Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Okay, he's here. Matt Rifeis here in the studio. Good morning,
Matt, No, good morning,A mouthful of water. How are
you good? How are you?I'm exhausted, but I'm wonderful. Thank
you for having me. Yeah,you're a busy guy. Yeah finally.
Well, you know a lot ofour artists that come in say that because
we don't see all the stuff thatlit up to this. Oh of course,
(00:20):
yeah iceberg. Yeah, So whendid the iceberg begin forming? It
was about I would say summer oftwenty twenty two, summer fall of twenty
twenty two. I've been doing standup for about eleven and a half years
at that point, and I hadsome amazing milestones in my career with wild
Now, some Disney stuff, Freshoff the Boat, Brooklyn nin Not,
(00:41):
some fun moments. Yeah, butI just felt kind of plateaued for the
longest time. And then about thatsummer I started to post on social media,
which I was very reluctant to do. I hate social media. Do
you still to this day? AbsolutelyNothing will make me happier that if it
all went away we had. Well, I don't despise it, but I'm
I think I'm just lazy about it. We all would like to be crazy
(01:02):
about right now it's a full timejob. Job used to be just can
you be funny on stage in frontof however's in front of you. Now
I have to be a camera team, I have to be an editor,
I have to be a full productionteam. It's ridiculous. You have you
a full time social media manager.But Matt, don't you also somewhat have
a love hate with it because ofwhat you're seeing. How that sort of
tipped for you. Yes, I'mgrateful. Now it can go away.
(01:23):
Yes, now that I got thenow that I got the attention, I've
reached this point in my career.It can go away now. Yes,
it's it's it's just tough. Ifind it very toxic as all. It's
obviously can be helpful. The exposureyou can get is phenomenal and really nothing
compares to it. But what it'sdoing to the shaping of the youth of
this country. Who knows not thebiggest getting sore thumbs and punchbacks. And
(01:49):
I'll tell you, guys, whyeveryone in the room, why I instantly
bonded with Matt Rife And it's notyour high cheek bones or your good looks
or your sense of humor. AlthoughI love all those things, it's your
hat the bass Pro shop. Yes, well, I thank you Tom to
send them for free? Are youyou so you do not endorse them for
like they're not one of yours.They're not a sponsor if you like to
(02:12):
go there, yeah, they I'mvery particular about the fit of hats,
like I just have a weird shapedhead. And this one, we were
doing some comedy club in Springfield,Missouri, and apparently they had like one
of their giant bass Pro shops likeright outside of there, so as a
gift. When we got there,they had like twenty of these hats just
waiting for my team. Way amazing, So I just keep wearing. Yeah,
they are great hats. My sonand his friends we love bass Pro
(02:35):
Shops just to go in there becauseit's like a disney Land of outdoor Oh
yeah, are you out doorsy?Yeah? Yes? Really being in camping?
Yeah no way, no, wesay camping. Are we are pitching
tents? Okay? No campers,No campers. You're really on the ground.
We're on the ground and there's noshower. We you are really about
it. We bathe in the river. Matt, Well, you're prepared to
be homeless in Lafe. Good job, good job, good job. See
(03:00):
you've already got your iPhone. You'rehalfway there. Good Oh I know.
Yeah, my son has the hats. We we we we make it like
kind of a hobby. How yougo. He's twenty two? Are you
serious? You have a twenty twoyear old? Congratulations? Thank you great?
Oh, thank you very welcome yougod he he wipes out or whatever
(03:23):
the b on the bass, soit's asked, brochure, Wow, you
gotta do that. Matt. Ishe in school right now? He's a
senior at Stanford. At Stanford.Yeah, and this is what he's coming
up with me. Let me giveyou another one. Are you ready?
Yeah, no, you're not.Spatial engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence
(03:45):
in an art history minor. He'sa genius. Literally Albert Einstein is on
the side and like, no,ask brochu fun. You know that's you
know, that's a really good joke. Wow, his brilliance bad and that's
where he draws along. Okay,all right, well we can't have it.
That's my boot god. Oh man. Well, so what about you
with your family? Your family mustbe very proud of you. Yeah.
(04:09):
Yeah, my my mom is especiallyproud. But my mom a house,
so she's she's pretty excited about it. Yeah you're from Ohio, I am
okay, we're from Indiana. Yeah. Oh man, Jesus, you guys.
Here's the thing. Ohio gets alot of bad plublicity. You guys
don't get any That's the only difference. What do you have besides greasy little
(04:29):
white castles? Uh out the topof my head at meth, home grown
fentanyl. Actually a lot of youguys got to export. Yours is not
really organic. We have catfish inrivers. We have catfish on dating apps.
Where are you in Ohio? Mymy grandparents were from Toledo, so
I would spend a little bit oftime, so I know Toledo pretty well.
(04:50):
They have a Perrysburg funny Bone upthere. That was really one of
my home clubs growing up. Aboutan hour west of Columbus is nowhere.
