Live Podcast recording with guest Matt Rife

[Music] welcome to breaking down bits a conversation about great comedy bits with the comedians who wrote and performed them [Music] hey welcome to breaking down bits i'm brian gendron hey i'm drew jordan we're so excited to be back plugging away more episodes coming your way uh it's been super fun if you missed the announcement about the tuesday mike we are changing the format of that a little bit and the timing we're still going to do it but not every week we'll find some fun ways who knows maybe we'll have some guest visit but moving forward not going to be every tuesday so thanks to everyone who has been a part of that it's been super fun getting to know all you guys and we'll still keep we'll find some fun ways to to reinsert it uh when it makes sense so life's just getting busy and uh you know thankfully it's all good things and good comedy things and we just need to re-allocate some resources absolutely but you can still find all of our podcasts that we've done on breakingdownbits.com and of course anywhere you get your podcast and youtube but uh certainly uh want to check back into our callbacks on our last episode with nick youssef what you got drew yeah i mean he was so kind to give us some time while he was on the road headed to a gig and um i think some of the things that stood out to me was one his perseverance and i think that's key for any comedian you have to kind of persevere he talked about his time early at the comedy store and the hoops he had to jump through just to get stage time it's great catch find that part of the podcast for sure and also just a really simple thing that um i totally have used in my comedy writing and is just simply write it down always don't wait don't think you're gonna remember it you never do and then you kick yourself and that one little nugget as he said in the episode that one idea that one phrase that one fragment could become a killer seven minute bit that you missed out on just because you didn't have the you know a phone handy or a pad handy to write it down so no matter what no matter how dumb you think it is write it down i've been on both sides of that where or i've forgotten to write it down and then it just it's gone and never coming back and then times when i write down something like i write down cat [ __ ] i just write down those two words well that was just fun it was just a great stream of consciousness and it turned into one of my favorite bits right so uh even if it's just a note you know that that can can can fire back up wherever that that train of thought was you never know where it can lead uh for me my favorite part of the episode was when he talked about we were talking about his breaks that he got along the way and he talked about taking an acting class and and that's where he met somebody that helped uh break him into acting and getting some acting gigs uh just think about like going into the parallel arts be it acting improv writing those types of things i think sometimes in comedy we get especially in stand-up we get siloed into our own little worlds into our own communities and stepping out just a little bit and then stepping out of your comfort zone could be a great way to network expand your skill set and was something that he considered be a big break in his career so uh something i i was almost inspired to take sign up for one uh this morning drew and then i didn't well hey as we all know that uh you know unless you are at the top tier or very nearby you know comedy it can be hard to find income as a comedian and so this does opens up i mean he's a writer for esquire and uh brooklyn magazine and that's just kind of something that happened through so you never know what kind of things you might uncover and opportunities you might find just by stepping out of that comfort zone so check that episode out break it down bits.com anywhere you get your podcasts and youtube ready to bring in our guests yeah let's go matt rife is a stand-up comedian and actor originally from ohio matt first started stand up comedy at the age of 15 and has since toured around the world with some of the biggest names in comedy including dave cook ralphie may mike epps and eric griffin and now living in los angeles matt is the youngest male regular performer at the world famous laugh factory as an actor he got his breakout opportunity when he was a leading cast member on mtv's hit show wild and out season seven hey matt reiff what's up what's up man you guys uh you guys use the bio my agent uses damn how are you guys doing well doing well man good good to be uh back hanging out with you you're just in houston a couple weeks ago had a killer weekend uh it was so fun watching you work and excited to see you know this next hour that you're working on uh if it's if it was done today it would be great but i know you're still gonna put in more work in but super fun working with you dude thank you man likewise dude the shows were so much fun um the new hour i'm building is uh it's very difficult uh it's it's easier in the sensibly after after i put on my first special a couple months ago i kind of it's almost like my voice kind of hit me so it's like it's easier to figure out material but it's so much harder in the sense that like i had 10 years of working on my first specials material you know what i mean like it was just like okay i'm gonna pick and find the best things for over the past 10 years if we could just put it out there but now it's like re-crafting all these bits and starting from scratch is [ __ ] difficult man but you know you gotta love the process or you wouldn't do it that's what they say like especially in music they say you have you have your whole life to write your first album and then after that you know there's a there's a timeline exactly and i do feel that i know a lot of comedians are like no as long as you put one out like every like three or four years it'll be fun but i want to do that i like pushing myself to have the discipline to like you know if chappelle and chris rock are putting out a new hour every year it's like if i could at least do one every year and a half uh then i'll have more self-respect i think that's a tight timeline but uh exciting i mean like i said you're already making great progress on that hour so i have no thank you man i think you're gonna i think you're gonna nail it thank you houston was uh very receptive so i'm thankful for that so thank you guys for having me yeah you're well on your way man uh you started when you were 15. i actually didn't didn't get that audio when we met uh that's uh that's pretty remarkable so how did that how did that begin how did you how are you able to even get into clubs at 15. oh man i um so i became a fan of comedy when i was like like 13 14 of like dave chappelle and dane cook and then my mom won tickets on the radio to see dane cook at nationwide arena in columbus ohio when i was like 14. and we had like nose bleed seats of course and uh we went and it was just like wow like this is what i want to do so i remember like the next day i went to school in seventh grade and this girl amanda who sat next for no reason at all and never had a discussion like this she just looked over she's like what do you want to be when you grow up and i was like oh i think i want to be a comedian and like on cue as soon as i said that my teacher came in and announced that we're having a school talent show so i did like the school talent show in seventh grade when i was 14 and i loved that i mean it was horrible but i just still really was a fan of it when i was 15 i just became more and more in love with it i was watching i was like living off of comedy central's like half hour specials that they put out at the time there's like those early 2000s specials and uh there was a a club about 40 minutes away from