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Promotional art for Full Time Magic
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Full Time Magic

Nate Bargatze

Comedy Central · 2015 · 62 min

A deadpan hour about physical fitness and everyday inadequacies.

Watch on Comedy Central(opens in a new tab)

Nate Bargatze leans into feeling entirely unequipped for adulthood. His slow-burn delivery turns mundane inadequacies into steady punchlines. He explains his struggle to get in shape, noting that the last time he was in good physical condition was when he was seven years old, and questions his decision to jump straight into Navy SEAL-level P90X workouts. He also details the specific tension of his wife casually mentioning she used to date a man on a nearby boat.

Filmed at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, Full Time Magic premiered as an hour-long Comedy Central broadcast in 2015. Bargatze was gaining momentum after his 2012 debut album, Yelled at By a Clown, and his tour appearances with Jimmy Fallon. The television debut happened to air on the same Saturday night as the heavily hyped Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, prompting Bargatze to ask fans during a press run to simply DVR his set while they watched the boxing match. The accompanying album went on to reach number one on the iTunes comedy charts.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Contemplating fighting his wife's ex-boyfriend on a boat

    Explains how unthreatening it would be having to swim over in a life jacket and awkwardly ask the guy to help pull him aboard just to fight him.

  2. Attending community college for one year with zero credits

    Riffs on taking remedial classes conducted outdoors at a picnic table where the teacher prepared them for manual labor and had them help him move.

  3. Meeting a couple named John and Jane Doe at Opryland theme park

    Recounts taking 20 years to realize the couple had pranked him with fake names, only to discover upon googling them later that they were murdered.

  4. Trying to get in shape by buying P90X

    Admits to being more impressed by the 'before' photo of the workout model than the 'after' results.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Drinking at an Indian casino and getting locked out of a hotel room naked closer

    Points out that this incident occurred during his two-year-old daughter's lifetime, when she was most dependent on him.

How it plays

Tone
Deadpan, self-deprecating, charming, and understated.
On stage
Laid-back, clean, self-deprecating, and deadpan with a signature Southern drawl.
Pace
Slow-talking, relaxed, and deliberate Southern pacing.
About
marriage and parenting, embarrassing personal experiences, community college and lack of education, perceived lack of intelligence, travel and fitness

What the critics said

Praised for Bargatze's deadpan, charming delivery, self-deprecating humor, and sharp conversational beats, though viewed in retrospect as an early hour where his voice was still developing.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tv.apple.com, imdb.com, play.google.com, actoragecheck.com, vulture.com, thelightappears.com, letterboxd.com, scrapsfromtheloft.com, en.wikipedia.org, variety.com.

Backstory

A married man with a two-year-old daughter, having recently bought a house in Nashville to balance rigorous road touring and family life.

Details

Released
Taped
Gramercy Theatre, New York City
Runtime
62 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Ryan Polito
Honors
Album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2011)
After
Nate Bargatze (2017)

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