Comedian Nate Bargatze is still talking about his October show in Wichita; here’s why

Of the sold-out crowd of almost 6,000 people who saw comedian Nate Bargatze perform at Hartman Arena on Oct. 19, there is at least one person who is still talking it: Nate Bargatze.

This week, he shared video from his time before and during the show via TikTok and Instagram.

The video starts with him walking through Hartman Arena and mentioning he’s going to do a sound check and go for a run.

Then it cuts to him flopped in a chair with a hoodie on his head, not looking nearly as perky as he previously did.

“Well, I think the lesson we’ve learned here: Running is bad.”

Bargatze described how his hands and feet started itching, and he felt his lips swelling. Kansas allergies, which most likely were due to ragweed, had hit him hard.

Next, he starts talking to a dude — perhaps an appropriate word since Bargatze later said the guy looked like he came direct from a Top Golf — who supposedly was a doctor.

“We don’t know who this guy is,” Bargatze said. “He talks a great game, though.”

It was Shawn Wadsworth, a physician with Atlas MD.

Wadsworth was home preparing to come to the show just for fun when he got a call that someone needed help.

Bargatze said he had resisted taking Benadryl because it would make him sleepy, but that’s what Wadsworth suggested over the phone to staff members before he arrived.

Wadsworth said he didn’t know who he was helping until he showed up and was shocked to find it was Bargatze. He’d put some other medicine in his pockets as he walked out the door, and Bargatze had a good time teasing him about that backstage and then on stage, which was another surprise.

“He brings all his medicine in his pocket,” Bargatze told the audience, laughing about “Dr. Shawn.”

“I guess he’s legit.”

Pause.

“I hope so. I took something — some loose pills out of his pocket, so . . . .”

Wadsworth noted that the pills weren’t actually loose in his pockets, but he said he and his friends “cracked up” about it during the show anyway.

Previously, Bargatze had joked about the incident on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

“I tried to do the right thing for my dumb body; that’s what’s infuriating,” Bargatze told Meyers. “I guess you just get old and weak and you can’t handle air.”

He shared his awe of Wichitans and the horrific allergies they face.

“Those people are some strong people.”

Though Bargatze teased Wadsworth again, he poked more fun at the EMT who was the first to arrive on the scene when the incident happened an hour before the show.

“He was a super nice guy, bless his heart, but it was his first day,” said Bargatze, who noted he’d been wearing a TravisMathew-branded shirt at the time.

“So your name’s Travis Mathew?” he said the EMT asked him.

“I just said, ‘Yeah.’ I just went with it.”

He then said if he’d been wearing Ralph Lauren, he would have answered to that, too.

“My friends call me Polo.”

Bargatze talked about sleeping hard due to the medicine and then suddenly waking up and talking to 6,000 people minutes later.

“I almost think it was a lot more freeing,” he said of doing the show on Benadryl.

Bargatze’s wife said if he could do that, he probably could handle “Saturday Night Live,” too, which was an upcoming show on Oct. 28 he was worried about.

Meyers said if “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels didn’t like how dress rehearsal went, he could picture him suggesting, “Maybe some Benadryl?”

Bargatze joked about Dr. Shawn being in New York to help at that show, too.

“How’d you find him?” he pictured himself asking.

“Oh, trust me,” Meyers replied, “Lorne’s got a bunch of Dr. Shawns.”

Wadsworth has had some good laughs all along the way, and he called Bargatze’s ability to perform so quickly after an allergic reaction — and being on Benadryl without slurring his words — “pretty impressive.”

“It was a great show.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 4:04 AM.