Communications Coach Reacts to Matt Rife on Tonight Show

Matt Rife. He's one of the up and coming comedians attracting so much attention across the Internet, across Netflix and broadcast media outlets like the Tonight Show. Hi, I'm TJ Walker, communications coach, and I'm going to give you a life. Unfiltered reaction to Matt Rife's communication skills. He's certainly a skilled communicator who is taking the entertainment world by storm. Let's dive in and analyze exactly what he's doing.

I am so underdressed. You didn't tell me what I was following.

Yeah, yeah, sorry. There's John Oliver, feathers around.

So right out of the gate, first thing out of his mouth, he's basically talking about his insecurity. Now, I wouldn't recommend that for a lot of politicians or CEOs, but he's a young comedian and this is a huge venue for him. So he's coming across right away as likable and as relatable.

Apologize if you're allergic.

No apology. I actually ran into him earlier. He tried to sell me a CD at Times Square. In that same outfit?

Yeah.

That wasn't him.

That wasn't. That wasn't.

That was Elmo.

Yeah. Oh, got it.

I want to talk to you about everything in your whole career, but I want to get to know you a little bit, too.

So he looks relaxed, his hands are moving, his body's moving, but when he's listening, he's just putting one hand on top of another. He's looking at Jimmy Fallon exactly as you would expect someone to do. So he's not slouching, he's not overly relaxed, but he certainly looks comfortable, relaxed and like he's in his element.

I just want to say, your problematic world tour, you announced it and in 48 hours you sold 600,000 tickets.

Yeah.

Insane.

I know.

I know what I feel.

Very expressive. That's not something somebody does if they've memorized a script. And here's everything I'm going to say. So he's coming across quite genuine here and not afraid to use his mouth, use his face in an expressive way to convey emotion. Now, I should note the New York Times did a recent gigantic front page story about him talking about a particular issue. And this makes some people uncomfortable, but they talked about the fact that he's really good looking and people are used to comedians not being good looking and comedian men not being good looking. And is it fair? Do we even want good looking comedians? Male comedians? So he's definitely coming across like he doesn't take himself too seriously. And Coming across as relatable and down to earth. So that, I think, is not as big of an issue for a lot of people. Let's look at more.

I mean, it feels incredible, man. I went from. I mean, literally July of last year, I was considering quitting comedy and everything. I couldn't sell any tickets at any comedy club. I wasn't getting any kind of break. And so from going from playing clubs for 35 people who got free tickets to we broke.

So look at the commanding use of hands going from a club where people had 35 tickets to selling 600,000. He's expressive. His hands are moving, his body's moving, his torso is moved. All of those things are good because nervous people tend to freeze. So even though he's extraordinarily young, still in his 20s, he's coming across like a real seasoned pro. I have to assume part of it is he spends so much time on camera. His whole rise to fame is because he. He is extraordinarily popular on social media. That's how he's able to sell 600,000 tickets so quickly is because he's cultivated and built his own fan base online.

We broke Ticketmaster, which is insane. So, yeah, if Travis Kelce. If it doesn't work out, holler at your boy.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's been unreal, man. My entire life has changed in a matter of, like, 14 months.

I'm so grateful I heard about the story that I kind of related to. Because you started comedy around 15?

Yeah, 15. Yeah. My grandpa used to take me to the Columbus Funny Bone in Ohio every Wednesday, and it was a bringer show. Like, a lot of open mics are.

Where you have to detail. That's what makes someone interesting. It wasn't just I started comedy young. It was. No, I started at 15. My grandpa, and he mentioned his name, took me to the Funny Bone, everyone. It's the specific detail, bringing in another character, a setting, action. That's what makes for compelling storytelling. And that's what makes for a good guest, too, on a major talk show.

Oh, a bringer.

Yeah.

Yeah. Usually, like, five people have to pay for tickets.

The way it works is if you go and perform, you have to actually bring five people that buy tickets and buy drinks.

Yeah. And hope they laugh.

And hope that they laugh. Yeah. They just want business.

Oh, of course.

They don't really care about your career.

No, not at all. And all my friends were still in high school, obviously, so they couldn't come attend. So my grandpa would buy five tickets, so the club would Think I had five people there to perform and then he would just watch me tank week after week after week.

He was the only guy.

No, but he loved it though. He was my biggest supporter. Like if it wasn't for my self deprecating.

Humor is always a big win. It doesn't matter if you're a rich CEO, a politician, but especially a comedian. So he's now reached the, the heights, maybe not the pinnacle. He's still a young man, but he's at a very high level in his comedy career. But he's not afraid to talk about. When he was starting out, he completely bombed, didn't get laughs, had to really pay his dues and thankfully for him, his grandpa was willing to pay five tickets just so he was able to form. Interesting, fascinating origin story. Very well done.

If it wasn't for my grandpa, I'd have absolutely no sense of humor. I never would have got my start into comedy.

So.

Good to have that support.

Thank you.

Thank you. What would showing gratitude. It always makes someone seem more endearing, more likable. He's doing a great job there, thanking his grandpa in highly specific ways.

Do you remember what your set was when you were 15 years old?

Oh, nonsense. Not stand up at all. I also, for the first six months of doing stand up, had no idea what a set was. Nobody told me I would just go up there and do five minutes of.

