If you're a fan of Nate's comedy, you'll definitely like this book. There were so many parts I could picture him saying as I was reading them. It felt more like a collection of random stories than anything but I enjoyed it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review - it's out now!

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

I love Nate Bargatze's stand up. He's so relatable. This book is very much written in his voice. It's a bunch of little vignettes about his life that don't necessarily go together. I was hoping for a Sedaris like set of quirky, laugh out loud stories but these felt a bit more like rejected stand up bits that just didn't have the punch to make it on stage. About halfway through, I switched to the audio hoping that hearing it in his voice would punch up the humor a bit but alas I still feel like this was a little flat. I wouldn't want anyone I was trying to turn on to Bargatze's humor to start here.

Dry humor and wit at their finest. Nate has a way of sharing stories that are entertaining, no matter how many times you hear/read them!

As a huge Nate Bargatze fan, I was so excited when I heard he wrote a book—and Big Dumb Eyes did not disappoint! It’s full of the same clean, clever humor that makes his stand-up so great. His timing and tone are half the magic, so I am also eager to hear the audiobook.

The stories are fun and new (not just bits from his specials), and while it didn’t have me laughing out loud nonstop, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It feels like sitting down with Nate for a Diet Coke and a conversation—laid-back, funny, and totally him. Highly recommend for fans!

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am a huge fan of Nate Bargatze! His comedy is genius & hilarious while being so clean and appropriate and for me it's just the timing of his humor and the slow drawl that he presents it with, so when I found out he wrote a book I was beyond excited! This book was fun to read & get some more stories about him that we haven't heard before & while it wasn't laugh out loud funny, I really enjoyed it so much. For anyone who likes his humor & wouldn't mind just grabbing a Diet Coke with him & chatting for a while, this book is for you. Highly recommended & he also narrates it himself so definitely check out the audio too!

Big Dumb Eyes is funny and an easy read. Wish there was a bit more substance to it though, it didn't feel like a book that took two. years to write.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Not my favorite memoir but one of my favorite comedians! It was a little to self deprecating for my taste. Some really funny parts.

I have enjoyed Nate Bargatze's stand up specials and his book is just as entertaining. I read it "using his voice" as he suggested we do, which made it that much better. His stories are heart warming, relatable and humorous. This was a quick read, that would be great for summer. Definitely everyman comedy.

Bargatze brings everything we love about his stand up specials to the page in his memoir. A hilarious collection of stories, opinions, and confessions that remind readers that we are not alone in our quirks.

Don’t be fooled by the title. There is nothing dumb about Nate Bargatze’s book, Big Dumb Eyes. Yes, the book is an easy read (I rarely finish any book in three days) but Bargatze’s true genius is not in his use of big words to eloquently tell a story, but rather in how he can turn the most common relatable everyday situations into comedy. Whether he’s talking about his middle school science project, his stress over tipping, or his wife being better at home maintenance, I found his stories to be consistently funny. Having also spent some time in Tennessee, I can relate to his commentary on small town speed traps and the impact of church throughout the community. The only thing I disagreed with is that people down there do indeed honk their horns!

I was a late bloomer to the world of Bargatze. While I had heard of him, I didn’t really follow his career until that first time on Saturday Night Live. While I confess to sometimes enjoying off-color jokes told by other comedians, it is refreshing to find someone this good whose act is so clean.

I highly recommend this book to his fans. While the audiobook would no doubt have the advantage of his own voice reading to you, I found the pictures included in the e-book version to be a nice consolation.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read Big Dumb Eyes. The above opinions are my own.

Laughed the whole time. Really needed a more light hearted book so I’m glad that I picked this up. Going to be buying this for my husband and dad since they love him.

Fans of Nate Bargatze's standup will be thrilled to find that his writing fully reflects the content and delivery he brings to the stage. From watching his comedy, it would be fair to assume that the author is slightly, endearingly repressed, but to learn that the word "fart" is an "f-word" in his family is still surprising. Readers who want this or any book, even one authored by a comedian, to be written stand-up comedy are missing the point of that art form and this one, but the best parts of this book are the moments when you get perspective on how Bargatze's upbringing shaped him. It is funny, but it's startling, too.

Comedians, in general, are probably one of the most idiosyncratic groups of professionals on the planet, but as the book progresses, you get the sense that Nate is weirder than you might ever have suspected, especially given how sedate his comedy is. The author presents a wide variety of anecdotes to explain his eccentricities, including being raised in a very Christian town-within-a-town and suffering a serious head injury as a child. By the time he gets to what it's like for his wife when he has to decide what to get on a sandwich, it's hard to say whether you're laughing with or at him, and whether it's okay to do so.

