It’s not just the name of his last comedy special. 

Nate Bargatze really is the “greatest average American.” 

“It started off as a joke,” Bargatze told The Blade ahead of his performance at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre on Thursday. “But I just have very average tastes. Like if you did a poll on what the average American likes, I would be just that. Like my pants size is going to be the same, the food I like — I do not really go one way or the other.

“Saying I am the greatest average American, that is not really that much of an accomplishment, but it is fun to say it that way.”  

Bargatze, a native of Tennessee, is one of the more decorated comedians working today, having appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show and Conan, taped two solo Netflix specials, and appeared with Jimmy Fallon at his Clean Cut Comedy Tour and Chris Rock at his Total Blackout Tour. He also has several comedy albums to his name; the audio of The Greatest Average American, the Netflix special he released in early 2021, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Now he is embarking on his Raincheck Tour, which crisscrosses the country until the end of the year. 

After being handcuffed by the coronavirus pandemic beginning in 2020, and, like most comedians, being forced to perform at drive-ins and over Zoom, Bargatze said he is thrilled to be back on the club and theater circuit again. It’s been his bread and butter in a two-decade-long career. 

“It is just night and day,” he said, comparing his experience on this tour to previous years. “I was doing drive-ins. People would just sit in their cars and you cannot hear anybody. The special was filmed outside, everyone was wearing a mask, and only like 100 people were allowed to be there, so the timing was kinda off.

“Being back in now, it just reminds you how great it is to be together and hear the laughs. Just the sound of laughter really adds to your set. With the rhythm and the timing of it all, the laughter makes it more full.” 

Knowing how to play off a crowd and pick up on certain cues and energies is one thing that Bargatze has learned how to do well over the years. 

“I don’t do crowd work or talk to the audience really, but energy is very important,” he said. “There are times you are up there and the crowd will be great, but will laugh quicker than some other crowds, and you feel like, ‘OK, I have to stay more on top of it,’ because you cannot really pause as long. And there are times, during like a weekday show as a opposed to a Friday or a Saturday show, when it will really feel like a Tuesday show. Everyone is in the middle of their week, and there is not that extra release you might feel on a weekend.

“Timing is all kinda based on the crowd, though, which is what makes it really interesting. Like, ‘What am I going to get tonight?’”  

The coronavirus pandemic didn’t totally stop Bargatze. He started a new endeavor in the Nateland podcast with his friends Brian Bates, Dusty Slay, and Aaron Weber. It hit its 112th episode early this week.

The podcast is something he really enjoys releasing every week, he said. Even when he is not performing, he continued, it is important that he remains practicing comedy in some way because being funny is like a muscle that needs to be continually exercised.  

Bargatze’s trademark “clean” comedy is often inspired by personal experiences in his own life or among family, and he said his new act, which he has been performing in its current form since around the beginning of this year, includes bits on aging and being the first born, as well as a lot of material about his wife and family. 

He said he’s almost always thinking about what could be part of his set. 

“I really look for any scenario that I think might be a funny story. Now I am about to tape the special, so I am looking and just thinking within the act about what I already have,” Bargatze said. He’s scheduled to tape this new set at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Ariz. on Sept. 24. “The overall gist is not going to change, but I am hoping to get the words placed right.”    

It takes a lot of careful planning to get the words and pacing in an act right, and Bargatze sees his upcoming performance in Toledo as a key tune-up for the taping in four weeks. He said his process usually starts with taking note cards up onto the stage with bullet points to remind him when to introduce each part of his act. The order and flow is very important.

Now, about a year and a half after he started writing the set and pared it down so it fits into the one-hour special format, he said all safety nets are off. 

Despite being so-called  “average,” Bargatze said he has carved out a nice niche for himself by staying true to who he is and being authentic.

“That is what makes it relatable,” he said about his “average” qualities. “Some people told me, ‘You have to get your energy up,’ because I am on the low energy side and am not very animated. I am getting a little bit better at that, but I am never going to be all over the place. I tried it before and it would not always work.

“You just have to learn over time that the only way to be unique is to be you. When you are trying not to be yourself that is a lot to keep up.     

“It is not about figuring your voice out, but you get to know your voice a little bit better. You can phrase things in a way that everything is funny. I have been doing this 20 years now and I can just kinda build the act quicker than I could any year before this. The longer I have been in comedy the more you know how to make something funny, more than I did five years ago.”

First Published August 24, 2022, 1:00 p.m.