Matt Rife Gets the Comparisons to Dane Cook
Quick, name the controversial entertainer: A cocksure young comedian, known as much for his good looks as for the quality of his jokes, parlays a massive social media following into stadium stand-up sets. If you said that sounds like Dane Cook, you’re right. If instead you shouted out “Matt Rife,” well, you’re right again.
Even Rife can see the similarities. “So many other people do bring that (comparison) to my attention,” he told People. But the connection doesn’t necessarily bother him. “That’s somebody who reached the pinnacle of success in comedy, right?”
There’s at least one more thing the two comics have in common — a vicious mob of online haters. “Think about how many people loved him, right? Think about how many people hate him. So it’s like as much as so many people like me right now, so many people hate me as well.”
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Unspoken is the fact that after Cook’s meteoric rise to stardom, his career fell back to earth. Accusations of plagiarism didn’t help, but the real problem seems to have been a backlash to success that didn’t seem to correlate with the strength of his jokes.
That’s partly why the divisive Rife seems intent on strengthening his stand-up game. “Dave Chappelle actually gave me this advice,” Rife revealed. “He said, on this tour, ‘Make sure you’re still making time to live your life. Because that’s where material comes from.’”
Material seems to be Rife’s weak point. If there’s one big criticism of the young comic — besides the jokes about domestic violence and special-needs equipment — it’s that he’s better at working a crowd than writing actual material. Rife got defensive about it after his most popular Netflix special, dropping the microphone after actually telling jokes for 45 minutes. His follow-up show went right back to riffing with the idiots sitting up front at the comedy club.
Living life and then writing comedy bits about it? Chappelle might be onto something there, Matt. But don’t expect Rife to change up much of anything soon, other than his stated goal of taking more time off to hang with his new girlfriend, British dancer Jessica Lord. Maybe there’s some new material there?
In the meantime, Rife thinks he’s got this comedy thing figured out. “Don’t worry about the things you do that people don’t like,” he explained. “Focus on the things that you do that people do like and make more of that stuff for them. Because those are the people who bless you with a career.”
