In just a few short years, Matt Mathews has built a massive, and fiercely loyal, fanbase, all thanks to his comically candid chronicles of life on his Alabama farm during COVID. What began as down-to-earth, honest online clips quickly went viral—one post even notched 17 million views. His popularity had fans immediately urging him into stand-up comedy.
The results? You can call it comedically chaotic electricity. Deadline named Mathews one of 2025’s Comedians to Watch, and he’s more than lived up to that billing, consistently delivering top-tier performances in front of sold-out audiences from coast to coast.
“I always wanted to be a performer, so I just started sharing my life on the internet,” Mathews recalls. “And people were loving it.”
His stand-up act is an authentically edgy mix of personal stories and his signature, off-the-cuff back-and-forth with the crowd—a combination that’s endeared him to millions, both in sold-out theaters and across both his YouTube and TikTok channels. This weekend, Mathews brings his Boujee on a Budget tour to Las Vegas for the first time and just recently announced 22 more shows for 2026.
“What you see on the internet isn’t scripted or part of the show,” he says. “It’s just crowd work. And that’s the part that’s not scripted.”
While the stage may be where Mathews lets his improv skills reign, the real work awaits him back home in Birmingham. Unlike stand-up’s wild unpredictability, farm life is a carefully choreographed routine. With 104 acres to manage and a whole host of chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, and a camera-hungry goat relying on him for breakfast by 7 a.m., Mathews embraces the daily grind.
Then there are Lolo and Hush Money, his two world-class barrel-racing horses, who require championship-level care, focus, and attention, which is what Mathews, a championship-caliber rider himself, brings each day to their stalls.
Despite his packed schedule, Mathews still finds time for new pursuits—whether it’s diving into music, landing acting gigs, or continuous social media updates, It’s all propelled his rise from internet sensation to national comedy headliner. Yet, remarkably, he still manages to get to bed at a decent hour, ready to do it all again the next day.
What’s been now holding this grueling schedule together—for both body and mind has been Mathews’ no-holds-barred commitment to training.
During this time, the comic has gradually developed a greater appreciation for his physique and the transformation it’s undergone since he began taking training more seriously. Mathews admits that standing on stage for 90 minutes each night was much easier than looking in a mirror for 90 seconds. At one point, he even relied on shapewear to create a more aesthetic appearance. But as his biceps keep expanding, so too has the star’s level of self-confidence.
“I grew up not really loving my body or feeling comfortable in my skin,” he admits. “I’ve always been on a weight loss or fitness journey. But my fitness goals have become a big part of my really learning how to love my body. Being strong and healthy, and able to compete, have become really important.”
Now, with a home gym tailored to his relentless schedule, Mathews makes working out—whether for stage presence, country-life strength, or that competitive edge—a non-negotiable daily ritual. “Obviously, you don’t want to look bad on stage, especially when you’re in front of a lot of people and your job is in the public eye. So I definitely try to keep it together.”
Staying Farm Fit
At home on his sprawling farm, Mathews’ daily regimen is equal parts physically rigorous and psychologically rewarding. He’s documented this lifestyle for millions of fans, sharing candid moments from his 104-acre Alabama sanctuary on YouTube and TikTok. In a recent episode, he enlisted an animal communicator to help uncover his animals’ “thoughts” about him—most notably those of his unpredictable donkey, Wookie. “Wookie is obsessed with me,” he deadpans. The episode offers a glimpse into what has fueled Mathews’ meteoric ascent in the entertainment business.
“I’m more of a comedic storyteller,” Mathews explains. “I tell my stories, my experiences, but it’s how you perform and share them that makes it funny.” The farm is his welcome escape from the relentless tour schedule that has him away at least three nights each week. Yet despite a packed calendar, his “labor of love” of morning chores is never skipped. “My day starts before 7. First, I care for our dogs and cats. Horses, donkey, chickens, and pigs come next. Only after they’re squared away do I grab coffee and breakfast. Then it’s off to tackle the day’s work. At night, I do it all again.”
Moving from the city to his farm just outside Birmingham has profoundly influenced his nutrition. He and his husband, Robert Kilgore, buy local meats and produce whenever possible. “All our beef, we try to buy from a local farmer—better feed, cleaner living conditions. Grocery store meat is often from animals fed poorly.” When he’s traveling, which is nearly every weekend, Mathews battles the urge to binge on pizza and sweets. “I track my macros. I keep it to about 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, and 65 grams of fat. It’s easy to eat junk on the road after late nights.”
While his “little pals” are off-limits for consumption (“They’re my babies,” he says), having a limitless supply of eggs is fair game—but far from free, he emphasizes. “We don’t buy eggs from the grocery store,” he says. “But you have to feed the chickens, and that costs a lot—layer pellets, high-protein, non-GMO—so they can produce good eggs.”
