Big Dumb Eyes

by Nate Bargatze ★★★★☆

Nate Bargatze has risen through the comedy ranks to be one of the biggest acts touring today. He's known for "clean comedy"—profanity-free, family-friendly shows, and much of his comedic identity is making fun of himself for being pretty dumb. "You might be surprised this book even exists because I am very on the record about not liking to read books. It's a big part of my act, going about how every book is just 'the most words'. How it never lets up, and there's just more and more words until it's like 'what are you talking about?' Please just make it stop." His brand of simple humor always seems to get me, and I think a lot of his popularity stems from his immense likability. He gives off "good guy vibes" and an authenticity that make an arena full of people feel like they're his friends.

As the subtitle "Stories from a Simpler Mind" suggests, and Nate confirms, this is less linear memoir and more a collection of stories. He makes a point of reminding you who all the people in his life are each time he mentions them, because, as he puts it, "one of the most annoying thing about books was having to keep track of all the characters' names." That allows you, if you choose (and Nate suggests), to bounce around within the book and never feel lost. "There isn't any real order," he tells us. "No rhyme or reason behind much of anything." However, his stories are mostly in chronological order, starting from Nate's days growing up in the tiny Tennessee town of Old Hickory, to his time in Chicago and New York as he was working on establishing himself as a comic, to some tales from present day as a married father of his beloved daughter Harper. "My wife sometimes reminds me that I need to be Harper's dad, a guy who can provide discipline and wisdom, and i shouldn't think of Harper as my friend. This of course is ridiculous. Harper's not my friend, she is my best friend."

I chose the audiobook over print for Big Dumb Eyes, since naturally it is read by Nate. Maybe Nate narrating is not a given, considering how much he claims to hate reading. "Wow, he really talks slow," my wife commented at one point while we were listening to a few chapters on a drive. As a narrator, he certainly doesn't have the polish of a professional, but what he lacks in precise diction or style is made up by the authenticity that oozes through. Moments with his parents, his friends, and certainly his wife and daughter are conveyed with love and sweetness that make this more than simply a series of funny stories.

That aside, it is predominantly funny stories, many of which sound like they are part of Bargatze family lore, told around the dinner table for decades. There's an enjoyable subtext to many of the stories as well, as Nate gets to make a one-sided case for his version of many of the stories that family members clearly have been challenging him on for years. It's as if he wrote an entire book just to get one over on them, and we're just along as witnesses.

There weren't a ton of belly laughs for me, but Big Dumb Eyes was entertaining and smile-inducing throughout. After seven hours of content, I'm still not entirely sure if Nate Bargatze is as dumb as he seems to be, or if he just plays it up as part of his act. If I had to guess, he might be playing it up a little, but like everything else about him I think he's mostly just being his authentic, non-genius self. It's endearing, and getting to know more about him through the book will do nothing but make him even more likable for most people.