Matt Rife on dealing with haters: ‘Someone’s always gonna complain’
He’s in the fast lane to fame.
Comedian Matt Rife, 28, has had a meteoric rise into the spotlight. Within the past 3 years, he’s gotten a staggering 19 million TikTok followers, an ongoing world tour, and two Netflix specials.
His second special, “Matt Rife: Lucid – A Crowd Work Special,” is now streaming and will be out on Tuesday. Filmed at The Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina, it’s the platform’s first-ever crowd work special (when a comedian directly interacts with the audience, riffing off of jokes with them in real-time).
“My life has changed a lot the last couple of years,” Rife told The Post via email.
“I was able to buy my mom a house, employ my friends, and accomplish dreams I never thought possible – like selling out The Hollywood Bowl. But I think the moment I guess I thought ‘I made it’ was when Samuel L. Jackson followed me on Instagram. I would’ve never guessed he knew what Instagram even was. I love him.”
Rife said that as his success has been a whirlwind, his friends have kept him grounded.
“They pick me up from the dark times and they help me appreciate the good times. They’re my constant and I love them for that,” said Rife.
He added, “I guess the hardest thing about the new spotlight, or should I say funniest thing, is that it’s interesting learning that people can just make up anything they want about you for their own gain. It’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.”
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, however, because Rife’s 2023 Netflix special “Natural Selection” prompted controversy around a joke involving domestic violence. At the time, he responded to critics with a link to special needs helmets in his Instagram stories, which caused further backlash.
“My way of dealing with haters has definitely changed,” said Rife.
“I used to be allowed to just fire back and hurt someone’s feelings the way they ‘tried’ to hurt mine. Now I can’t respond to anything because it gives them exactly what they want and need…attention.”
That reaction to his first special didn’t change Rife’s approach to comedy, he said.
“I’m never worried about a joke being ‘too provocative.’ There’s no such thing. It’s comedy.”
Rife added, “You like a joke or you don’t, and keep it pushing. Someone’s always gonna complain about something, it’s the world we live in. If a joke doesn’t go the way I’d hoped, I just work on it until it gets the reaction I hope for. That’s the fun of standup. Etching away at your art until it’s what you envision.”
About his new special, “Lucid,” Rife said, “Oh, I guarantee someone will complain about something in the new special. Couldn’t imagine what it’d be, but then again I didn’t anticipate it last time either. I really couldn’t care less. This new special is going to make a lot of people happy, and those are the opinions I care about.”
Since his audience can tend to get rowdy, in doing a crowd work special, Rife said, “I was a little worried things might go off the rails, but that’s the fun. High risk, high reward. It’s unpredictable.”
And even as he’s selling out arenas, Rife said there’s still some accomplishments in Hollywood that he’d like to achieve.
“I’d love a chance to host something like The Golden Globes,” he said.
“Or be a part of a show like ‘Stranger Things.’ Or even a film like ‘Knives Out.’”
