For Matt Rife, Being a Hot Comic Isn't All Laughs

If people think I’m a heartthrob, cool; as long as you respect my comedy and like to laugh, you can think whatever you want about me, I don’t care. [But] I think it creates a lot more hate than it does positive effects. Besides getting my teeth done, I’ve never done anything to enhance my looks—[that and] going to the gym, which I do for more than just aesthetic reasons. So if anyone has a problem with that, that’s their problem. I’m not, like, doing anything.

You don’t even get a lot of sleep!

No, I don’t sleep, dude. I’m a zombie. [Laughs.] I’m trying so hard to be as ugly as possible, I fucking promise you. 

It’s one of those things that, at a certain point, I’m gonna stop talking about it, because I know I’m more than that. And the more people only look at me for, like, that one aspect of myself, the less they care about my comedy and my entertainment and things I want to create. So it’s like, yeah, we can reference these things now, but eventually, I’m going to be like, Can we just focus on the work? 

You’ve said you dislike social media, where I imagine you encounter a lot of these comments. How are you handling internet trolls as your fame grows?

It’s something I need to work on; I’m so immature. I have such a hard time not replying back. We live in a world where everyone has such a false sense of security and confidence hiding behind a computer screen. I have a huge problem with people not having to pay some kind of physical consequence. And obviously, because you’re on a computer screen, I can’t slap the shit out of you, but I can at least check you sometimes. I can roast you right back. I just can’t let them get away with it—it drives me absolutely insane.

In your special, you take aim at a lot of “girly” tropes—astrology, crystals, etc. Is your girlfriend into any of that?

No, no. She’s not into crystals or astrology or anything like that—thank God. That would have been the biggest red flag.

Are people in your life wary of ending up in your act now?