Comedian Nate Bargatze returns to Wilmington, talks about the Cape Fear Serpentarium

Stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze has a special relationship with Wilmington, all because of the Cape Fear Serpentarium.

In 2015, Bargatze — known for the animatedly deadpan style showcased in his popular Netflix comedy specials "The Greatest Average American" and "The Tennessee Kid" —was in Wilmington for a performance when he visited the since-closed Serpentarium attraction downtown, which featured poisonous snakes and other exotic animals. Fortunately for Bargatze, on the day he visited a crocodile briefly got out of its enclosure during feeding time and caused a minor stampede among the attending crowd.

Bargatze wove those events, and other observations of the incredibly bizarre place, into a story he told at his Wilmington gig that night for downtown's Dead Crow Comedy Room. In 2017, he got to tell the world about the Serpentarium on Netflix stand-up showcase "The Stand-Ups."

On his career-making 2019 Netflix special "The Tennessee Kid," Bargatze provided a short update to his Serpentarium saga. The Serpentarium closed in 2017 after owner Dean Ripa was shot to death there by his wife, cementing its legacy as perhaps one of the most unsettlingly weird places in Wilmington's long history.

More: Comic riffs on Cape Fear Serpentarium

More: Nate Bargatze talks about Cape Fear Serpentarium on his Netflix special

On Saturday, Aug. 6, Bargatze will perform in Wilmington for the first time since his Serpentarium story hit Netflix, with a show at Live Oak Bank Pavilion.

The 7,200-capacity venue is a sign of Bargatze's current popularity, which was buoyed in 2021 with another widely viewed Netflix special, "The Greatest Average American," on which the comic riffs self-deprecatingly on his own shopping fails and being challenged by his daughter's third-grade homework.

Bargatze's album version of "The Greatest Average American" was nominated for a Grammy for best comedy album, and Bargatze appeared as a presenter at the Grammy Awards ceremony in April, wearing a helmet in an admittedly "stupid" response to actor Will Smith's slapping of the comic Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony earlier in the year.

In a recent phone interview, during which he talked about such topics as the Serpentarium, his magician father's influence on his performing career and why he chooses to be a so-called "clean" comic, Bargatze said he sees himself as offering "pure entertainment. Not political, not heavy. Just trying to be interesting."

Our conversation has been condensed for length and clarity.

StarNews: When your Netflix special with the bit about the Serpentarium came out, people around here just went crazy for it. And it occurred to me that it took someone from the outside to tell the world how weird that place actually was. I know it's kind of an older story for you at this point, but what kind of reaction did you get from it at the time?

Nate Bargatze: Oh, it was a lot. Like, the whole story of it, and then obviously all the stuff that happened afterwards. I still have people message me about it. People love that story. It's fun to be able to tell a story about a place that, obviously, most people hearing it have never been to.

SN: You definitely seem to be intrigued by odd places: The Serpentarium, businesses selling dog desserts, Chuck E. Cheese, that type of thing. What is it about those places that you find interesting?

NB: It's just something different, you know? I like stores. I'm a big mall fan. I'll walk around the mall all day. But you sporadically stumble upon something that's kind of different and you're like, "All right, let's see what that's about." (Fellow stand-up comic) Todd Barry texted me, "Hey, you gotta go to this Serpentarium." (Touring) comics text each other things, "Hey, this town has a fun, kind of weird thing," or whatever it is. And you go visit it. You know, obviously you want to get a joke out of it, but you don't know. Sometimes you get lucky and get a six-minute story.

SN: What was the first time you ever did stand-up, and what made you want to get up there?

NB: You know, I think I kind of fantasized about it in high school. First time I did it I'd moved to Chicago, and I took a comedy class at a comedy college. It was just a guy you'd go to, and people would be there that were starting (in comedy), or wanting to, like, be better at talking in public. So I went there, and after class you do a graduation show. So I did start doing open mics and then it's kind of like you either got very obsessed with it or you didn't. I became very obsessed with it and you just kind of keep going. Your first few times on stage is pretty good, because you've got friends who are  there rooting for you. But it's like, when you leave your friends and you go to an open mic where no one cares, that's when it gets real.

