Humorism Evening Podcast No. 002
Concerning "Nateland."
Find enclosed, or at your chosen podcast purveyors, the latest episode of the Humorism Evening Podcast. Discussed herein:
America’s Favorite Comedian Wants to Be the Next Walt Disney—and He’s Not Joking:
It’s why Bargatze drew more people and made more money on the road than any other stand-up comedian for the past two years. His shows grossed $77.5 million in 2025 —$34 million more than the No. 2 comedian, Sebastian Maniscalco—according to Pollstar. By filling sports arenas and breaking attendance records, he’s on track to sell more than 2 million tickets for his ongoing Big Dumb Eyes tour. For comparison, Beyoncé sold 1.6 million tickets on the top-grossing music tour of 2025.
Holmes. Why comedians? Here’s why, in my opinion. One, they have a believable reason to be funny. Even if your wife is leaving you, you’d be making some jokes. So that helps us. Two, no matter what your dream is, everybody’s hope out of existence is to have their insides, their thoughts and their feelings, brought outside and be celebrated. So the plight of the comedian is the plight of everybody.
Birbiglia: Right. It’s the reason why they sing in musicals, it’s the reason why there’s voiceover in films often. You need to understand what’s on the inside in order to care about what’s on the outside.
Holmes. And the comedian, like in a good Sopranos episode, can go onstage, certainly, but he’s also expected to be mildly narcissistic, overindulgent. My dad doesn’t sit around with his buddies and really, like, lay it all out like a yard sale: “Here’s the insides of me!” But comedians do. So even if you’re a dentist or a teacher—which is show business, let’s be honest—or a writer or an architect or a cook, you can watch somebody who’s not good becoming good, and pour yourself into that empty vessel of a comedian, and thankfully it’ll be funny, and we all love funny. So that’s why I think not only is my show not, like, “Why do we have another late night show with a white male host?” or whatever, which can be an issue for sure.
Birbiglia: Yeah.
Holmes: It’s a welcome addition, I hope, because people are like, “Yeah, it’s just like Homer quote-unquote ‘works at a power plant,’ let’s just get to the goods.”
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