11:17
I'm Nate Bargetti and this is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all got to eat and we're all going to die. Today's guest is a stand-up comedian, a podcast host, a New York Times bestselling author, and star of the new movie The Bread Winner. But most impressively, he won the Dupont Hadley seventh grade middle school science fair. Nate Bergetti, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. That is my proudest moment. Thank you. As it should be. Like listen, you've made millions of people laugh and that's great. But you also made several DuPont executives believe that you can move a chicken bone with a magnet.
Yeah. They had different plans for my career. They still come after me. They're headh hunting. Is that what it is? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. They're head hunting. Uh if I'm available. I delivered uh packages for FedEx in New York when I first uh moved to New York to start coming and I was very good at delivering because I did delivery jobs before that Nashville and they would call me like a lot. Yeah. Like to be like will you come back and I'm like no I got another like dumb day job and then I'm doing standup now but I was a good delivery guy in New York.
Have other jobs ever come back to you? Has Applebee's ever come back and been like, "Hey man, I know you never quite made it to a server, but as far we would like you to be a server now." Um, I mean, I bet I could go back to Applebee's. I would want to be if I went back to Applebee's, I would put me in the manage, you know, management. Yeah, like an assistant manager track at least you have growth at least. Yeah, at least I would do some serving just to, you know, like get reused to the menu a little bit and uh interact with the people. But I should be coming up to the tables asking, "How's everything going?" Yeah. And I don't need to really be in the weeds with every table. That's how I look at it.
I agree with that. I'm not an expert in either comedy or the restaurant business, but I believe in 2025 you sold more tickets to see you perform comedy than any comedian on Earth. Do you think that qualifies you to be an assistant manager at Applebee's? Cuz I don't know if I'm sure. Straight track, too. Straight track. Yeah. I think I should. It qualifies me and I think I should skip the bottom couple salaries. So, I should be one of the like at least moves up. I'm not saying I could be the top salary. I would like to earn something. Yeah. I don't know what the levels of the salaries are, but I should at least start with like the third where you're like the next one's the one.
Yeah. And then that's when you buy the Buick. Man, you got your life figured out. Yeah. I got options. I mean, this could all fall apart and I will be fine. Great. There's always going to be Applebees. Thanks so much for joining me today, man. Thank you for having me. Of course. Have you thought about your last meal before? Uh, you know, I think some like sometimes I don't know if not as much to start a podcast about it, but it's uh it's Yeah. You know, I've thought about like I thought I think it's a great idea.
Sure. Uh but it's Yeah, I've thought, you know, what you would order and what you would do. And I mean, I think it's Yeah, you would go Mine would be I think what I would I don't know. It's like I don't think I would go too far off. Would I? Yeah. I wouldn't try anything. Do you generally not to like to try new foods? Are you No, I'm actually pretty good about it. I will try new foods. I like to try stuff. I've eaten some weird, you know, where you've had alligator like uh I had caviar recently for the first time. I did not mind that. But I think I liked it cuz it came with a big piece of bread and so I think that's what helped the toasted bread and that made the caviar was a tax you had to pay to get to the bread.
Yes. It's like if it was like just a bowl of caviar you're like well I'm not going to that seems crazy but when you have it on the bread it's Yeah. It was pretty good. How often do you think about death? I don't think I think about it that much. When you have a kid, that's the one that's like you're so scared. Like anything when you're a baby. I mean, I remember my daughter, you just like multiple nights like you just put her put my ear on her chest and make sure she's bra. Like you're just so like this life's so precious and all this.
And now it will be like family. Sure. If you do, you seem like you have a habit of taking yourself out of a lot of things. Like the way that you dance, it's always more framed around other people. Is it your own life that you're not really Sorry, I just gave my voice right. Is it your own life that you're not really that concerned with? I mean, I do think about myself and I do it's but and it's uh if I talk about myself, I think I do it and to closer people and friends like you're going to want to vent. You're going to want to
get out. You got you do have an ego. You do have all this stuff. Uh so it's like, you know, you just pound that on your close ones and then really be a burden to the people you love the most. You want to be the ones that you love the most. You want to be the most burnt. You want to when you walk in the room, they're like, "Oh my gosh." But then when it's other people, they're like, "Hey." Uh so I need to work on that. Uh but yes, I think in general, you should be a service uh to whatever you're trying to do. You're uh just trying to be the best thing for the thing that whatever someone's watching this or whatever someone's doing. and uh try not to think too much about yourself. Try not to make, you know, too
big of a scene or whatever, you know. Yeah. I think uh Super Bowl champion Jaylen Herd said it best when he said, "Keep the main thing." Oh, yeah. And I've always liked that a lot. I like that. I don't really know what it means, but I like it. I don't even know what it means, but it does work, doesn't it? Yeah. Cuz maybe you're not the main thing. Yeah. So then keep the main thing, but I guess it means the Super Bowl is the main thing, so be that's the main thing.
I think so. Yeah. But as a standard comic, I'm by myself. So if I'm the main thing. Yeah. You're the You are the main thing. You as a stand comic, you throw the ball. Yeah. No one. Well, if I said it'd be the opposite. Sure. Yeah. It would sound bad. I keep the main thing, man. And then just rolling and everybody's like, "Golly." All right, Nate. For the first course of your final meal on Earth, we have McDonald's Big Mac number one, no onions, and the Dairy Queen Blizzards delivered at the exact same time. We double dashed it together.
Double dashed. We double dashed it. Same driver. It was the No, different drivers. They do that. Why do they want It's like they want to meet to I mean, you don't want Yeah. You don't necessarily want more people knowing about this. No, not at all. No. But now we have frankly millions of people knowing that you Well, now they know. I've Yeah. I've told a story about But this is what I do. And the truth, just so I don't look like a maniac, I will the Oreo will be small. Not I won't get two mediums. It's your last splurging. Yeah, it's the last meal. Exactly. So I do I'm not insane. This one's a small one.