Okay, it's it's called North NorthLouisbourg. All right. It's kind of
between Dayton and Columbus nowhere. Youwould not out of there. Yeah,
Oh dug a tunnel to Indiana actuallyyeah, uh no. I graduated high
(05:14):
school early, and I moved outhere in twenty thirteen. Oh okay,
the ambition you were you had likemad ambition. Well, I thing is
naivity as well. Oh okay,well that's good. That goes with it,
right, you don't, Yeah,you can know no idea what you're
doing, of course. Yeah.Yeah, And you came out here and
you hit it big. Yeah,finally right for the longest I did the
whole eight twenty eight. Yeah,come on, there really is something to
(05:34):
be said about that, that naivetewhere you don't because I think we get
in our heads right and doing anythingthat you want people to like. Oh
of course you right, yeah,but you think you have nothing to lose.
You don't know the dangers or theridiculousness off of your actions. Like
when I was growing up, whenI was still in Ohio and I just
started doing stand up, I wouldbecause when Twitter was like brand new and
(05:55):
you could reach anybody. Yeah,like very famous people would see your tweets
and have a conversation with you.So I would tweet these comics that I
was a fan of when they werecoming to my home club, the Clumbus
Funny Butt, and be like,Hey, could I do a guest spot
for you, which now would beso annoying and so ridiculous and so immatured,
so amateur that I'm like, Iwould never do that now. Oh
really, it was all the successI'm having right now, I would still
(06:17):
not do that because that's so ridiculous. But at that age I didn't know
that wasn't proto call and did theyreply? Yeah, the majority of them
did. Yeah. DL Hughley wasmy first person that ever let me do
a guest spot. Oh my god, that's so cool. If Vaness Mitchell
was my second at the Toledo Funnyboneactually really nice. The fact I mean
it worked. It was ridiculous,and I wouldn't recommend it to any other
(06:38):
comics now, but at the timeit seemed like the reasonable thing to do.
Yeah, for sure, that's socool. How many Netflix specials do
you have? We have one asof now. They have three self produced
ones on YouTube. Yeah, that'swhat I was thinking, because you made
them yourself, so you had enoughconfidence and probably naivete Yeah, I'm gonna
make these specials and put them onYouTube, but everyone's gonna love them,
(06:59):
and they did well. Thank youagain. I think it was coming from
a place of just rock bottom,being like nobody else wants to give me
a chance. So why am Isitting here complaining when I haven't really given
it my all. I can sayI've done everything, but until I've tried
to bake my own special, Ican't say that I have right. So
we did, and that first specialis almost at twenty million views, and
then our second special, Matthew StephenRife is over twenty million. We did.
(07:23):
We did a crowd work special ontheir red flags over ten million.
It's walking red flag? Are whatare your walking red flags? Oh?
It's tough. They've changed the changethey do too. Yeah, right,
right now, I'm not really lookingfor it. I've got a girlfriend now,
so I stopped looking for people's redflags. Everyone's a red flag,
but your red flags? Look aboutmyself? Yeah? Oh I would say
(07:46):
probably my work schedule, okay,yeah for sure, busy, thank you?
Yeah? Yeah, probably all thefemale attention that could be a red
flag. As for some people.Yes, my girl doesn't bother. Yeah,
it doesn't doesn't mind whatsoever. She'slike, she's very confident. That's
good. We have trusting relationship.In his relationship, well, he says,
no, jealousy and all that.There's none. Yeah. Look,
(08:07):
here's the thing. State of anxietyanyway, exactly. And I always feel
like, if one second, we'regonna take a fair question, Eduardo,
hang tight, Okay, okay,no problem. Cool. I always feel
like, if something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, and you only
make it worse by anticipating It's agood point. Suspicions is not really anything.
(08:31):
And if you don't trust the personin the first place, shouldn't be
that out. On the flip sideof that, I am a firm believer.
The trust is earned and not givento earn my trust, you have
it. I'm get back on.That's very Ohio. Yeah, all right,
we're ed. This is Eddie Eddie. You're on with Matt hey Man.
(08:52):
How you doing. I'm good,brother. How you doing? I'm
doing well, man. So,I just had a couple of quick questions
for you. Fire them on.So. I I am an aspiring comic,
you know. I try to getout there, do an open,
sunny chance. I get good foryou, man, Just two questions.
Appreciate it, man, Two questionsfor you. How do you handle crowd
work and Secondly, how do youhandle bombing? Ooh, I'm sure you
(09:18):
have. Every comic bombs, andeverybody every comic bombs in their own way.
Sometimes we bomb for the audience.Sometimes we bomb for ourselves. Yeah.
Sometimes I'll get off stage for ashow that I felt was absolutely garbage,
and I'll go off stage. I'llbe so pissed off, being like
I didn't give them a show thatI felt like they deserved, and everybody's
like, and then I'll get online. All the tweets and all the stories
are all like, we had aphenomenal time to night. So sometimes you're
(09:39):
on your own head and you thinkyou bombed. Yeah, I mean I've
I've never been booed off stage,thank god, which honestly, at WARDO
is kind of a catch twenty twobecause I've never been booed. But boy,
if I had shows with dead silencegrowing up, I would argue,
that's actually worse. When you getboomed, You're like, all right,
awesome, I can get off stageand it's just a failed Right if it's
(10:01):
silent, you gotta keep going,keep trying to win them over when you
see in their faces we're not intothis. So just perseverance. You can't
let it get to you. There'salways another show. And now going back
to your first question, how doI handle crowd work? I mean,
it's it's on my own terms.That's that's really how I handle it.
