Comedian Nate Bargatze is bigger than Beyonce — – Business News
Record Bey-ker.
A “clean” comic who has offered more tickets for his newest tour than Beyoncé has introduced that he desires to construct his own Disney World-style theme park in Nashville with himself because the mascot.
Tennessee comedian Nate Bargatze, 47, who has made a residing from his no-swears, no-politics everyman act, plans to create the park — Nateland — in his hometown Nashville, protecting more than 100 acres at a price of about $350 million.
Comedian Nate Bargatze has plans to open a theme park in his native Tennessee. Getty Images
Bargatze has mentioned he isn’t within the tradition struggle politics which have dogged comedy within the final decade or so, and would reasonably give attention to entertaining people.
“I’m in the ticket-selling business. That’s all I’ve ever been in,” he instructed the Wall Street Journal in an interview printed Friday.
If uncooked gross sales are something to go by, the openly-Christian comedian‘s plan is working.
In 2025, Bargatze’s reveals grossed $77.5 million, nearly 50% more than the second-highest-selling comic in America, Sebastian Maniscalco ($34 million), in line with Pollstar.
His ongoing “Big Dumb Eyes” tour is on monitor to sell more than 2 million tickets, promoting out sports activities arenas and stadiums.
In comparability, famous person Beyoncé offered 1.6 million tickets in her top-grossing music tour of 2025.
His latest tour is on track to outsell pop star Beyoncé. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
His company, Nateland Entertainment, has the tagline “Good clean funny,” and has grown to incorporate a podcast community, a four-night comedy cruise, and content material from a roster of different clean comics.
Nargatze, who grew up within the Nashville suburb of Old Hickory, additionally hosts the ABC recreation show “The Greatest Average American,” and his first theatrical film, “The Breadwinner,” starring SNL’s Colin Jost, is out this month.
With Nateland, he plans to go even additional — aiming to turn into the Walt Disney of Tennessee. If all goes to plan, he’ll be the mascot, too.
Bargatze performing on the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on March 8, 2026. Getty Images
“I’m the Mickey Mouse,” he joked to the WSJ.
To make his bold plans occur, he satisfied his neighbor, former KPMG companion Felix Verdigets, to be his chief govt.
The pair employed a lobbyist and labored on wooing the wealthy and highly effective of Nashville for assist, contracting with California firm Storyland Studios, based by an alum from Disney, Legoland, and Universal Studios to design the park.
Bargatze on the Nashville premiere of his new film “The Breadwinners” on May 13, 2026. Sony Pictures by way of Getty Images
The precise location of the park has not been made public as negotiations proceed, Verdigets mentioned.
However, with Nargatze’s clean act and confirmed potential to sell tickets, discovering backing at a state stage isn’t proving tough.
“The projects we incentivize have to fit this heartland, middle America approach to things. What Nate represents aligns with our state,” Tennessee deputy governor Stuart McWhorter instructed the Wall Street Journal.
Bargatze hosted final yr’s Emmys. Variety by way of Getty Images
Nargatze hopes to faucet into the identical southern nostalgia evoked by the nation music theme park Opryland USA, which shuttered in 1997 and the place his first job was at 15 sweeping up the park.
After a yr of group school, he labored as a water-meter reader and met his spouse working at Applebee’s, earlier than shifting to Chicago to do standup, after which New York in 2004.
In 2017, he had his huge break due to his set within the premiere of the Netflix sequence “The Standups.”
He first hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2023 and hosted the Emmys in 2025.
With many comedians going more and more down the route of progressive politics within the wake of President Trump’s election and the Covid pandemic, being family-friendly offered Nargatze with a area of interest.
“I could just see the way it was going, but I had to build that trust,” he mentioned.