me in columbus called the columbus funny bone and they're you know a very famous franchise and an incredible club uh and as i looked up these things called open mics never heard of them before and i was like i guess this is where people get started and every comedy club is pretty much 21 and up so i had emailed the owner um which i now know is like a crazy thing to even think to do that was like hey i'm only 15 and i know you guys are 21 and up but like if i had like a parent come with me or something could i try your open mic and he said yes for some reason i don't know why i mean if i was the club owner i definitely would have been like how would i risk my liquor license over like a 15 year old kid like why even biscuit there's no pros to this but he said yes and uh i started going to the open mic every single i think it was tuesdays at the time and um things just kind of snowballed so it's like a 40 minute you you live 40 minutes outside of columbus and that's where the mic was and yeah your parents would drive you every tuesday is that kind of the move or yeah about six months into that i ended up moving with my grandpa who lives in columbus and he for the most part it was a bringer open mic so like you don't know but you had to have i think it was five people had to buy tickets to see you and my grandpa would just buy five tickets they were like five dollars each so he was like twenty five dollars and they don't there's another difference you know um so we would just do that like every week it was nice like i liked starting there because open mics were like actually legitimate stage time like you it was five minutes in front of probably on average like 30 people which is so much more doable than how many mics have you guys done where it's like two people in all comedians you're like this isn't going to be beneficial at all yeah yeah yeah exactly how are those drive homes after your first couple of open mics you got 40 minutes to drive home with mom after you probably just ate it hard in front of a bunch of people this sounds so ridiculous to say and i've never really reflected on it so it's a great question but i really only have like oh maybe a handful of bad shows starting out but i mean i can't chalk that up like oh i was just always so funny and i always had good sets like that's not true my second set ever is the reason we don't do big act outs i did this i was like so confident in the first show that i tried like this bit where i like fell on the floor like crying drastically and it was just silent and i had to get up off the floor to this day i'm like i won't i will never do an act out that big ever but i kind of had the factor of being a kid on my side it's like nobody's gonna boo a kid you know what i mean so i kind of had that on my slot but at the same time you also have people that are like i don't want to see a kid so like he's got to make me laugh or i'm just going to stay here and be silent so it means pros and cons i suppose but most of the time my mom thought it was pretty funny i will say there's something special about going to your first open mic and getting laughs that first time uh i i didn't have a killer set my first open mic but i did get a lot of laughs uh in the in the five minutes i got most of the most of the jokes hit i mean i'm not saying like hard laughs but they got a laugh right that was the fuel just enough fuel that i needed to be like okay i've got something here i should follow this up yeah because most comedians it's like you're usually a funny person with your friends or family or whatever it may be once you get that laughter you get comfortable you gain that confidence and then it just takes years and years of getting that from strangers before you're finally that that same comfortable comfortability on stage yeah and uh yeah i was very i was very lucky people were receptive my first couple years in comedy and um for the most part had really really good shows i performed in a lot a lot of unconventional circumstances um which now looking back i'm like why the [ __ ] would i have done that but you have you have to perform in uncomfortable situations so that way you're prepared for anything give us give us an example you got to hear some of these situations so a lot of my stage time in the beginning of my career was all black shows i grew up with all black friends and a lot of my material skewed towards that and black like took me very quickly especially when i was a kid um and black people were just so much more supportive and gave me a lot more opportunity and booked me for a lot more shows um however a lot of urban black shield whatever you want to call them shows at least around columbus they were more like lounge type shows uh where it's like a live band in front of like you know 13 people a live band playing like jazz or like a singer or something like that and then a comedian goes up and it's just it's just horrible for comedy it's not good there's never like a set tone to the show um there's no momentum from like somebody having a good set in front of you it just completely resets and again being the only white person on the show and being a kid a lot of times people don't want to see you at all um you just have to work that much harder but the good thing about black crowds is like if black people will [ __ ] with you they really [ __ ] with you so if you get on the good side you're good um and those yeah i did do i did so that was probably half of my stage time was like those lounge type shows which i know to a lot of people might not sound that crazy or that uncomfortable but it [ __ ] is performing comedy a non-comedy event is uh incredibly uh awful at least you weren't doing like your friend's birthday parties or something like that no however i did do probably the most uncomfortable show i've ever done in my entire life maybe a year ago a friend hit me up and was like hey uh he's uh just i don't know exactly what he does he's like an investor i suppose and he you know he connects a lot of people yeah and he was like hey i have drug dealers so he was like i have 1500 for you to perform at this guy's birthday party to do 20 minutes and i was like 20 minutes sure and uh so he's like yeah you're featuring for this comic that i also knew and then he's bringing his own like host or whatever and all right cool so we show up at this house in beverly hills and it looks empty dead like nothing's happening so we just walk inside the house no one opens the door we just walk in and there's just like a family of like four women and like three kids and like two dudes just in the house that looked like it looks like they're like mid move in like everything it's empty in there and we're like hey we're the comedians and they're like oh yeah we're gonna start the show in like probably like 30 minutes uh the guy who you're here to perform in front of is upstairs asleep and we're like what they're like yeah we're trying to wake him up right now we're like yeah that's usually the best audience someone who you woke up how angry you'd be being woken up to be like hey wake up there's people here to make you laugh but they better be so [ __ ] full and there's also a a band there that's setting up of uh like eight or nine musicians uh all black so who are performing for is this this jewish guy and his family for his birthday so we postponed the show like an hour trying to get him to get up out of bed when he gets up and he's so drunk like it's very clear why he was asleep at like 7 30 p.m and finally he goes up on the microphone and he's like ah we're getting the show started and it just says the first comic's name the first comment just goes up and now if you're like you're in the liv you're standing in the living room facing towards the kitchen and the room is divided on the right side is this jewish family left side of this black