Like you have to be in controlof that situation. I'm well aware in
(10:24):
my specific circumstance that, like I'vebuilt such an audience off of my CrowdWork
that some of it's expected in alarge amount of my fan base doesn't isn't
familiar with that much traditional stand upcomedy. They don't know that crowd work
is the tiniest part of my show. I do an hour to hour fifteen
every single show that I do,and maybe maybe ten minutes of that is
(10:46):
crowd work, Yeah, maybe,And it's sprinkled in with kind of just
luck of the draw whoever I decidedto talk to. I mean, you
only see the highlights online, obviously, there's plenty of times to show you
talk to somebody if they don't giveyou anything at all. All. Right,
Well back into the material we go. Some mean just uh, Edward
will take it at your own disposealman, take some chances, have some
fun. If you feel like it'sa skill set in your in your arsenal.
(11:07):
Then use it as much as youfeel like it. Don't rely on
it because you can't. Like Isaid, you might, you might go
an entire ship. You might talkto five different people in one show and
not get a single thing to workwith on this. So you got it.
You gotta come material prepared. Yougot to have your own show prepared.
And if something funny happens organically withthe crowd, awesome, use it.
Wow, Thank you man, thankyou, thank you, thank you,
master of luck. To you brother, keep crushing it man, thank
(11:35):
you so much. Appreciate it.Matt, do you feel like your looks
in some instance has hurt you?Do you think people are harder on you
because of your looks? Who?Here's here's the thing. No matter how
I answer this question, I'll bewrong. Okay if I say no.
If I say no, people willget well it's the only reason you have
a career. And if I sayyes, people go, oh, you
think you're so good looking that ithinders your career. So you just I
(11:58):
don't really care if you if ifyou think, if you if you like
my luck's cool. If you don'tlike him, whatever, well, we're
heading into the oscars, yes,and you're you live in La now and
there are celebrities all around us.Like one of my biggest thrills was saying,
um McGregor at Starbucks and we're theonly two in there, and on
his cup they wrote just mac AndI could tell it was him from behind
(12:20):
because he was wearing shorty pants,like European short pants. So so that
was McGregor, and there's just somethingdifferent about it. Was not American clothing,
right, So then I say,oh my god, it's him,
and I heard that voice and wechatted for a minute. But I'm wondering,
like, who's been your biggest mostthrilling celebrity encounter, just like out
(12:43):
in the wild? Have you hadone lately out in the wild, Like
no parties or anything like that,just like you're in the dry cleaners or
you know, you're like in themovie theater. Once Ed McMahon when I
first moved here, Ed McMahon wassitting next to me. Okay, randomly,
I went and saw Dolomite when itwas enthused with with Eddie Murphy and
(13:05):
Stevie Wonder was sitting behind me,and I swear to this day. He
was laughing at nonverbal comedy moments.I swear to God, something physical would
happen on this and I would Iwould listen, I would hear, and
I go, there's no way.There's no way he could have known what
happened. There's no way. SoI have my suspicions, but that one,
(13:31):
that one caught me off guard forsure. Other than that I met,
I met Tony Cox in an elevator. That was pretty cool. I
love his movies growing up. Well, now you know all the big comedians,
yes, yes, thank god.Jonah Hill was the first person was
the first celebrity I ever met whenI moved to LA. At the gas
station next to the Laugh Factory onSunset, I was in there getting snacks.
I saw him walk into the touse the ATM there and I was
(13:54):
maybe in LA for four or fivemonths. At this point, I never
even met a celebrity. And Isaw him walking. I was, oh,
my god, that's him. Whenhe walks back this way, I'll
ask for a picture. Then,so I stopped. I'm like, hey
Joe, I'm sorry, Bobby Man, I'm a huge fans. We could
get a picture, and he waslike ah, I'm sorry, man,
I'm kind of runn late to aparty and I was like, oh,
I totally get it. So Irang up my snacks and I'm maybe like
five minutes goes by. I wasbeing a bit indecisive. I go back
(14:16):
out there. He's still just sittingin his car. I was like,
you're gonna have taken the picture bynow, come on. I get it.
You don't always want to take picturesof people. I get it.
But I was like, at leastdrive off, yeah, down the corner,
obvious. Yeah, I mean itdidn't. It didn't help that I
was dressed like a surf instructor,so maybe I was triggering. But yeah,
it was a little heartbreaking. Stilla huge fan though. Well now
(14:39):
you got the Hollywood Bowl. That'ssome big, heavy stuff right there.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm so excited. You to the world. Oh,
I'm on a world tour right now. We've been on tour since February of
last year and we're all the waythrough December of this. Oh my god,
what do you find Matt Like,when okay, let's say you go
to I don't know, Singapore,right, Like, what that's gotta be?
