Nate Bargatze

Rivoli, Toronto ON, September 27

BY Julianna RomanykPublished Sep 28, 2016

7
"And... silence."
 
Julia Hladkowicz pursed her lips, only slightly more amused than defeated. She had just tried to ramp the crowd up for an applause break before Nate Bargatze came on stage, and due to no fault of her own, the audience did literally nothing. It was only the day six of the ten-day JFL42 festival, but the wear-and-tear was already setting in among the show-binging comedy geeks. Thanks to the JFL42 pass system that allows you virtually unlimited shows, many festival goers were seeing two to four performances every day, so applause was becoming a chore.
 
"Is this anyone's first show?" Hladkowicz asked. One person clapped.
 
It was clear that the show was a bit of an uphill battle, but by the end of the night, Nate Bargatze had coaxed the crowd into being warm and acceptably enthusiastic. Without emoting a single facial expression, he turned the lethargic mob into a sea of smiles with his indifferent, relaxed delivery and odd takes on everyday life.
 
After Hladkowicz did a bit about how kids tell people they're ugly because they look at everyone from the angle of your phone's selfie camera, Bargatze continued to please the lackadaisical audience. He opened by joking about the fact that 100 million sharks die a year, yet we never see or hear about even 1 percent of them dying, then performed his fairly old story about failing to buy a hammock.
 
Though fans of Bargatze knew the joke, it was still hilarious to hear how he ended up being convinced that the word for what he was looking for was actually "hammot" after interacting with an idiotic salesman. Additionally, his joke about how he was told to deal with getting bit by a snake was also several years old but still great, and his newer story about his wife pretending she was knowledgeable about when dog tranquilizers expire was fantastic.

Latest Coverage