band who also doesn't want to be there and the first comment goes up and just bombs for like 10 minutes and he's all right that ripe i go up there and i was like so mad at the circumstance that i just roasted everything about it i roasted the family i roasted the band i roasted the house everything and just talked just genuinely riffed on how awkward the entire situation was for everybody and crushed like 20 minutes crushed introduced the headliner and like on the on the handshake of bringing him to the stage i was like i'm out of here left and my friend calls me and is like hey the guy enjoyed your set so much he's doubling your pay whoa we got three grand for i mean a painful it's like you never know what's going to come in these situations yeah you got it that's true man you gotta kinda you gotta take them you just don't [ __ ] you don't know you sometimes you don't know it could be it's it's that the circumstances sound like they're the worst ever and it could end up being double your pay three grand you just don't know i think the moral of the story the moral of the story is if a jewish man says come to my house and do comedy you say yes you always say yes that is the new comics never forget that rule write that one down in your book dude it felt like i had to [ __ ] somebody at the party like it felt like i was tired of it was so uncomfortable comedy seemed like the last thing that was supposed to happen at this event we really just interrupted this family's mother but dude i've made i've done so many like shows that i was like man i don't want to [ __ ] be here and there'll be somebody in the crowd or some comic that's also on the show and it'll lead to more bookings and better shows or i've done really shitty independent movies that i'm like i'm just doing this for a little bit of side cash and you know paid practice this movie's never even going to come out and you know somebody who is a pa on that movie is now working on a big movie that i'm doing this may that's like [ __ ] uh making me a lot of money so it's like you just you never know you just gotta say yes to everything yeah so after um you know mom's driving you to the open mics you're doing jewish house parties um talk a little bit about the breaks along the way that kind of that you felt like made the biggest upswing and opportunity in your career that kind of got you to your where you are now today so um very very very long story short i end up getting a manager who owned a comedy club out of atlanta i moved to atlanta the summer of my junior senior year of high school and i worked at his club like nine to 11 shows a week performing every show every night just building chops and then from there i knew i wanted to graduate high school early so i went back to ohio to start my senior year and i graduated early moved out to l.a slept on couches for the first two years and um i'd say i think it was my first i had to have been within nine months of being yeah i think it was like the first six months um i was performing at this this black club uh the comedy union down on pico uh it's an urban club um and i was having a really good set it was one of the few clubs who booked me at the time because new to town didn't know anybody and um out of there the booker for bet's comic view was there and they put me they booked me for uh the reboot of the show that they were doing in atlanta so that was like my first real break and then the show i was the youngest person ever to be on the show got a standing ovation and uh it never aired they pulled they pulled the entire show after one episode something happened with like the deal they had and the et just pulled the entire show but it gave me the confidence to be like okay maybe i can actually do something and from there i booked a couple of small roles on disney shows and then i guess wild and out was like the first big thing that i had booked i booked that when i was 18 and i had actually auditioned for that when i was 16 in atlanta and i didn't get it and i was so heartbroken about it but then when i got the show when i was 18 i was like oh it was a good thing i didn't book it when i was 16 because i was not ready at all like my whole first season on that show was so bad like it was just just learning and like trying to keep up um it was um life-changing and a lot of more than a profession um and from that it gave me a little bit of a career boost gave me like a legitimate uh that's what i'm looking for uh credit and um a bit of a fan base and from there on out i guess i mean i i hosted the reboot of trl which was a [ __ ] nightmare i did a bunch of stuff for mtv that i you know did for money i suppose which uh taught me the hard way money does not buy happiness i thought it would it does not you got to be happy which apparently is stand up and acting yeah that that's awesome what a great that's a great like did you get that tape from that atlanta show the best show no they wouldn't give anybody their stuff either i mean they own the rights to it yeah the only evidence i have of it is a video on my instagram it's way far down when i'm like talking to the camera and bro i have like a child's voice guys uh i just want to say thank you to everybody i had a great time at the taping dude it's like it's so embarrassing that's like the only evidence i even have from it oh wow that's crazy and then so then after after wilding out did that kind of give you the you know the i don't know like you said the credits or the the exposure to start booking some national dates just club hitting the clubs and stuff like that yeah yeah from there i uh around like my third season my last season on there um was really the time that i started headlining shows um which was obviously a big jump i never had to do like an hour of material before you get comfortable being a feature because the easiest spot on the show you're doing 20 minutes it's in the middle of the show they're already kind of warmed up there's no pressure um it's really it's easy and it's really you get to tour with people not what you look to it's a great position so when i started headlining had a little bit of a fan base but i guess i wasn't quite i wasn't ready i i i mean it's hard to say i wasn't putting on the shows that i am like for the past three years of my career where it's like i know i can put on a great hour-long show it was more just like okay here's everything i've ever written and you guys are coming because you saw me on a tv show like now i'm finally getting to the point where i have like actual stand-up fans yeah what would you say is there i know we'll talk more about writing later but when it comes to um the way you structure a 20-minute set versus an hour set is there anything that you do differently between those two opportunities is not just not just longer but is there any strategically uh strategic things you do to set up that set list not really i me and maybe i should be better at it um some people are like you know some people will make a handwritten list in a notepad like i'm doing this joke then to this joke then to this joke i kind of have uh a mental list in my head of like i'd like to touch on this one and definitely want to hit this one and this one for a 20 minute set something that's just more compact that you want to just boom boom boom boom with a little bit of time you have but for an hour it's more like okay i know what i want to start with and i know what i want to end with everything in between i can i'm just kind of free floating yeah and then from that you learn what works before this joke and what works after this joke then you start moving it around like everything i'm doing right now is kind of still random um like some of it i mean i i'm working on my new special now and i want to film it next january but i'd say i'm only like 25 done with it and a lot of it a lot of the