Popular comedian Nate Bargatze isn’t the biggest fan of current-day Disney.
Bargatze recently adorned the cover of Esquire magazine, touting his success as the best-selling stand-up comedian in America today, and an interviewer asked him his biggest influences.
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He responded with four people: Jerry Seinfeld, Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler, and Walt Disney. The comedian then clarified he was referring to the person, not the company, as Walt Disney cared about his customers. He doesn’t feel the same way about current CEO Bob Iger, however.
“Now Disney is run by a guy that’s just a businessman,” he says. “Well, that guy doesn’t care about the audience.” The concept of an audience is apparently a major presence in Bargatze’s mind, as he clarified that “none of this happens without them.”
Bargatze began his comedy career in 2002, but his career only really took off when he was featured on Comedy Central’s show Live at Gotham, Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2008.
Since then, he is best known for releasing several stand-up specials on Netflix and making his way to a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album in 2022. He has also hosted SNL twice in the past three years.
He also shared with Esquire his plans to be “the next Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse,” with everything from movies to a merch line to a theme park called Nateland.
“What Disney has is Mickey Mouse,” he told the reporter. “What Nateland has is Nate.”
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