Please, man, dig into the Big Mac. Don't let this stop you. We got the Big Mac with no onions. I know you've had the restaurant idea for a spot simply called no onions where the whole thing you would serve tomatoes. No onions. No tomatoes, no onions. But I like ketchup. Yeah. This is so divorced from tomato at That's That's the type of tomato I like. I like that where you can't even tell that there was a tomato. Most of the tomatoes I eat Mhm. are the tomato relative stuff that would be in it. A tomato has never met it.
No. It's never Yeah. Like this ketchup's never met a tomato. The tomatoes that eventually went into this ketchup Yeah. probably six generations of tomato ago. You know what I mean? Those tomatoes were grown in 1998 and now they ended up in here. It's like their great grandparents like speak a different language from the old country but then these kids are like I don't know that language. Run's already got a bite out of it. So Nate, I would like you to demonstrate how one should respond in this situation where they're sitting next to somebody and there's a bite taken out of their Big Mac. How you should respond is did you do this?
I did. You did. I did. It was my buddy Frank. My buddy Lewis uh who's the most loyal friend in the world immediately blame immediately blamed the entire restaurant. And I don't know if there's more love than that could ever be shown. Yeah. Because he just thought you would never do that. You're my best friend. Mhm. So, I would imagine it's the entire restaurant and we I not even we I should fight all of them. I can introduce you to all of the culinary producers that have put this meal together and you can fight each one of them one by one Mortal Kombat style.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We'll do that in the parking lot after the show. I'll switch you Big Max. This one has snow bite taken out of it. I loved it. I like walked in the kitchen to Lily taking a giant bite out of this Big Mac. By the way, I want you to know this is not a fake bite. It's a real bite. Yeah. I love a Big Mac, man. I love a Big Mac. Yeah. You said in your book, In your book, Big Dumb Eyes, I do not know what is in this special sauce, but I know that eating it makes me a man.
Can you tell me about the unique coming of age ritual that young American men have that is sharing a Big Mac? The McDonald's sauce is like everybody kind of does it. Everybody goes like, "Oh, we got our special sauce." And you're like, "You all just copying this." They are. You got a Big Mac, too. Big Mac. This is a good time to get Big Mac during the day. McDonald's always I mean, I'll do it anytime, but day McDonald's is like it's different. Mhm. It's just different. It's the turnover. About to 7 8:00 p.m. You can It's nice. And then you get past that, we're getting a little You don't know. I mean, sometimes you go Mhm. and they surprise you. There's a few you can go to, but some you can go to and
their ice cream machine's always broken late at night. That's a fair point. So, you have to get the Blizzard delivered. Blizzard, baby. Where they go? This is our business. This is a very small hamburger, but why when we were kids did we build this up to be like an unconquerable mountain? Cuz I remember my first Big Mac with my dad. Wow. And it was special for a couple reasons. One, I felt like I was finally a grown adult at like 10 years old. But two, he had just gotten his first job where he didn't have to like go to a check cashing place to cash the check.
Wow. And so I was raised on dollar menu only. No drinks, no sides. It was McChick's McDoubles when they were a dollar. So the Big Mac was like actually a big moment for us. Yeah. Was there a moment where you thought like, man, I made it cuz I can finally afford the fast food meal of my dreams? I think when I moved out like it was like, yeah, just the idea that I can go get it at any time. I mean, I'll check the dollar menu out because that's where they're hiding the McChick at.
Sure. The McChick was its own powerful thing and it was a meal. Yeah. Now they hide it over in the dollar uh thing. So, you got to go over there and get it if you want it. Cuz I will get a side fish a lot. A side sandwich sometimes. A lot of times fle of fish. Filet of fish is it'd be a little more expensive. But that's obvious. Obviously, obviously it's a fle of fish. But if it was Fridays, the fileto fish would be half price generally or two for $3 like Cath. Exactly. Because of Catholics. The Fileto Fish only exists because Ray Croc wanted to have an option for Catholics on Fridays.
Oh yeah. And Ray Croc, founder of, you know, the McDonald's system. His initial idea was called the Hoola Burger. That was just a canned pineapple ring on a bun with cheese. Not smart. A dumb. That's all it is. So much of your humor is very self-deprecating about you being dumb. Hence the name of the book, Big Dumb Eyes. But you saw that. But that's really smart. You got this guy. No, but I'm like, it's on another level, dude. Like a little bit. But no, no, no. I'm like genuinely curious how you see the idea of intelligence because like obviously I know you got zero credits from community college, you know, but
you obviously have a level of genius to you in the way that you are able to communicate ideas with other people. You know what I mean? Even earlier in the intro where I very casually asked if you thought about your last meal. I've never had anyone say anything remotely as funny as that question as not enough to start a podcast about it. Yeah. And it took like I'm dead serious. Like to me that's a level of communicative genius. Do you feel that about yourself? And is this all just self-deprecation or you're actually just like whatever I have inside me. That's a gift that I got and I main thing's the main thing, brother.
You go. You know what I mean? Right. You know what I mean? Go birds, baby. Go birds. Uh no. Yeah. I'm books smart is what I uh am not. But I guess the communication observation like I'm very aware. I'm very good in reading a room and like kind of seeing what needs to happen or if you're in a situation business situations or any kind of like you kind of got to read people and like be like all right I know what's going on. You I'm not going to you know it'd be like I would know how to run the cameras but you could be like all right we're here we need three you know. So you might have like an observant like that kind of thing or whatever. I don't know.