transitions would need to be changed um but i prefer the hour because i can really just be loose and be myself and that opens up opportunities for crowd work and riffing on bits that i i want to just workshop uh so i mean i prefer it a lot more it's it's looser yeah well you did a great job you're said i thought it was really interesting like not to give away any of your material that you're working on but the the red flag chunk oh yeah you were like you you flowed so nicely between you know as you progressed through the the different notes that you had and then you were able to crowd work in between and it was almost like every time that you kind of brought the show back on track from that last point it was kind of it felt good as an audience member to me like okay now he's on number three there's something like human and something about just human nature just likes a list and i just i loved it when you brought it back and said okay now we're done with that we're circling around and i thought that was super unique i haven't heard a lot of people do stuff like that before and it kind of gave a little structure to the to the set interesting i i love hearing stuff like that not egotistically but just because you don't you don't know what people you don't know exactly how people are perceiving what you're saying i've done jokes before that i'm like you know this joke does okay um but to me it's like it's so funny like am i saying it wrong whatever it is and i have had like a friend comic be like it's because it comes across like this i'm like well that's not what i'm saying well it sounds like that and you'll go [ __ ] well i i had no idea it sounded like that so i mean i i appreciate the feedback that's why whenever another comic has like you know uh a punch up or a tag or any notes on a bit i'm never gonna be like yeah i i don't take notes i'm like yeah i think it's stupid i'll forget it sometimes you need to hear it yeah at the end of the day it's your responsibility to decide what to do with it but yeah yeah exactly but i mean yeah you should never be so egotistical you just get rid of everyone else's uh yeah i think it's interesting because brian and i are both getting a few more feature and now a few headline opportunities so it's i've noticed in my brain as these opportunities have come up um you know it's interesting my brain is really running like what do i need to do differently here should i structure this differently so just as a as someone who's just getting a couple of those opportunities here and there it's it's really uh my brain's just turning a lot as i'm considering how to put a set together that's much longer than what i typically do that's good at least you're thinking about it some people are just like [ __ ] it we'll see what happens that's so good that's actually a good question drew uh i just you know i just did a headlining gig and there's always this like dip in the i imagine you experience it at your level two math there's always a dip in the energy during your set and it's just you know how do you how do you how do you handle that how do you come back for that do you you know how do you not let that like take you down a dive i mean for me i was like all right let me just pop off two that i know work and get the [ __ ] out of here this is this is the end but if you're gonna straight line of fire for an hour straight that's the dream goal right yeah but um there's i mean there's things sometimes you can't control like uh like the check dropping check usually drops about 35 40 4 35 45 minutes into a set because they never know how long the headliner's gonna do it could be 45 minimum to hour hour and a half um check drop almost always puts some kind of lull of energy right because you know a lot a lot of people are surprised at how much money they spend they're you know they're talking amongst themselves at the table like you know it's a lot of um unnecessary banter that's it's out of your control completely um some comics will have jokes prepared for that moment to talk about the check being dropped and that that's always funny um or you can just try to structure it in a way that maybe how do i say this for me right now if i'm doing a full hour uh i have a joke that's uh kind of a long story about 35 to 40 35 minute mark so it's like people can choose to listen to the story or not they're not gonna feel like they missed one independent really good joke it's a story choose to pay attention to it or not at the end of it's gonna be a big punch line we all laugh awesome um or you can break it up and you can be like do i wanna just waste this five minutes with a couple of short little jokes while you know that only 65 75 percent of the audience is really listening to right now because they're handling that moment um so there's different ways to structure your set around what's going to be happening at the club at the time you expect the lull but if you mean materialistically or uh or energy wise um [Music] that's sometimes sometimes it's you sometimes your energy sometimes you'll get so comfortable like for me when i first started doing an hour i'd be like well i'll just sit down on the stool at the 40-minute mark because everyone knows i'm comfortable i'm so comfortable but not realizing you still have to keep their attention yeah sometimes sometimes you can get too comfortable that's a great point yeah we wouldn't even like yeah if you get if you get into a rhythm and you start shutting down with with your inner delivery energy the audience is going to mirror that back to you absolutely if you come out rapid fire and then people are just oh i don't have a moment to breathe that's what they're going to be expecting for an hour so for me i don't i don't love having a really high energy comedian open for me because that's not my energy or my style i don't want the crowd to expect that or i don't want to have to bring them back down to like a listening level um yeah i mean yeah there's a lot of factors that they come into play and you just have to see what works best for you it's that's the thing about this job is like there's no there's no blueprint everybody and every show is going to be different it is it is pretty smart though we talk a lot about just being comfortable on stage and that that is a big part of connecting and and getting the audience to to follow you along but then you you're like hey that can be taken too far that can go you're too comfortable on stage so you do have to find that the right balance absolutely and that was a thing that took other comics telling when i was um preparing my hour for special i mean months beforehand but i was telling people this is what i want to do um i would have veteran comics like finesse mitchell has been a friend of mine since i was like 16. um i was i was opening for him in um rich virginia at a club called sandman comedy club which i'm going to be at in a couple of months check it out check it out rife.com it was it was a two-man show so he was like do 40. i want to see what you're working on and i put i started doing this bit now the bit to me the reason i sat down is because i'm all right i'm settling into a store so i want everyone to like also feel leaned in and comfortable and he was like when you do that you lose the energy it feels like you it feels like you don't want to perform this story it sounds like you just want to tell people like you're talking on the phone and i was like really he was like i promise you like do it again the same way you just did it do it and think about what i told you and i did it exactly the same way sat down and i noticed i was like oh yeah some of the punches don't hit as well i was like okay now let me act this out a little bit more put more energy into this moment and not sit down and the joke worked three times better i'd say so crazy how sometimes the