The Nateland Podcast: Episode 277 – Scams (feat. Stephen Bargatze)
Release Date: November 5, 2025
Hosts: Brian Bates, Aaron Weber
Guest: Stephen Bargatze
Theme: Scams, Con Artists, and Magic (with detours through comedy, birthdays, and magic show stories)
Overview
This episode of The Nateland Podcast is a deep dive into scams of all sorts — from classic con artists, Ponzi schemes, and fairground tricksters to modern spam texts and comedian-targeted podcast scams. With Nate and Dusty both out, master magician and comedian Stephen Bargatze (Nate’s dad) joins Brian and Aaron to share stories from his long career, muse on audience psychology, and swap both scam stories and magic secrets. The conversation is candid, filled with playful ribbing, and rich in behind-the-scenes glimpses of both the magic and comedy worlds.
Table of Contents
- Host & Guest Catch-Up / Weekend Recap
- Comedy & Magic: Audience Dynamics and Mishaps
- Listener Comments & Banter
- The World of Scams
- Magic Community Insights
- Tour Dates & Plugs
- Quotes & Memorable Moments
- Timestamps for Key Segments
Host & Guest Catch-Up / Weekend Recap
Stephen's Taped Special & Performing Stories
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Stephen recounts the saga of taping his long-awaited special — postponed multiple times, with ownership of music rights (especially "My Heart Will Go On") causing headaches (02:00–04:39).
- “I’ve waited 45 years to get it done, but I just wanted it over and stuff, ‘cause I just been... ignored it.” — Stephen Bargatze, 02:13
- Hilarious insight into using "free" music and struggles performing to unfamiliar cues.
- Peanuts theme rights acquired thanks to the family's fandom: “Turned out that family’s a big fan of Nate, and they kind of gave us a deal.” — Stephen, 03:43
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Audience management, hecklers, and psychic tricks: Stephen explains the science of picking the right audience volunteer, aiming for those who aren’t there to steal the show (07:12–10:22).
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Memorable performance tales: The "plunger-on-head" bit, school shows, and the trickiness of improvising when volunteers try to outsmart the act (07:12–12:25).
Birthday Banter
- Birthday celebrations for Brian and others (16:01–16:35, 25:42–26:15): Running joke about everyone’s birthdays being days apart.
- Brian shares his recent struggle with pink eye (16:12–17:12), with jokes keeping it light:
- “I decided on my 54th birthday to wear my glasses, so…” — Brian Bates, 16:12
- “Stephen slid to the other end of the tank.” — Aaron Weber, 16:31
Comedy & Magic: Audience Dynamics and Mishaps
Picking Volunteers & Audience Psychology
- Stephen explains his years-long process for vetting audience volunteers — older ladies used to be his go-to ("the older, the better"), now tricky since he turned 70. He avoids volunteers who want to be the star:
- “You don’t want someone who’s going to want to be the show.” — Brian Bates, 08:02
- “You can get away with everything if it’s an older lady. ...You could do anything.” — Stephen, 09:28
Mistakes On Stage
- The terror of predictable tricks going suddenly wrong:
- “If that ring doesn’t come out or you hear it go crunch in the gears, there’s nothing you can do but go, ‘Me and you are gonna have to go talk in the back when this is all over.’” — Stephen, 38:07.
- Elaborates on always having a bailout plan or ‘out’ for tricks (38:04–39:14).
On Bombing: Comic vs. Magician (37:17–41:31)
- “What is worse, bombing as a comedian or bombing as a magician?” — Listener question (37:17)
- Aaron: “Magician’s got it easy, dude, up there with all your props.”
- Stephen: “For magician, sometimes you can get a laugh with a funny line if something flops. But if someone intentionally ruins your trick, especially mind reading, there’s just not much you can do.”
Listener Comments & Banter
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Conspiracy corner: Listeners and Stephen joke about being on the "Dusty wavelength" regarding the evil in the world — including the possibility of all refs being demons, and the ongoing demon/alien theory with Dusty (27:04–28:50).
- “The big thing me and Dusty always agreed on is that I think aliens are demons. And he does, too.” — Stephen, 28:28
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Podcast routine ribbing: “Well, there’s four of us, so [the commenter] didn’t even count me as part of the group.” — Brian, after a compliment to Aaron (29:28)
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Buc-ee’s bathroom tangent (33:00–34:20) — why are their stalls so phone-signal-proof?
The World of Scams
Modern Day Text/Email Scams (70:56–74:37)
- Brian reveals recent spam texts and wrong-number scams and the hosts ponder how the innocent first messages (“Are you still driving?”) might become financial cons.
- “Are you still driving? …That’s a great question to ask.” — Stephen, 71:55
- Stephen: “My wife always told me, don’t ever say yes or hello. I mean, it’s one of those. Yeah, that’s all they want. You say yes, they’re gonna record your voice...” (73:39)
Podcast/Comedian Scams
- Both Brian and Aaron have received emails offering thousands to appear on "big" podcasts.
- Aaron shares how these scams ultimately aim to seize control of comedians' Facebook pages:
- “That particular scam is designed to get control of your Facebook page... ‘add us as admin’ ...and then they take your Facebook page.” — Aaron, 76:33
Classic Cons & Carnivals (78:54–83:33)
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Stephen’s personal stories:
- Lost all his money at a county fair scam game (bowling pin trick, 78:54).
- Getting conned into buying three versions of the same magic deck as a kid.
