-You feel the love there? -Dude, I am so underdressed.
You didn't tell me what I was following.
Are you kidding me?
-Sorry. There's John Oliver feathers around.
I apologize if you're allergic. -No apology.
I actually ran into him earlier.
He tried to sell me a CD at Times Square
in that same outfit.
-Yeah, that wasn't him. That wasn't --
-That wasn't? -That was Elmo, yeah.
-Oh, got it.
-But I want to talk to you about everything in your whole career,
but I want to get to know you a little bit, too.
I just want to say, your ProbleMATTic World Tour --
you announced it.
And in 48 hours, you sold 600,000 tickets.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Dude. -Insane. I know. I know.
-What does that feel like?
-I mean, it feels incredible, man.
I went from -- I mean, literally, July of last year,
I was considering quitting comedy and everything.
I couldn't sell any tickets at any comedy club.
I wasn't getting any kind of break.
So, from going from playing clubs for 35 people
who got free tickets to we broke Ticketmaster, which is insane.
So, yeah, Travis Kelce, if it doesn't work out,
holler at your boy.
-Yeah. Yeah. -It's been unreal, man.
My entire life has changed in a matter of like 14 months.
I'm so grateful.
-I heard about this story.
I kind of related to you because you started comedy around 15?
-Yeah, 15. Yeah. -Wow!
-My my grandpa used to take me
to the Columbus Funny Bone in Ohio every Wednesday,
and it was a bringer show, like a lot of open mics are,
where you have to bring --
-Oh, a bringer, yeah. -Yeah.
Usually, like five people who have to pay for tickets.
-The way it works is, if you go and perform,
you have to actually bring five people
that buy tickets and buy drinks.
-Yeah. And hope they laugh. -And hope that they laugh.
Yeah, they just want business. -Oh, of course.
-They don't really care about your career.
-No, not at all. And all my friends were still
in high school, obviously, so they couldn't come attend.
So my grandpa would buy five tickets
so the club would think I had five people there to perform.
And then he would just watch me tank week after week after week.
-He was the only guy?
-No, but he loved it, though. He was my biggest supporter.
Like, if it wasn't for my grandpa,
I'd have absolutely no sense of humor
and I never would have got my start into comedy.
So -- -Got to give it up for grandpa.
-Oh, thank you. -Good to have that support.
-Thank you, thank you.
-What -- Do you remember what your set was
when you were 15 years old?
-Oh, nonsense. Not stand-up at all.
I also, for the first six months of doing stand-up,
had no idea what a set was.
Nobody told me.
I would just go up there and do five minutes
of, like, ridiculous things over and over again.
But it was never like kid stuff.
I never was -- I was never telling, like, school jokes.
I was never making, like, poop jokes or anything.
-No, it wasn't -- -It was always for adults,
because I was a kid performing for adults in a comedy club,
which I think inevitably helped me transition,
because around the time I was like 23, 24,
people start looking at you a little bit differently.
You're no longer, like, the novelty of like,
"Oh, he's a kid, give him a chance."
At 24, people were like, "We paid to get in here.
Make us laugh." -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-So I think that helped that transition
be a little bit smoother,
that I never really played into the young aspect.
-And you were saying earlier -- I'm sorry that I went over it --
you were thinking about quitting?
-Yeah. Yeah.
Dude, I mean, I had been doing comedy
for 11 years as of last year, 10 of it in L.A.
And it's just -- It beats you down hearing,
like, so much rejection.
Like, I couldn't get a special anywhere.
I couldn't get on a TV show anywhere.
I couldn't get on "The Jimmy Fallon Show."
-Oh, my God. Wow! -I know.
I submitted a couple times. We'll talk after.
-Okay, yeah.
-No, all of these things just weren't adding up,
and after a certain point, you go, "Am I delusional?
Like, maybe I'm not funny.
Maybe I'm not supposed to do this."
And then just one random video kind of changed everything.
-Yeah, it was a TikTok video.
-Yeah. I reluctantly started posting on TikTok
beginning of last year.
I've always hated social media.
I think it's so negative, and it just stresses me out.
But one day, I was just like,
"How long can I go against the grain and it not work?"
So I started posting sporadically.
And then I was at the Just For Laughs festival,
which is, like, the most notorious
comedy festival in comedy,
besides the New York Comedy Festival --
-Where I got my start. -Is it really?
-Yeah. New Faces. -No way. Never got New Faces.
-Alright, well -- -I know, I know, I know.
