like,

I was like, do not come to all my shows. Most will be the same. I don't have enough material to have them all be different. So you can go to his shows. They will be different. Mine will be, and then I went and did a show, and it was, I started it, and, like, they didn't laugh, and I was like, oh, these people have been to every show.

And I'm not a crowdwork guy, you know, and I'm like, so what do you do, man? And, you know, some guys, like, I'm an, he's an oil rigor in the ocean. It's actually a pretty crazy job. And I was like, that's cool and I just moved on. It's like an insane. People are saying crazy stuff that I got my bank robber. That's neat, man. What about you, ma'am?

I had nothing. No riffing. And then I had a ride in an elevator with these people. I'm in the elevator in the ocean. You think it sounds like I made it. And I'm just sitting there and I had a hat on and I just hear some guy just trashing me and I'm, my shoulders touching him. And I just have to sit there and get off.

But they do separate them between clean and dirty on a cruise ship. That's exclusive to a cruise ship? Yeah, you would just have a show that's like the kids can come to this show, your family can come to this show. and then you'd have like a night at, you know, 11 p.m.'s like adult-only show. Yeah. You still can't be that dirty, but it's the idea of it is a little more, you know. Yeah, you could have just dropped in a couple F-bombs just randomly.

I got a curse as I talk about parking. I'm like, you guys have a parallel park and they're like, this guy's filthy. Yeah, I didn't even have it. I didn't even have, I had no dirty jokes. Like, there's no, I don't really, I don't talk about sex or, like, political. Like, there's nothing like really like that's kind of like this. about political sex. Will you ever touch political sex? Is that something that you'd be willing to do? Yeah. If the right joke comes up. Sure, sure. You know, it is funny, it is remarkable how

how clean your stand-up is. And a lot of people, it's such a weird thing to have to say to point it out, but I guess it is worthy of pointing out. And it is, to me, such a testament to how profoundly funny you are. And honestly, and I hope it is a badge of honor for you. It should be, because it really, you find ways to talk about stuff and you don't need to swear it. I swear like a... Cosby never cursed. Famously.

Well, again, let's not try to, you know, look at it, so let's not... No, let's go down the avenue of Cosby and Clean, you know? Yeah. This guy... So, Nate, wait, did you... So at home, what's it like at home? So, like, is your...

Do you check out... Do you run jokes by your wife? Does she okay them? Is she sick of hearing them? like what is that dynamic at home? I'll tell her. Yeah, she knows about every joke that comes up because that's something I had to learn

to when you make fun of your wife at the beginning is you have to show love. Like you have to show, because people, because I remember at the beginning of the reaction would be like, well, why are you married? And so then you're like, well, that's not what I want. You don't need to have that reaction. So you have to then make fun of yourself,

but with her and you've got to do it in a way that where they can tell that you do love your wife. You love your family and you, you know. And so it's just kind of like just making fun of each other. But, yeah, I'll run by stuff. But that comes across, and you do that bit about the guy coming to replace a water heater and your other special. And you go, finally the guy realizes you don't know what you're talking about.

He thinks maybe this is a modern relationship. And he says to me, is your husband here? And then you go, yeah, I think she's here somewhere. It's so good. And it is, like you said, you're self-deprecating. you're the you're the the butt of the joke which I think is always such a winning combo

you're not making fun of somebody you're not having a laugh at somebody else's expense you're not putting somebody else down to make yourself funny which is great yeah I just never liked it like I felt bad I mean I'll like make fun my buddies and comics and stuff

but in the audience you just I just always felt you know it's like this person just trying to sit there they don't need it yeah yeah yeah like big what's your shit your shirt's stupid. And then I got my shirt on tucked in. Right? Don't we all got stupid shirts?

Do you still live in Tennessee? Yeah. I moved back. So I was gone like 13 years. And then we've been back for about nine. Yeah. I hear it's beautiful down there. Yeah, it's so good, right?

Yeah, I'm born and raised there. It's great. We have as much of a normal life as it can be. We're living in a cul-de-sac. The house at the top. So we have the leaders. And we set the tone for it. I have a joke.

