Comedian Nate Bargatze says his career isn’t just about getting laughs — it’s about living out his belief that he is “second to God.”
“I am second,” the 46-year-old Grammy-nominated comedian told David Marchese, co-host of “The Interview,” a podcast of The New York Times. “Second to God, second to your family, second to the audience. You kind of live to serve. It’s very much a calling in that aspect.”
The Tennessee-born comedian, known for his clean, family-friendly stand-up and deadpan delivery, said his faith and values influence how he approaches his work and connects with audiences.
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“I feel sometimes I’m having it now,” Bargatze said when asked if he’s had a moment of testimony. “It’s just constant. Constantly having to work on it. Constantly reminding myself to be out of it and make sure that this life is not about me.”
Bargatze, whose Netflix specials have earned him widespread acclaim and a growing fan base, said he aims to create space for families to laugh together. He reportedly had the highest-grossing comedy tour of 2024, according to Billboard, and hosted “Saturday Night Live” twice.
“I want you to come as a family,” he said. “I think about those moments with my daughter — all these little dumb moments, like going to the movies and her trying to talk me into buying candy and popcorn. Those are the moments I remember. And I want to create that kind of space for other families too.”
He said he sees comedy as a form of service, rooted in a higher purpose.
“It’s very much a calling in that aspect that I feel,” Bargatze said. “But again, it’s trying to ride that balance. I don’t want it to be this or that. I just want people to feel welcome.”
Though a professing Christian, Bargatze said he wants people of all backgrounds to enjoy his comedy together as a family and not label it “faith-based.”
“I just want to make something [where] all of them can be in the room together,” he said.
“I get worried about being labeled,” he added. “Stuff gets faith-based or stuff like that, and people write it off. Especially now, people take it in very different ways.”
He recalled taking his daughter to see the animated film “Moana,” calling the experience one of those seemingly small but lasting memories.
“I remember our daughter’s first movie was “Moana,” and so, going to sit and watch it in the back … the whole experience of that day, that’s something that I remember, and that’s not a dumb day,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things … those are the ones that you tend to go back to and remember.”
“I have a lot of grandmothers come to my shows, and they love me,” he added. “I don’t think there’s much being made that they could go to — certainly not stand-up comedy.”
The comedian revealed his first movie, “The Breadwinner,” is scheduled for a 2026 release, and said he hopes to be in more movies in the future.
“When I started in comedy, some comics would be like, ‘Well, I’m not for everybody,’ and I was like, ‘Well, why would you not want to be for everybody?’ I want to be for everybody.”
Raised in a Southern Christian household, Bargatze has often attributed his clean comedic style to his faith-based upbringing.
“It’s how I grew up,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview back in 2023. “I come from a Christian family and Southern Christian, so I wasn’t allowed to watch anything … growing up and only watching clean comedians, it was just how I was going to be. And it would feel forced if I was not.”
“I just can’t imagine cursing in front of your parents,” he said. “Still, even now, I’m 43 years old and I still just couldn’t do that,” he said at the time. “So that’s how I write. I think I write my comedy to — a lot of it is to make my parents laugh. I want them to be proud and be like, ‘Oh, come watch my son do comedy,’ and not be offended by it. I just don’t have that in me to want to offend someone or make someone feel bad.”
In a 2019 interview with Relevant magazine, he revealed that when he started working as a comedian in Chicago, it was “the first time that I ever met people that either weren’t religious or didn’t believe in God.”
“A lot of people that I was around weren’t Christians and didn’t grow up in the church or anything,” Bargatze said at the time. “Sometimes guys can go away from that, but it just made me get more into it, because I just thought, ‘Why do you think you’re right?’ I’ve always said I trust my parents more than I trust anybody else I ever met.”
The comedian has also shared how he wants to honor God with his career: “God has a path,” he said on the “Funjelah” podcast. “I’m just here to follow the path, so I just kind of wait and see where the doors open.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