I remember when Smarts only works for so long. I used a lot of it on that pouring the French fry in the thing. So we could be out now. There's something though about when you constantly turn the butt of the joke on yourself. It's like the safest person to make the joke about, right? Mhm. Was that a conscious decision by you or that's just the style of comedy you've always gravitated to? I just don't ever I didn't ever want to make anybody feel bad. I just never wanted to make someone uncomfortable feel like it would just
break my heart. I mean like you're when with comics like make fun of each other all the time, but there is a lot of love shown in that. Yeah. So when you're able to really show love and have rapport someone Yeah. It's like then that's the best part. You make fun of your friends and all that. But as far as in standup with someone coming to a show, I've never wanted to uh I don't know. They're just watching a show. I didn't feel comfortable like, you know, being like, "What's up with you, man?" Not that I've not ever done it, but it's in initially like you're just I don't know. You're kind of being
mean to this person and then everybody's laughing at that person. Yeah. Now, saying that, there's some people that want to be that person and they want everybody to say, especially in the last 5 years, like it seems like that idea of crowd work and has really blown up, especially across social media, but now it seems like you're getting people showing up to comedy shows wanting to be the person that goes viral on a crowd clip, which would freak me out if I was doing I had a friend, my buddy Aaron, and he was saying like there was some comedy club and they had uh no one wanted to sit up front cuz they were like we're going to get made fun of. So every show like there was a section of
these seats that no one would sit in cuz they wanted to be farther back from the stage so they don't get made fun of. And then he could not get people to move up there. And then weirdly enough he started charging he just said had a great idea and he goes he charged more money for those tickets and called it the splash show. So then it's like that's where you're going to get made fun of and it flipped and then people those tickets sell out immediately and it's weird just to like I don't know it's it's crazy just to think that you're like you don't want there then you're like hey it cost more money you're like and he's going to make fun of me you're like all right I can't wait
like it's it is it's bizarre I like doing my act it's like a performance I really look at it as it's like a play you know you're I'm me I'm Eden McDonald I mean this is what I am but then an elevated version of that and then you're just doing your show. Yeah. It's also an act that you've roughly worked on for 20 years, you know, tirelessly. Now that you have, you know, a blockbuster movie coming out and you haven't done all that much acting, does it feel like this is the culmination of 20 years and there was a consistent ramp up or you're like, "Holy crap, all of this is suddenly just happening at once."
It's all happening very fast at once. But it does like I'm grateful that it took this long. Yeah. Cuz when you see when people get stuff too quick, I was trying to get stuff too quick. They just weren't giving. So I had to go through the whole system. Yeah. But that set me up so much better for where I'm at right now. Like the first time I did SNL, I did uh I was doing an arena the night before. So I was able to go have go to do SNL for the first time with 20 years of experience. Yeah. And like I know I have material. I know I have you just I've been through so many situations. So you're able to even though you're nervous, but you're able to hide your nerves because I just know how to do that. Yeah.
Or turn your nerves into excitement. So yeah, going the long route has made it where you know, yeah, when you do a movie now, you're just like, yeah, this is my first movie. I haven't acted, but it's like I this first one, I'm not veering too much far off. It's a lot of my standup is some little bits in it. Yeah, I'm not venturing. I'm not like in space. I mean, I told him that's the bread winner 3. The bread winner will go to space for sure. Ludicrous is in it. You know, by the way, Jason, you ever watch Jason when he goes to space?
Yes. Out of all those Jason X, huh? That's one of the only ones that's actually makes the most sense. I've watched all of them and it that one's actually like Okay. Yeah. Like when he goes to New York. Sure. He's being drugged by a boat in the river for hours and he's just standing in New York City and like no one's like, "Yo, what's up?" or anything. A lot of it doesn't make sense. Obvious when he goes to space, it's you're like, "Yeah, they I don't I mean, I don't know why they would have taken him to space." Mhm. Like I would think if you would leave your serial killers, you wouldn't be like, "Hey, we got to go to space."
Sure. I remember watching it being like, "How are they going to get him to space?" And then the second they get in there, I go, you know, go, "That's not that bad." I go, "Yeah." I go, "I think I'm on board." Their problem with the movie is they made it 3025 which is way too far in the future. Like where I mean I don't remember when it came out 2001 or 19 whatever. No one can imagine what 3025 is going to be. You know the Terminator was smart enough to go 200 like I forget like 25 right like around now. Yeah. Now was when it's happening. Don't go. And that was crazy. But you're going 3025. You're like, how could you even We don't even have the stuff to even make it look like it's 3025.
Yeah. It's an absurd year. That's make it dig your blizzard. I don't know. That was my only critique. Blizzard is unbelievable, too. There's a I just found out in St. Louis there's a U restaurant. I want to say it's Trudies or Truds or something. Could be wrong. Could start with a different letter. Uh, do you think it'd end with different letters, too? Oh, it could be all. Yeah. Whole different combination.
You could Yeah, it Yeah. I mean, it could be like Brent's Yeah. Brent's ice cream and I'd be like, "Oh, yeah. I don't know what I was thinking of." Uh, but he supposedly That's where the Blizzard Oh, interesting. It was like that guy did it first where you would show it upside down and then Dairy Queen. Uh, you know, they're doing pretty good now. Nate, for the second course of your final meal, we have this is mom's cheesy chicken. Yes. Now, we got the recipe directly from your mother, but then your wife, Laura, did chime in and say that she's not making it right and that you got to use less cheese than your mom said and that you should use fresh
chicken breast. So, um, before I ever met your mother and your wife, I already sort of had to choose between them. Um, is that something you have to do often? Yeah, I bet I would rather the not real chicken. So, you're saying that your mom is right in this? Yeah. I like again I don't want my chicken that I eat. I always think I could be I might be borderline vegan because the meat I'm eating is not even remotely near some cow. Like it's it's like everything I eat it's like no cow's been harmed in this process and I'm eating a Big Mac or whatever and you're like no cow.
Yeah. No one. So, we have taken cheese and fresh cooked chicken breast, half the cheese because your wife said, and then we rolled that up into crescent rolls, and then we poured a creamy cheese sauce with Campbell's cream of chicken soup on there over the rolls and baked it into a casserole. This was our fancy meal. And my family, like, we're not big uh we don't come from like a foodie family. And there was no one really in our family like that's this big cook or big food is like celebrated in a way. Uh so it was like this was our fancy stuff right here. But like the feeling of eating this back then is probably very special.