I'll just like to say, it's my new act, Russ, and we do all in our coldest, we do all the right things. Like if someone pulls down there, we're like, what are you doing down our street? Any car we don't know.

We just run out. You better get out of our courts. I mean, just furious if they come down there. Brothers and sisters growing up? I have a younger brother, a younger sister. So you're the oldest of the three. And do they,

do they, are they finding you funny all the time? Or like, yeah? Yeah, yeah, my brother's like three years younger than me.

My sister's about 10. I've talked about her and it's special and, uh, she works for me now, too. So that's fun. I mean,

get yelled at by her. I mean, you got your whole family, you got your sisters working for you. And then you're on tour with your mom and dad and your aunt. And,

uh, I mean, cool, though. That's cool. It's pretty rad. I don't think you've said this, but you have, sorry, do you have kids? Yeah, I have an 11-year-old daughter. Why, you're so nervous to ask him that, Jason.

By the way, he's married, he said he's not available. One of the kids' ages? I did say before, don't ask about if I have kids. Oh, all right, I guess we're, okay. Yeah, and I have one, 11-year-old daughter. Oh, that's great. 11-year-old daughter. And what does it seem like she's going to want to do with her life?

Does she want to... She loves horses right now for some. So I don't know why. Oh, that sounds expensive. That's expensive. It is. I don't, but I don't know where, no one,

we don't come from horse stuff, you know? You're not, you're not horse people? No, there's never horse people, but, uh, she loves horses.

So right now she's kind of doing that stuff, but she's very creative, very funny. And she, you know, uh, will get me and my wife laughing a lot, you know,

and like, I think I got to teach her where, to where the joke, you got to be like, all right, well, you got to be serious. Yeah,

isn't that funny? It's like there's, There's the age when they learn sarcasm, they learn humor, but they don't yet know when to stop the joke. They don't know when to do the joke. But you don't want to shame them because you don't want to kill their spirit or their sense of humor, so you just got to kind of grin and bear with so many things in their life.

It's so incredible watching kids learn things that we forgot that we learned. You know, like it's amazing. You know nothing until you learn it. She can make fun of her friends. recent and like I think but then they all got like it it was like they did not like it was like and it was funny I forget what it was but it was like it was something funny but you're like all right you got to understand you're like you got to some people will be able to handle it like you know she just is all about the joke because it's obviously just our you know her grandfather's a magician

comedian like so it's it's a lot of joking I think yeah I think that making fun of your friends is is not a good path to go down. It's not... Unless it's Sean. Unless it's Sean. I mean, it's such a big button to hit. No, I thought we were talking about friends. Yeah, Sean is...

Oh, right. You know what I mean? You feel warm inside. Where's that... What's after Syracuse? Where do you go next? Albany. So we started in...

Of course. Yeah, I was in. And just fucks connected to you? Like, what are you doing, dude? Yeah, this is the route. I know we started... Last night we were in Philly at the... Far...

It was where the Sixers play. No way. It was this big thing. And then it goes Syracuse and then it'll go Albany. And then these are the two the Falun wanted to come to with Syracuse and Albany. Yeah, of course. That's a big, those are big venues. I think he's from up here.

Yeah. He is. He's from upstate New York. What arena or place are you playing tonight in Syracuse? The, you know, the arena. The carrier dome probably, right? Is that what it is? No.

No. Yeah. No, I've been to a game there. That's like a huge. I've been a basketball game there You can fill it. You can feel it. It's like, people buy tickets that are like,

I don't think they can see the court. Right. They're sitting like behind the court. Would there be a crowd that's just too big for a comedy show? It's just like, it needs to be a little bit more intimate. Like 20,000 people is like right at the max maybe or no. Yeah, I mean, it's all about how I can feel. We have, like, you know, the arena is we have these big screens.

We have, I've put more speakers up so everybody can hear it. You really do try to make it intimate. I mean, you can tell everybody gets real quiet. I mean, that's the cool. It's one of the coolest things is when you're telling a joke and you're this many people are quiet. Yeah, right. You know, and this kind of, and they're just, I mean, you could, I could yell with no

microphone and the top person could hear me is it gets that quiet. That's so cool. So, yeah, I mean, I'd imagine if you did a stadium, you know, I could see it getting a little loose. Right. You know, and we're in the middle, too, of an arena. So I'm, it makes it a lot, I'm a lot closer to. everybody.