Barrel Racing Beginnings
Before going all-in on comedy, Matt Mathews became completely caught up in the world of barrel racing—a fast-paced rodeo sport in which the goal is to complete a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels in the quickest time possible.
His introduction to racing turned into obsession near the end of high school. “I boarded a horse at a local boarding facility, and the owner’s daughter barrel raced, so we just kind of rode together a lot in the summers. I started playing around with it with her and just kind of fell in love with it,” he recalls.
Mathews soon honed his skills, qualifying for three world championships. Though life on the road now dominates his work schedule, he insists on maintaining his competitive edge, training several times a week with both Lolo and Hush Money.
“Obviously, I don’t make a living doing that, but it’s kind of how I refill my cup,” he says. “It’s what I do that brings me joy outside of work. I get to enjoy it and have fun.”
Competitive riding, Mathews says, depends on grip strength and a powerful core and back. In order to maintain strength and conditioning levels, Mathews says weightroom times becomes almost as important as saddle time. “You definitely have to stay on your game. It’s very intense. A good run comes down to the hundreds to thousands of a second,” he observes.
Preparing his body for that level of pressure is a daily mission. “A strong core is the most important. And a strong back—you have to be very, very strong in your core to be able to keep your balance and stay up with a horse.”
Home Gym Rules
While barrel racing requires power, stamina, and plenty of nerves, training extends into every aspect of Mathews’ life and career. With his travel schedule, time at home becomes more valuable, and he makes the most of it. To cut down on trips to the gym, Mathews transformed a corner of his house into a personal fitness center. It comes complete with a treadmill, Smith machine, and enough dumbbells for any routine.
He trains three to four times a week, splitting his sessions between upper and lower body. “Two days upper, two lower, and a sauna after every session,” he says.
Mathews usually kicks off his workouts with cardio. He incorporates incline walks or jogs to build stamina for both saddle and stage. On upper body days, he sticks to weight room staples. Exercises such as bench and shoulder presses, lateral raises, and bodyweight classics like push-ups dominate those workouts. Leg days include goblet squats, split squats, and sumo squats—key for strength and the flexibility needed to ride out a horse’s unpredictable movements. Back sessions focus on rows and pull-downs, with hammer curls to keep his grip strong. Every workout session ends in the sauna: “The sauna is like God’s greatest gift. That helps me so much.”
One move you’ll no longer find in his program is the deadlift. Years of CrossFit led to a lumbar injury that now prevents him from lifting heavy without pain. “I actually have a bulging disc in one of my lumbar vertebrae,” he says. “Nothing really helped but rest and ultimately quitting CrossFit. I don’t do a whole lot of deadlifts. It messed me up so bad that I try to avoid them.”
Travel often disrupts Matt’s training rhythm. “I don’t work out when I’m on the road, because that’s just super difficult.” It’s a reason why maintaining a solid diet remains essential. Clean eating and counting macros help him maintain discipline across time zones.
Stand-Up Spotlight
For years, Matt Mathews found creative outlets elsewhere. He studied nursing and even took up boudoir photography before his farm video went viral and took his career to new levels. “I posted a video and it blew up—17 million views. That was the wild start.” Suddenly, millions were tuning into his TikTok channel and other socials.
Today, staying fit has helped power up his stage presence. It’s also given a former overweight youth a next-level feeling of self-confidence. It’s something the comic admits to lacking throughout portions of his life. “I’ve always kind of had body dysmorphia, and thought that I looked a lot different than I actually looked,” he admits. “I’ve always kind of been the chunky kid, and so I’ve always kind of been on a weight loss or fitness journey.”
He’s even gone as far as wearing Spanx during his first tour to hold in his abs, and even during an appearance on the Kelly Clarkson show. Since then, Mathews has slowly but consistently evolved, embracing his increasingly muscular look that he’s worked hard for. He advises others facing similar self-doubts to embrace each small improvement each day. “I started to work out to do better for myself,” he says. “It’s progress, not perfection. We’re never going to have the body that we love, and we’re never going to be 100% happy, even if we have a six pack and 1% body fat.
With his schedule busier than ever and big plans on the horizon—he’s filming his first-ever movie, working on a debut music album, and preparing to film his second comedy special in December—Matt Mathews is just getting started, and he’s taking everyone and everything—fans and furry friends alike—along for the ride.
The Spanx, however, have been retired.
“I want to look better, and I want to feel better, and I want to do better for myself. And I really hated wearing Spanx that entire first tour, so I was like, I’m not doing this s*** again,” he says.