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Matt Rife is heading to Phoenix this weekend. The controversial comedian has six shows scheduled at Arizona Financial Theatre.
Why controversial? Well, Rife’s star rose via his good looks and video clips on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, often showcasing his quick wit while working the crowds at small comedy clubs.
Then came the Netflix special.
“Natural Selection” debuted in November 2023 and was generally panned. Rife delivered a joke about domestic violence just a few minutes in.
He said, “Just testing the waters, seeing if y’all are gonna be fun or not … I figure if we start the show with domestic violence, the rest of the show should be smooth sailing.”
When criticism of the joke in particular and “Natural Selection” in general hit the internet, he responded on his social media accounts: “If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told, here’s a link to my official apology.” The link led to a website that sells helmets for individuals with special needs.
Fortunately for Rife, he had announced his ProbleMATTic World Tour in June 2023, so tickets were already sold out by the time all this went down.
All that being said, if you’re inclined to catch the show, there are still some tickets available for Rife’s Phoenix shows, which are 7 and 10 p.m. on Friday, 7 and 10 p.m. on Saturday and 5 and 8 p.m. on Sunday.
There are only a very small number of tickets for the 8 p.m. Sunday show available directly through Ticketmaster. They fall under the official platinum category and cost $198.50 each.
However, there’s healthy selection of resale tickets available on StubHub for much less. Tickets for the shows begin around $60 and go up to about $1,600 for pit seats. There’s a pair of tickets available for the early Friday show for $54,427 each, but we’re guessing that’s either a typo or each ticket comes with its own Tesla.