Do a hundred thousand, do a Honda. Come on, hey. Do a hundred. Do the big house of Michigan. Have you ever had a moment where you kind of scare yourself a little bit by thinking about all the eyes that are looking at you and that they're not talking and that it is silent and that you might not be doing well and you can't leave for another 45 minutes? Are you scared of the eyes?

I mean, if you ever had a panic attack on a stage and know that you can't leave for another hour? Yeah, I mean, you've done it so long now that you're... I mean, keep your knees bent. It's happened to me. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've done it now. It's like, yeah, I mean, you think about it.

I had an SNL, like, a little bit when I did the monologue. I was more nervous with the monologue because it's like stand up and you're like, I'm supposed to be good at this. And then you've got to kind of deliver the joke. into the camera, but there's the crowd. And so, like, it was very weird to deliver jokes to kind of a spot where no one's at. Right. And you're right on the heels of sitting, of standing back behind that flat, behind the band, right?

That little narrow little plank. And the whole crowd is silent and they're counting down to that live moment to America. Like, it becomes really tangible. Like, you're not just live in front of, you know, you know, a crowd. It's beaming across, you know, the planet. Oh, yeah. Like, it's real tangible there. Yeah, you're like, I could say anything right now,

and they're going to hear it right now because it's live, you know. Yeah, yeah. Remember when, I used to remember, like, 20 jokes when I was a kid. He used to love them. And now I can only remember, like, one or two, but from back, no, they're not that great. No, go to tell one, Jay. Do you have any jokes? Do you want to hear a guy to tell a joke inside out?

Go ahead. I do get a little tripped up. Do you have a joke from when you were a kid that you'll never forget? You may not use it in your act, but it's just like just a classic that was one of your favorites? Yeah, I didn't use it in my act. You say you do? I hang, no. I didn't hang on to you're like, I kept it.

I read a joke book when I was five, and I'm closing on it. I remember the joke, it was, I said there was a joke book or something, and there was a guy goes, wait, or there's a spy. or there's a fly in my soup and then the waiter goes well don't worry the spider on your bread we'll get it and there's a picture of a spider bed and so my dad always brings it i remember that joke and then my dad brought it up because i would like i was explaining why the joke was funny to him and like kind of going through it like here's why this is funny you know so that that that one was the first one but i let it go do you guys have jokes from when you're a kid that you'll never forget one joke that's

appropriate to tell? Is there one like a go-to that you remember? I had a joke book when I was really little. You have a joke book now, but keep going. It was, it's not funny. It was funny when I was like six years old. It's like, where do dead people go in your house? And it was the living room.

I have one which is like, people always say that ballet is really hard to do. And so I always say, just don't do it. Yeah. Oh, see, Nate laughed. That was Sean's opening joke when he did stand-up. And what is it... This would probably be interesting for folks, including me.

What are the... How do you do the economics of being a stand-up? I'm assuming you have to bear all the costs of the trucks and the infrastructure and all that stuff, and then you get to keep whatever you don't spend on what it costs to put the show up, right? And you're making your money based on ticket sales and merchandise, perhaps, full stop.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, merch is not merch is not the biggest thing in stand-up. Why? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, we've had it. We've done it at shows, and it's just, it's not like a concert

or people don't. Like I'm saying, like, stand-up's still kind of, it's kind of a newer thing. Like, Cosby's like one of the first, he's still alive. And, like, you know, like, he knew Lenny Bruce. And then Carl. Don't, you got to, if I could give you one piece of advice. If we could just lose the Cosby references.

If we could get it down to, Boy, if we could get it down a single digit to it would be great. Yeah. You know what? Louis K. I'm going to send you a couple articles. Harvey Weinstein and I once set up an LLC.

But so you've got this huge... Apparathus. Yeah, apparatus, right? But you know, you could do it without it. But you get like a deal. So you have promoters. And then the... Yeah, you are...

