He just starred in a primetime variety hour on CBS, Nate Bargatze’s Nashville ChristmasHe was the host Saturday Night Live for the second time in a year. And now he’s playing to an arena-sized audience that loves his family-friendly stand-up act. How much bigger can Nate Bargatze get?

The essentials: After a half-hour and a two-hour special on Netflix, Bargatze temporarily moved to Amazon Prime Video, but is now back with the streaming giant.

And he returns as the highest-earning touring standup in the world, with more than 1.2 million tickets sold on the Be Funny Tour, ranking him 12th in total live ticket sales, according to Pollstar.

Bargatze’s appearance in the round at the basketball arena where the Phoenix Suns play, in his third Netflix hour, takes us back to his former job as a water meter reader, reveals the depths of his love for processed fast food and describes to us simply how much he relies on his wife to take care of him and make sure he stays on the right path.

What comedy specials will it remind you of?: The lack of swear words and the lack of viewpoints that mark him as in any way overtly political give him an appeal comparable to that of older, more established comedians with whom one might compare him, such as Jim Gaffigan (with whom Bargatze was in May co-headlining a Hollywood Bowl appearance at the Netflix is ​​a Joke Festival, also alongside Jerry Seinfeld and Sebastian Maniscalco. It’s worth pointing out here that Bargatze is the most at this show received laughter and the biggest applause from the quartet?

Memorable Jokes: Bargatze has been doing comedy professionally for two decades. So returning to his last job takes him back to Wilson County, Tennessee, where he reads water meters for rural homeowners outside of Nashville. He jokingly recalls how in 2001, after 9/11, he and his colleagues were ordered to guard the water… from potential terrorists?! “What did they want from us?” he asks himself now.

But his wife, who was with him even then and has been married to him for 17 years, is the ultimate protector of the family and seems to know more about him and his needs than he does. “I understand it because I don’t think about the consequences of everything,” because as a touring comedian he spends a lot of time traveling and doesn’t have to worry about the responsibilities at home. However, that doesn’t stop him from calling his wife “an old man from the Depression” because of her obsession with saving money on electricity, ketchup, and toothpaste, and even trying to avoid leftover pizza from a pizza party.

If he feels like he’s playing second fiddle at home, sitting next to a surgeon at Career Day at his daughter’s school won’t help his confidence.

Nonetheless, Bargatze exudes the concept that ignorance is bliss, and is only momentarily interrupted when other people point out his lack of book or street smarts. This is often shown when he indulges his love of fast food, whether it’s when a stranger notices how much ketchup he consumes or when he overreacts the moment the driver’s side window at McDonald’s doesn’t work properly and shrinks back -through. After acting out and describing his thought process, he reveals, “It’s the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever felt in my life.”

He seemingly always had a good relationship with his parents, but over the years finds humor in the strange moments; when his mother recently showed up at the wrong address and had a half-hour conversation with another random grandmother; or as a child at the fair, watching his father, a magician, try to compete with the donkey “jumping” from the tower jump into a small pool. “It’s something you think you don’t want to see until it’s up there,” he notes, later adding, after describing the reality, “It’s not as fun as you thought has.”

Luckily, Bargatze’s fans don’t face a similar dilemma when watching his stand-up act, which is anything but a daredevil high-wire jump or tower jump.

Our opinion: Maybe you loved watching Bargatze’s rookie host Saturday Night Live Last year, his portrayal of George Washington informed his American Revolutionary soldiers of the new weights and measures that the new United States would enjoy. But Lorne Michaels saw even more potential in the stand-up comedian. Not only by booking him as host a second time earlier this season, but also by backing his prime-time Christmas variety show on “another network,” as they put it at the time. And Nate Bargatze’s Nashville ChristmasEP by Lorne, written by Streeter Seidell, Mikey Day and SNL’s Moss Perricone, featuring Day and new cast member Ashley Padilla in sketches – in one of which they play Joseph and Maria to Bargatze’s angel in a note for The Note Game on the Washington sketch , only over Christmas – shows how much trust they have in him. And they were ready to back it up with appearances from Noah Kahan, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker and other sketches featuring, among others, Jelly Roll and the Tennessee Titans football team.

Watching Bargatze hold court, whether at the Grand Ole Opry for the Christmas special or at the Phoenix Arena for his recent stand-up tour and special, it’s actually pretty easy to imagine Bargatze becoming a permanent fixture Component on television next decade or even two. He’s just so personable, genuine and genuinely funny.

Our call: STREAM IT. A big part of Bargatze’s act is playing dumb, but you have to be pretty smart and clever to have as successful a comedy career as he has over the last decade. You would be the dummy if you bet against him.

Sean L. McCarthy provides the comedy beat. He also provides half-hour episodes on the podcast in which comedians reveal stories about the making of the film: The comic of the comic presents the last things first.