The sexy funnyman who's making audiences and the internet laugh: who is Matt Rife and how did he rise to the top of comedy show business?
He's beautiful, he's funny, he's successful. And suddenly he's everywhere. Matt Rife is an American comedian, an Ohio native who has shot to stardom as a stand-up and internet humorist in recent weeks, and it's virtually impossible to open TikTok or suggested Instagram posts and not see some of his videos.
What's more, Rife has now also become the subject of many headlines. In fact, a few days ago he announced that he's going on a world tour and will be performing his stand-up show all over the US and heading to Australia or Europe as well. He may not have known that tickets would be dusty. While his fans and groupies are cheering to get live insults from their darling (more on that in the next paragraphs), the rest of the world is wondering, "Who the hell is this Matt Rife?"
A genius with a sharpened tongue and a wickedly sexy look
Have you ever seen a stand-up show? No doubt you have. It doesn't have to be live, there's plenty of them on TV. Most of them take a similar form - the comedian has a pre-written script consisting mostly of a mixture of his own stories and commentary on socially relevant topics. If you're at a live show, you're also praying the whole time that he doesn't accidentally notice you and start making fun of you.
Not so at Matt Riff's shows. With him, visitors wish they were the target of his attention. And his jokes. Rife is a "roast comedian", a comedian who builds his humor on making fun of the audience. He works the crowd masterfully, reacting instantly with his sharpened tongue to the audience's lines or behaviour, and again and again demolishing everyone with perfect lines and gags that you can't even believe he just thought of.
But it's not just humor that scores points with his female and (especially gay) audiences. Because Rife is pretty damn sexy, too. "He looks like he was bred from the genes of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. He looks as if you commissioned AI to create a model for Abercrombie crossed with a member of a boy band," the Dallas Observer says of his appearance.
Insulting viewers to a tee. Or to praise
Matt Rife began his career when he was seventeen. But aside from stand-up, he's also managed to make a name for himself on TV screens, debuting on MTV shows like Wild 'N Out, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and NBC's comedy competition Bring The Funny.
His greatest talent, however, is not acting per se, but rather his charm of personality, immediacy and ability to wrap a crowd around his finger. He makes fun of his audience, he makes plenty of it, and he's not afraid to go beyond certain social taboos, but he's always tasteful and his humor isn't built solely on insulting those in the room. On the contrary, he sometimes even praises and genuflects to them himself. And most importantly, he entertains himself with his jokes, so he oozes an authentic energy that you just want to soak up.
The master of social media
Of course, we all know that to have a stellar career and sell-out halls in hours, it's not just talent that's needed, but also a bit of luck, and above all, smart management. Rife seems to have it all. In fact, he knows how to sell his comedy skills perfectly, not only to audiences in clubs, but also on social media.
Although he has "only" 14 million followers on TikTok, his videos routinely get tens of millions of views. They are spreading organically and picking up more and more viewers. And he is similarly successful on Instagram, where he has 4.4 million followers.
The success of Rif's TikTok videos is surprising in its own way. After all, TikTok itself recommends that videos be short, between 11 and 17 seconds, but Rife goes the complete opposite route. One of his most viewed and successful posts, "Cookies and Milf," is an almost unbelievable 10 minutes long!
Is Matt Rife gay?
A rather personal, but also completely understandable question. Especially since Rife is especially popular with women and gay men. One group, however, will not be pleased with the answer. In case it wasn't clear from the previous video, Rife is interested in women. Which doesn't stop him from being an outspoken supporter of LGBT+ people. Although he pokes fun at them too, his jokes aren't blunt homophobic insults. "I'd like to be gay just for the fashion and the physique. I'm straight, but I'd like to have a gay physique, you know what I mean?" he jokes in one of his videos, for example.
Moreover, fans can be comforted with the information that, at least according to the information available on the web, Rife is single for now. So if you'd like to have a few T-shirts printed and a box of cookies baked, it's not entirely out of the question. The only problem is that for the next year plus Rife will be travelling all over the world. That's because his stand-up ProbleMATTIC World Tour has dates lined up through next fall (2024) with locations all over the world. Which means he'll be looking at Europe as well. Since his show is purely English, he'll spend most of his time in the UK, but will also perform in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Madrid and Milan, to name a few.
