The Hero’s Journey is the repeated cycle of stepping out of your comfort zone, facing adversity, challenges, and even failure, and then bouncing back and overcoming those obstacles while transforming into a new, better version of yourself.
Matt Rife is one of the hottest comedians out right now. His Problematic World Tour sold 600,000 tickets in only 48 hours. Matt said it feels incredible because he almost quit in July of last year. He couldn't sell any tickets at any comedy club and he wasn't getting any kind of break. He said he went from playing in clubs for 35 people to breaking Ticketmaster, and his entire life changed in just over 14 months.
Matt said he had been doing comedy for 11 years, and hearing so much rejection beat him down. He said he couldn't get booked anywhere, and at a certain point, you have to ask yourself, "Am I delusional? Maybe I'm not funny and I'm not supposed to do this."
But then one random video changed everything for him.
He said he reluctantly started posting on TikTok about 14 months ago. He hated Social Media because it is so negative, but he started posting sporadically. During the pandemic, he and one of his best friends created a duel show, and the Just For Laughs Festival, which is one of the biggest festivals for comedies, wanted to pick up the show for the festival, but they didn't want Matt, only his friend.
How demoralizing would that be? This is a true Pit moment.
His friend Paul refused to do the show without Matt, and the festival said they would let him do the show, but they would not pay him and would not pay for his travel. He did the show and the show ended up being the best one at the festival, but his big break, his climb out of The Pit, came the night before.
Matt and Paul were at dinner and he wanted to post a clip called The Lazy Hero, but he was feeling depleted and depressed because he was at a place where he wasn't even invited to perform and he didn't want to post the video, but his friend encouraged him to do it and it went insanely viral.
That video got 20-30 million views and blew up his profile!
He said, "The irony of doing something you dreaded doing changing your entire life - take more chances."
Matt Rife is a 12-year overnight success. But he said, "You have to look back at those moments, and all the times you thought you were ready for a certain opportunity, you probably weren't. Now I am in a position where there is a lot of pressure to stand behind what I have built on Social Media in my live performances, and had I not had these years of training leading up to it, these shows might not be as good as they are now. Now I feel like I'm at the proper position at the proper time."
SOMETHING(s) TO THINK ABOUT
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from the video?
2 - Would you have posted the video that made him go viral? Why or why not?
3 - Would you have encouraged your friend to post the video? Why or why not?
4 - What can you learn from Matt Rife's journey?
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