“Subsequent time you see some haters in my feedback saying, ‘All he does is crowd work, it’s really easy’ — is it?!” the comic Matt Rife asks his viewers. The 28-year-old social media star has clearly retained the defensiveness that marked a lot of “Pure Choice,” his debut Netflix hour from final fall greatest remembered for an successfully rage-baiting, if groanworthy, bit about home violence. However in “Lucid,” his newest hours, Rife’s typical hobbyhorses — dick jokes, principally, plus the aforementioned chip on his shoulder — are refracted by means of his viewers, a number of hundred followers gathered on the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina for what Rife proudly and repeatedly stresses is Netflix’s first all-crowd work particular.
Rife isn’t the primary stand-up to supply a whole act from spontaneous reactions to his personal paying viewers. (A decade in the past, Todd Barry carried out a whole tour with no ready bits, synthesizing the reveals right into a particular directed by Lance Bangs.) It’s doubtless the phantom haters Rife is so irked by are responding much less to his time-honored technique of forging a reference to the group than the impression that Rife is extra influencer than observational grasp, utilizing TikTok as a shortcut to the higher echelons of his subject. Along with his full lips and sq. jaw, Rife definitely appears to be like the half.
To that finish, Rife is cautious to emphasise that he’s been performing on the Comedy Zone since he was an adolescent, although his mainstream success is comparatively latest. No matter one thinks of his Gen-Z bro schtick, “Lucid” — directed by frequent collaborator Erik Griffin — showcases Rife as a seasoned MC. He is aware of how lengthy to dwell on an attention-grabbing response with out wringing it dry (a girl who runs a enterprise promoting blow job tutorials), and pivot away from an apparent lifeless finish (a disjointed ramble about being single). Moreover, incorporating different factors of view helps mood the exhaustion that comes with Rife pantomiming a high-octane intercourse toy. He’s extra palatable as a garnish than the principle course.
“Lucid” is, in apply, not as spontaneous as its premise implies. Although Rife opens with an anticipated little bit of outfit-based roasting — a gentleman with a ridiculous pair of bedazzled, curly-toed boots is “dressed like Santa’s favourite elf” — a lot of the hour is a guided dialog as regards to goals. The primary half is about goals within the aspirational sense: a girl who’s left a profession in advertising to change into a pilot; a homosexual man who is aware of what his stripper identify can be if he had been a girl. (Brandy Jameson. Fairly good!) The second, weaker half is about extra literal goals. Rife has a recurring nightmare about his tooth falling out; one viewers member retains getting chased by a faceless witch.
Although he’s a reliable facilitator, Rife by no means generates the electrical energy of true, transcendent spontaneity. The framing itself is pretty trite. Rife introduces his topic by acknowledging he’s fortunate to get to dwell his personal dream, so he desires to learn about others’ — however by the tip, it’s change into a setup for extra juvenile intercourse tales. (Naturally, the nightmare chat is adopted by a survey on moist goals.)
In the previous few years, Netflix has undertaken the identical pivot with comedy as scripted programming, shifting focus from status or at the very least range to pure populist performs. (Critics definitely aren’t the supposed viewers anymore; no advance screeners of “Lucid” had been made out there for evaluate.) The onetime dwelling of Maria Bamford’s wacky, ingenious “Girl Dynamite” now companions with the likes of Rife, Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis: plainspoken males who’re generally controversial in an exhausting, tradition warfare form of means, however principally supply low-effort laughs. “Lucid” is simply the newest stage of a broader recreation plan.
“Matt Rife: Lucid” is now streaming on Netflix.