Comedian Nate Bargatze is bigger than Beyonce —…
Record Bey-ker.
A “clean” comic who has offered more tickets for his latest tour than Beyoncé has announced that he desires to construct his own Disney World-style theme park in Nashville with himself as the mascot.
Tennessee comedian Nate Bargatze, 47, who has made a dwelling from his no-swears, no-politics everyman act, plans to create the park — Nateland — in his hometown of 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 said he isn’t in the tradition struggle politics that have dogged comedy in the last decade or so, and would quite focus on entertaining people.
“I’m in the ticket-selling business. That’s all I’ve ever been in,” he told 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 exhibits grossed $77.5 million, virtually 50% more than the second-highest-selling comic in America, Sebastian Maniscalco ($34 million), according to Pollstar.
His ongoing “Big Dumb Eyes” tour is on observe to promote 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 course to outsell pop star Beyoncé. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
His company, Nateland Entertainment, has the tagline “Good clean funny,” and has grown to embrace a podcast community, a four-night comedy cruise, and content from a roster of other clean comics.
Bargatze, who grew up in the Nashville suburb of Old Hickory, also hosts the ABC sport 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 at 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 government.
The pair employed a lobbyist and labored on wooing the wealthy and highly effective of Nashville for help, contracting with California firm Storyland Studios, based by an alum from Disney, Legoland, and Universal Studios to design the park.
Bargatze at the Nashville premiere of his new film “The Breadwinners” on May 13, 2026. Sony Pictures via Getty Images
The actual location of the park has not been made public as negotiations continue, Verdigets said.
However, with Bargatze’s clean act and confirmed skill to promote tickets, discovering backing at a state stage isn’t proving troublesome.
“The projects we incentivize have to fit this heartland, middle America approach to things. What Nate represents aligns with our state,” Tennessee Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter told the Wall Street Journal.
Bargatze hosted last 12 months’s Emmys. Variety via Getty Images
Bargatze hopes to faucet into the same southern nostalgia evoked by the nation music theme park Opryland USA, which shuttered in 1997 and where his first job was at 15, sweeping up the park.
After a 12 months of neighborhood school, he labored as a water-meter reader and met his spouse working at Applebee’s, before shifting to Chicago to do standup, and then New York in 2004.
In 2017, he had his big break thanks to his set in the premiere of the Netflix collection “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 in the wake of President Trump’s election and the COVID pandemic, being family-friendly supplied Bargatze with a area of interest.
“I could just see the way it was going, but I had to build that trust,” he said.
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