Bargatze is from Old Hickory, Tennessee, which is a small town. When he was an adolescent, his family moved to Lakewood, which was an even smaller town. Lakewood is technically located within the boundaries of Old Hickory (though Bargatze does not understand how this is “legally possible”), and the family’s new home was a couple miles away from their previous one. This move marks “a big transition” for his family. In Lakewood, everybody knows everyone else. Most people born in Lakewood end up spending their whole lives there.

It rarely snows in Tennessee, and if it does snow in Lakewood, the entire town shuts down. Everyone goes to the big hill next to the church to go sledding, but it snows so little that after a few minutes, the hill is covered in mud. He used “trays and trash can lids” as sleds, and the hill eventually became “pure slop” (6).

Lakewood had six police officers, which seemed to the townspeople like a lot for such a small place. There was never any crime, so one of the police department’s main duties was giving speeding tickets. There was a speed trap on Old Hickory Boulevard, across from the Piggly Wiggly, that everyone in the town sped through even though they knew about it. An officer once pulled over Bargatze’s dad as he was driving his family to church because he had a can in his hand. The officer asked to take a sip out of the can to verify that it was not alcohol. After realizing that it was Big Red cream soda, he sent the family on their way. Shortly after this incident, Bargatze’s mother was caught in a speed trap. To avoid getting pulled over again, she managed to successfully outrun the officer, even though she was driving an old, used Mazda in a town with very few streets.

After Bargatze grows up and leaves Lakewood, his parents move to a bigger town a few miles down the road. Lakewood eventually loses its police department, which saddens the Bargatze family even though the speed trap was a nuisance. Whenever Bargatze visits his family, he makes sure to slow down on Old Hickory Boulevard in the police department’s honor.

When Bargatze was a child, his father was a professional clown. Bargatze reflects that having a clown as a father was not easy, because his dad was especially talented. Bargatze’s dad performed at his seventh birthday party, and Bargatze’s friends wanted to watch his dad rather than hang out with Bargatze. Bargatze writes that when his friends walked into his house, instead of seeing “normal-house things,” they would see “a bag of thirty lemons, one stack of fake quarters, twenty lengths of rope, and about seven hundred million decks of cards” (13). When Bargatze was in high school, his dad still performed at his birthday parties. Bargatze’s first girlfriend refused to come to the party because she was afraid of clowns. This conflict caused the two to break up, and Bargatze was heartbroken.

Back in the present, Bargatze explains that his dad is a very funny man in part due to his difficult childhood. Though childhood trauma is a common factor of funny adults, the author notes that it’s not the case for himself. He had a happy and loving childhood and still grew up to be a comedian. His dad, Bargatze writes, “got all the miserable stuff out of the way” (13). Both of Bargatze’s dad’s parents had substance use disorder. His mother was a semi-professional bowler, and she used to leave Bargatze’s dad outside the bowling alley while she played. When he was a toddler, he was attacked by a dog while waiting for his mother in the alley. The dog tore his face so severely that Bargatze’s dad required several years of reconstructive surgery, and he developed a speech impediment. Due to the speech impediment, he went to special education instead of regular classes, and he could barely read or write by the time he was a teenager. 

When he was in middle school, he met a girl who would eventually become Bargatze’s mom, and the two hit it off right away. Meeting Bargatze’s mother was “the one good thing that happened” to his dad in childhood (15). After high school, Bargatze’s dad was kicked out of his parents’ house, lived unhoused for a while, and even attempted to die by suicide. He eventually moved in with his cousin, Ronnie, and his wife, Melinda, who showed Bargatze’s dad a lot of kindness. They even helped bathe him when his arm was in a cast after his mother pushed him down the stairs. Ronnie and Melinda went to church, which is how Bargatze’s dad became religious.

When Bargatze first starts to become successful as a comedian, he invites his dad to open for him onstage. (Bargatze’s father eventually transitions from clown to magician). He tells his dad to try not to be “too funny,” so that Bargatze is still the star of the show. When the day arrives, Bargatze’s dad doesn’t hold back at all, and the audience loves him. Bargatze’s new wife, Laura, attends with her parents, who still talk about Bargatze’s dad’s act to this day. Bargatze’s dad still opens for him on stage sometimes—20 years later—and he always cries, out of gratitude and pride, when welcoming his son to the stage after his act.

Nick Bargatze claims that he is dumb as an adult. When he was a child, however, he was a genius. He writes, “I was gonna be […] a doctor that does brain stuff […] You know, any of those jobs that take a lot of smarts. That was gonna be me” (19).  When he was in seventh grade, Bargatze participated in his school’s science fair. It was an extra-competitive fair, because the judges were scientists from DuPont chemical company. The winner would go on to compete in the city and state fairs afterward. 

While all the other top students spent weeks perfecting their presentations, Bargatze waited until the night before the fair. He used a magic trick his father used in his act that involved a strong magnet and some everyday objects that had tiny slivers of metal embedded in them. The trick makes it look like the magnet can move objects that aren’t made of metal. Bargatze doesn’t remember exactly what he did to impress the judges, but he won first place. He never went on to compete in the city-wide fair because his family lacked interest. They dropped his project off at the competition with a note about how it worked, and later Bargatze learned that he didn’t win.

Bargatze was the top student in his grade in every subject up until seventh grade. After seventh grade, he was never a strong student. Bargatze is certain that this is because he suffered a severe concussion during the summer after seventh grade when he fell off a 60-foot cliff and woke up in the hospital. He writes, “I was different after that” (24). Bargatze’s family takes a different stance. They believe that the change in his academic performance occurred because a new kid, Daniel Rucker, moved into town. The Rucker family was studious and intelligent, and Bargatze felt that he couldn’t compete with Daniel. Bargatze didn’t try very hard in school after that. Bargatze adds, “And I was also starting to realize that for some reason I liked making people laugh more than I liked, you know, studying and stuff. That was good enough for me” (26).

The author reflects on a recent dining experience with his wife, Laura, at a sushi restaurant. He tells the chef that sushi must have been invented in the 2000s in California. The chef informs him that sushi is Japanese. This sounds improbably because of the popular “California roll,” which includes cream cheese. Laura points out that the restaurant’s sign reads “Japanese Food,” so Bargatze concedes that he is wrong. He learns that sushi is indeed from Japan, and that it was invented at least 200 years ago.