I think the... It's like the promoter is the one that's putting the money for like the the renting of the venue. Right. And then I'm paying, then it comes out of mind of the show budget of the speakers and all that stuff. And so you can you can have it go as low or as big as you want it to go. Who's your manager? Who are your peeps? Brillstein.

They're the... Brillstein and UTA. Yeah. We'll be right back. All right. Back to the show. By the way, backing way up to the beginning of this interview, What is Bargazzi?

What is the nationality of Bargazzo? It's Italian. Oh, it is. First of all, don't spit it out like that. No, like, what the fuck is Hayes? The fucking, son of it. Sorry, Nate. Jesus is he.

I mean, I knew it. By the way, what the fuck is Bargast? I just never heard of it. This has really been a B in my bonnet for a minute. How do you even spell that? I know. I can't even begin to spell it. I kind of, I knew that, but I forgot that I knew that.

Italian. I think we say it wrong as a family, too. I think it's supposed to be Bargazzi, and we say Bargots. Like, it's just we've southerned it up. Oh, I say Bargotsie. Yeah, I think a lot of people would. Don't people say Bargotsie? When I lived in New York, they would always be like,

Bargotsie, because it's like Italian, and I was like, you know. Baggots. I was like, I don't like tomatoes. Do you have family in Italy? I don't, you know. You don't know. Yeah. I think we've all agreed to kind of go. We had a family union once, and we had family come over from Italy,

and we got Kentucky Fried Chicken for them. And I think it was like from that moment was just kind of like, all right, y'all have a good life. We did it. We're going to do y'all's thing. And we've just got to go on our separate ways. Nate, what do you like to do in your free time? And you've got a lot of time like on a bus

or you're touring or on the plane or whatever. What do you watch? What are the things? Are you a sports guide? Do you watch other stand-ups? Is it a candy crush? How are you occupying your minutes? Yeah, I'm a big sports guy

So I watch a lot of golf Like any sports golf, UFC Wons La UFC Oh, you do? Yeah, I'm a big fan of UFC I wanted to peg that I wanted to peg you for a big good kid It's just the most I

The honesty of it With like Dana White Just in the fighters They can say whatever they want And so there's no You know like when Tom Brady Is he go retire or not retire It's like it's all kind of a game and a show

And UFC kind of really is like, we just got a dude that just says, I want to fight this guy. Right. And then it just gets to it. And you're, I don't know, I kind of like, I love it. But there's no romance to that, too, though, right? Like, the kind of is the buildup to it. And then they get in the, you know, then they don't like each other.

And then you're, you know, and then you go in there and watch them fight. It's not just watching a street fight. You're watching two professionals that have to, like, fill each other out. Yeah. So you watch, UFC, you watch golf. You like to play golf. You play golf when you're on the road? Some.

It gets hard. but it's because of the shows and stuff but yeah I'll play some on the road yeah yeah yeah I mean it's kind of it I mean I don't know it's like you're just running around got a lot of hanging out like the road is the most fun because it's just like a bunch of dudes and you know this morning we went in Syracuse

in this place as a hot and cold plunge thing sure and uh well love so I've never done it and then so but they let us come in so like we woke up and did that wait who's boo week I saw something. Oh, yeah. What is that? So this is another, I told it on that scene I'd tell it in my act too.

But it, Boo Weekly, because I have a joke about fighting orangutan at a county fair. Okay. And where I read the story was, there's a golfer named Boo Weekly. And when he read, he said when he was 15, he got in, he goes to this county fair. He's from like, like, Southern Georgia. It's like the 80s. you know, and you could pay $5 to fight an orangutan. A rangatang would be in a boxing ring with boxing gloves.

And so dudes would pay $5 to fight them. That's hysterical. Yeah, and then guys would get in there, and this ring would just knock people out. Because what I said, I tell the whole story in my act, but I say because we didn't have the Internet to look up how strong's in orangutangangangang. It was all word of mouth back then. So, you know, you had to meet a guy that just fought an orangutan.

