Comedian Nate Bargatze talks the importance of his Christian faith, says he goes to church ‘as much as I can’

Stand-up comedy superstar Nate Bargatze is opening up about the importance of his Christian faith.

In an interview with Esquire published Monday, the Nashville native talked about how influential his faith is on his life and on his stand-up material.

"It’s a good thing to be around. I think it makes you feel grounded," he said, adding that he goes "[to church] as much as I can" when he’s home from touring.

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Bargatze, who was No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 10 Highest-Grossing Comedy Tours of 2024 list, has joked about his Christian upbringing in his stand-up but not in the harsh, deprecating way that some other comics can when they want to bash religion.

Esquire mentioned one of the jokes from his recent Amazon Prime special, "Hello, World," during which the comic said, "I had ’80s and ’90s Christian parents." "Well, that’s the most Christian you can get of the Christian. I think Jesus had more fun than I did."

The comedian told Esquire he couldn’t watch "The Simpsons" growing up and described his born-again Christian parents as "the most strict."

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In a 2023 interview with Fox News Digital, Bargatze also discussed his strict, Christian upbringing. 

"I grew up that way," he said. "I come from a Christian family and Southern Christian, so I wasn't allowed to watch anything, which I talk about in the special. And so growing up and only watching clean comedians, it was just how I was going to be. And it would feel forced if I was not."

He also described how his parents’ influence directly shaped his clean, family-friendly style of stand-up comedy, noting that he can’t imagine doing raunchy comedy even now because, "I still feel I will get in trouble," he said.

"I'll get in trouble and I will disappoint them. I don't want to disappoint my parents," he said, adding that he feels this responsibility even more as their firstborn son.

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"I just can't imagine cursing in front of your parents," he said. "Still, even now, I'm 43-years-old, and I still just couldn't do that. So that's how I write. I think I write my comedy to — a lot of it is to make my parents laugh. I want them to be proud and be like, ‘Oh, come watch my son do comedy,’ and not be offended by it. I just don't have that in me to want to offend someone or make someone feel bad."

Bergatze also talked to Esquire about have been sober since 2019, telling the outlet he gave up alcohol because he thought it was holding him back from advancing his career. "I did not have a control on it to… I would go too hard with it. But I knew, if I want to go where I want to go, this is in the way," he said.