(15:00):
We have struggle in some regard justbecause of the cultural difference. Yeah,
like even the nuance of sarcasm orthe the delivery of a line.
Well, that's part of the excitementof going to a new place. You
know. This is why comics haveto have to tour, not just because
that's how we make our entire living. Like a lot of people don't know,
comics don't make money where they live, like we don't. We have
(15:20):
to tour. That's where all ourliving comes from. So not just for
that aspect, you have to testyour material in other markets. Like you
might be hilarious in la and peoplein Texas don't like you whatsoever. Or
you maybe you crush in Florida,but people in Ohio don't get you.
So yet you have to be kindof well rounded in appeal to as big
of an audience as you can get. Now, I don't believe I'm going
(15:41):
anywhere as exotic as Singapore, yetI'm dying to. I would like to.
But we do have a lot ofEuropean dates, which is awesome.
Yeah your website, Yeah, Imean we are kind of lucking out that
most of these countries do speak Englishas a first or second language, so
it's not that much adjusting, butI find it more less of a challenge
and more exciting, especially if Idecided to do any crowd work. It's
like I actually get to know.I get to know from the people and
(16:03):
from the source, more about theculture and more about the city, more
about the people who live there.And I'm looking forward to actually just learning
more, and through learning more,I might come up with more material out
way I can bring back to theStates. Are you a swift tee?
I'm not not a swift tee?I think I think she's dope. I
don't think. I don't I don'tthink I know. I don't. I
couldn't name you a Taylor Swift song, but I know she's incredibly talented.
Because I'm thinking, Matt's your fanscould be like the rifles. The rifles
(16:27):
shots fired myself out is it?That's till we have a very we have
a very similar fan base in theterms of like the the excitement levels,
Like people are so excited at myshows, which brings me obviously some much
just do it. I mean,nothing touches her fan base. Obviously,
(16:48):
she sold out the Moon. I'mpretty sure dating Travis Kelsey, which is
obviously next year superstardom could I couldn'tdate anybody in the in the end,
I would I could maybe sleep withJackson Mahomes probably, And it's like that's
I think that's like the extent ofmy star leader right now. As far
as like the NFL red Yeah,yeah, yes, we're obviously on different
(17:10):
levels. But no, I heavilyrespect that she's crushing it right now.
I think she's amazing. People whoare like, well, I can't watch
football. They're going to cut toa picture. Crazy. You know there
are cheerleaders at shows at at footballgames as well, distracting too. You're
having a problem with Taylor, Yeah, it makes no sense. It's a
beautiful girl. She's so talented.You have another call. I thought you
(17:32):
had the No, no, no, no, no, we're good.
What's this fortune cookie here? Oh? Yeah? Okay, So every interview,
most every interview we start with thefortune cookie. I just forgot it
too late to dive into it.It's totally I will warn you though.
This batch has not been kind.I don't know what the Yeah, and
I gave you a whole when notbroken in the package. Oh my god,
(17:57):
it's not bad. Yeah, you'resure you're not caffeinated. I'm not
were getting off the air. I'mgoing to sleep. Integrity is doing the
right thing even if nobody is watching. Oh that's a pretty good one.
It's a little boring, but it'sstill good. Ryan's a been Like you
may think you know, but youdon't. Mine yesterday said mine yesterday said
(18:19):
sure. It's great to be remembered, but it's cheaper to be forgotten.
Like, yeah, I had tiefood last night that came with one of
these, and it said it said, life is not about not about having,
it's about the getting. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I get
it about it's about the journey.Enjoy your journey, enjoy the process.
(18:40):
I suppose now every now and thenI'll feel that way. Yeah, and
I'm doing the gigantic show that Icouldn't believe I ever got the opportunity to
do every now and then along forjust like the times where I could walk
into a comedy club and like Icouldn't get up, people wouldn't. I
had to like beg and just prayand anxiety being like, oh I hope
I get to get up tonight,Like you just never know. There is
I think that's sweet. I likethat it is. It is a sweet
(19:02):
memory, and it is the daysthat obviously it's a struggle. At the
time you're like, I can't evenget on stage, but looking back,
you're like, a Now it makesit all worth it. Yeah, totally.
I love that. You gotta,yeah, you gotta. You gotta
enjoy all the success. I knowit's hard because you're constantly going. But
you know, if I'm your mama, I would say, Matt, look
at what you've done. I mean, I'm constantly reminding everyone in this room
(19:23):
and my family and Mike, butlook at like if anyone has a bad
damn, but look where you are. Look what you've done. Yeah,
look how far you've come. Yeah, yeah, I saw this is such
an Instagram quote. I saw somevideo of the day I thought was beautiful
and said, you've already You've alreadyaccomplished things that you said would make you
happy. So how can you convinceyourself that the next thing is gonna be
the thing to make you happy?Just be happy with what you have achieved.
That's our quote of the day.We end every show with a quote
(19:44):
and a kiss. All right,guys, Kiss on three, kiss on
me one two, three, Oh, Matt does a little No Matt like
deep kiss, not peck kissing.You guys don kiss like that. That's
Hollywood Bowl May eight, May eight,
Okay, he's here. Matt Rifeis here in the studio. Good morning,
Matt, No, good morning,A mouthful of water. How are
you good? How are you?I'm exhausted, but I'm wonderful. Thank
you for having me. Yeah,you're a busy guy. Yeah finally.
