04/21/2025
Comedian Bargatze debuts with a folksy collection of stories, anecdotes, and pet peeves. He acknowledges up front that, coming from him, a book may seem unexpected: “I am very on the record about not liking to read books,” he writes in the introduction, calling this fact “a big part of my act.” Nevertheless, he proceeds, albeit in a lackadaisical manner, through tales of his upbringing in a “tiny little town in Tennessee,” of his childhood friend “P” (so nicknamed because he got hit by a football in “the you-know-what”), and of the surprising aggression of church-league sports. Some stories can be quite sentimental, as when he recounts bonding with his wife-to-be over the Little Mermaid soundtrack. Other chapters function more like stand-up bits: a riff on his neuroses over tipping, a reflection on that time when McDonald’s changed the number of his favorite combo order, a meditation on the perfect sock (“I don’t just need my socks to match. I need my socks to be the right socks, or I will think about nothing else for the rest of the day”). Unfortunately, as an extension of the comedian’s onstage persona—mild-mannered, clean, observational—this doesn’t quite work; his low-stakes humor feels uneasy on the page. The mild chuckles on offer here are unlikely to win Bargatze many new fans. (May)