Like ridiculous can look at the ease. He doesn't say, nobody told me what a set was. He says, nobody told me what a set was. So everything is in sync. His hands are moving, his body's moving, his face is moving, his head is moving, his eyes are moving. All of these movements are perfectly in sync to make him look completely relaxed, Completely comfortable, confident. Relaxed in his own skin. And that's what makes someone a good guest for a talk show. It's also what makes someone a great communicator.

Like ridiculous things over and over again. But it was never like kid stuff. I never was. I was never telling like school jokes. I was never making like poop jokes or anything. It was always for adults because I was a kid performing for adults in a comedy club, which I think inevitably helped me transition because around the time I was like 23, 24, people start looking at you a little bit differently. You're no longer like the novelty of like, oh, he's a kid, give him a chance. At 24, people are like, we paid to get in here. Make us laugh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I think, I think that helped that transition be a Little bit smoother, but I never.

Great use of dialogue. Notice the change of tone. We paid to get here, make us laugh. So changing the tone, changing the direction, looking over here, doing the act up. Great comedians do that in their sets, but great guests on talk shows also do it when they are retelling a story to the host. He's doing a great job there.

Really played into the young aspect.

And you were saying earlier. I'm sorry, that I went over it. You were thinking about quitting.

And just look how he's holding it. He's holding himself. He doesn't look stiff or nervous, but he's clearly holding himself high, leaning forward a little and looking at the host, which is exactly what you want to do. Some people make the mistake of there's, oh, just be relaxed, be relaxed. And then they sit back. And even if you're not sloppy or overweight, the camera latches on to when it's closest to your stomach. It's just not a flattering look. And he's holding himself high, but not stiff or uncomfortable looking. That's great. Yeah.

Yeah, dude. I mean, I have been doing comedy for 11 years as of last year, 10 of it in LA. And it's just. It beats you down hearing, like, so much rejection. Like, I couldn't get a special anywhere. I couldn't get on a TV show anywhere. I couldn't get on the Jimmy Fallon show.

Yeah.

Wow.

I know. I submitted a couple times. We'll talk after.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now, all of these things just weren't adding up. But after a certain point, you go, am I delusional? Like, maybe I'm not funny, Maybe I'm not supposed to do this. And then just one random video kind of change.

Am I delusional? Should I be doing this again? He's coming across very authentic, expressive, not afraid to share his journey, not afraid to share the down moments. It's not just, oh, look how great I am, how wonderful I have everyone come to my comedy. He's really sharing about his journey. That makes a lot of sense. Now I'm hearing something that is really getting my ears to prick up. He says it all came down to one video. Let's. That's aroused my curiosity. Let's see what he has to say. Everything.

Yeah, it was a TikTok video.

Yeah. I reluctantly started posting on TikTok beginning of last year. I've always hated social media. I think it's so negative and it just stresses me out. But one day I was just like, how long can I go against the Grain. And it not work. So I started posting sporadically. And then I was at the Just for Laughs festival, which is like the most notorious comedy festival in comedy besides the New York Comedy Festival, where I got my start. Is it really?

Yeah.

New faces.

No way. Never got new faces.

All right, well, you know, I know.

So I'm at this festival. And even that was a funny circumstance because over the pandemic, my friend Paulie Leah, who's one of my best friends, great comic, we developed this show over the pandemic that was a dual hosted, improvised show.

Yeah.

And Just for Laughs wanted to pick up that show for the festival, but they didn't want me. They wanted Paul and not me. And Paul, being a good friend, was like, I refuse to do the show without him. Absolutely not. So they said, well, we're not gonna pay him. We're not gonna pay for his travel, but if he wants to perform, he can perform. So I was like, you know what? I'll swallow my pride. I wanna experience what this festival was about. We went. It was arguably the best show of the festival. But before that show, the same night we were at dinner and I was about to post this clip called the Lazy Hero, which I had already edited. It was at a show in Phoenix, Arizona, for like 75 people. And I was just sitting there.

I was so Ken, when he's talking about I was about to edit, he doesn't just say it, he acts it out. The act out is always going to make you more interesting, more, make you livelier, more engaging.

Depleted and depressed. You know, being at a place I wasn't even invited to perform at, not.

Afraid to talk about his emotions.

I was depressed and I was like, this is so stupid. Why am I even bothering posting this stuff? It's not going to do anything. My friend was like, you already edited it. Just post it and then we'll have a fun time tonight. And then that video over the next couple days went insanely viral. Like 20 to 30 million views. And then that made every other view, every other video on my profile go viral. And everything just kind of exploded out of nowhere.

30 million views. Yeah, dude.

Insane.

Insane.

Life changing, man. I'm so grateful.

Matt Rife, an extraordinary story. He's a compelling communicator. The big lesson I take away is it's not enough to be talented. It's not enough to spend a decade. You have to keep at it, keep getting feedback. And what changed his life was, in fact, posting video on social media. And even though he had a lot of videos that hadn't done much. It took one going viral and it brought up everything else. Now, not everyone is going to get a video that goes viral to 20 million. But in your industry, in your niche, you can have something viral for you. If you're a local psychologist in your community, and you and all your other local psychologists never get more than 50 videos, 50 views on your video, and yours all of a sudden gets 1900. And it's the right people in your community that's viral for you. So Matt Rife, extraordinary communicator, young comedian. I think we'll be seeing a lot of him in the future. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me.