Well, you know a lot ofour artists that come in say that because
we don't see all the stuff thatlit up to this. Oh of course,
(00:20):
yeah iceberg. Yeah, So whendid the iceberg begin forming? It
was about I would say summer oftwenty twenty two, summer fall of twenty
twenty two. I've been doing standup for about eleven and a half years
at that point, and I hadsome amazing milestones in my career with wild
Now, some Disney stuff, Freshoff the Boat, Brooklyn nin Not,
(00:41):
some fun moments. Yeah, butI just felt kind of plateaued for the
longest time. And then about thatsummer I started to post on social media,
which I was very reluctant to do. I hate social media. Do
you still to this day? AbsolutelyNothing will make me happier that if it
all went away we had. Well, I don't despise it, but I'm
I think I'm just lazy about it. We all would like to be crazy
(01:02):
about right now it's a full timejob. Job used to be just can
you be funny on stage in frontof however's in front of you. Now
I have to be a camera team, I have to be an editor,
I have to be a full productionteam. It's ridiculous. You have you
a full time social media manager.But Matt, don't you also somewhat have
a love hate with it because ofwhat you're seeing. How that sort of
tipped for you. Yes, I'mgrateful. Now it can go away.
(01:23):
Yes, now that I got thenow that I got the attention, I've
reached this point in my career.It can go away now. Yes,
it's it's it's just tough. Ifind it very toxic as all. It's
obviously can be helpful. The exposureyou can get is phenomenal and really nothing
compares to it. But what it'sdoing to the shaping of the youth of
this country. Who knows not thebiggest getting sore thumbs and punchbacks. And
(01:49):
I'll tell you, guys, whyeveryone in the room, why I instantly
bonded with Matt Rife And it's notyour high cheek bones or your good looks
or your sense of humor. AlthoughI love all those things, it's your
hat the bass Pro shop. Yes, well, I thank you Tom to
send them for free? Are youyou so you do not endorse them for
like they're not one of yours.They're not a sponsor if you like to
(02:12):
go there, yeah, they I'mvery particular about the fit of hats,
like I just have a weird shapedhead. And this one, we were
doing some comedy club in Springfield,Missouri, and apparently they had like one
of their giant bass Pro shops likeright outside of there, so as a
gift. When we got there,they had like twenty of these hats just
waiting for my team. Way amazing, So I just keep wearing. Yeah,
they are great hats. My sonand his friends we love bass Pro
(02:35):
Shops just to go in there becauseit's like a disney Land of outdoor Oh
yeah, are you out doorsy?Yeah? Yes? Really being in camping?
Yeah no way, no, wesay camping. Are we are pitching
tents? Okay? No campers,No campers. You're really on the ground.
We're on the ground and there's noshower. We you are really about
it. We bathe in the river. Matt, Well, you're prepared to
be homeless in Lafe. Good job, good job, good job. See
(03:00):
you've already got your iPhone. You'rehalfway there. Good Oh I know.
Yeah, my son has the hats. We we we we make it like
kind of a hobby. How yougo. He's twenty two? Are you
serious? You have a twenty twoyear old? Congratulations? Thank you great?
Oh, thank you very welcome yougod he he wipes out or whatever
(03:23):
the b on the bass, soit's asked, brochure, Wow, you
gotta do that. Matt. Ishe in school right now? He's a
senior at Stanford. At Stanford.Yeah, and this is what he's coming
up with me. Let me giveyou another one. Are you ready?
Yeah, no, you're not.Spatial engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence
(03:45):
in an art history minor. He'sa genius. Literally Albert Einstein is on
the side and like, no,ask brochu fun. You know that's you
know, that's a really good joke. Wow, his brilliance bad and that's
where he draws along. Okay,all right, well we can't have it.
That's my boot god. Oh man. Well, so what about you
with your family? Your family mustbe very proud of you. Yeah.
(04:09):
Yeah, my my mom is especiallyproud. But my mom a house,
so she's she's pretty excited about it. Yeah you're from Ohio, I am
okay, we're from Indiana. Yeah. Oh man, Jesus, you guys.
Here's the thing. Ohio gets alot of bad plublicity. You guys
don't get any That's the only difference. What do you have besides greasy little
(04:29):
white castles? Uh out the topof my head at meth, home grown
fentanyl. Actually a lot of youguys got to export. Yours is not
really organic. We have catfish inrivers. We have catfish on dating apps.
Where are you in Ohio? Mymy grandparents were from Toledo, so
I would spend a little bit oftime, so I know Toledo pretty well.
(04:50):
They have a Perrysburg funny Bone upthere. That was really one of
my home clubs growing up. Aboutan hour west of Columbus is nowhere.
