Tiktok‘s favorite crowd work comedian is set on making his mark on Netflix. Deadline reports that Matt Rife has signed a deal for two comedy specials and to develop an untitled gym/workplace comedy. The first special will be entire crowd work, the first of its kind on Netflix. It will be shot at The Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will be directed by Erik Griffin, Rife‘s long-time friend. Rife will serve as an executive producer alongside his manager Christina Shams. Details about the second special or the comedy show have not been revealed yet.
Natural Selection was Rife‘s first comedy special on Netflix and raked in over 10 million views in the first week on the platform. The special had a mixed reception, with some viewers disliking the format or the jokes, while others thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen. Rife‘s jokes about women and domestic violence were widely panned, with some factions claiming he had been canceled.
Who Is Matt Rife?
Rife has had a slow rise to fame, being in the comedy game for 12 years. He gained popularity on Tiktok after some crowd work clips from his shows went viral, and his social media exploded. Across all platforms, Rife has 33 million followers and 2 billion views. Before Natural Selection, Rife has self-produced some highly popular comedy specials that stream on his YouTube channel and have accumulated over 43 million views.
He is currently on his “ProbleMATTic World Tour” whose ticket announcement came second only to Taylor Swift in nearly breaking the platform. He sold over half a million tickets in 48 hours. Next, Rife will be seen on the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles where he is the headliner in his first appearance ever. He has other shows planned in different parts of the world as part of his world tour.
Rife has appeared on shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Wild ‘n Out. He previously expressed love for acting, saying:
“I love acting just as much, if not more than standup. I just haven’t been doing it as long and I haven’t been able to get my foot in the door as well as I have been with stand-up. But now that I have the freedom in success via stand-up, it opens up avenues in other areas that I am passionate about, like film and television, that I’m hoping I can make that transition over to, because it can only feed itself.”
Natural Selection is streaming on Netflix.
via Collider