This man just Can’t Stop Talking! Viral comedy star Matteo Lane is back on the road, taking his stand-up extravaganza for another round of wild nights in 2025. Kicking off the “Can’t Stop Talking Tour” last year, Lane unveiled a new roster of tour dates that’ll bring him across North America this year. Fans just can’t get enough of this slayin’ man’s hilarious content. Known for Netflix’s “The Comedy Lineup” and a couple of appearances on TV including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and many more, Lane is no stranger to the limelight, and there’s never a dull moment in his sets. With side-splitting fun as he whips out his best spiels, stories and surprising antics, expect to laugh all night long.
Lane is coming to The Met in Philadelphia on Feb. 22. I had a chance to chat with Lane via Zoom. Here are the highlights.
His writing process
“My writing process is honestly what it is. It depends. Right now, I’m in showcase mode, so what I’ve written over the past year-and-a-half is what I’m showcasing each weekend. My brain kind of shuts off during this time. Once I finish my hour, film the special, and wrap up the tour, my brain switches to joke-writing mode. When I’m in full joke-writing mode, I’m usually at the Comedy Cellar every night, doing four or five shows a night. If something hits me on the street or in conversation, I write it down on my phone. Then, I look at it and organize it by bullet points, grouping them thematically.
“When I go on stage, I work in groups of five. I’ll have five bullet points, which is about 15 minutes of material — that’s the spot time at the Cellar. I’ll do four shows a night and work on those 15 minutes, probably doing 22 shows a week. I record every set, listen to it, and edit it — deciding what worked, what didn’t, what needs to move, and what I should add. Once the 15 minutes have a good rhythm, I put that aside and start working on the next chunk.
“When all the chunks are ready, I start to combine them thematically. Then, I take the material to smaller comedy clubs to see how it fits as an hour. I look for the highs, the lows, and figure out what to open and close with. It’s all trial and error, and it takes a long time. Once I have a solid hour, I take it on a theater tour, and even then, it’s always evolving, always changing, always adding — like a tapestry. You just know when it’s done, kind of like when I used to paint. You can just feel it when the painting is finished, and then you move on to the next one.”
Politics is off limits
“I keep everything pretty evergreen in terms of joke writing. I think some comics are really good at writing jokes about politics — they stay engaged, watch CNN, MSNBC or Fox to stay updated. But that was never my style. My jokes always come from my personal experiences, and the ones that need to be worked on for a long time and done in repetition.
“Jokes that are political or topical only serve you for the time when that topic is relevant. After that, they fade away. It’s like seeing an older comic still bring up Monica Lewinsky, and you’re like, ‘What are we doing here?’ It’s just not relevant anymore.
“It’s not a political choice; it’s just my style of writing. I liken it to going into a museum — not every painting is going to be the same. Every artist expresses themselves differently, drawing inspiration from different places, and they have to be authentic to themselves. For me, my main focus is bringing people together and making them laugh.
“When you dive too deep into current topics, the jokes can suffer because you only have so much time to work on them. You can end up just reminding people of the things they were worrying about before they even sat down in the theater. My life is crazy enough that I can talk about my own experiences, and I think there’s value in appreciating the comedians who help people take a break from the constant stream of current events. Everyone can talk about politics, but it can be overwhelming. So, I really just try to keep things light and fun.”
On his show
“I want people to laugh, enjoy themselves, and just, you know, ‘hakuna matata’ for an hour.”
Matteo Lane takes his Can’t Stop Talking Tour to Philadelphia at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, at The Met Philadelphia, 858 N Broad St. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit themetphilly.com. More of this interview will be in the March issue of Out NW Magazine. Visit to outnw.com/magazine on March 1.