From TikTok To YouTube Specials, Matt Rife Is Taking Over The Comedy Scene!

While you may not know the name Matt Rife, you’d certainly recognize him from one of his many viral stand-up comedy clips on TikTok. After starting stand-up comedy at age 15, Rife is now one of the most-followed standup comedians on TikTok with over 14 million followers and videos that receive over 10 million views. But he has recently expanded beyond the platform. After over a year of performing with the same hour-and-a-half of material, Rife felt like he was ready for a full-length special, but because he couldn’t garner any studio backing, he decided to turn to his fans to crowdfund a special. This ended up working out, and on December 17, 2021, Rife released his first special “OnlyFans” on Youtube, which to date has just under 10 million views on Youtube.

In an interview with Cinema Blend, he described how, before “OnlyFans”, his audience was “mainly younger women and 'Wild N’ Out' fans” (which Rife had an electric 2-year run on as a recurring cast member from 2015-2017). Rife described how he was grateful for the success of “OnlyFans” because it made him popular to more fans of standup rather than just TikTok users. So, between the standup fans, younger women, and fans of "Wild N’ Out", there was a lot of excitement for Rife’s newest special, “Matthew Steven Rife”. 

“Matthew Steven Rife” is a surprisingly raw look into the comedian’s life, his opinions, and his family, specifically his relationship with his grandfather, Steven. Rife covers several controversial topics in his special, including jokes about gay, transgender, and disabled people. This can be a scary line to cross for any comedian, but with Rife’s confidence, quick wit, and “I don’t really care” attitude, you can’t help but enjoy yourself. Rife also has a large part of the special dedicated to stories about his grandfather, but worry not. It is most certainly not a wholesome story of their first time fishing together. The story Rife tells of his grandfather is shocking, and by all accounts should be horrifically uncomfortable, but Rife’s charming delivery, punchlines, and tendency to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all makes it work fantastically. I really could do it no justice, you just have to see it for yourself. 

Another large part of Rife’s fame and his act is his incredibly quick crowd work skills. The majority of Rife’s initial clips that blew up were of him interacting with the crowd and improvising comedy based on these conversations. His ability to make callbacks to previous content from the show and make up perfect punchlines on the spot makes his comedy all together more impressive, and way more fun. Feeling like you’re part of the show always makes a performance more entertaining, and Rife makes sure to do this. In fact, 11 minutes of the hour-long “Matthew Steven Rife” is devoted purely to crowd work. In this segment, Rife asks the audience what they think some "red flags", or behaviors that tend to signal that someone would make a bad romantic partner, are and riffs off of each of them. Attempting crowd work can be a huge risk to a comedian, as it relies on the audience cooperating and the comedian’s ability to improvise, but in this case, it pays off splendidly and truly creates some of the most memorable moments of the special. So if you’re ever lucky enough to find yourself front row at a Matt Rife show, chances are you’ll become part of the magic. 

Along with the topics listed above, “Matthew Steven Rife” also has jokes about more relatable topics such as family and dating. This is highly relatable content, especially for a younger Gen-Z audience, and this is what truly makes Matt Rife shine. The topics he discusses appeal to a younger crowd. While not always the case, classic comedy tropes for older comics usually have to do with things like marriage, getting older, and having kids. These are not relatable to younger people, but Rife takes things such as online dating and fashion and makes it into a standup performance designed for the younger generation. This is why he gained such popularity on TikTok, a platform made for this type of audience. But now he is bigger than TikTok. His two Youtube specials, “OnlyFans” and “Matthew Steven Rife”, have a combined total of 27 million views at the time of this writing (the original “OnlyFans” special has 7 million and then it was re-posted by 800 Pound Gorilla Media; the repost has just below 10 million views), and Rife just announced a massive world tour with over a hundred shows across the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

With two specials under his belt and an upcoming sold out world tour, the sky truly is the limit for this young comedian. Rife went from TikTok clicks to touring at Radio City Music Hall, and we can’t wait to see where he goes next!