Comedian Matt Rife will bring world tour to Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa, prompting ticket rush

Comedian Matt Rife — a rising star with more than 14 million TikTok followers and 4 million on Instagram — on Monday announced his two-year, 115-date “ProbleMATTic World Tour,” including two shows Nov. 29 at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center.

Armed with a code provided by Rife, his fans flooded Ticketmaster’s sites to get tickets to his upcoming shows, USA Today reported, only to encounter long hours spent in the queue to inflated prices. Many quickly took to social media to share their frustration and disappointment.

At Luther Burbank Center, tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday and can be purchased at the center’s box office at 50 Mark West Springs Road, by calling 707-546-3600 or by visiting lutherburbankcenter.org/event/matt-rife23.

Ticket prices listed on the center’s website range from $55.50 to $345.50 for the 7 p.m. show and $69.50 to $353.50 for the 10 p.m. show.

Presale tickets opened Monday for Rife’s fan club members and Wednesday for the center’s members, said Anita Wiglesworth, vice president of programs and marketing at the Luther Burbank Center.

“I assume the tickets will sell out almost immediately. There aren’t very many left. Tickets for super popular artists sell out quickly, sometimes before they can even get to the general public,” she said. “This is happening all over with Matt Rife’s shows.”

“We are not a Ticketmaster venue. It’s not our show. The tour is being presented by Live Nation,” Wiglesworth said.

Often, presale tickets can be snapped up by automated “bots” or resale outlets, but as a smaller independent venue, Luther Burbank Center does its best to prevent this and provide as many tickets for the fans as possible, she said.

The debacle with Rife’s tickets is already drawing comparisons with a previous Ticketmaster breakdown in November 2022, when Taylor Swift put tickets on sale for her highly anticipated “Eras Tour,” providing an access code to allow fans to buy tickets early.

The presale went live only to bog down for days with major delays, errors and pauses in the queues to purchase tickets. Ticketmaster later announced it had canceled a scheduled general public ticket sale for the pop star’s tour.

Rife, who hails from North Lewisburg, Ohio, is known for his self-produced comedy specials, “Only Fans” and “Matthew Steven Rife,” as well as his 2019 appearance on the NBC comedy competition series, “Bring the Funny.” He also was a recurring cast member for two seasons of MTV’s improv series, “Wild ‘N Out,” hosted by Nick Cannon.

He’s made appearances in other TV comedies, such as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Fresh Off the Boat.”

His comedic inspiration draws from pop culture, current events, recreational drug use and human sexuality. The Luther Burbank Center shows are restricted to age 21 and older.

Rife’s world tour starts July 20 in Bend, Oregon.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.