Nate Bergatze is coming to Prudential Center this summer

What do you do when nothing else seems to work out? You become one of the funniest stand-up comics on the planet. Nate Bergatze’s early losses were fans’ gain.

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About Nate Bergatze

According to Wikipedia, he was raised in Tennessee, where at Donelson Christian Academy, he tried out for the basketball and golf teams and was cut from both. Later at Western Kentucky University, he flunked his classes and quit. Then he worked a series of dead-end jobs until he quit one of those, deciding to go into comedy.

Like most successful stand-ups, he struggled in the early years. Nearly 30 and after six tough years, he finally had a breakthrough year in 2008 when he was featured on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and played the “Just For Laughs” comedy festival in Montreal.

New Jersey Show

Many comedy specials and a couple of “SNL” hosting gigs later, Bergatze is coming to New Jersey.

His “Big Dumb Eyes” tour is making a stop on Saturday, Aug. 8, at Prudential Center. Yes, he’s gotten that funny, that big, that he can sell out a venue that size.

If you haven’t seen Nate Bergatze, go to YouTube and watch his stand-up or his hysterical George Washington bit on “SNL.” If you don’t become a fan, I feel sorry for you. His deadpan delivery channels a bit of one of his classic influences, Bob Newhart, but in a way that’s all his own.

From what I’m seeing online, his only New Jersey appearance this year is Aug. 8 at Prudential Center and tickets for the 7 p.m. show are already on sale. Only a handful of great, up-close seats remain, and since I’m eyeing a pair myself, you’d better hurry.