And he's like, he's stronger than you think. You know, you're like, well, but the arms are so skinny. You know, I know. But the reach. And the reach. It's the reach. It's the reach. It's the jab. It's the feet.

It's bigger than you, yeah, that strength comes from somewhere. And they'll rip your face off, too, if they want. Well, that's what boo-weeeky said. He goes, that's not written everywhere back in 1982 when you're fighting orangutan. The guy that does this doesn't go all. you sign a waiver. Sure. Yeah.

You don't realize until afterwards, like, that's why he has gloves on. If it gets the gloves off, there's a chance it will rip your head off. So, but, you know, what are you going to do? Write the Scramble again? Yeah. That's really funny. Oh, I wonder if that's still in existence anywhere in the country. I bet there's still a place.

So, I think Peter got a hold of a lot of this. Yeah. Sure. They knocked those things down. And that one, they were like, you can't do that. We're like, all right, we thought they liked it. I'm glad you just had to tell us, and we got rid of it. Fair enough.

Nate, what are you going to do today before the show? Tell them you're busy. It was this, and then, yeah, it was just this. I don't have any. I got to read where I'm messing up the order a little bit, so I'll do that a little. And then we're just hang out and be at the venue. if there's, we do try to shoot basketball, like some of these arenas, if they have a basketball goal somewhere,

we're trying to like mess around, do basketball, just kind of, you know, do whatever until. That's nice. And then you're going on tour, you've got a new special, you're shooting a new special. In Phoenix, yeah. You love Phoenix. You love, you've taught, you did another,

you did your last special on Phoenix. I did my last special there. And this one's going to be in the footprint center where the suns play. So it's, uh, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, I mean, it just kind of works out, like, touring-wise. Like, you just hit these towns, like, every two years or so. And so it's just kind of like... And your family goes with you, or do they stay home?

They do some. Yeah, yeah, we went to Europe. Like, they came to Europe. They come to the, you know, they're not here in Syracuse or Albany. But they, if they're going to, I'm doing the Boston Garden. They're going to come to Boston. Okay, yeah. Tell them to join you out in Phoenix for some of the best pizza in the world,

as voted by the voters. By the people. At Chris Biancos. At Chris Biancos. Nate, can you do, I saw you do this one thing a long time ago. You don't have to do it by if you're like, I got to go. But one of the funniest things I ever saw you do. Sorry, dude.

You know me to stand up and do my act? Do you mind? Just show us your tits real quick and then go to show. Would you mind doing it topless? Sorry, show us your tits. No, one of the funniest things was it was a story about your meeting, your wife's, ex-boyfriend. Yeah, on the boat?

Yeah, yeah. I went, yeah, we went, I got to remember it, but we went to, it happened, we're on the lake, Old Hickory Lake. Is that true? Yeah, and we're in, we're like in the water, and then it's, my wife's ex-boyfriend was on another boat. Right. And I didn't see him, and she pointed out, like, there's no reason to point it out.

and she pointed it out. So then, yeah, like, all I can think of it now, like, I'm thinking about him. Like, and then I look at her and she's looking at him, and I feel like she's looking at him to see what her life would be like if she didn't marry me. Yeah. And I was looking at him to see what my wife would be like if I didn't marry her. Uh-huh. So we're both putting a lot of pressure on this guy.

Yeah. And then my buddy told me, he's like, you should go fight him. And I was like, what, like, he's on a boat. Like, I got to swim over to that fight. Have you ever tried to climb in a boat from water? It's not graceful. It's not easy. You don't come in with power.

I would need his help to start the fight. Right, right. I think that was, yeah. It's so funny. But I just, I mean, we can all relate to meeting exes, you know, our current exes. It's never good. Yeah, I don't. I don't really have exes.

All right. What are you talking about, Nate? I know. I didn't go. I know, but that's what made it frustrated. I don't, I had no one to go show my wife,

well, here's mine. Yeah. What do you mean? What is she your high school sweetheart or something? No, we started dating like 20, 21. We met at Applebee's. We both waited tables at Appleby.

