When comedian Nate Bargatze performs in Rochester on Sept. 17, he’ll be doing so in front of a sold-out audience at the Mayo Civic Center.
On Aug. 21, Experience Rochester announced that Bargatze’s performance will mark the largest single-night comedy event in the venue’s history and the second-largest live entertainment event overall, only behind Bon Jovi’s 1987 concert.
More than 6,000 tickets have been sold for the event, according to Erin O’Brien, communications manager for Experience Rochester and the Mayo Civic Center. O’Brien said since the performance is in the Round, they were able to increase seating capacity. As of Thursday morning, the only available seats on Ticketmaster were scattered individual seats or one set of two seats going for nearly $600 each.
“We continue to see incredible support for comedians in Rochester, and Nate Bargatze is the latest example of that enthusiasm,” said Joe Ward, president of Experience Rochester and Mayo Civic Center. “This record-setting show reflects the community’s appetite for top-tier comedy, and we look forward to announcing even more nationally recognized comedians in the near future.”
Comedy events have proven popular for the Civic Center. In 2024, Nurse Blake had two sold-out performances in the Presentation Hall and Jeff Dunham’s show in 2023 was also very popular.
Earlier this year, Bargatze, who is known as a “clean” comedian who generally avoids politics, set a comedy attendance record at the Xcel Energy Center with more than 32,000 people attending his two shows in St. Paul. His show in Duluth drew more than 8,000 people and was one of the biggest shows ever at the AMSOIL Arena.
He is currently on his “Big Dumb Eyes” World Tour.
He has hosted “Saturday Night Live” two times and has had comedy specials on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
In 2023, Bargatze broke the attendance record at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The next month, he also broke the record for tickets sold at The Delta Center in Salt Lake City — the highest amount ever sold by a comedian at the venue. In 2024 he broke 20 total arena records.