Okay, it's it's called North NorthLouisbourg. All right. It's kind of
between Dayton and Columbus nowhere. Youwould not out of there. Yeah,
Oh dug a tunnel to Indiana actuallyyeah, uh no. I graduated high
(05:14):
school early, and I moved outhere in twenty thirteen. Oh okay,
the ambition you were you had likemad ambition. Well, I thing is
naivity as well. Oh okay,well that's good. That goes with it,
right, you don't, Yeah,you can know no idea what you're
doing, of course. Yeah.Yeah, And you came out here and
you hit it big. Yeah,finally right for the longest I did the
whole eight twenty eight. Yeah,come on, there really is something to
(05:34):
be said about that, that naivetewhere you don't because I think we get
in our heads right and doing anythingthat you want people to like. Oh
of course you right, yeah,but you think you have nothing to lose.
You don't know the dangers or theridiculousness off of your actions. Like
when I was growing up, whenI was still in Ohio and I just
started doing stand up, I wouldbecause when Twitter was like brand new and
(05:55):
you could reach anybody. Yeah,like very famous people would see your tweets
and have a conversation with you.So I would tweet these comics that I
was a fan of when they werecoming to my home club, the Clumbus
Funny Butt, and be like,Hey, could I do a guest spot
for you, which now would beso annoying and so ridiculous and so immatured,
so amateur that I'm like, Iwould never do that now. Oh
really, it was all the successI'm having right now, I would still
(06:17):
not do that because that's so ridiculous. But at that age I didn't know
that wasn't proto call and did theyreply? Yeah, the majority of them
did. Yeah. DL Hughley wasmy first person that ever let me do
a guest spot. Oh my god, that's so cool. If Vaness Mitchell
was my second at the Toledo Funnyboneactually really nice. The fact I mean
it worked. It was ridiculous,and I wouldn't recommend it to any other
(06:38):
comics now, but at the timeit seemed like the reasonable thing to do.
Yeah, for sure, that's socool. How many Netflix specials do
you have? We have one asof now. They have three self produced
ones on YouTube. Yeah, that'swhat I was thinking, because you made
them yourself, so you had enoughconfidence and probably naivete Yeah, I'm gonna
make these specials and put them onYouTube, but everyone's gonna love them,
(06:59):
and they did well. Thank youagain. I think it was coming from
a place of just rock bottom,being like nobody else wants to give me
a chance. So why am Isitting here complaining when I haven't really given
it my all. I can sayI've done everything, but until I've tried
to bake my own special, Ican't say that I have right. So
we did, and that first specialis almost at twenty million views, and
then our second special, Matthew StephenRife is over twenty million. We did.
(07:23):
We did a crowd work special ontheir red flags over ten million.
It's walking red flag? Are whatare your walking red flags? Oh?
It's tough. They've changed the changethey do too. Yeah, right,
right now, I'm not really lookingfor it. I've got a girlfriend now,
so I stopped looking for people's redflags. Everyone's a red flag,
but your red flags? Look aboutmyself? Yeah? Oh I would say
(07:46):
probably my work schedule, okay,yeah for sure, busy, thank you?
Yeah? Yeah, probably all thefemale attention that could be a red
flag. As for some people.Yes, my girl doesn't bother. Yeah,
it doesn't doesn't mind whatsoever. She'slike, she's very confident. That's
good. We have trusting relationship.In his relationship, well, he says,
no, jealousy and all that.There's none. Yeah. Look,
(08:07):
here's the thing. State of anxietyanyway, exactly. And I always feel
like, if one second, we'regonna take a fair question, Eduardo,
hang tight, Okay, okay,no problem. Cool. I always feel
like, if something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, and you only
make it worse by anticipating It's agood point. Suspicions is not really anything.
(08:31):
And if you don't trust the personin the first place, shouldn't be
that out. On the flip sideof that, I am a firm believer.
The trust is earned and not givento earn my trust, you have
it. I'm get back on.That's very Ohio. Yeah, all right,
we're ed. This is Eddie Eddie. You're on with Matt hey Man.
(08:52):
How you doing. I'm good,brother. How you doing? I'm
doing well, man. So,I just had a couple of quick questions
for you. Fire them on.So. I I am an aspiring comic,
you know. I try to getout there, do an open,
sunny chance. I get good foryou, man, Just two questions.
Appreciate it, man, Two questionsfor you. How do you handle crowd
work and Secondly, how do youhandle bombing? Ooh, I'm sure you
(09:18):
have. Every comic bombs, andeverybody every comic bombs in their own way.
Sometimes we bomb for the audience.Sometimes we bomb for ourselves. Yeah.
Sometimes I'll get off stage for ashow that I felt was absolutely garbage,
and I'll go off stage. I'llbe so pissed off, being like
I didn't give them a show thatI felt like they deserved, and everybody's
like, and then I'll get online. All the tweets and all the stories
are all like, we had aphenomenal time to night. So sometimes you're
(09:39):
on your own head and you thinkyou bombed. Yeah, I mean I've
I've never been booed off stage,thank god, which honestly, at WARDO
is kind of a catch twenty twobecause I've never been booed. But boy,
if I had shows with dead silencegrowing up, I would argue,
that's actually worse. When you getboomed, You're like, all right,
awesome, I can get off stageand it's just a failed Right if it's
(10:01):
silent, you gotta keep going,keep trying to win them over when you
see in their faces we're not intothis. So just perseverance. You can't
let it get to you. There'salways another show. And now going back
to your first question, how doI handle crowd work? I mean,
it's it's on my own terms.That's that's really how I handle it.