SN: You've talked about your dad in your act and he's a performer, right? He's a magician.

NB: Yeah, he still is. He still travels, he comes with me on the road some and he'll open for me a lot. He just retired from from his day gig so he'll be getting out to a lot more shows. So it's fun. He destroys.

SN: Is that weird for you? Or is it awesome?

NB: It's awesome. Because it's like, we knew how great his show was as a family our whole life. So it's fun now to get people to see, like, what it is and to see how great we know he is. So it's very exciting. I'll see people after the show, and they're just like, "Is your dad back there?"

SN: Did him being a performer subconsciously, or consciously, have any effect on you wanting to perform?

NB: Yeah, it had to. I don't think I knew it at the time. I would do some shows (with him) when I was little, and he's always had comedy in his magic. So I mean, that absolutely played into it. And we were just always trying to be funny and stuff like that. My timing comes from him.

SN: One of the hallmarks of your comedy is that it's pretty relatable. I, too, have an elementary school child who's brought home homework I thought was kind of difficult. Do you strive to be relatable? Or are you just doing your thing and people happen to relate to it?

NB: Sometimes you think the joke has either already been done, or it seems like it's too easy. And then you realize, no, it's just relatable. (His story about) ordering at Starbucks, I don't think I tell it because I'm trying to be relatable, I just tell it because it's a funny story. It's just interesting to see how people relate to that story. So it's not like you completely set out for it. You just make fun of yourself, and people can either laugh at you or laugh with you. Either one counts.

SN: Your career seems like it's really taken off recently, and I'm sure being on Netflix has helped with that. What has the adjustment been like now that you're playing to pretty substantial crowds as opposed to the comedy clubs that are pretty intimate?

NB: You have to learn. It's completely different. Your timing just kind of changes. The rhythms, your stories just get a little longer. It's still stand-up, but it just seems like it's a different form. When you're beginning you almost have to be so tight with your jokes because (the audience is) on top of you, and that's a beautiful thing. But then when you start doing bigger places it's like you're the show, so you have to be the show. Telling your stories, you just kind of move around a little bit more. I still don't move around a lot but I'm moving around more than I ever have before.

SN: Obviously a lot of comics get into acting and I'm sure you've been getting offers. Is that something you see yourself doing, or want to do? 

NB: I would like to do it. I've tried to sell some TV shows, and they just haven't gone. I focus on more, like, just trying to create a theme for me. So it's like, I'm trying to write my own show or movie and and see if we can get it made. And so I've kind of gone down that path and we'll see if it happens. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I just produced and directed a special for Mike Vecchione, a very funny comedian, that's coming out. So that kind of fits in my world.

SN: You're known for doing clean comedy. Is that a natural extension of who you are, or more of a conscious choice?

NB: It's more like a natural extension. There was never even a question. That just fits my style. Which helps, because I'm not having to be anything I'm not. And nowadays, the clean comics, you're just in your own little category, because there's just not that many now that are clean.

SN: There's a pretty strong comedy scene in Wilmington with a lot of funny comics who I'm sure aspire to bigger things. Rather than asking you to give them unsolicited advice, what's some advice that maybe helped you in the course of your career?

NB: Be true to yourself. Be what you are. I remember, y'all have Dead Crow (Comedy Room), right?

SN: Yes. It's in a new place now, but it's still here. 

NB: I was there with a comic, Rory Scovel, who's very funny. You've got to just be your energy? That's what I would say. I followed him, and Rory's very funny off the cuff. He's a performer. He destroyed, and then I tried to kind of match his energy. And I'm not him, so it went really bad. So just learning to be "bigger" who you are. You don't want to be something you're not because that can be hard to write for. That's the best way to kind of stay in your world, and the easiest way, I think, to repeat the funny.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com. 

Want to go?

Who: Nate Bargatze

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8

Where: Live Oak Bank Pavilion, 10 Cowan St., Wilmington

Info: Tickets start at $35, plus taxes and fees.

Details: LiveNation.com

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Nate Bargatze returns to Wilmington, talks Cape Fear Serpentarium