Oh yeah. I ate it not too long ago. My daughter loves it and so my wife makes it for her now. It tastes just like it's unbelievable. That's so good. It's like a savory bread pudding. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. If anything reminded me of home, it would be a taste of this. Yeah. I want to go back to your childhood because you've talked about your upbringing as quote unquote normal, which is in opposition to a lot of comics. You talk a lot about, you know, childhood drama and stuff like that. But if you look at your dad, you know, your dad is somebody who was a performing comic and magician out there and he had that very stereotypical traumatic
upbringing where he's using the humor to cope with that darkness. Do you think that he kind of tried to shield you from that trauma but still gave you that level of creativity? Um, yeah. I mean, it's the, you know, it's like when I talked about it's like cuz it's like you talk about the child, I always have just a hard time with, again, maybe it's the blaming. It's like you never want to, you never want to blame someone else. Like it's like my dad was raised in a pretty rough upbringing and then he did the best he could do out of what he did which is night and day different. Now that
doesn't mean it's going to be the best that five dads away were going to do or whatever but it's like the be so you're just always at least moving forward is the goal and you don't just get stuck and it's the same thing over and over again. Yeah. But weirdly enough, we're My dad's a magician. So everywhere we walk, not that we're better than it, but like it's like you're very noticeable. You can brag that your dad was a magician. All right. Yeah. You know, but then you want things normal where you go like I had a joke about my dad got a screen door and when he put it up and the handle was on the wrong side of the regular door. So
to go in our house, you would have to open the screen door then go this way to the regular door, right? And that just start the reason we wanted my mom wanted a screen door cuz she just wanted because normal houses had screen doors. So can we just be normal and have a screen door like everybody else and then our family is just that where we go try to do something and then it ends up being just not the right way. Did your dad intentionally do that as a joke or just No, just got just happened. But it's but see it's a mix of both where it's like funny where my dad might not think about that. So I got pieces of that. I got my dad's timing. I got my
mom is very funny. But I mean that also aspect I'm a lot like this now where it's like I just want normal like I want the normal thing. I want the if we buy something I'm like I want the main whatever the main thing is. I don't want it to be off a little bit. I don't want it to be a different uh you know, if I'm buying a Samsonite suitcase, I want it to be that. I don't want it to be like, well, this brand is this other little. And you're like, no, no, no, no, no. I want the main one that everybody gets. Sure. Like, so there's a lot of that because you would, you know, growing up, you'd always have I had the Jordans that were from the Dollar General store. Uh or you had this you just nothing was
just normal. Like nothing was just like felt regular even. And there's super positives to that, but then there's times where you're like you feel very outcast like everybody else has. Yeah. Like the regular normal pair of, you know, the fact that your dad was he was somebody that toured him. I think he went across the globe, right? Especially doing a straight jacket from death act, which is fantastic. Very Andy Koffmanesque. He obviously had a very different view of normal and what he wanted his life to look like and then it sounds like you did despite the fact
that you're both in the same profession roughly and that you've actually had him open for you in the past. Yeah. Well, him being around that played a lot into it because I can see that now how much it played into it. Sure. But my dad we could have went to Vegas. Uh my dad could have moved to Vegas and done stuff there and he chose to raise us in uh Nashville. you roughly made that same decision, right? You could have lived in any city in America or the world and maybe would have been more advantageous to your, you know, career depending on how you view the word advantageous. But you made the decision to keep your family, you know, in Nashville. That's where you used to live, right?
Yeah. But I moved, I did, I moved to Chicago, New York, and then LA. So I was gone for about 13 years. Uh our daughter was born in We were living in New York when she was born. Yeah. But I uh we had her in Tennessee. I didn't want her to have a New York birth certificate. So I think that's literally a Hank that's literally a King of the Hill plot line. Oh yeah. Where they didn't want Hank to have a New York birth certificate. It's a great It's the best show. And they It was Yeah. So we flew We had this doctor up until the doctor wasn't thrilled uh cuz he had to do all like the nonfun stuff. And I think where they make the big bucks is the delivery. And then we were like, well, I don't want I just don't want her to have my
joke. I used I had a joke about it and I was like, well, I didn't want her growing up thinking she was better than me. So, I was like, you start where we start. No one gets a leg up in this family. Uh, but yeah, so she was born in Tennessee and it really did matter. I mean, I did want her to have a Tennessee birth certificate. I wanted her to be born in Tennessee. Uh, and so from after that, we went to LA for a couple years. And then I was really starting to kind of tour a little bit more and I was just leaving them kind of out there. And I could tell doing auditioning and all this kind of stuff that like if the path that I was going was like I'm going to have to create my path. I wasn't, you
know, the stuff they wanted me to audition for. I technically not all of it I was ever really comfortable to do whether it was a lot of was dirty or all this kind of stuff. So I was like, well, I'm just going to have to create my own little world. And so then I just was like, well, let me go on the road and just uh work on my standup. And you know, and I kind of always thought, uh, if I can get one thing, if I can make one thing great, then I think you can, it's easier to make other things great cuz you know the process that it takes. And so then you can when you go into other stuff like I know how much work needs to go into it because I know how much work went into this one thing.
Made for course number three of our final meal. We got the Italian sub and the uncle sub from Uncle Paulie's. And then we have a large pepperoni and olive pizza. Love it. Who's this delivered to? Michael Loafman. Michael Lafman. Look at that, dude. Who's Michael Loafman? Oh, Michael Loafman. Uh, so my I had a semester in Western Kentucky. Go Hill Toppers. Go Hill Toppers. No credits. the uh failed bowling which is tough but they make you and I was actually I'm a like I don't I was a very good bowler for a while but still failed it cuz you had to keep score. He like the point was you
had to learn how to keep score. Well, that's a math class, not a bowling class. Yeah. And like I don't know where that's ever going to happen. I mean every bowling alley in the world does it on its own. And uh but Michael Ofman uh was just every good there's a Goodwill store there and he was employee of the month every single month. And so we just had this me and my buddy Jeremy Pee is his nickname. Me and P just were like Loafman was just killing like we just would like it was like a you know this guy dude is like and he's employee of the month every month. That's that's an incredible track. incredible driver.