Like you have to be in controlof that situation. I'm well aware in
(10:24):
my specific circumstance that, like I'vebuilt such an audience off of my CrowdWork
that some of it's expected in alarge amount of my fan base doesn't isn't
familiar with that much traditional stand upcomedy. They don't know that crowd work
is the tiniest part of my show. I do an hour to hour fifteen
every single show that I do,and maybe maybe ten minutes of that is
(10:46):
crowd work, Yeah, maybe,And it's sprinkled in with kind of just
luck of the draw whoever I decidedto talk to. I mean, you
only see the highlights online, obviously, there's plenty of times to show you
talk to somebody if they don't giveyou anything at all. All. Right,
Well back into the material we go. Some mean just uh, Edward
will take it at your own disposealman, take some chances, have some
fun. If you feel like it'sa skill set in your in your arsenal.
(11:07):
Then use it as much as youfeel like it. Don't rely on
it because you can't. Like Isaid, you might, you might go
an entire ship. You might talkto five different people in one show and
not get a single thing to workwith on this. So you got it.
You gotta come material prepared. Yougot to have your own show prepared.
And if something funny happens organically withthe crowd, awesome, use it.
Wow, Thank you man, thankyou, thank you, thank you,
master of luck. To you brother, keep crushing it man, thank
(11:35):
you so much. Appreciate it.Matt, do you feel like your looks
in some instance has hurt you?Do you think people are harder on you
because of your looks? Who?Here's here's the thing. No matter how
I answer this question, I'll bewrong. Okay if I say no.
If I say no, people willget well it's the only reason you have
a career. And if I sayyes, people go, oh, you
think you're so good looking that ithinders your career. So you just I
(11:58):
don't really care if you if ifyou think, if you if you like
my luck's cool. If you don'tlike him, whatever, well, we're
heading into the oscars, yes,and you're you live in La now and
there are celebrities all around us.Like one of my biggest thrills was saying,
um McGregor at Starbucks and we're theonly two in there, and on
his cup they wrote just mac AndI could tell it was him from behind
(12:20):
because he was wearing shorty pants,like European short pants. So so that
was McGregor, and there's just somethingdifferent about it. Was not American clothing,
right, So then I say,oh my god, it's him,
and I heard that voice and wechatted for a minute. But I'm wondering,
like, who's been your biggest mostthrilling celebrity encounter, just like out
(12:43):
in the wild? Have you hadone lately out in the wild, Like
no parties or anything like that,just like you're in the dry cleaners or
you know, you're like in themovie theater. Once Ed McMahon when I
first moved here, Ed McMahon wassitting next to me. Okay, randomly,
I went and saw Dolomite when itwas enthused with with Eddie Murphy and
(13:05):
Stevie Wonder was sitting behind me,and I swear to this day. He
was laughing at nonverbal comedy moments.I swear to God, something physical would
happen on this and I would Iwould listen, I would hear, and
I go, there's no way.There's no way he could have known what
happened. There's no way. SoI have my suspicions, but that one,
(13:31):
that one caught me off guard forsure. Other than that I met,
I met Tony Cox in an elevator. That was pretty cool. I
love his movies growing up. Well, now you know all the big comedians,
yes, yes, thank god.Jonah Hill was the first person was
the first celebrity I ever met whenI moved to LA. At the gas
station next to the Laugh Factory onSunset, I was in there getting snacks.
I saw him walk into the touse the ATM there and I was
(13:54):
maybe in LA for four or fivemonths. At this point, I never
even met a celebrity. And Isaw him walking. I was, oh,
my god, that's him. Whenhe walks back this way, I'll
ask for a picture. Then,so I stopped. I'm like, hey
Joe, I'm sorry, Bobby Man, I'm a huge fans. We could
get a picture, and he waslike ah, I'm sorry, man,
I'm kind of runn late to aparty and I was like, oh,
I totally get it. So Irang up my snacks and I'm maybe like
five minutes goes by. I wasbeing a bit indecisive. I go back
(14:16):
out there. He's still just sittingin his car. I was like,
you're gonna have taken the picture bynow, come on. I get it.
You don't always want to take picturesof people. I get it.
But I was like, at leastdrive off, yeah, down the corner,
obvious. Yeah, I mean itdidn't. It didn't help that I
was dressed like a surf instructor,so maybe I was triggering. But yeah,
it was a little heartbreaking. Stilla huge fan though. Well now
(14:39):
you got the Hollywood Bowl. That'ssome big, heavy stuff right there.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm so excited. You to the world. Oh,
I'm on a world tour right now. We've been on tour since February of
last year and we're all the waythrough December of this. Oh my god,
what do you find Matt Like,when okay, let's say you go
to I don't know, Singapore,right, Like, what that's gotta be?
