By Variety | Created at 2026-08-15 16:48:16 | Updated at 2026-08-15 17:21:05
1 hour ago
Nate Bargatze and his “Big Dumb Eyes” just set a Guinness World Record.
The Tennessee-born comedian has officially sold the most tickets for a stand-up comedy tour, surpassing the previously record held by Jeff Dunham.
Bargatze will be presented with the Guinness World Record onstage at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday. Ahead of the show, his “Big Dumb Eyes” world tour had sold approximately 2,016,254 tickets, passing Dunham’s “Spark of Insanity” tour, which sold 1,981,720 tickets. The final ticket number on Bargatze’s Guinness World Records certificate will be confirmed later this weekend.
Bargatze accomplished the feat at an impressive pace. To achieve the previous record, Dunham sold 1,981,720 tickets across 386 venues between Sept. 13, 2007, and Aug. 21, 2010 (35 months and 8 days). Bargatze’s “Big Dumb Eyes” tour, which began on April 6, 2025, crossed the 2 million mark after just 16 months and 10 days — and across only 128 venues. (There were also no puppets on the Bargatze tour.)
Along the way, Bargatze broke 84 venue records, according to his reps, which included becoming the only comedian to sell out three consecutive performances at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in a single calendar year — a feat matched only by Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks.
Bargatze, whose clean, deadpan comedy has made him famous among all age groups, was crowned by Pollstar as the highest-grossing stand-up comic, with $77.5 million reported in 2025 alone. Earlier this year, he crossed over onto the silver screen with his movie “The Breadwinner,” and he is currently planning to build a $350 million theme park in his home state of Tennessee called Nateland.
Bargatze is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, UTA, Ginsburg Daniels Kallis and 2PM Sharp.