To get a window into how this hilarious comedian's head works, there's no better view than Big Dumb Eyes, but you might have more fun watching Bargatze's comedy than reading about how long it takes him to pick out a pair of socks.

A simple-minded thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

If you like Nate Bertgatzes stand up comedy, you’ll enjoy this book. I decided to listen to the audiobook rather than read it because the author reads it himself which adds all of the great Nate inflections and pauses that make him so funny.

It’s basically listening to his comedy routines. Very enjoyable and good for a lot of laughs

Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to advance read/listen to a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

read if you like:
🎥 SNL
👶🏻 growing up with a brother
🤡 clowns and magicians

summary:
I had the BEST opportunity to read both this ebook and the audiobook and I’ll admit - I loved the ebook more! There’s something special about getting to read jokes, laugh out loud and then read them again. You can also take it at your own pace and skip around with the stories much easier, so I will always be a traditional book girl!

The stories in this book are all over the board, in the best way. He talks about his childhood growing up with a competitive younger brother and a much younger sister. He shares his lack of athletic abilities matched up with his bold aspirations for his own performance (aka playing in the NBA). He also shares stories about his particular habits — like his hatred of onions, love of grape jelly and panic when McDonalds changed their menu. The best part is though how he talks about his marriage and his family. Bargatze is frighteningly self aware, genuinely humble and innocently self depreciating in a way that both women and men can appreciate. His clean, lack of dirty humor makes him fun to read in any mood, and help him appeal to such a broader audience. He is truly one of a kind in comedy and his book reflects that same mundane but absolutely hilarious humor.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy. I already bought copies for my sister and dad, and can’t wait to buy one myself to re-read again and again.

Nonfiction isn’t usually my go-to genre, but I’ve seen one of Nate Bargatze’s comedy specials and thought he was hilarious—so I decided to give his book a try. I’m glad I did!

Big Dumb Eyes reads exactly how you’d expect Nate to talk: laid-back, self-deprecating, and full of dry humor. His storytelling voice really shines, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once. It’s not a deep or groundbreaking memoir, but it doesn’t try to be. It’s more like sitting around listening to your funniest friend tell random, oddly specific stories from their life.

There were a few parts where the pacing lagged or a joke didn’t quite land for me, but overall it was a quick, entertaining read. If you’re a fan of Nate’s stand-up or just need something lighthearted and fun, this one’s worth picking up.

We are big fans of Nate Bargatze's stand up shows here. My 11-year-old thinks he's hilarious. This book was just okay. I knew it would be difficult to get the same humor in a book because so much of what makes him funny is his delivery and facial expressions. But, this book also had a lot of stories with a church/Jesus theme. He doesn't tell a lot of stories like this on stage, so that was new. Overall, this will entertain people who want to know more about the childhood and life that created the beloved comedian, but it's not going to be like reading one of his sets.

Nate Bargatze has a way to make any story hilarious and relatable, and his voice very clearly comes through in his writing. I enjoyed hearing about his upbringing and about his relationships with his family. Reading Big Dumb Eyes was very much like watching his standup and I found it thoroughly enjoyable. As a long time stand up competitor fan, I am always fascinated by what makes someone pursue the profession.

I found the pacing to be a bit slower than I expected, and it took me longer to get into the memoir because of it. I think I may have enjoyed it more on audio instead of print.

Huge thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't really know if I wanted to read this book. I love Nate as a comedian but I thought this would just be material I'd already heard at his shows. Wrong! It's all new and hilarious. It's very funny and it's still his own brand of self deprecating humor. I loved it! Thanks @NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I'm a recent fan of Nate Bargatze after discovering him during his stint as host of SNL, so I was excited to read this book.

It's an easy read (no surprise there), and I read it all while on a coast to coast flight. It kept me entertained, and gave me some insight into Nate the person and Nate the comedian. Was it as funny as I'd hoped? No, and I think that's because part of Bargatze's humor is in his delivery, which the book obviously lacks. It was entertaining enough though and I had a few chuckles throughout.

I love this new book by comedian Nate Bargatze. He is so genuine and hilarious.! It's a nice companion to his growing list of comedy specials and appearances and will likely be a bestseller! Bargatze's grasp of the funny in daily life is just the kind of medicine we need right now!