He must be a very impressive man. Very impressive. And then uh we go bowling one time and we're just bowling and I mean we're not even expecting it. I look up and it's uh Loafman 300. He bowled a 300 game. You're like you're like this dude's out of his I mean this guy's a unbelievable. So it was like just fun for us to talk about how great we thought Michael Lafman was. Never met him. Uh and my emails are all Loafman. Everything was Loafman. And then I've I've changed it because I put it in the book, but when I had a stay at hotels in another name, I was Michael Loafman. You know, I never got to meet him. I don't know. Uh I assume it's hardworking
family and uh wonderful family and you know, we were big fans from afar. Michael, this one's for you. Yeah, buddy. Dig in, man. So, this is uh we actually made this ourselves. We tried to do it in the style of New York. Very thin crust. Nice and charred on the bottom. Little bit greasy. Black olives, pepperoni. This how you eat in New York. You eat it. You got to curl it up. And oh pizza. The pizza that reminded me of It's this place West Third. I think it's West Third Pizza. Uh it's kind of next to the Comedy Seller.
Mhm. In New York. You would run around and do a lot of shows in New York. And so, you know, you could do the most shows I did in one night was like seven. And you do spots at clubs. So, they have all these comedy clubs and you're doing like 15 minutes. So, you I mean that night you're just like right when you get off stage, you're running to another comedy club and then you go do a show there and you bounce around. So, you would have to eat and then so like pizza was just in New York. Yeah. The easiest to they have it out. You just say, "I'll take one slice of that." You can grab it, eat it on the way. So it reminds me very much of New York and us running around doing a bunch of shows and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah. When you look back at those days, so many people once they reach success, they realize that now they have a lot of people they're responsible for. The projects that they're doing are now, you know, uh tens of millions of dollars deep. Whereas when you were just running around New York doing your craft, that was actually the most fun that you had. Do you have that rosecolored view of the past or you're very happy where you're at now? I'm very happy where I'm at, but I'm very happy. I would like I wouldn't It's I wouldn't change it, but I wouldn't go back.
Yeah. It's like uh I loved it. I still talk to most everybody that I started with, you know. Now that we're doing shows, I get to bring a lot of them on the road with me. So, it's like we've been together for, you know, 23 years some. when you first when you're in New York and you're running around doing shows, you become friends with these people because you're around them every day like all night and because you're doing shows every night. So the guys that are really going out there and doing it, it's not till later when you start getting on the road where you kind of go from where you're not really around a lot of them and so you're kind of by yourself.
Mhm. And which can be bad. Uh because you know it's like I think what makes everything so funny at the beginning is like you're all together so you're all comics. So everybody's trying to be funnier than any comment you say I want to be better than that comment. like it's very competitive and very making fun of each other and all this and so that's why now on the road I bring uh my buddy Julian Mcola who I started with uh he hosts the shows the arena shows are so big and he's so great I mean he's got his own special everybody's a headliner on their own right and then I bring three also three other comics on the road and the idea of it is to recreate that Hank that we kind of had just so we can stay funny. So there's
always jokes. It's a lot of jokes. You need to do that. I mean, if you just go sit in a hotel room alone by yourself a lot on the road, it's like not it gets old. You're not going to be I don't know. You're kind of like down like you're not Yeah. What you talking about, too? It's It's nice. It's nice when fans when you're making all these people laugh, but you're sort of left alone in a vacuum. I haven't done a ton of stuff on stage, but when we have we did this little tour that was like selling out, you know, 2500, 3,000 person theaters. And I'd never experienced that amount of laughter or connecting to you, whatever. But I have never experienced a more lonely feeling than leaving a stage and going back to a
bus with nobody else on it. It felt like a vacuum, like everything was like I was Jason in space in a vacuum getting the air sucked out, you know? It really scared the hell out of me. Mhm. But it sounds like you've tried to just recreate these like good old days by stacking people basically. Exactly that. So you can have cuz you have so much stuff crazy happening that you just want to go back to your buddies and be like dude did you that was crazy like that was this that whatever and you go do more stuff cuz when you know when you're alone in a city it's like I don't know. I've been to almost I've been to every city. I performed in every state I've done. Like you go back to these cities that you just been to them
and it's like so much that you can go like all right well this food is good or this go see this or go see that and then you might be alone or whatever and you're just not going to interact with people. You're not going to be making jokes to yourself about stuff but when you go walk around a zoo with like four comics I mean you might come up with something. You might like say something that's funny and it's like oh you should say that on stage and you're like all right I'm going to try that. And it's like your brain is just thinking. That's how you got your famous orangutan bit. Exactly.
You guys haven't seen it yet, but I heard it in the Yeah. So funny, man. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, so we got two different sandwiches from Uncle Paul. You got the uncle and the Italian. Um I would argue that the uncle is also an Italian uncle in question cuz it is mostly soada patito. Yeah. A lot of cured meats in here. What's the deal with Uncle Paulie sandwiches? So I know Paulie. You know Paulie? I know Paulie. Paulie uh was in New York City and he worked at the uh Broadway comedy club in New York City.
No way. Yeah. And he uh his mom uh booked uh comics, booked a lot of us on like uh whatever gigs around New York and Connecticut by this random stuff. And then so I left went to LA and then later way later on I found out like he went and opened a deli out here in LA. I was like I couldn't believe like I was like that's crazy dude and it's become a like a very popular place. He it wasn't like he didn't make us sandwiches coming up. I don't there was none of that cuz obviously he learned how to make a pretty damn good sandwich. Like this is genuinely like one of the best sandwiches in LA. There's a reason it's so popular.
