Nate Bargatze (‘Hello World’): New Golden Globe category is ‘good for comedy’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I’ve started looking at it like writing a movie and you are a character,” reflects Nate Bargatze about creating his 2023 stand-up comedy special. For our recent webchat he adds, “I’ve done comedy now for 20 years. As you keep doing stand-up it keeps changing. It’s such a different thing that when I began.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Hello Word” is Bargatze’s latest special released on Amazon Prime earlier this year. It was filmed in Phoenix at a theatre where he performed in the round. He explains, “It was difficult to do, but I love the way it looked. I wanted to show the crowd. You keep moving.”
The comedy in the special revolves around his upbringing and family life. He raises the injustice of being the eldest sibling and laments his wife ignoring an absurdly specific golf tee time. The comic admits, “This one was way more personal than I have been in the past. I love my wife and my family, so I need to show that love. Then I try to put myself at the butt of the joke. You can laugh with me or you can laugh at me. It doesn’t really matter. When you can figure that out it can click.”
In 2022, Bargatze’s special “The Greatest Average American” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. And “Hello World” will be eligible for the newly announced Golden Globe category for stand-up performances along with the upcoming Grammys, Emmys and guild awards. He explains, “It’s a big deal. Stand-up comics are always kind of on the outside of that stuff. A long time ago, if you were a stand-up comic, you had to have TV shows. Now you can just do it through stand-up. It’s a new world that the comics before me built up. It makes it legit. It’s good for comedy and future comedians, and will make it a more mainstream kind of artform.”
Looking back, Bargatze reveals, “I actually just found a thing from senior high, where everybody wrote where they were going to be in 10 years. I wrote, ‘Performing at ‘Zanies’ – Nashville’s local comedy club – which I have done. I wanted to do it but I don’t think I knew how to do it. You’ve got to just get the nerves to give it a go. I did and I became obsessed with it.”
PREDICT the 2023 Emmy winners through January 15
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions