Nat’s What I Reckon @ Dalrymple Hotel 4/7/24

Cook-turned-comedian Nat's What I Reckon (aka Nathan Bartolo) took to the stage to face a packed house and kept the crowd engaged with plenty of laughs with his latest show “Hot Dogs Probably Aren’t Real”. The tour has received some glowing reviews in the media so it was pleasing to hear it was a sold-out performance at the Daly.

Although riding high on a wave of success since COVID brought him into the public eye, Nat appears humble and down-to-earth. In his opening monologue, he shared a comment posted on his social media (the first of many from his comments section which became a central thread throughout the night) from one of his “fans” who has become disgruntled with his growing popularity, reinforcing our national predilection for the tall poppy syndrome. Later, he had the audience in stitches when he shared another online spray he received for apparently trying to be ‘gourmet woke’ in his cooking pursuits. Thick skin is definitely required in this business.

Fortunately, Nat is the king of self-deprecation, completely unafraid to poke fun at his own insecurities and personal experiences managing his anxiety and ADD, or making light of everyday banality: the realities of going on a keto diet, the indignity of doing a sleep study, or the intolerable suffering of an ice bath. He even managed to make humour out of losing a portion of his lung to a bout of tuberculosis! It’s hard not to laugh at someone else’s misfortune when they are the first to do so.

He launched into a hilarious recount of the anxiety-inducing attention and suspicion drawn to himself courtesy of his tattoos and facial piercings when going through airport security and the fallout dealing with a lost luggage situation. But his funniest moments came in his critique of the luring, addictive and all-consuming nature of Tik Tok (countless hours wasted watching diseased horse hooves being treated or pimples being popped), accompanied by a hypnotic soundscape that wouldn’t be out of place in a Stranger Things episode and augmented with a faux crowd laughing track. Bulging eyes and deadpan expressions from Nat also add to the hilarity of his material. Just don’t get him started on jar sauces.

After being fired from so many jobs before he was elevated into the public domain, Nat closed the show with a sincere show of gratitude that he is now able to do his stand-up routine in front of an appreciative crowd - even if some keyboard warriors are a bit salty about his success. I think it’s safe to say he’ll be back up here again in the near future gauging by the warm reception he received from the crowd. But they might need to fix that projector light that nearly blinded him throughout the performance 🤣