So, I'm at this festival,
and even that was a funny circumstance,
because over the pandemic, my friend Paul Elia,
who is one of my best friends, great comic --
we developed this show over the pandemic that was a dual-hosted,
improvised show.
-Yeah.
-And Just For Laughs wanted to pick up that show
for the festival, but they didn't want me.
They wanted Paul and not me.
And Paul, being a good friend, was like,
"I refuse to do the show without him.
Absolutely not."
So they said, "Well, we're not going to pay him.
We're not going to pay for his travel.
But if he wants to perform, he can perform."
So I was like, "You know what? I'll swallow my pride.
I want to experience what this festival is about."
We went. It was arguably the best show of the festival.
But before that show, the same night,
we were at dinner, and I was about to post this clip
called "The Lazy Hero," which I had already edited.
It was at a show in Phoenix, Arizona,
for like 75 people, and I was just sitting there.
I was so depleted and depressed at, you know, being at a place
I wasn't even invited to perform at.
And I was like, "This is so stupid.
Why am I even bothering posting this
if it's not going to do anything?"
And my friend was like, "You already edited it.
Just post it, and then we'll have a fun time tonight."
And then that video, over the next couple of days,
went insanely viral, like 20 to 30 million views.
And then that made every other video on my profile go viral.
And then everything just kind of exploded out of nowhere.
-30 million views. -Yeah, dude. Insane.
[ Cheers and applause ] Insane. Life-changing, man.
I'm so grateful.
-Isn't that wild, how that happened?
-The irony of something you dreaded doing
changing your entire life.
So take more chances. -Yeah, that's a good thing.
Yeah, take more chances. Why not?
Yeah. -Yeah.
-But I also love how people go like,
"Oh, Matt Rife -- yeah, overnight success."
-12-year overnight success, man. It takes forever.
But you have to look back at those moments,
and all the times you thought you were ready
for a certain opportunity, you probably weren't.
Now I'm in a position right now where there's a lot of pressure
to stand behind what I've built on social media
in my live performances, and had I not had
these years of training leading up to it,
these shows might not be as good as they are now.
Now I feel like I'm in the proper position
at the proper time.
-Good for you. -Thank you.
-I'm happy for you. -Thank you.
-I'm a fan. You're very funny. -Thank you so much.
-You have a new special November 15th on Netflix.
-Yeah, yeah. "Natural Selection."
-"Natural Selection."
-You were supposed to say it. I'm sorry.
-No. No. We both should say it.
"Natural Selection." -"Natural Selection."
You guys say it? -"Natural Selection"!
-Now everyone's saying it. Alright, this is fantastic.
-You're so fired. -I know, yeah.
You shot it in D.C. -Yeah.
-Why D.C.?
-D.C. has always been my favorite city
in the entire country.
I love it there. It's a beautiful city.
I'm obsessed with history.
I've been to all the museums dozens of times.
-It's kind of fascinating. -The parks there.
Yeah, I'm obsessed with it.
-What was the venue?
-It's the Daughters of the American Revolution
at Constitu-- Cons-- Constitution Hall,
if my mouth decides to work.
And I got an opportunity to open for Dane Cook there in 2019,
and I fell in love with it.
And I had already done a little bit of research on the venue.
It's where Eddie Murphy filmed "Delirious,"
which is arguably one of the greatest comedy specials
of all time.
Robin Williams did a special there.
Katt Williams did a special there.
Presidents have spoken there.
And it just has this amazing, like, Colosseum-esque theme
to it that I just really thought captured what we're trying
to get our point across on, on this special.
So it was inevitably the best possible location,
and I couldn't be more proud of it.
-Oh, yeah, it looks gorgeous, and it's very funny.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Matt Rife in "Natural Selection."
Take a look at this.
-Get this through your head.
Astrology is not this magical life guideline
that predetermines your future in the stars.
No, none of that.
Your future is dependent
by your own thoughts, opinions and actions.
You are in complete control of how your future turns out.
It's not up here. It's in here. The whole time, it's up to you.
It has nothing to do with the stars, man.
Just because Jupiter has a ring and you don't doesn't mean...
doesn't mean that's who you're supposed to look up to
for all this magical advice, man.
-Come on. That's what I'm talking about, buddy.
Matt Rife!
"Natural Selection" premieres November 15th on Netflix.
Congratulations. -Thank you so much.
-Come back, please. -Really, thank you so much.
We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show."
Stick around, everybody. Matt Rife.