- The classic ‘mark’ chalk on the back con.
- Insider secrets:
- Bowling pin games are rigged by tilting the platform.
- The "mouse pick-a-hole" trick uses hormones to guide results.
- “But what got me is they did three different tricks and they all had different—the one card that was the same was different... I bought three decks and got home. I had the same deck three times.” — Stephen, 80:57
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Aaron’s personal scam story: Lost $30 to a Venmo conman in a diner, then found a mini-online community of others conned by the same guy (83:29–86:52).
Famous Con Artists
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Ponzi Schemes Explained:
- “Ponzi scheme, you get it all is all about getting new investors and you take their money and pay the original investors…” — Brian, 91:39
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Historical Scams:
- Even Isaac Newton was conned in the 1700s by a fake investment scheme (92:36).
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Morality & Human Nature in Scams:
- Stephen muses on the thin line between the scammer and the ‘mark’ — both trying to get over on the other (93:02–94:17): “Am I really scamming you or are you trying to scam me?”
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Future Scams (95:17–96:38):
- Aaron predicts AI will escalate these scams — “imagine my grandmother gets AI video of me saying I need help... who’s not going to fall for that?”
- Stephen: “You’re going to have to have a code word... That’s the only way to beat that!”
Magic Community Insights
David Blaine, Criss Angel, David Copperfield (58:53–63:32)
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On Blaine:
- “He’s the closest we have to what Houdini was… In the beginning, the magic world did not like David Blaine because he took simple tricks that all of us knew and he got a special with it and then he killed it… He made magic popular again.” — Stephen, 59:19
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On Criss Angel:
- “He just seems like somebody that wants to be a rock star but couldn’t do it. So he decided to be a magician that tried to be a rock star.” — Stephen, 62:21
- Wild story about Criss stopping his Vegas show to scold a critic tweeting in real-time (62:11).
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On Copperfield:
- “I still think the flying... was the greatest moment of my magic, seeing that.” — Stephen, 62:36
Young Magicians: The Importance of Patter (53:59–57:01)
- “Patter is how... The worst kind is when you’re just telling people what they see. A patter is when you make the trick interesting — connect it to a story, a little lie, something memorable.” — Stephen, 54:06
- Advice: Focus on technical skills first, then on crafting interesting and unique presentation. No one cares about the method; they care about entertainment.
Tour Dates & Plugs
- Brian: Stand-up across the US and first-ever Canada show in Leamington, Ontario (108:21–110:42); multiple tour stops announced.
- Aaron: Weekend in Dayton/Toledo (113:01–113:22); more Ohio dates following.
- Stephen: Upcoming shows, pickleball tournaments, and college events (“I was hoping to take a couple weeks off but I got something for Dave Ramsey on Wednesday that none of you can come to…” — Stephen, 111:14).
Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On feeling old as an entertainer:
- “I’m 70 now. I could go at any minute. And if I do die, they’re going to run that tape by my casket.” — Stephen, 23:14
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On Conspiracy:
- “I think the big thing me and Dusty always agreed on is that I think aliens are demons. And he does too.” — Stephen, 28:28
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On modern scam texts:
- “I fall for the dumbest one. I hate the one. Now, the ones that say, ‘Hey, are you around?’” — Stephen, 71:01
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On the anxiety of trick mishaps:
- “If that ring doesn’t come out or you hear it go crunch in the gears, there’s nothing you can do but go, ‘Me and you are gonna have to go talk in the back when this is all over.’” — Stephen, 38:07
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On Blaine’s impact:
- “When he came out, he made magic popular again. ...at once, Doug Henning in my life, [then] David Copperfield made it popular... Most people know Blaine, and right now, he’s that guy.” — Stephen, 60:20
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On classic cons:
- “He bet somebody he could drive a golf ball 500 yards... waited till wintertime when it was an icy lake.” — Brian, 103:44
Timestamps for Key Segments
- [02:00–04:39] – Stephen's special, music rights headaches, family stories
- [07:12–12:25] – Working with audience volunteers, heckler anecdotes
- [16:01–16:35/25:42–26:15] – The great October birthday run
- [33:00–34:20] – Buc-ee’s bathroom theory
- [37:17–41:31] – “What’s worse: bombing as a comic or magician?”
- [53:59–57:01] – Young magicians, the curse/blessing of patter, advice on learning performing craft
- [58:53–63:32] – Magic’s celebrity hierarchy: Blaine, Angel, Copperfield
- [70:56–74:37] – Modern scam texts, “are you still driving?”, comedian podcast cons
- [78:54–83:33] – Real-life scams, carnival cons, losing all your date money to the bowling pin trick
- [83:29–86:52] – Unpacking a Venmo scam, community of the conned
- [91:39–94:17] – Ponzi schemes explained, scam morality
- [95:17–96:38] – The coming era of AI scams
- [103:36–104:40] – Titanic Thompson stories, legendary real-life hustles
Final Thoughts
Episode 277 delivers an entertaining, candid, and educational look at scams—on stage and off. Stephen Bargatze elevates the conversation with stories that blur the line between magic, comedy, and the psychological games of everyday life. Whether you’re curious about the mechanics of fairground cons or the psychology of picking a good audience volunteer, or you’re a fan of deep-cut magic history and casual conspiracy tangents, this episode is rich in both insight and laughs.
[For more, listen to The Nateland Podcast, episode 277: "Scams" wherever you get podcasts.]