“In the early moments of a sold-out, standing room only show at The Laugh Factory Tuesday night, Matt Rife said something that wasn’t quite a disclaimer but more a general rule for how to enjoy what turned out to be a raucous set: “Anyone who gets offended by a joke in a comedy club is”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Even the choice of language seemed intentional as to let the audience know to expect the expected: A wild night filled with Rife’s brand of comedy that has propelled him to superstar status with hit Netflix specials, 11 million Instagram followers and a rabid fan base to prove it. He even saved a chunk of the show for crowd work, always a well-received trademark of his act.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night came when Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun walked in with a group of friends just before the lights went down to take a seat in the upstairs VIP section. If the new Hollywood couple was offended by any of the material, they didn’t make it known — even if some of it was personal. The jokes flying from the stage — not only during Rife’s set but from two openers that also happen to be his good friends, Jackson McQueen and Erik Griffin — covered subjects like broken engagements, new couples, age gap relationships, the war in Gaza and the ample amount of nudity on Euphoria (specifically Sweeney’s topless scenes).
McQueen, a stand-up who regularly travels with Rife, got the show going with a warm-up set just after 10 p.m. He jokingly called the upstairs spot where Sweeney and Braun were seated “the Groupon section.” McQueen’s set covered a broken engagement and entering the dating pool as a newly single guy as Sweeney and Braun held hands under the table and sipped on bottles of water. (She was fresh from catching the World Series at Dodger Stadium as the local heroes lost to the Toronto Blue Jays.)
McQueen then welcomed Griffin to the stage who delivered a set that opened with his thoughts on being a new parent. He mused on the unpredictability of toddlers and their wild nature before sharing a NSFW story about helping his wife out with a tampon. Then he turned his attention to Euphoriathe critically acclaimed HBO series that landed Sweeney two Emmy nominations for playing Cassie Howard.
While it’s unclear if he knew Sweeney was seated front and center directly above him, Griffin mentioned her by name several times and joked about how her “titties are always out” on the show. “She’s at the pharmacy and her tits are out — it’s wild,” he said. “For no reason.” Sweeney doubled over with laughter at the bit and so did the members of her group, including Braun, while many Laugh Factory guests swiveled their heads in her direction to gauge her reaction. (Griffin definitely knew she was there by the end of the show, however, as he was spotted looking over their shoulders from a window in the VIP section.)
Her light-hearted reaction isn’t surprising as Sweeney has previously said that “the female body is a very powerful thing,” and she has no issues with nudity because “I’m telling my character’s story, so I owe it to them to tell if well and to do what needs to be done.” Less than 24 hours after appearing at the Laugh Factory, she showed up to Variety’s Power of Women event in a sheer Christian Cowan gown that revealed her breasts. “I hope I can inspire other women to be confident and flaunt what they’ve got, because you shouldn’t have to apologize or hide in any room,” she said in the mag’s cover story.
Back to Griffin. He joked that it’s not only Sweeney who has bared her body on Euphoria. “There’s too much dick,” he quipped of the show’s plentiful full-frontal scenes, which he said are too many for his liking and always come as a surprise. “That wasn’t in the trailer.”
The audience ate up Griffin’s set, and he wrapped by welcoming back McQueen, who had the honor of introducing his BFF, the night’s headliner. Rife, fresh from a record setting performance at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., received a wild applause from his fans, one of whom admitted during the show that he drove 13 hours from Oregon to attend the Laugh Factory show. Another arrived with freshly baked cookies as a gift. (Rife politely declined to eat them but offered his gratitude.)
Rife made it clear from the top of his show that it would be a politics-free evening because he truly “doesn’t know the difference between Republicans and Democrats.” That said, he did use “Free Palestine” as a punchline at several points in the night, a subject the Jewish Braun has been passionate about since the Oct. 7 massacre and throughout the conflict. “Where are my Jews at?” Rife said as he pretended to wade into the international conflict, later joking “I hope you win” despite adding, again, that he doesn’t even know what that means either.
Rife covered a range of subjects in his sexually charged set including impotence, masturbation and a wild story about visiting Amsterdam’s Red-Light District where he and his best friend took in a live sex show last year. He also made several jokes at the expense of trans women and their vocal range. He spent considerable time chatting up a couple seated in the front row, Matthew and Lily.
They, too, arrived with a gift that included Nuda tequila, cocktail glasses and a personalized note that Rife joked was a “handwritten apology to Palestine.” He also got a lot of mileage out of their age gap as the woman confirmed she is 43 years old with two children while her boyfriend was much younger in his early 30s. (Of note: Braun is 44 to Sweeney’s 28.)
Rife admitted that the tail end of the show went a little off the rails as he focused too much on the couple (and the woman’s extended absence in the restroom), but the audience didn’t seem to mind as he managed to land more than a few final punchlines with some expert callbacks to earlier jokes. When the clock ticked past midnight, Rife ended his show to a rousing standing ovation.
By that point, Sweeney, Braun and friends had made an early rush toward the door to beat the masses. As THR followed quickly behind, a group of giddy female fans seemed still shocked by the high-profile sighting and more star struck by them than the headliner. “She’s sooo gorgeous in person!” Nothing funny about that.