I was a host at the time. Oh, that's great. I love that. You don't need to scream. Yeah. Well, stuff is going, you know. Sounds like it's all good in the neighborhood or what are we? Yeah, we're all in the neighborhood.

We're in the neighborhood or something. We're big fans. We took our daughter. What was your favorite thing on the Applebee's menu? Here we go. They did chicken broccoli Alfredo. I'd get no broccoli, you know? Yeah.

Get that out of the area. And then I'd say put it on the side just so the guy thinks I'm going to eat it. Then he would just take a full plate of broccoli back after. I got full on the other stuff. That's so true. Like we're worried what they think, yeah. Yeah. What's this?

Do you think that's impressive? Sean, Applebee's menu backwards. Go. Cobbler, Apple Cobbler. Of those kinds of restaurants. Chinese chicken salad? Pretty good. I'll eat that.

Every place makes a Chinese chicken salad now. That's kind of like the new, you know, molten lava cake. Every place has a Chinese chicken. What makes it a Chinese chicken salad? It's just because of the ginger dressing? They're the only ones that don't eat it. No. And those crispy noodles, the crispy noodles and the, yeah, you get the crispy...

Chin Chin. No, listen, Sean, I don't have to tell you. Chin Chin Chin. Chin does the best one. Yeah. One of the best ones. One of the best ones. John's handling his chin chin, chin.

Wait, so of all those kinds of restaurants, I forget what you call them. Are they big box restaurants? No, chain restaurants. Have y'all not been to one in a while? Like, you got to just go. It's been a minute, but I did like to see in your new special, Nate says everything. everything I learned, I don't know a lot that came from a big, like a building, like a higher education building. Everything I learned, I overheard a Target or a Lowe's.

The Lowe's music, the line of Lowe's. Everything I overheard. Yeah, we're big chain. I mean, I grew up, like, we're a, you know, I had an old joke about, like, I was a big, I don't like mom and pop shops because they can close. Just they're like, we don't feel good today and they close. Like, Walmart. Walmart, you know, they were a mom and pop shop at some point. and then they got it together and became unreal.

Yeah. So. Yeah. I like those, too. I like mom and Bob Scha. Here's what I like. I like chilies. And I'm not afraid to say, I love.

They have the great chocolate lava cake. If you want one, go to chilies. Go to chili. And they also have the great, they used to have the southwest egg rolls or whatever. They used to have those things. Me and Dax used to always go to, God, I love a chilies. What about Outback?

Danny good with the Bloomingo. Yeah, yeah. We go to Outback a good bit. Scotty. Scotty worked at TGIF and he would have... Oh, I used to love that. That's good, too. That's fun.

That's an intimidating menu. Dr. Pepper's doing some pretty amazing things right now. So if you are into Dr. Pepper, died Dr. Pepper. They got some real good stuff going on them. And some cherry, right? They got some, like some sort, like cream soda, strawberry stuff.

I mean, it's something, dude. They're showing off over there. Did we ever get any confirmation on the doctor portion of the pepper? Like, did they, did we ever see, documentation to prove that he graduated. He suggests diet. What kind of doctor was he? Yeah, I mean. Dr. Poppe. He was a...

I do like Diet Dr. Pepper, too. And I'm going to say this. I like their ads. I like their TV ads. Yeah. I think they're funny. I think you're right. I think they're real clever. Nate, before I let you go, how do you know Greg Garcia?

How did that happen? This son of a gun, speaking of a son of a guns. So I've tried to make a bunch of shows that have never gone. We've had one show that we shot a pilot. And so Greg came in. I did not know him, but he came in, Danielle Sanchez Whittsell. She was a show running it, and she's friends with Greg. And so Greg came in to help us do it. And I knew Greg Garcia's work, but I didn't know him when he first came in.

So when he first came in, he's going to help us. And I was like, I don't know who this dude is. Yeah. I got to listen to this guy. And then we wrote our whole, rewrote the whole script on his, off just his ideas, because they were so good. And obviously he's unreal. And so we just become really close and become friends.

I was just with them this week, actually, at dinner with him. Because I had to go to L.A. for a second. And so he's, yeah, we became friends like that. And he comes out on the road, too. I'm telling you, y'all should, y'all come out on the road. If you want to get away, have a little fun trip. Come on out.

