In 1980, Stephen Bargatze stepped onto Trevecca’s campus as a broken man, his wife and baby son in tow.
It had been 10 years since Stephen, father of the now famous comedian Nate Bargatze, had graduated from high school, and that itself was remarkable.
At age three, a vicious attack by a bulldog required six years of reconstructive plastic facial surgeries and left him with a severe speech impediment. As a result, he’d constantly struggled in school.
Growing up, there’d been alcoholism, neglect and mistreatment in his home life. As a result, Stephen ran away, living on the street at times. He attempted to take his life twice. During his second attempt, he overdosed on drugs and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. “That’s where Ronnie came and got me,” he said.
Ronnie Bargazte was his first cousin, a well-known Middle Tennessee athlete and basketball coach at Vanderbilt who also coached at Trevecca during the 1978–79 season.
Ronnie invited Stephen to come stay with him and his wife, Malinda. “They were the most wonderful people—the first Christians I ever met who said they were Christian and actually lived that way,” Stephen said.
He lived with the couple for several years, working different jobs and observing a new way of life. In that time, he married Carol, a girl he’d first met in the eighth grade. Their first child, Nate, was born in 1979.
Ronnie eventually suggested that Stephen enroll at Trevecca to earn his degree. It was a decision that would change his life.
Stephen and his young family moved on campus. Nate eventually went to Kinderhaus, Trevecca’s campus preschool at the time. Stephen attended class and got involved with intramural sports.
“The people at Trevecca cared about me,” Stephen said. “They asked me questions; they checked on me. Before that, I’d never had anyone care about what I did. Because of the attention of faculty and staff, I got the courage to speak up and ask for help if I needed it.”
He started to feel a change in himself as he was surrounded by a Christian community. “I learned how to worship,” he said. “In those days, students were required to go to chapel three days a week. I went all five days. I loved it and never missed a day.
Making Magic
Stephen graduated from Trevecca in 1984 with an education degree. After a brief stint teaching in Texas, he returned to Middle Tennessee where he taught middle school math and history for 10 years. On the side, he cultivated another job he grew to love—working as a magician.
He first became interested in magic as a teenager when he met a Ronald MacDonald performer in Nashville. “He was a magician and clown,” Stephen said. “He taught me magic. He gave me books and I practiced becoming a better reader in order to learn magic tricks.”
Stephen became such a good magician and communicator that a colleague who’d gotten to know him and his background took notice. “Every high school student in Tennessee needs to hear your story,” the colleague told Stephen.
Working in partnership with the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), Stephen began speaking in schools across Tennessee—at first to athletes, then larger groups—about facing abuse, bullying, drugs and suicide.
“I’d do magic for 40 minutes and then talk to kids for the last 20 minutes, sharing my testimony,” he said. “I talked about drugs and alcohol and what it does to you. I discussed bullying, because I was picked on a lot as a kid. Sometimes I addressed suicide. Even in public schools where I had to be careful what I said about Christianity, I learned how to share my faith.”
Over the course of 27 years, Stephen shared his magic tricks and his testimony with more than a million students in Tennessee, and his ministry eventually expanded to schools in seven other states around the country.
He also achieved a championship title with the International Brotherhood of Magicians, was a first-place Close Up Award winner and a two-time Comedy Award recipient. His blend of humor and magic have taken him from nightclubs and comedy clubs to theaters, churches, corporate events and magic conventions across the country.
“Magic earned me the right to be heard,” he said.
A Family Affair
As the Bargatze family would soon discover, Stephen wasn’t the only entertainer in the family.
His oldest child, Nate, took an interest in comedy, and after graduating from high school he spent time in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles working on his craft as a stand-up comedian.
His big breaks started coming when streaming platforms began playing his shows. In 2019, his hour-long Netflix special, “The Tennessee Kid,” received critical acclaim, as did his second Netflix special two years later, “The Greatest Average American.” His 2023 special, “Hello World,” set a record for Amazon Prime’s most-streamed original comedy special, receiving 2.9 million viewers in its first 28 days.
Nate is currently the number one earning comedian in the world according to Pollstar, and number 12 in overall live tour tickets sales. Known for his clean and relatable approach, he has taken the entertainment world by storm, appearing 14 times on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”—the most by any comedian. He has also hosted “Saturday Night Live” twice and recently starred in a movie he helped produce, “The Breadwinner.” 
During the last five years, Stephen has often traveled with Nate as his opening act. He refers to his son as a comedic genius. He’s also proud to be the source of some of Nate’s material. “It’s a badge of honor for anyone in our family to make it into one of Nate’s jokes,” he said.
In recent years, Stephen and his wife experienced a kitchen fire and had to move in with Nate for six months while their home was repaired. “When we left, my wife said: ‘We need to leave them a check. We used their electricity and ate a lot of their food.’ I told her: ‘We built this place! This whole house is built from him telling stories about us. I don’t think we owe him anything,’” Stephen quipped.
“We’re not afraid to laugh at ourselves,” Stephen said. He turns soft-spoken and gentle, however, when reflecting on the relationship of respect and honor he’s forged with his own children in light of his broken past.
“A podcaster recently asked Nate: ‘Who do you write your comedy for? Are you thinking about the mass of people listening?’” Stephen said. “And Nate replied: ‘I write my jokes for two people—my parents. I don’t want them to ever be embarrassed to recommend my shows to others. I’m writing for them. If it gets by them, then that’s success because they’re the audience I want.’”
Used for Good
In May, Stephen received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Trevecca for his contribution as an acclaimed magician, comedian and inspirational speaker whose career has spanned more than four decades.
He felt a sense of awe receiving the award, tracing God’s goodness as he looked back on his story. “I always felt like the dumbest one around me growing up. Yet I ended up being the only one in my family who went to college. It’s just God’s way.”
Stephen takes particular comfort from the story of Joseph’s life in the Old Testament. Like Joseph, Stephen was a child who was mistreated and neglected. But what man meant for evil, God used for good. 
“My mom and I spent 12 years estranged from each other because of my childhood,” Stephen said. “But I visited her in the hospital the day before she died of Covid. She needed my mercy. I told her I loved her, and that I was sorry she didn’t get the opportunity to know my kids. I shared the gospel with her. She couldn’t talk, but she was crying. I believe she accepted Christ right there.”
I told her: ‘We’ll have eternity together. We’ll get to know each other there. We’ve got plenty of time.’”
