As an aspiring comedian growing up in Ohio, Matt Rife never anticipated becoming as successful as he is now — and he’s still pinching himself that his goals have come to fruition.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly to promote Netflix’s Matt Rife: Lucid – A Crowd Work Special, Rife, 28, reflected on the early days of his career.
“The dream I had was, OK, if I could just sell out weekends at comedy clubs for 300-seat venues, I f–king made it,” Rife tells Us. “The level of being a Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Kat Williams — these arena acts [and] top-tier entertainers — never even occurred to me. I’m from f–king Ohio, it doesn’t really seem fitting.”
Rife got his first big break on MTV, appearing on Wild ‘n Out, The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars and hosting the Total Request Live reboot in 2017. In 2021, he began self-producing comedy specials that went viral on social media, earning him a loyal following across TikTok and Instagram. Now, he shares the record for breaking Ticketmaster due to high demand — with the likes of Taylor Swift — but success has come with its own set of challenges.
“For 11 straight years, I woke up pretty much every single day with nothing to do unless I created something to do,” he explains. “Now, I wake up and go, ‘Wow, I don’t know if I’ll ever have a free day for the rest of my life,’ which is a blessing and a curse.”
Rife continues, “I don’t ever want to be bored ever again — that used to drive me absolutely insane — [and] there’s nothing worse than your phone not ringing, but every now and then, I’m like, ‘OK, am I ever going to get a chance to enjoy the house I just bought?’”
The comedian, who’s been open about suffering from anxiety and depression, admits success has not eliminated his mental health issues, either. In fact, “It’s gotten so much worse,” the Fresh Off the Boat actor admits. “There’s no crash course on how to be famous.”
“Nobody tells you that you have to take on new battles [and] get used to people telling you things about yourself that only you thought about yourself,” Rife continues. “You have to learn to deflect so much negativity that’s thrown at you when so many people don’t understand the negativity you live with in your own head.”
“But at the same time, certain anxieties and certain depressions are also lifted by the success,” he says. “There’s a little less worry about ‘What if?’”
As Rife navigates notoriety, he’s taking away a valuable lesson from his time on the road for the ProbleMATTic World Tour (“I’ve learned that I’m built for this,” he tells Us) and proactively trying to embrace the moment. Not only is he releasing his memoir, Your Mom’s Gonna Love Me, in December, he was also tapped to host Netflix’s first-ever crowd work special, Lucid.
“I’m super happy to get to work with [Netflix] in any capacity really, but to work with them on something that has been so natural and niche to me, and to what I do, is really cool.” he shares. “I think we’re bringing something to Netflix that people haven’t really seen before.”
Though having the audience participate in the special — filmed at The Comedy Zone in Charlotte, NC — could have been risky, he tells Us filming went off without a hitch. “I was like, what if we get dud after dud after dud of an interaction?” he adds. “Luckily, we got fire after fire.”
Matt Rife: Lucid – A Crowd Work Special is streaming now on Netflix