We've just used their This bread looks familiar. You've seen us just use this bread for other sandwiches that we make on this cooking show. That's how good the bread is. But you had no idea that he was like going to open a sandwich empire. No idea. And so why I wanted to even pick with the show is just like I just love that. I do remember being even when I was young being kind of in common to being sentimental about like I always like thought I can't wait to see where everybody's going to be at in teen years and 20 years. and it was always comics and stuff like that. And so to see Paulie have done this and then you're just known him for forever and you're just like you're like dude that's so
awesome. Like that's crazy. He was very fun to get laughing. He was very funny. He just fit in with comics even though he wasn't a comedian. Obviously he was around a bunch of comedians. So he just fit in with us all very well. So, it reminds me of that time and I root for him as a person. I've always just really liked him and uh so to see someone come and have chef success is awesome. It's interesting thinking about what people you were rooting for like 10 years ago cuz I remember listening to you on Mark Marin's podcast probably closer to 15 years ago, like real early days. And Mark Marin despite seeming like
almost the complete opposite type of comic to you, right? Mark Maron works super blue and he's super political and he is very riled up and fast-paced, but he seemed to take like such an affinity for you cuz he was like, I don't know a lot of people that are doing what you are doing. the fact that you are clean. The fact that frankly you're really well paced, you use a lot of silence in your act in a world where some of the comics that I grew up listening to, right, I would have called them edgy when I was younger, but then when everyone's edgy and everyone's talking about sex and everyone's talking about politic and everyone's working the same level of blessed everywhere, is there something to just like staying the course of what
you know to be true and funny and not trying to follow everybody else? Absolutely. You gota you got to just that's the only message I would give to anybody is just you know there was times you I was you're very tempted to go uh edgy or when political like cuz I mean I watched a lot of comics that were younger than me that would just fly by me and like be you know you're like that guy you're like I'm doing comics 10 years longer than that guy then you're like that guy's famous now you know and you're like all right maybe I should do this cuz if I did this like you would draw attention whatever and uh but fortunately uh I was able to I was able to stay the course kind of stay to what I did you know someone asked me
recently how could you keep your you know it always feels weird saying the word brand but it's the simplest way to put it but it's like your brand or whatever like how could you uh keep it together now like and I would and I told him I said, "Well, I think I've already done the hard part cuz I did it the when it was the easiest to veer off of it." Yeah. Now, it would be insane to veer off of it. But I if I went through all the years where no one knew me and I didn't veer off of it, then I feel stronger now and that I'll stay in it more than ever. Nate, for the final course of your final meal on this earth, we have a PB Swizzle acai bowl from Smoothie King. No, this is a regional chain that
we were not able to get. So, we tried to recreate it faithfully, including manufacturing the sticker that goes on it. And then we have um I would kind of think this is maybe an evolution of Nate Baretti that this is the old acai bowl. Yes. Chocolate ice cream with milkboard on top. Yeah. So, this would be from my buddy Ryan, uh my oldest friend since we were eight. But we would eat this. He would eat it and then I started doing it. I seen him do it and he just put chocolate milk in there and I mean chocolate ice cream and just put milk. It's like the cheesy chicken. I mean out of all the things it's like these are the two things that really remind me of like home. If you were to shake this up a bunch,
that'd be what we call a milkshake. It's like But it's kind of better. It kind of is better. Like it's like a lazier, you know? It's like you don't have the money for a milkshake machine. Just You write really glowingly and very empathetically about your dad in your book Big Dumb eyes about this moment of testimony that he had of, you know, your dad basically being like disfigured at age three, basically getting chewed up by a bulldog cuz his mom left him outside of a bowling alley while she was bowling a 299 game. Most in the history of the state of Kentucky, don't you know?
Bowling Hall of Fame. But bowl But like your dad had this crazy rough upbringing. He was basically abandoned by his family, kind of taken in by distant relatives after he was living on the street, aimless, everyone called him dumb, and then he had this moment of testimony of being cared about for the first time. Have you had any similar moment of testimony like that? Or for you, was it more of like a gradual understanding of that calling? I think for me it was a gradual understanding. Yeah. I don't think there was ever this one. Well, I about did Bridgestone Arena and I always like kind of daydreamed about doing that when I first started and then we did it sold the most tickets
for a single show. Uh Gar Brooks did 12 shows there, but I snuck mine in with the most in one show. Uh but it's so after I remember that night. I've been thinking about that moment for 20 years. And uh and I didn't really speak about it. I didn't like it was just with me. And then after that night, I was like, "What now?" And I remember heavily that being pretty heavy on me of going, "What now?" Yeah. Like, and I haven't done MSG. I haven't done that. Was one of the early arenas I did. But I knew I wanted to keep I wanted to go do MSG. I wanted to go do Boston Guard, all this kind of all these big shows. I wanted to be this big tour.
I want to be the be, you know, the best standup I could be and be hopefully try to be one of the best stand-ups and all this kind of stuff. So, I knew all I wanted all that stuff, but there was something that I you could see where you're like, well, that doesn't matter if there's this other hole or something that's not being filled. Yeah. And so then I mean I remember it that vividly that night. And that was like we had a terrible uh they had a school shooting uh like not too quickly before that. And I remember meeting the uh police officers that were involved in a lot of that. It was just met uh people from that school. They had come to that show. This was a few weeks after and just for them to have the
relief of uh you know I mean they the weight of the world on the town much less the this small school. And so getting to meet them and all this and just, you know, knowingly that they uh, you know, they're like, it's the first time they've laughed. It's first time they, you know, it's like, I don't know, it was just heavy moments that you were kind of lightening for a second. And so I think that time is when I thought of Nateland and like the Natan world that I'm trying to build where it was like all right this has to be I have to be I need to be a relief for people and on all spectrums whether I'm I'm from I'm Christian uh so but like be whatever you are I should be for everybody
it doesn't matter if you believe don't believe you're a different religion you're different whatever doesn't matter that's why I liked making fun of myself because I can do that and you can laugh with me or at me and it doesn't matter. I'll either I always it counts as a laugh either way. But and so then that's where the my drive goes. And I'm not trying to say I'm better figured anything out. I'm just telling you that's where this guy almost had a daughter born in New York. He thinks he's better than us. All right. Yeah. I'm just doing my thing. You go do your thing. I'm not trying to bother anybody. I'm just doing my little thing over here. Uh that involves a bowls and uh ice cream.
