Hollywood Life Interview: Matt Rife

Hollywood Life

Every comedian has experienced a bad stand-up gig, including Matt Rife. The 28-year-old recalled which of his past performances still haunts him to this day during an exclusive video interview with Hollywood Life.

Transcript

00:00 Matt, what's up, legend?

00:02 Look at me.

00:03 Look at me, come on.

00:04 Look how good I am.

00:05 What are you doing here, man?

00:06 I'm doing good, man.

00:07 Good to see you, dog.

00:08 How's everything been?

00:09 Amazing, man.

00:10 Just did a course out at the Knicks for the first time.

00:11 Pretty insane, huh?

00:12 How cool is that?

00:13 Incredible.

00:14 Pretty insane experience.

00:15 A lot of people there.

00:16 Big week for you.

00:17 Netflix special's coming out.

00:18 How's it feel in your neck of the woods?

00:19 Like, how's it feel for you?

00:20 This is a crazy experience.

00:21 It's not overnight success.

00:22 You've been working your life for a long time for this.

00:24 How do you feel going into it?

00:25 That's exactly how I feel, man.

00:27 Netflix is such a verified platform in so many people's eyes.

00:31 For the past couple years, I've been known as just a TikTok comedian, or he just does

00:35 Wild 'N Out, or he only does crowd work, some kind of bullshit.

00:39 And now I get to show people what I actually do for a full hour with no crowd work.

00:42 That's amazing.

00:43 So I think people are going to be really pleasantly surprised.

00:45 Every comic has a crazy bombing story.

00:47 What is your worst bombing experience ever?

00:49 Oh, dude.

00:50 I mean, because it's everyone, you have to do it.

00:52 It's part of the game.

00:53 It was game seven of the 2012 NBA playoffs.

00:59 It was when LeBron was in Miami.

01:00 I think I'm getting that year correct.

01:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02 I was performing at a sports bar outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and it was packed, filled

01:08 with everybody watching the game.

01:10 I'm supposed to go on and do 20 minutes.

01:12 I ran through 20 minutes of material in like four minutes.

01:16 They left the TVs on.

01:18 So everyone's just watching.

01:19 I'm in the middle of a joke and people are just diving into nachos.

01:24 It was the worst time of my entire life.

01:25 I've never felt more invisible.

01:27 That's awesome.

01:28 You're still on tour though.

01:29 So how does it feel going on tour?

01:30 Because doing new material, there's a lot going on.

01:33 I mean, you're still on an international tour right now.

01:37 Right now is the best part of the tour because we have a special coming out.

01:40 But now after you release a special, you have to rebuild the entire thing, which is the

01:43 scariest part of comedy because you don't know what's funny again.

01:45 You have to try out all new jokes, which is usually just notes you wrote down on your

01:48 phone when you're thinking you're way too high.

01:50 You're like, "This is the funniest fucking thing ever."

01:53 Then you read it sober the next day and you're like, "I'm going to go to jail for sure."

01:56 So I'm enjoying the process of starting all over again and developing a new show.

02:00 That's where the work actually comes in and I enjoy it.

02:02 What about the transition?

02:03 What do you think was the difference maker in your career?

02:05 Because, I mean, again, this is not overnight success.

02:07 You've been grinding for a long, long time.

02:09 But the change and everything where things started to really take off.

02:13 Do you know what that means?

02:14 Oh, it was social media, dude.

02:15 Which is so funny because anybody who knows me knows I was so reluctant to do social media.

02:19 I hate social media.

02:20 I think it's the worst place ever.

02:22 But it finally gave me an avenue and an outlet to reach more people.

02:25 Because, I mean, doing comedy for 10, 11 years and not having anybody want to come to your

02:30 shows, you don't get on any TV shows, you're not really touring or anything, you start

02:34 to doubt yourself.

02:35 You're like, "Am I delusional?

02:36 Am I not a funny person?"

02:38 And social media allowed me that avenue to get in front of more people and then people

02:41 apparently like my comedy.

02:45 Not that guy, but most people do like my comedy.

02:47 Thank God.

02:48 Last thing, what's next for you?

02:49 Obviously, you have the stand-up special, the Netflix special, which everyone's excited

02:51 for.

02:52 People are going crazy for that.

02:53 So excited.

02:54 And then you're doing your international tour, which you sold out for.

02:56 What is next for Matt Ripe?

02:57 Is it TV?

02:58 Is it movies?

02:59 Are they getting those meetings?

03:00 What do you want to do exactly?

03:01 Yeah, as soon as this strike is over, God willing, we do have some projects in the works

03:05 and I'm very excited to make that transition over to film and television.

03:08 I love acting and producing as much as I love stand-up.

03:10 I've just been doing stand-up longer.

03:12 I'm also interested to see this crossover.

03:14 That's awesome, dude. I'm happy for you. I know it's a crazy week for you.

03:17 Good to see you, buddy.

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