smallest change does make a difference and that's why i guess it's so important to go back and watch your sets listen to your tapes and and find those little tweaks because um it's wild how the the smallest edit can take a joke from silence to a big laugh absolutely however at the end of the day it is precision um i'm working on a joke right now that uh i'm not gonna make you guys remember from the show uh it's um not very pc uh it's uh it definitely has potential to be offensive and um and i unders i can 100 understand why certain people wouldn't like it but literally yesterday the reason i'm i'm determined to figure this joke out and make it work is because although yes it can be offensive to some people and it shouldn't be because it's coming from a a non-offensive place and it's in if you listen to the context of the joke and who's saying it and how it's being said it shouldn't be offensive but it is a a triggering topic as as much as i understand that and respect the percent of every audience i ever do this for it might not be comfortable with it the first time i ever tried this joke and why it made me want to keep doing it is i literally had a guy stand up like 10 rows back in the crowd he stood up and said yo repeated the punch line it said is the funniest [ __ ] i've ever heard and i was just riffing on i was like [ __ ] maybe there is something to it and then yesterday i think i still have a screenshot of it um i messaged me i didn't screenshot it oh wait wait wait i can't though i can't show it so i'll give it away because it dm me from a show i did a week prior he goes funniest joke i've heard in years and then quoted the punchline for it great job at this show i'm still laughing at that so it's like i have to decide is making certain people laugh so hard at something worth this joke probably never working 100 of the time i i feel like it's a joke relating to gender fair enough is that the one we're talking about yeah that's fair so so like i feel like you may be more in your head than you need to be on it like i feel like you you you would kind of talk about it before you go on stage and like i don't think you need to worry about how fast it hit and you know it's funny and i i think you're right if you if you look at the context of it then you don't need to worry about it i mean of course if you can always worry especially with the with the with the social media following that you have that somebody takes it out of context they can do that now i mean they could it could already be done it's already out there that's true yeah you know and the thing the thing is and one thing i have been mindful of and i never like go out of my way to make it a point but the people who should or could be affected by the subject matter of this joke after the show like i always do meet and greets and stuff no one has ever come up to me to be like i didn't like that please please don't do that there's gonna be people in the crowd who are like uh i just don't know if i should laugh at that right but that's fine that's what it is that's comedy you know what i mean like it's subjective and it's never gonna be for everybody you can even do a joke a hundred times that gets you a standing ovation post it online 99 approval rate people [ __ ] love it you're always gonna have somebody go this sucks this isn't even funny so it's like at the end of the day everything's your choice that's the responses and drew is a fan of the grounds he likes it when he gets the ground response oh is there anything better than a oh it's uh you know i say responses response absolutely i'll take that means i surprised him that means i that was a great misdirect and they didn't see it coming and maybe it was a little dark i love that what does that say about us yeah i think the general rule i've always heard from comics have told me is basically if you're going to tell a dark or a dirty joke it needs to be funnier than it is dark or funnier than it is offensive right yeah as long as you have that it is offensive or something yeah yeah it has to in it and it has to be coming from a genuine place of like you're not a bad guy you're just doing a joke and that's just where being genuine comes across people can read that from a mile away people can tell if you're pandering people can tell if you're coming from like oh he's actually being a dick you know right i have like one joke in my set that is like kind of a nazi joke and i don't do nazi jokes but this one's kind of personal to me because it's about a tattoo and i like i like tattoos or whatever and i will i although i sometimes cut that out of my set um it gets a groan and it makes me happy and there's something like i like that i go ha ha i got you you didn't see that coming and that's just for me so somebody i think in your set you should have something for you sometimes so that's the one for me oh yeah i have plenty of more now more than ever i'm finding like this is this is more for me than the audience you're always gonna you're gonna have your fans you know what i mean if i've never of all the material i've had in [ __ ] 11 years doing comedy i haven't had people have such a reaction to a punchline that makes me be like huh this and i and i keep doing it because not for the reaction but because it's funny to me so i'm determined to get you to understand why it's funny so you can laugh at it as well so yeah you the longer i do comedy the more i do it for me which i think is uh very important for [ __ ] your own health just for your health right yeah exactly literally you can't like me and brian perform a lot running that show every week and if we did the same exact set for a couple weeks in a row and we probably have done pretty similar sets you know we're trying to get better about you know being more explorative and trying more new material crowd work and all sorts of stuff i think we've been better about that in the last couple of months than we have been for a while and that's been fun but telling the same jokes in every night back to back like a road comic that's got to be a little brutal oh absolutely you do you have to push yourself i got so complacent with the hour i was doing before i put out the special and it was jokes that i was just getting tired of doing i knew a lot of people hadn't knew them and it was the best thing i ever could have done because when i put out the special i was like no more don't do that [ __ ] anymore force me to write new [ __ ] and now when i'm doing my full hour i only repeat like i think two jokes that i did on my special which you know i only put it out like three months ago so it's not bad it's discipline that's all it is yeah look at which we should probably maybe we should hop into that clip yeah it's actually well time we were talking about offensive and stuff so i've got a quick little clip mat from only fans it's actually right up top not because i didn't do my research i watched the thing but i i think it i think it's good i think you'll like it you guys uh ready to be offended no don't [ __ ] say that and then go on twitter afterwards like oh matt has some opinions of his own and end my [ __ ] career okay just want to have a good time tonight all right comedy almost isn't fun okay happen to adhere to everybody's sensitivities since when that [ __ ] is so new remember like three years ago when no one gave a [ __ ] about how you felt like three years ago if you were in public and were like i don't like a stranger would come up and be like shut up [ __ ] and punch you in your chest like ah now i hurt on the outside and the insides ah like we've gotten so sensitive as a society man we've gotten so soft like fresh out the pool dick salt that all the fellas understand that you get off that cold water you don't even recognize yourself anymore whose dick is this who put a baby dick on me so i feel like we are