Take d take it to the asai bowl, man. Where does this come from? Is this like the new healthy uh power building Nate Barget? I'll be honest with you, they've cut me off on these. Uh because, you know, I love this AIO, but the amount of stuff that I'll put in it, I mean, it rivals this. Uh there's definitely more calories in here than there is in here. Yeah, you get nutrients and vitamins in this, but like we're talking calories.
Oh, but I didn't even know about them. And my daughter Mhm. wanted one. And I like I was like, I'm not good at a smoothie bowl. It seems insane. I never knew about them. I was minding my own business. Wasn't even in the AIA or AI aa world. Yeah. I didn't know anything about it. And my daughter Harper, she made me go get her one and I still didn't get it. And then we were somewhere and I was just like, "Oh, all right. I'll try one." My daughter always gets this. And uh came a pretty big problem. And I would eat them before every show. And so, uh, until very recently where we've been had to tone it down, I've eaten two in a day. And that's a lot, dude. That's a lot.
It's like it's a lot. We've somehow branded these like health food, but I had a buddy from Brazil who was like, "Oh, we eat that to bulk up. That's like a post-workout meal for us because there's so much sugar." And I was like, "No, no, no. This is diet food in America, you know." Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're talking about trying to appeal to as many people as possible or not shut people out, not to sell more tickets to bigger arenas because, you know, the arenas can just go bigger and they're building bigger ones out there, but like to actually be able to connect more people to each other. Your new movie, The Bread Winner, it seems like a movie that hasn't existed in quite a long time, like a theatrical release familyfriendly comedy. Was that
something that was very intentional or that's just the comedy that speaks to you? Older movie, Mr. Mom. Mhm. John Hughes, Michael Geek, still amazing. When we I started writing this with Dan Luno when I first was writing. I was kind of based my stand up. It was just like what happened I got stuck with the kids and I'm like it's funny cuz I'm like I think it's this great idea and it's like yeah like it's Mr. Mom. I was like man I go it is like there he was. John Hughes was good and uh he did Home Alone. He did plane trains building all that. So that kind of era of a movie that people talk about a lot was movies that you know I still think very business-minded, right? So if I'm thinking very I want to create this for this movie, but I think I'm very
businessminded. If I'm looking on all these streamers and how complains transits is in the top 10. Yeah. Like over every movie you make, how are they sustaining that? You can't tell me that no one want doesn't want that anymore when I'm looking at it. How do you have teenagers go watching Friends now? Sure. And they're going through the whole series. How can you like there's all this I just it doesn't I can't wrap my head around it cuz I'm just like and this is I don't even know inside data. I'm just looking at like the rankings. But yeah, you see this kind of thing where you know they're like well no one wants to go to the movie theaters.
Everything's always like I feel everything gets blamed on everybody, the Yeah. But no one takes responsibility. So they all go, "Well, no one wants to come to movie theaters anymore." That's right. It's everybody. It's your fault. It's the hundreds of millions people's fault. Surely not what you're doing. Our bad. You guys, that was your fault. I think everybody thinks everybody changes and you're like, "Dude, they don't change, man. They all still want the same thing that you wanted when you were a kid. They want it too. They want to watch those things that are easy. And I think you got a problem where people are addicted to social media and the people that make the decisions to make
television are addicted to social media. Yes. And then so they are going like, "Wow, this is what everybody wants because it's got these views on social media." And while social media matters very much, I don't see where it translates into ticket sales. And so like you could look at my Instagram following, right? Mhm. I think we're almost at 3 million followers where if you looked at some other comics or some other people, I should not be above them as far as it just shouldn't. Yeah. But it's like and you know and I use another one I always use was like uh YouTube. YouTube has like a video. Is that how you're saying it right?
Yeah. I see you. I see it. I see. I see it. That's good. She should get into this businessminded. She should get into it. But like you see a video and I love her and I've watched the video, but it have it could have billions of views, right? Well, that means she shouldn't be able to walk outside cuz that I think every person on earth has watched her video. So she should be the most famous person that's ever existed. Sure. And not saying she's not extremely famous, but like something's not at She hide her face. She hides her face. So now she can walk around. But some of those like when those views they just don't it doesn't make sense to me. You're like how does
this have a like billions of views? And now they start showing everything in minutes watch. I don't understand that either. They're like 411 million minutes watch. You're like what is what are we going off? I don't have a sun dial. I missed how much that was. Yeah. How long is Yeah. How you want to sort of go back to this sort of golden era. It seems like I think the golden era still exists and they had it when they went once TV, you know, they flipped in TV but kind of came back into the golden era and then I think TV's now it's like what every actor and everybody's kind of gone that route and then you got these TV shows and stuff and it's like let's let's have a balance. I think people
still want a Big Bang Theory on the air that they can just have on and cook dinner and you know it's like entertainment is doesn't all need to be like where I'm like you got to listen to every second of everything I do you know. Yeah. But as the world sort of changes there you have been for 20 years on the same straight path and now it's caught back up. Where's God eating food I ate before I made it. Nate, you became a conscious human being around the year 1983. That was when Vanderbilt started a 25- year losing streak where they did not have a single winning season. Man, what did that teach you about having low expectations in the world?
