Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind

by Nate Bargatze Narrated by Nate Bargatze

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

With laugh-out-loud life stories, comedian Nate Bargatze shows he's just as funny on the page as he is on the stage.

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN INSTANT USA TODAY AND INDIE BESTSELLER

From one of the hottest stand-up comedians, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to the page in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my skull got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a doctor that does brain stuff, or a math teacher who teaches the hardest math on earth.” Afterwards, all he could do was stand-up comedy.* But the “brain stuff” industry's loss is everyone else's gain because Nate went on to become one of today's top-grossing comedians, breaking both attendance and streaming records.

¿In his highly anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball stick shift) and his travels as a Southerner (Northerners like to ask if he believes in dinosaurs), to tales of his first apartment where he was almost devoured by rats and his many debates with his wife over his chores, his diet, and even his definition of “shopping.” He also reflects on such heady topics as his irrational passion for Vandy football and the mysterious origins of sushi (how can a California roll come from old-time Japan?).

BIG DUMB EYES is full of heart. It will make readers laugh out loud and nod in recognition, but it probably won't make them think too much.

*Nate's family disputes this entire story.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A hilarious love letter to [Nate's] family and hometown." —The Tennessean

PRAISE FOR NATE BARGATZE

“One of the hottest acts in comedy.”—The Atlantic

“One of the top up-and-coming comics.”—Jim Gaffigan to Esquire

“Bargatze has been a comic for 20 years, and created a style uniquely his own by recognizing the humor in small things. But it also nails just about everyone else, too.”—Variety

“[I]n an era where most comedians and late-night talk show hosts serve up incisive, polarizing takes on the issues of the day, Bargatze stands out for sticking to what he does know: chain restaurants, parenting, marriage, weird animal encounters, the South, and the absurdity of human interaction. What’s more, he works clean, and without a trace of mean-spiritedness in his material.”—Vanity Fair

The Southern comic delivers a good-natured memoir of his years in the trenches... Bargatze never takes himself too seriously, but there's plenty of grown-up self-awareness here along with the yucks.—Kirkus Reviews

Bargatze's comedic genius shines through as he mines humor from his 'simpler mind'... Bargatze's writing style is refreshingly conversational, capturing the essence of his stand-up persona: straightforward yet rich with humor.—Rimshas Corner

For fans of Bargatze's stand-up, this book will feel like catching up with an old friend. For newcomers, it serves as a great introduction to his brand of comedy... It's a book that doesn't overstay its welcome, doesn't demand too much, and leaves you smiling, maybe even chuckling to yourself in public.—Following Films

Bargatze's book cover might advertise 'a Simpler Mind,' but he certainly isn't stupid. There's a genius required for what he does—USA Today

offers a comfortable seat next to Nate's easy charm—GoBookMart.

Kirkus Reviews

2025-05-02
The Southern comic delivers a good-natured memoir of his years in the trenches.

“This book is never trying to say anything even close to important,” writes comedian Bargatze, whose following has been blowing up lately thanks to a couple of well-receivedSaturday Night Live appearances—a surprise, perhaps, given his G-rated approach to comedy. Yet Bargatze, a native Tennessean, does dig a little deeper into important territory here, writing, for instance, that his paternal grandparents were alcoholics, the grandmother “basically what these days they’d call abusive,” unforgiving of his father’s speech impediment. Happily for his father, though, a sympathetic teacher got him interested in reading—and in magic, which led to comedy. There aren’t many family dynasties in stand-up, but Bargatze didn’t mind when his father opened for him once and killed, even though “I told him he couldn’t betoo funny.” Bargatze writes affectingly of his beloved younger sister, working theMen in Black franchise deftly into one episode and a lovely little bit of pop culture into another (it would ruin the fun to say much more except that it concerns a dog and a certain all-girl group from way back when). Much of Bargatze’s approach onstage and here is observational, and he has a good eye for the goofy detail, recounting growing up in a town whose police force existed “for one reason, and that was to give people speeding tickets” and professing amazement that, in his adopted home of New York, people cleaned up after their dogs “every single time the dog did its business!” Bargatze is right that “the world of books is in the same place as it was before I entered it,” yet he turns in a pleasingly genial narrative all the same.

Bargatze never takes himself too seriously, but there’s plenty of grown-up self-awareness here along with the yucks.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940190947519
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	05/06/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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