(15:00):
We have struggle in some regard justbecause of the cultural difference. Yeah,
like even the nuance of sarcasm orthe the delivery of a line.
Well, that's part of the excitementof going to a new place. You
know. This is why comics haveto have to tour, not just because
that's how we make our entire living. Like a lot of people don't know,
comics don't make money where they live, like we don't. We have
(15:20):
to tour. That's where all ourliving comes from. So not just for
that aspect, you have to testyour material in other markets. Like you
might be hilarious in la and peoplein Texas don't like you whatsoever. Or
you maybe you crush in Florida,but people in Ohio don't get you.
So yet you have to be kindof well rounded in appeal to as big
of an audience as you can get. Now, I don't believe I'm going
(15:41):
anywhere as exotic as Singapore, yetI'm dying to. I would like to.
But we do have a lot ofEuropean dates, which is awesome.
Yeah your website, Yeah, Imean we are kind of lucking out that
most of these countries do speak Englishas a first or second language, so
it's not that much adjusting, butI find it more less of a challenge
and more exciting, especially if Idecided to do any crowd work. It's
like I actually get to know.I get to know from the people and
(16:03):
from the source, more about theculture and more about the city, more
about the people who live there.And I'm looking forward to actually just learning
more, and through learning more,I might come up with more material out
way I can bring back to theStates. Are you a swift tee?
I'm not not a swift tee?I think I think she's dope. I
don't think. I don't I don'tthink I know. I don't. I
couldn't name you a Taylor Swift song, but I know she's incredibly talented.
Because I'm thinking, Matt's your fanscould be like the rifles. The rifles
(16:27):
shots fired myself out is it?That's till we have a very we have
a very similar fan base in theterms of like the the excitement levels,
Like people are so excited at myshows, which brings me obviously some much
just do it. I mean,nothing touches her fan base. Obviously,
(16:48):
she sold out the Moon. I'mpretty sure dating Travis Kelsey, which is
obviously next year superstardom could I couldn'tdate anybody in the in the end,
I would I could maybe sleep withJackson Mahomes probably, And it's like that's
I think that's like the extent ofmy star leader right now. As far
as like the NFL red Yeah,yeah, yes, we're obviously on different
(17:10):
levels. But no, I heavilyrespect that she's crushing it right now.
I think she's amazing. People whoare like, well, I can't watch
football. They're going to cut toa picture. Crazy. You know there
are cheerleaders at shows at at footballgames as well, distracting too. You're
having a problem with Taylor, Yeah, it makes no sense. It's a
beautiful girl. She's so talented.You have another call. I thought you
(17:32):
had the No, no, no, no, no, we're good.
What's this fortune cookie here? Oh? Yeah? Okay, So every interview,
most every interview we start with thefortune cookie. I just forgot it
too late to dive into it.It's totally I will warn you though.
This batch has not been kind.I don't know what the Yeah, and
I gave you a whole when notbroken in the package. Oh my god,
(17:57):
it's not bad. Yeah, you'resure you're not caffeinated. I'm not
were getting off the air. I'mgoing to sleep. Integrity is doing the
right thing even if nobody is watching. Oh that's a pretty good one.
It's a little boring, but it'sstill good. Ryan's a been Like you
may think you know, but youdon't. Mine yesterday said mine yesterday said
(18:19):
sure. It's great to be remembered, but it's cheaper to be forgotten.
Like, yeah, I had tiefood last night that came with one of
these, and it said it said, life is not about not about having,
it's about the getting. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I get
it about it's about the journey.Enjoy your journey, enjoy the process.
(18:40):
I suppose now every now and thenI'll feel that way. Yeah, and
I'm doing the gigantic show that Icouldn't believe I ever got the opportunity to
do every now and then along forjust like the times where I could walk
into a comedy club and like Icouldn't get up, people wouldn't. I
had to like beg and just prayand anxiety being like, oh I hope
I get to get up tonight,Like you just never know. There is
I think that's sweet. I likethat it is. It is a sweet
(19:02):
memory, and it is the daysthat obviously it's a struggle. At the
time you're like, I can't evenget on stage, but looking back,
you're like, a Now it makesit all worth it. Yeah, totally.
I love that. You gotta,yeah, you gotta. You gotta
enjoy all the success. I knowit's hard because you're constantly going. But
you know, if I'm your mama, I would say, Matt, look
at what you've done. I mean, I'm constantly reminding everyone in this room
(19:23):
and my family and Mike, butlook at like if anyone has a bad
damn, but look where you are. Look what you've done. Yeah,
look how far you've come. Yeah, yeah, I saw this is such
an Instagram quote. I saw somevideo of the day I thought was beautiful
and said, you've already You've alreadyaccomplished things that you said would make you
happy. So how can you convinceyourself that the next thing is gonna be
the thing to make you happy?Just be happy with what you have achieved.
That's our quote of the day.We end every show with a quote
(19:44):
and a kiss. All right,guys, Kiss on three, kiss on
me one two, three, Oh, Matt does a little No Matt like
deep kiss, not peck kissing.You guys don kiss like that. That's
Hollywood Bowl May eight, May eight,
Ellen K Morning Show On Demand News
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