Matt Rife and Paul Elia dual-host an entirely improvised event turned comedy special titled LowKey.
A long-running show conceived by Rife and Elia, LowKey sees the pair act as hosts of a night of comedy, performing both written and off-the-cuff material. In amongst their performances, they introduce a number of other stand-ups who do the same, creating a unique bond with the audience through improvised, interview-style riff sets.
Featuring guest comedians Whitney Cummings, TJ Miller, Erik Griffin, Ian Edwards, Luenell, Fahim Anwar, and Francisco Ramos!
Taped at the Troubadour during the 2024 Netflix Is a Joke Festival, the hour is directed by Rife’s longtime friend and collaborator, Erik Griffin. Rife, Elia, and their manager Christina Shams served as executive producers.
Rife and Elia created LowKey in 2020 as a means of staying afloat and keeping their live performance skills sharp during the pandemic.
Since then, it’s emerged as one of the top independent comedy shows in the country, having been featured on The Tonight Show, Just For Laughs, the Dubai Comedy Festival, and elsewhere. LowKey has played a vital role in elevating the careers of both Rife and Elia, allowing the duo to take control of their creative endeavors by producing and distributing their own content.
Building on the show’s success, Rife’s self-produced his specials, Only Fans and Matthew Steven Rife, with Elia also serving as a producer on the latter. Rife subsequenly self-released a crowd work special, Walking Red Flag on YouTube, which amassed over 10 million views and solidified his status as one of the industry’s biggest comedians.
Rife and Shams later teamed up to exec produce Elia’s debut special, 2023’s Detroit Player.
Recently signing on to star opposite Owen Wilson in Live Nation’s R-rated comedy Rolling Loud, filmed at the hip-hop festival of the same name, Rife’s most recent special, Lucid, debuted at #1 on Netflix this past August. It marked the first one-hour crowd work special from the streamer and is the first of two Netflix specials coming from Rife on the heels of Natural Selection, which was one of the most viewed on the service in the second half of 2023, garnering over 10.3 million views in its first two weeks. Currently, Rife is also developing a workplace comedy set in a gym, which he’ll write and star in for Netflix.
An L.A.-based stand-up comedian, actor, and content creator originally from Detroit, Michigan, Elia has been seen in over a dozen sketches on TBS’s Conan, as well as on such acclaimed series as Ramy and Lady Dynamite. Among his other upcoming projects is #1 Happy Family USA, his longtime friend and former roommate Ramy Youssef’s animated series for Amazon and A24, which is scheduled to premiere at SXSW.