as a society man just unsolved it's exhausting [Laughter] uh the metamorphosis of the hair so many times in editing i'm so sick of it i figure as much it's pretty fresh i gotta tell you like uh your bra your social commentary you always have you know whether we talk about gender you talk about dating uh race quite a bit you have a really good handle on social commentary especially for a young man uh like yourself and then you you're able to kind of take it into these punch lines which are kind of silly and fratty and fun like baby dick click it's cool it's cool to watch that transition in such a short period of time but be able to also be able to tackle these bigger issues and make fun of them no of course this this whole special for me there's a lot of things that i just wanted to like mention once so that i don't have to do it anymore in my stand up like everybody being offended a comedy like that's a subject that's kind of been beaten to death as although it is still wildly relevant so it was like okay let me touch on it in the beginning of the show say one thing about it and i don't have to mention it anymore same with um i do a bit about like you know my looks like ten like eight or ten minutes into the special i wanted to do that whole chunk in this special and put it out there so i don't have to talk about that anymore either because everyone always [ __ ] brings up my looks when it comes to stand up and it's like okay cool all right i get that you think i'm this i get that you see me as this or whatever but now that i've talked about that can i just be a comedian can i just talk about silly funny [ __ ] yeah well it all has a a purpose and you know a lot of it is aggravating that negativity stuff but actually you know sometimes you also need to set that tone for the crowd if i'm about to do some offensive material might be it might be okay to open the show like just letting everyone know like hey you know this is a safe space i'm going to say some things but like we need to be strong and have a good time yeah and i know i mean for being such a young comic it clearly shows that you you definitely started very early because i think the tone of the of your delivery is so conversational and that's something that you when you go to an open mic and see people have only been doing it for a year or two you never get conversational that's something that seems to only come with time yeah one punch line joke two punch line that's one thing that i've been trying to hone in on the past couple of years is like trying to figure out you know what is my style what is my voice on stage because especially for for an hour long set it's like what who are you going to be for an hour how are you going to set the tone for your energy and just naturally i've kind of felt that like that's kind of my style i guess is i every show kind of feels like a conversation that's a lot of um feedback i get a lot it's like everything that people will be like you feel very personal felt like we were just kind of hanging out and you were just talking to us and i like that because i mean i suppose in everyday life it's when i'm the funniest when i'm just hanging out with my friends or girlfriend or whatever it may be like once i'm comfortable with you and it just feels like we're shooting the [ __ ] that's when you're gonna be naturally the funniest rather than like here's a here is a joke that i hope you like you know feels like less of a presentation the only time i'm worried about that is once i start doing more theaters i've done quite a few theaters in the past like opening for people um granted then i'm only doing like 15 25 minutes um but i'm curious because when you're doing a theater you have to perform more you do have to change your delivery because it's a much larger room the people sitting you know 500 people back don't want to feel like you're having a conversation with people in the front that they're not a part of so it's like now granted maybe i become so famous and successful for doing that that people will come just to listen from wherever and maybe people already know that's my style that's what i'm going to see and that's fine that'd be great if i could just be myself but um if or when i get to that level um i'm sure i'll have to make some tweaks to it yeah do you feel like you're on stage persona is has grown closer to your offstage persona or do you see a difference there or feel a difference between those how you are often on stage um they're pretty similar i mean you're always going to be a little bit of an exaggerated version um [Music] i'm i definitely play into like uh charmingly naive or ignorant character i suppose um i think that's what people expect from me anyways i just look like every [ __ ] frat dude ever who doesn't know [ __ ] about [ __ ] but it's so opinionated yeah uh so i mean i i play into it a little bit and because it's funny it's a funny character to play however um when you see me being comfortable and like talking to the crowd and stuff like that that is it's pretty close to me um it's about maybe a little bit higher energy than i am and i'm i'm pretty chill yeah i'd say that i mean even in our interactions the other weekend i would say that's true like you are yourself it feels like you're kind of yourself but higher energy and definitely turned yeah turned up a few notches on stage yeah as you should be yeah thank you thank you but i just mean like i mean you know in comparison to comics who you know you know some comics get on stage and they're like what's going on everybody and then they get off stage they're like hey what's up man it's not that drastic you know my favorite ones are there's some comics that get on stage there's a couple that are really good that i've worked with recently and this girl will get up on stage and act incredibly nervous and her character on stage is like this nervous nelly and then she gets off stage and she's just chill fun person but that's that's her on stage persona and it works and she gets laughs and it's great but um you know she's it's very strategic it's very you know who does that character very well um jeremy hotz you know that is i'm not sure i know him he's a canadian comic uh he works in la a lot as well i mean he was very big in like the 90s and stuff he's an older guy probably like 50 60. he's that guy that kind of like whimpers like he's like i don't know like yeah yeah yeah that's his whole and the characters it's very funny but you've talked to him backstage he's just like this he's very normal right i remember he had a bit about he had a bit about how he was nervous because his garbage made like something happened and he had like he's spilled like uh he for some reason had like a feminine product and some ketchup or something happened in the in his house and he put it in the trash can and he was like my garbage man's gonna think i had a terrible accident or something like that and yeah that guy was hilarious i always wonder how people get per stage personas like that like that's something that just kind of developed on stage from actually being nervous and you're like oh maybe i could play into that people like that character or if you went into it being like i know this is gonna be funny i'm just gonna try to be this well that's like the story of i think that's kind of the story of andrew dice clay was like that was just like a a weird persona that he'd do in his in his act a little bit and then eventually it took over his entire act i think i did hear the same thing it worked out yeah for sure i guess let's do this because we asked everybody this question uh about writing so really open-ended uh how does matt rife write comedy man that's so tough and even i don't know the answer um actually now that i'm finally back in la for like a big chunk of time i've been gone non-stop this year um which is