Matt Rife is living his comedy dream. The hard part: Maintaining it

Shortly after turning into the youngest humorist in historical past to promote out the Hollywood Bowl throughout the second installment of Netflix is a Joke in Could, Matt Rife’s tireless pursuit of success lastly caught as much as him.

His efficiency schedule clocking 40 to 50 reveals a month led to a stretch of consecutive days with out sleep as he stayed up prepping for reveals, enhancing social movies and barreling from metropolis to metropolis. Although his physique and thoughts had been getting shaky on tour, he fought via it.

Lastly, simply earlier than a latest pair of reveals in Indiana, he stated he virtually collapsed whereas leaving his lodge room and was pressured to cancel the gigs simply hours earlier than showtime. Struggling blurred imaginative and prescient and painful ringing in his ears, he might barely stroll or speak and needed to be taken to the emergency room.

“I felt like I used to be legitimately dying,” Rife stated throughout an interview on the Kookaburra Lounge in Hollywood. “It’s embarrassing, man, as a result of everyone round me noticed this coming.” His piercing blue eyes forged down briefly on the ground as he thought concerning the second he virtually pushed himself previous his limits. “Everyone’s solely response was, ‘Can’t imagine this didn’t occur sooner.’”

Since that episode, Rife stated he’s spent appreciable time discovering a steadiness that enables him to sleep and to pursue his goals. His newest venture, “Lucid: A Crowd Work Particular,” premiering Tuesday on Netflix, is a brand new one-hour particular through which he interacts immediately along with his followers, speaking to them about their very own goals, fears and aspirations. Although the purpose, in fact, is laughter, Rife stated the particular can also be about discovering methods to narrate to his followers via dialogue in an actual, significant approach and to remind himself to understand his personal success.

“The idea of goals on the whole was simply one thing that was so particular to me, as a result of I’m so fortunate that I get to lastly reside my greatest dream, being this second that I’m having proper now,” he stated. “And I do know so many different folks attempt for that, not essentially in comedy particularly, however everyone has one thing that they’re chasing.”

In the course of the particular he singles out members of the viewers to speak about the place they had been in chasing their dream gigs or analyzing their targets— and sure, crack jokes and roast them a bit for our enjoyment. Although this isn’t his first crowd-work particular (see 2023’s “Strolling Purple Flag”), it’s a particular price range improve from a single digital camera set-up. The brand new Netflix manufacturing reveals Rife on the peak of his powers, sparking spontaneous humor out of the followers who packed into the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, N.C.

Rife is understood for crowd work, and he thinks he does it at the next degree.

“It’s one thing that’s simply enjoyable and thrilling for me,” he stated. “These are moments which can be by no means going to be duplicated at every other present I ever do. … Whenever you’re rehearsing your set, constructing the fabric on a present for an hourlong, materials particular, you’ll be able to undoubtedly get uninterested in telling your individual jokes.”

For a comic book who as soon as struggled to promote tickets for weeknight reveals at big-city comedy golf equipment, the push of fame over the past couple of years feels surreal.

“After I began doing comedy this was by no means even a dream of mine to be at this degree. I used to be identical to, if I might ever promote out a comedy membership one time ever, that’s the epitome of what I feel a comic most likely could possibly be,” he stated.

Humility apart, there’s no scarcity of each love and hate on the web for Rife. Since going viral on TikTok in 2022, he’s has develop into a fixture in popular culture, incessantly making headlines for whom he’s courting, what home he’s shopping for or no matter backlash he’s stirred up for jokes that strike some as sexist and misogynistic. However unfavorable suggestions hasn’t had a lot of an impact on his tour numbers. Up to now, he and Taylor Swift are the one two artists who command sufficient of a feeding frenzy to interrupt Ticketmaster when asserting a tour. The argument over whether or not his fame is a results of his movie-star seems to be or his expertise is effectively worn at this level, but few appear to issue within the breakneck tempo at which Rife and his group function to maintain his momentum going.

Fellow comic Erik Griffin, who directed “Lucid” in addition to Rife’s earlier specials together with 2023’s “Matthew Steven Rife” and his Netflix debut, “Pure Choice,” has labored with the younger star since Rife was only a teen who was hitting Griffin up on-line on the lookout for an opportunity to open for the veteran comedian onstage.

“What I like about him is his work ethic,” Griffin stated. “Nothing was handed to him. He’s been working laborious for 12 years now, the fan base has simply caught up with it, they usually’ve made him tremendous well-known.”

Rife began in comedy at age 15, having develop into obsessed when his grandma took him to a Dane Cook dinner present. Too younger to drive himself to golf equipment, Rife had his grandpa take him from North Lewisburg, Ohio, to open mics in addition to “bringer reveals,” a ceremony of passage through which comics should promote a sure variety of tickets to get onstage. None of Rife’s pals had been sufficiently old to get inside a comedy membership, so his grandpa would purchase tickets. For Rife, the joy of performing was initially eclipsed by worry.