Dude, that would actually be really, really fun if you mean it. It's a fun hang. If you mean it. Fallon's coming tonight. We have a fun time. You just play cards or you play, you know, like we went to a casino last night in Philadelphia. Sean, I mean, first of all, this is your dream. They go to casino and they're going to chain restaurants.

I mean, you know, every single, every cracker barrel has got to, got, skin merchant from Sean's car. Jack or Barrel is one we didn't touch on. I've not been there, but I hear that's the one. Anywhere that can handle bus parking, it's all changed. Well, Greg Garcia is one of the all-time great guys, super, super funny guy. One of the funniest pranks.

He always, I'm not really like a big pranks guy, but he is so funny, I had a long joke and a prank, and I just, he's such a great guy. So, yeah, that makes sense that you guys would be pals. Well, listen, I'm going to return the offer and say next time you're out here in California, let's go play golf, man, and hang out and grab some lunch. Such a huge fan of yours, dude. Honestly, you're just the funniest, funny as funny as funny as dude.

It's so good to see you. So exciting to see you just more and more and more people. Appreciate you. Really happy for your success. Truly, truly, truly. Yeah, man. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Nate, thank you for doing this. What a thrill. Thank you for saying. What a thrill. All right, the great Nate Bergotsi. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Nate. Thanks, Nate.

Thank you, guys. Bye, buddy. Have fun. Bye. The great Nate. The great Nate. The great Nate. God, is he funny?

Yep. Olds, like, old school, clean, good, hilarious, nonstop fun. Yeah. God. He just seems like a real kind fella, you know? Yeah, I can't see him getting upset. I'm sure you could figure out a way to piss him off. How would you, what would be your strategy?

Have you really wanted to get Nate pissed off? I'd ask him with. I'd ask him questions over, I'd ask him the same thing over and over again, like I didn't understand. No, I think he'd be very patient with that. I don't think that would be his button pusher. No, like, no, but like if you,

if you just went on and on about something, like you just really, honestly, truly didn't understand, I think it pisses anybody off. I wonder. Like, what are you not getting, right? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? No, we have a pretty high threshold.

Like, we have a pretty decent amount of patience for you in that regard. What is the thing, what is the thing that gets you? you guys to anger quicker than anything else. Stupidity. People who don't think like I do. I have a short fuse for stuff I, yeah, I don't suffer. I have a short fuse for like, yeah, people who are incompetent or like can't, like,

like, like, don't have common sense about like easy things. And then in the meantime, I'm the dumbest person on the planet and I probably do the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hate when, I hate when people like punch down, you know. know, and they're like mean to people because they know they can be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So lazy. Yeah, yeah, it is. Punch down either, especially if it, you know, we do do a lot of joking around and we love to sort of rip each other and stuff. But anytime I see somebody who likes to, and we talked about with Nate, who likes to get a laugh at somebody else's expense. Yeah, yeah. Or you know what else that's pissing me off? Confident ignorance.

That can also be super funny though. Yeah, sometimes. Well, and the character it can be. Right, you have to do it on purpose. But yeah, a person who is much smarter or much more confident than they have a right to be is just grading. Because you have to spend an effort to convince them that you're buying it. Right. But if you have no dog in that fight and you're just observing that person, it can be hilarious.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that is true. That is true. By the way, I love playing them. those characters. Yeah, do you know. The character that's just, just an alpha everywhere.

And then the tough guy walks in and then they're beta. Yeah, yeah. Right, right, right, right. Exactly. But Nate, we should go see his show when he's out. He's so funny.

I think we should meet him in Phoenix and go get some of that Bianco pizza. We should, and then play some golf over there. You know, you're not playing golf anymore. Not until October. That's not time. I have to be disciplined, you know. I know.

I mean, we can go, we can go, to Nate's. There it comes. There it comes. We can go to his show and like participate or we can go and just be a bunch of bystanders. Bye. So dumb when we do. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanly handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Arvajarv and Bennett Barbico.

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