a great problem to have but uh even i lack the discipline i don't i don't write every day um and i should i wish i could um most of my material will happen something will happen in life and i'll be riffing on it and it'll be killing with my friends or whatever i'm like man i want to write this down this is a very funny topic and then i can go home and just kind of make it into like a conversational bit um so to speak but now my first real experience with being like oh maybe i can do this was like maybe a month after i shot my special i went up to dc where a friend of mine martin amini runs a great room that sells out like it's only like 60 people but he sells up literally every single day of the week it's a great crowd and i was like i want to come just work out new [ __ ] like i go into doing a 45 minute set with no material whatsoever and went to a coffee shop at like 10 10 30 in the morning and uh i sat there until like 5 p.m just working on like two bits and i got them done i did them the first night i was there and uh now it's now they're my opening and closing bits for my new hour so it was like right i realized if i sit down and i have a general base of something i think could be funny and other people will like it then i can craft it into something so actually starting well hopefully today i'll have some time i want to like actually i want to do the same process just go somewhere be outside and just force myself turn off my phone don't get on social media or anything don't listen to music like just sit down and look like a crazy person that coffee bean just doing this you look absolutely insane because you're just you're just thinking it's you're not you're not writing it freehand being like oh we'll just we'll see what goes along you're just going [Laughter] like sir did you lose your macbook what's going on you just look like a [ __ ] psychopath well also that's a good strat i mean i think that um probably something i've done too much and maybe a lot of comics feel this is we spend a lot of time polishing turds instead of investing in a and and when you find a bit that really is good it kind of happens and you get excited about it and you write and it's all it's good stuff but sometimes we're we want to make a joke work so hard and it's not really organically gonna happen it's not happening and you're trying to force it yeah exactly oh that's the worst yeah i've had plenty of those this is gonna be great you tried a few times you're like maybe this just doesn't work all right that's fine that's fine whatever but i mean everyone again this is something that it's all up to you everybody's process is different i know neil brennan sits down and writes like three hours a day you can just sit down at a desk and [ __ ] it right uh and i know like dane cook doesn't write anything down he just goes on stage and riffs on a topic and just kind of works it out on things that he's mentally prepared for um and i guess i'm just kind of right in the middle of that i think like i think like those guys like neil are our natural writers and i think you're more of a natural performer um not to say that you know but no no i i think i probably agree on that continuum that's you probably land more on that side than writing yeah i think so and it's like you know you can't force it if you're not that you're not that however it's like you know it's like going to the gym if you don't like lifting your legs it's fine you don't have to but if you want to be more well-rounded probably try it a little bit more time i'm actually i'm at that lifetime so that's one of the few comics that took me up to come to a lifetime i'm here right now dude dude are you in the office space i am yeah are you in one of the little pods i am that's oh dude it was so sick you know the best thing about that gym didn't see a single dick in the locker room it was very classy oh it's full of dicks when i'm here yeah uh but no it's good that's another thing too man when you're on the road you got to take care of yourself uh something hard you take very seriously a lot of comics forget about let's slip and uh can really bite him oh yeah you got to have some kind of routine man i mean comedy unfortunately can't be your entire life yeah you see so many comics that hit the road and they're hilarious and it seems like the funnier they get the fatter they get yeah like you know they're working all the time and you're like this guy's real funny well there's also nothing funny about a what movie is it it's uh i think it's funny people with adam sandler joe i think oh [ __ ] was that it was that the movie somebody said jonah hill says it somewhere i think that's the movie where he's like there's nothing funny about a physically fit man because they want to see you fat they want to see you out of shape they want to laugh they want to expect to laugh at you more than with you yeah there's something about there is something about feeling superior to the person telling jokes or something like that there's something about that they like the self-deprecation they like feeling there's something going on there in the psychology of comedy performance that if you get up and you're this good-looking guy with ripped abs and you're funny it's like it makes them sad in the audience like wait [ __ ] weird he looks great he's in shape and he's funnier than me i'm gonna go home and hang myself i don't know what's going on you are i was gonna say you are supposed like there's a thing in comedy where if you're if you're if you do because you're in good shape you're good-looking guy right like you have to you're supposed to have to disarm the guys on dates because there's they're like oh my chicks into this guy but i think you figured out a way to do it a lot of people said to dress it right up top and you didn't do it you're special we just watched how you started your special um you're able to do it in your charm and you're able to connect like you said you're just like another one of their frat guys or something like oh this i like this dude i can imagine hanging out with this guy when i was in college and that's how i literally felt and so i wasn't worried about you stealing my girl good because i will that's exactly how it works good i want you to feel unthreatened and then i [ __ ] swoop in and now i raise your kids you know it's um i mean steal your girl rife that's i mean you're right i didn't open with it but that was another reason i wanted to do a chunk about my looks in the first special because it's like again i get it i know you think this thing of me but in reality this is how i see myself so it's like yeah everyone should just chill the [ __ ] out like i i'm sorry your girlfriend finds me a tractor or whatever but it's like i can i'm here to make you laugh i'm not here to [ __ ] her like i don't care about that at all you're right i think i just if i can come across as being genuine and somebody they want to hang out with which hopefully i am then um hopefully they get the [ __ ] over sooner or later that's the goal uh dude i can't i'd say the number one compliment i get it's a it's a favorite at least favorites and most common is dudes will come up after the show and be like you know i did when you first came out i didn't i didn't want to like you but you were really funny you really made me laugh i really didn't want to like you i'm like awesome it's just it [ __ ] with you a little bit to know that's what people are thinking because that would feel so like is it narcissistic or like egotistical to be like oh everyone already thinks this everyone thinks i'm so good-looking or whatever like that sounds crazy to think out loud but it's like [ __ ] yeah people actually do think i'm like a douchebag and that i'm not going to be funny yeah it's weird you have to navigate and also the natural response might be to a lesser comic