The primary time Rife went onstage for an open mic, he stated, he virtually dirty his pants. “I had all my jokes memorized, however I used to be so nervous. And the host goes onstage. ‘We’ve got a first-timer tonight. Give it up for the uncomfortably younger Matt Reef,’ ” Rife recalled, including that he was so nervous he thought his bowels had been “gonna drop out of my physique.” It was then that Rife acknowledged the sensation of stage fright for the primary time. It excited him as a lot because it scared him, he stated.

The pursuit of a profession in comedy led him to go away Ohio and hit the street by age 17, and he settled in L.A. to pursue performing whereas nonetheless crisscrossing the nation for gigs. Throughout a decade of grinding, he put his seems to be, fast wit and work ethic to make use of, touchdown stints as a co-host of MTV’s short-lived “TRL” reboot and as a forged member of the sketch present “Wild ’N Out.” He additionally popped up on an episode of “Brooklyn 9-9.” In 2017, his title surfaced in Individuals journal when he was briefly romantically linked to Kate Beckinsale.

He amassed thousands and thousands of views on TikTok sketch and crowd work movies together with greater than 30 million views for his three YouTube specials previous to “Pure Choice” final 12 months. The comic’s capacity to construct a relationship with a largely feminine fan base stems from his crowd work expertise.

“He attracts folks in as a result of he listens,” Griffin stated. “So when he’s doing this crowd work with folks, he’s genuinely considering what persons are saying. These are the kind of clips which have gone viral for him, and people are the issues that resonate with folks. It’s not simply crowd work for the sake of crowd work.”

Normally Rife is ready to flip awkward or unusual interactions into comedy gold. It’s a lot more durable when an viewers member tries too laborious to be humorous. “Don’t try this,” he says bluntly. “Simply be your self. I’ll deliver the comedy out of you. Don’t fear. We’ll discover it, you realize, we’re Jordan and Pippin on this. Don’t be egocentric.”

Although it’s all the time been Rife’s dream to entertain on the highest degree, constructing fame within the TikTok period has include web criticism. Whether or not folks don’t like his seems to be or his humor or simply need to elicit a response within the feedback of social media, Rife is used to being a goal for backlash, although he stated he’s develop into higher at ignoring it. It’s no coincidence that his two favourite comedians are Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, two of the preferred and criticized comedians to carry a microphone.

“It’s rather a lot to juggle,” he stated. “To start with, you actually principally solely hear the optimistic … after which a really choose group of individuals go, ‘Oh, this particular person’s very effectively liked and revered, and I actually may lack that love and respect in my very own private life, so, due to this fact, I don’t need this particular person to have it.’ So then comes the inflow of negativity. You simply have to actually recognize the nice, as a result of the unhealthy goes to come back with it, assured. No one is universally liked.”

By way of pals and remedy, he’s discovered to not give negativity any oxygen in his world.

“I used to avidly reply again to folks. No one could possibly be meaner than me if I actually needed to be,” he stated. “However you’ll be able to’t try this, as a result of whether or not or not you are feeling such as you received that interplay otherwise you had the higher roast, what this troll or hater stated to you doesn’t matter. You gave them precisely what they need. All they need is consideration.”

Whereas the subject of combating for a dream is the main focus of Rife’s latest particular, the act of sharing his journey is on the coronary heart of his subsequent inventive output, the ebook “Your Mother’s Gonna Love Me,” slated for December. Rife talks about turning into a comedy heartthrob earlier than age 30, navigating his intercourse enchantment within the public eye, battling melancholy and enduring failure earlier than lastly hitting it large.

A part of recapturing the dream can also be speaking concerning the folks in his life who helped him obtain it, together with shut pals, early mentors and his grandpa — his first advocate in comedy — who died in November 2022, simply earlier than his profession actually started to take off.

“He by no means bought to see me have any of this, and he’s the rationale I’ve any of this,” Rife stated. “I’ve been so completely satisfied to be so distracted and preserve busy and preserve my thoughts off that form of stuff. However via remedy and this ebook, which has been a large type of remedy, it’s pressured me to take time and replicate on all of the issues that bought me so far proper now.”

After taking sufficient time to course of his previous, Rife is newly centered on preserving his dream alive.

“That’s the brand new nervousness, by the way in which,” he stated. “As a result of that’s the toughest factor. What number of viral sensations are there a 12 months? 30? Anyone can have a sizzling 12 months, a sizzling second of their profession. So many musicians, actors, comedians have them very often. Arduous half is sustaining.”