Tech insider and Forbes correspondent Jon Youshaei sits down with comedic superstar Matt Rife, the youngest comedian to sell out the Hollywood Bowl, as he debuts Netflix’s first crowd-work special, Lucid.
Throughout the interview, Matt talks about how he made $25 million, Dave Chapelle saving him $700,000, crowdfunding his first stand-up special, and giving advice to comedians, creators, and the ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl.
Blowing up last year on TikTok and seeing his career hit the stratosphere almost overnight, Rife has amassed over 35.6 million followers and over 2.5 billion views globally on social media. From a small town near Columbus, Ohio, he started performing at the age of 15 and moved to Los Angeles two years later in pursuit of a career in Hollywood. Self-financing his first one-hour special, Only Fans, and releasing it on YouTube in 2021, he again bet on himself two years later as he took the same approach with his follow-up, Matthew Steven Rife, before making his way to Netflix. Previously, he also released the crowd work special Walking Red Flag on YouTube, seeing it amass over 13 million views.
Rife made his television debut on MTV’s Wild ‘N Out as the youngest cast member in history for four seasons before moving on to other MTV properties, such as hosting the reboot of TRL and appearing on The Challenge. Other credits include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fresh Off the Boat, BET’s North of the 10, NBC’s comedy competition show Bring the Funny and Netflix’s That ’90s Show.
Additionally, he’s currently in development on a workplace comedy set in a gym, which he’ll write and star in for Netflix.
