Comedian Nate Bargatze is releasing his first book.
“I’m excited to finally announce my new book ‘Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from A Simpler Mind,’ alongside Grand Central Publishing. This will be an easy read. Trust me. I wrote it,” the comedian tells TODAY.com of upcoming release.
“Big Dumb Eyes: Stories From a Simpler Mind” will be released by Grand Central Publishing in May of 2025.
The collection of personal essays is the comedian’s first venture as an author. Among the stories included in the book? Bargatze’s account of a childhood fall from a cliff that, in his words, left his brain “dented, or something.”
It’s an accident that 45-year-old Bargatze jokingly says stripped him of his “genius,” tragically ending his dreams of being an “electric engineer, or a brain doctor, or maybe a math person who does like, math things for a living.”
In lieu of pursuing anything involving the left brain, Bargatze instead turned to stand-up comedy. By all accounts, it seems to have worked out pretty well for him.
Over the course of his two-decade career, the Nashville-born funny man has risen through the ranks to become one the most popular contemporary comedians, selling out arenas and landing high-profile gigs like hosting Saturday Night Live, as well as a seat on the advisory board of directors at The National Comedy Center.
Known for his family-friendly routines, Bargatze has also released a string of highly-successful comedy specials through the years, including “The Tennessee Kid,” “The Greatest Average American” and “Hello World.”
What is Nate Bargatze’s first book, ‘Big Dumb Eyes’, about?
Readers of “Big Dumb Eyes” will be treated to a variety of humorous stories, opinions and even a few confessions by the comedian, according to the book’s description.
From tales of “Old Blue,” his first car (a beat-up Mazda with a tennis ball for stick shift) to the kind of questions he gets asked as a Southerner, the new memoir covers plenty of comedy ground, including his day-to-day with wife, Laura Bargatze, who’s often the subject of Bargatze’s routines.
The pair, who married in 2006 and share daughter, Harper, met while working at an Applebee’s restaurant. While she’s regularly on the receiving end of his jokes, Bargatze says it’s all in good fun.
“You have to learn how to tell it with the love behind it,” Bargatze told TODAY.com during a 2023 interview. “And then, I make fun of myself quite a bit. You just try to have a balance. You try to do everything where you just have that nice love with it.”
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