I think it humbled you and I think uh I think the best thing that could happen to you as a kid is to root for a team that is not good. Yeah. And I think that's what, you know, you meet a lot of kids, uh, especially my age, that were like, I'm a Bulls fan and a Cowboys fan and a Yankees fan. You're like, well, are you? Well, that was a fun time for you. Um, yeah, I don't think it's a bad thing. Detroit, like if you're a Lions fan, you're like a Cleveland fan, like you're like it's just it's going to be better than talking to like a Patriots.
like you just want. I think that's actually like a really powerful uh metaphor for life right there of if you don't expect the world and you just get something nice like a nice 10 and 13 to root for with a plucky quarterback. I think there's like I don't know a key to happiness in there. Yeah. I mean, you're the most excited every year and you get it's like I think there's humor. Humor shows up there. Yeah. Because you're you can make fun of yourself, make fun of your team. And I always say at the beginning of the year like you got to talk me how we're not going to go undefeated.
I mean and I for the I've been doing that for the past 20 years. He go I don't see where we're going to lose and then we would have seasons we lost every game. Yeah. But I started sometimes strung multiple. Oh yeah. But I would start that season going like I just don't see where the loss would come from. And then it just it was the opposite. But it's like, yeah, it does. It makes you Yeah. having a car that's not as good or having like all these little weird things that you got to kind of explain why you're into them are good are good cool tools to have cuz you're like, why are you a Vandy fan? And then you got to make a joke about it
or you got to just dive all into it and be obsessed with it. Yeah. I had a highlight reel. Uh I showed I did I took speech at uh in community college. So for my speech class I brought in uh highlight reel on VHS of Vanderbilt's uh that we went five and six. It wasn't even a winning season. And I brought in and I played I just played the highlight reel and I just like I didn't even prepare. This could have been one of my first standup like opportunities like where if I look back on it I just played it. I was like I talked about I knew everybody. I talked about uh just how great it was that season and then the end of it to be five. We didn't go to a bowl game. We didn't get it wasn't a good year and but I was very funny
telling it and uh I got I think I got an A in that speech fest because of that. But that was like, you know, you look back, that's a sign of uh that I see where you're like, "All right, I was being very my go-to thing was to like since I'm not going to prepare for this, I'll just bring this in and be funny. I'll do something so offthe-wall that no one, you know, no one goes to a different college. We're not even at Vanderbilt. We're at a community college. No one's there going like, I hope we see the five and six season of Vanderbilt football in 1997 or whatever it was." Go doors, man.
98. Go Doors. We ask every guest, "What do you think happens when you die?" Uh, well, as a Christian, uh, you know, it's like I not that I know everything about everything, you know. I don't know if I'm I'm not a the best Christian. I'm not a bit I'm I'm not I'm a very non Do you be everybody be everything? Like I don't know. I just I don't have the answer. Am I smart enough to have the like, you know, I don't know what to say and all that, but uh so I do believe that there is an afterlife and uh and that's where you know you want to that's where I would hope to be. Now you ready to get in the landing round?
Yeah, let's do it. Who's the one person dead or alive you'd want to share your actual last meal with? I mean Jesus is that but that's Yeah, you can pick it. Only one other person has picked Jesus before. Oh, really? Yeah. What kind of people you having on here? Yeah. Uh, what song do you want to be played at your funeral? We were merely freshmen. You promised fivestar pocket passer Jared Curtis a role in a movie. When are we going to see him? Stay tuned for that. Like actually.
I love Nil, baby. All right. Who's your dream eulogizer at your funeral? Eulogizer? Yeah. That sounds like a acting like a fitness thing. That's the person It's the person who gives a speech. Yeah, it's tough. I don't know. It's hard to be funnier like uh my daughter cuz then I would hope that she outlives me by a lot. That's a good guarantee. What's the most underrated menu item at Applebee's? The Chinese chicken salad. What's your biggest fear? I uh I think uh getting stuck left like feeling stuck like if I feel like I'm getting behind can be career-wise, could be anything. It can be if I feel like I'm like you know
I should be moving forward that's or claustrophobia. You can choose you choose claustrophobia. Just go claustrophobia. That's easier than the other. Who's the best player in the history of the NBA? Michael Jordan. Sorry, we're talking about N we're talking about Nashville Baptist Association, not National Basketball Association. Uh, I played with the guy uh against the guy in the real world that wore the Cowboy hat and he was tall, but he didn't play Nashville. He came in, we scrimmaged him. He was in Kentucky. So, that was out of town game.
Just an exhibition, not real league play. Yeah. Uh, was it on carpet or hardwood? That one was on hardwood. It was like don't be dick carpet was there earlier and he got we practiced on carpet. All right, bud. Don't I didn't mean to offend the National Baptist Association. I'm so sorry. Finally. Nate, are you happy? I'm extremely happy. I feel very loved. Uh I think I have a lot of stuff to do, but uh yeah, you know me. I'm Yeah, I'm very happy. I'm happy that I got to share this with you, man. Thank you so much. I've been a massive fan for years. I'm stoked to check out the bread winner, man.
This is awesome. Thank you. Appreciate it. If you want to deliver your last words to that camera right there. Uh last words before Oh, yeah. Like I would die. Yeah. Before they ate this is like a man cuz I'm thinking it's a I'd get electrocuted. Oh yeah. You So you think you So you'd be pretty bummed about your own death is what you're saying. Yeah. So you'd go like you're talking about a situation. Yeah. If I was on my deathbed, it's like it would be like I love you or like Well, let's say you're on your deathbed like on No. Well, you don't like you know, oh man, I think so.
You go I think still you just always Yeah. You just Oh man. Or you go it's coming to the end. It's the choice. It's like you go your last words would be like, "Oh boy, I hope it's Jesus." Yeah. Oh boy, I hope it's This is Dave Maretti. Everyone, check him out. Thank you again so much. Everyone, make sure you check out The Bread Winner in theaters May 29th. So, I'll be there right in the splash zone. We all got to eat and we know you're dying to get your hands on a Last Meals apron and pen. Get yours now at mythical.com.
