\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the early moments of a sold-out, standing room only show at The Laugh Factory Tuesday night, Matt Rife said something that wasn\u2019t quite a disclaimer but more a general rule for how to enjoy what turned out to be a raucous set: \u201cAnyone who gets offended by a joke in a comedy club is a fucking retard.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tEven the choice of language seemed intentional as to let the audience know to expect the expected: A wild night filled with Rife\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
\n\tPerhaps 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\u2019t make it known \u2014\u00a0even if some of it was personal. The jokes flying from the stage \u2014 not only during Rife\u2019s set but from two openers that also happen to be his good friends, Jackson McQueen and Erik Griffin \u2014\u00a0covered subjects like broken engagements, new couples, age gap relationships, the war in Gaza and the ample amount of nudity on Euphoria<\/em> (specifically Sweeney\u2019s topless scenes). <\/p>\n \n\tMcQueen, 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 \u201cthe Groupon section.\u201d McQueen\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\n \n\tMcQueen then welcomed Griffin to the stage who delivered a set that opened with his thoughts on being a newish 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 Euphoria<\/em>, the critically acclaimed HBO series that landed Sweeney two Emmy nominations for playing Cassie Howard.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile it\u2019s 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 \u201ctitties are always out\u201d on the show. \u201cShe\u2019s at the pharmacy and her titties are out \u2014 it\u2019s wild,\u201d he said. \u201cFor no reason.\u201d 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.)<\/p>\n \n\tHer light-hearted reaction isn\u2019t surprising as Sweeney has previously said that \u201cthe female body is a very powerful thing,\u201d and she has no issues with nudity because \u201cI\u2019m telling my character\u2019s story, so I owe it to them to tell if well and to do what needs to be done.\u201d Less than 24 hours after appearing at the Laugh Factory, she showed up to Variety\u2019s<\/em> Power of Women event in a sheer Christian Cowan gown that revealed her breasts. \u201cI hope I can inspire other women to be confident and flaunt what they\u2019ve got, because you shouldn\u2019t have to apologize or hide in any room,\u201d she said in the mag\u2019s cover story.<\/p>\n \n\tBack to Griffin. He joked that it\u2019s not only Sweeney who has bared her body on Euphoria<\/em>. \u201cThere\u2019s too much dick,\u201d he quipped of the show\u2019s plentiful full-frontal scenes, which he said are too many for his liking and always come as a surprise. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t in the trailer.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe audience ate up Griffin\u2019s set, and he wrapped by welcoming back McQueen, who had the honor of introducing his BFF, the night\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\n \n\tRife made it clear from the top of his show that it would be a politics-free evening because he truly \u201cdoesn\u2019t know the difference between Republicans and Democrats.\u201d That said, he did use \u201cFree Palestine\u201d 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. \u201cWhere are my Jews at?\u201d Rife said as he pretended to wade into the international conflict, later joking \u201cI hope you win\u201d despite adding, again, that he doesn\u2019t even know what that means either. <\/p>\n \n\tRife covered a range of subjects in his sexually charged set including impotence, masturbation and a wild story about visiting Amsterdam\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \n\tThey, too, arrived with a gift that included Nuda tequila, cocktail glasses and a personalized note that Rife joked was a \u201chandwritten apology to Palestine.\u201d 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\u2019s 28.) <\/p>\n \n\tRife 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\u2019s extended absence in the restroom), but the audience didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \n\tBy that point, Sweeney, Braun and friends had made an early rush toward the door to beat the masses. As THR<\/em> 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. \u201cShe\u2019s sooo gorgeous in person!\u201d Nothing funny about that. <\/p>\n