might to be i know i look good but uh you know yeah yeah you end up leaning into that stereotype and making it worse than yeah but luckily we have boys to give us and this material and i fit the i fit the description perfectly so i can always play into that and i don't mind self-deprecating because i don't take myself serious at all so it's like i'm doing it for their pleasure it's more like hey guys yeah i know i look like this it's fine it's fine i i could i [ __ ] your girl probably yeah like an older clothes or laugh you know another thing we like to get into with riding is uh preparing for a set uh are you a setlist guy do you uh how how tightly do you stick to that set list and is there also anything at the very last second before you step on stage that you do to prepare for that for that performance no i mean i think we kind of talked about that earlier with like the hour versus like a 20 minute thing no i don't really i don't particularly plan like beat by beat by beat usually um i usually know what i want to end with and i know the first like bit that i want to open with usually however most shows i'd say like 85 percent of shows i like to start out with something not necessarily topical but like something with somebody in the crowd or the venue or something something in the moment to make the show seem how do i say this uh make it seem authentic or genuine or something not again not that i'm like coming up that'll be like all right joke number one he's just like hey i'm here let's [ __ ] talk about the situation same as if we sat down at lunch at a weird-looking restaurant or if there we sat in a restaurant there was somebody dressed [ __ ] weird to the side wouldn't we sit down and like what the [ __ ] is this you know what i mean like just kind of being in the moment and i want the show to feel like that yeah that i want to do that's and that's i think the kind of a veteran move i was at an open uh or not an open mic it was actually a little show over at this comedy club in town and one of the great houston comics zod walks in the room and the lighting was kind of funny and i was about to go on stage and he kind of noticed he's like it looks like it looks like you know batman forever in here because it was like green and blue and i was like oh how could i have missed to take a look at the surroundings and and and comment on that like don't don't miss those opportunities for what's going on in the room because it really does kind of ground everyone like okay he's here he's in the room with us he sees what we see we're in this together yeah it's it's a lot like acting in the sense that like you have to be true to the moment like you know if somebody [ __ ] if somebody's wearing a gigantic [ __ ] hat in the front row of a comedy show and you don't acknowledge it people are like does he not see this like it's that would be just you know it'll be distracting me how does he not notice that like people want to feel like you're genuinely in the moment and i also want to feel like that they could beat you though i remember we had it was jeremiah watkins was on the show and there's this woman who was she dressed as drew like a cockroach a cockroach is it a jealous show no no her husband he was in a suit and she was a cockroach and they said it was a men in black cosplay thing everyone else was dressed regular yeah it was like two months ago yeah and he was like don't don't touch it he's like just leave it alone they want attention like just leave it alone like it's an interesting technique i i would feel needed to say something about it but i'd probably say something mean to shut down whatever ego they have going on looking for attention i probably i would do with something similar but i would still want to make a joke at their expense yes he eventually did it i think it was him trying to have us leave it alone so we can get to it maybe quite honestly but yeah that's all that that's a good move he shut us down from talking about it so he could be the only one i believe that 100 percent that's a solid move actually veteran veteran move all right i see what you're doing let's let's fire off uh last laugh and uh we'll get this thing going play this graphic that's weird i know dude all right uh tough one i know it is so uh the deal is uh what is the joke that you want right on your team so it doesn't have to be a joke be a bit it doesn't be yours can be somebody else's uh could be i don't care be a picture or dick doesn't matter but uh what would you want on your tombstone um a joke that i would want on my tombstone um i would want you know here lies matt rife 1995 to whatever year and i want winner of the 2025 naacp award just some people have to google it like what hold on is he black this is the same guy no this white guy keeps coming up this can't be him just like a comic trying to put [ __ ] with everybody just like a comic trying to get credits always turned out to keep live on credits just trying to get into heaven like come on i was on comic view come on you know what you know what's really agitating about this is um i i tried to text him but i think he's working right now uh my friend i used to live next door to we would get high every single night would smoke weed and we would just things would rain like random sentences would come up like this is just a funny [ __ ] sentence with no context whatsoever and he has a in his phone that's literally a list of things i want him to say at my funeral with no context like just there must be 30 things on that i can't think of any of them but it's like he has an entire list in his notes it's it's random [ __ ] like uh mexicans love parks this [ __ ] you have to be like [ __ ] yeah they did and now that i've said that every time you pass a park you will see a hispanic family i promise i promise it sounds like you need to put some like emotional music behind that and have him read it oh yeah and with no context i want i want him to end the list of people being like what the [ __ ] is happening right now rest in peace matt i don't know why that's so funny to me yeah let's do this man uh only fans i'm gonna talk about it for a minute i thought people know where i can get it and what it's all about yeah um uh my debut hour special is on youtube right now it's for free um it's just called matt rife only fans uh produced it with uh just myself and a bunch of friends of mine who are very talented and uh couldn't have done it without the fans that i already had and hopefully it's going to make me a lot more and we can continue to have good shows i think people really like it um like i said if it's if you've seen me live in the past couple of months or plan on seeing me in the next year it's all different stuff so it's all separate material you won't see any like repeated stuff i don't believe uh and yeah i think i think you'll really like it and what's your socials and stuff like that everything is just at matt rife m-a-t well they see it right here yeah if you can read you can find him on the internet there you go well well matt thanks for doing it man so much fun talking to comedy with you uh so great working with you and hopefully we'll do it again soon dude i love this stuff hit me up in it i want to do this again sometime i can talk about this stuff for hours i love you guys thank you so much for having me at the club and hopefully i'll see you guys soon absolutely man thanks for the time later guys [Music] thanks for listening to breaking down bits you can keep in touch or get more when you follow at breaking down bits on social media visit the website breakingdownbits.com or shoot us an email at breakingdownbits gmail.com

Channel: Breaking Down Bits

Views: 15,956

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Id: nFXVHGlrQWY

Length: 65min 29sec (3929 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2022