Standup comedy takes many forms. Some comics tee up a joke and quickly deliver the punch line, rapid-fire. Others work the crowd, creating an interactive experience. Ali Siddiq, a native of Houston, Texas, takes another tack: a storytelling approach, allowing the pace of his comedy to ebb, flow and build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Launching his comedy career in 1997 after release from prison on drug trafficking charges, Siddiq worked his way into larger venues, opening for bigger names and eventually earning headlining status. Today, with more than a dozen solo albums and streaming TV specials to his credit, Siddiq is one of standup\u2019s brightest stars. Ali Siddiq comes to the San Jose Civic on June 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the best observational comics, Siddiq draws his standup material from real-life experiences. He says that everything that happens to him in a given day is potential fodder for his monologues. \u201cBut I\u2019m just gonna remember the 25 minutes of it that I like,\u201d he explains. \u201cEach day, something\u2019s gonna happen to me that\u2014I\u2019m quite sure\u2014has happened to somebody else. I\u2019m just aware enough to tell a story and not be embarrassed about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our interview takes place via Zoom, with Siddiq taking a break in the shade of his back yard. \u201cI have a tiller here that is totally broken,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m feeling faint.\u201d Acknowledging the incongruity of seeing a popular standup comic doing yard work, he places it into a larger context. \u201cI\u2019m only a star Friday and Saturday,\u201d he says. \u201cThe rest of the week, I\u2019m just a regular dude.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, Siddiq has become a go-to personality when a staged or televised event needs a host. In the \u201990s, he hosted \u201cApollo Night\u201d at Houston\u2019s Just Joking comedy club. Siddiq hosted several episodes of HBO\u2019s Def Comedy Jam. For three years, he co-hosted the Uncle Funky Larry Jones & Ali Siddiq radio show on Houston\u2019s KMJQ-FM. And he learned an important lesson along the way. \u201cHosting makes me a better headliner,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re the host, it\u2019s on you to set the pace; you\u2019re coming out cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming up in the comedy scene, Siddiq also took part in improvisation. And while he emphasizes that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t do crowd work,\u201d Siddiq maintains an element of spontaneity in his shows. He recalls a performance during which an audience member showed up several minutes into Siddiq\u2019s monologue. \u201cI\u2019m gonna catch you up on where we are,\u201d he told the man. \u201cBecause you walked in at the middle of the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siddiq doesn\u2019t believe there\u2019s such a thing as a bad audience. \u201cA bad show is me not having fun onstage,\u201d he says. To that end, he keeps his material fresh. \u201cSometimes an audience wants me to do older material; they yell out, \u2018Stories!\u2019 But those [stories] are things that you can see on the Internet,\u201d he explains. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be they guy [about whom people say] \u2018Oh, every time he comes, he does those stories!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Siddiq will occasionally relent and share one of those classic stories. \u201cPeople will shout out for \u2018Mexican got on boots,\u2019 he says, referring to one of his most well-known pieces. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the story that I will not do,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cBecause I can never get through it; people yell out their favorite parts of it. And then I\u2019ll tell the audience, \u2018Man, y\u2019all suck. You\u2019re not even letting me say it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now nearly 30 years into his career as a comic, Ali Siddiq says that the perspective that informs his comedy has \u201cchanged quite tremendously\u201d over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to be worried about whether I\u2019d win a competition or not,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I learned just to be grateful for the experience. I\u2019m not [Joe] Rogan. I\u2019m not Mike Epps. So I stopped judging my success by other people\u2019s success.\u201d He recognizes his strengths, and chooses to leverage those rather than branching out into other areas just because that\u2019s the customary path for many comics. \u201cI\u2019m not a movie guy; I\u2019m not a sitcom guy,\u201d he asserts. \u201cI\u2019m a comic. And that\u2019s what I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siddiq winces and shakes his head when a bit of inaccurate biographical information comes up in the conversation. Contrary to what one might read on Wikipedia (and thus repeated in many other outlets), he didn\u2019t get his start as a comic during his stint in prison. \u201cSomebody wrote that, and people keep going with it,\u201d he says. \u201cI keep telling people: There are no comedy clubs in prison!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siddiq wonders aloud how the misinformation gained traction; he imagines that someone had an idea: \u201cBetween the chow hall and the warden\u2019s office, there\u2019s this little spot\u2026\u201d Siddiq emphasizes that Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities didn\u2019t have brick-wall-and-bar-stool stage setups where he could try out new material in front of a captive audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he did joke around during his six years behind bars. \u201cI do think that becoming jovial in a place that was\u2026a little non-jovial helped me with audiences,\u201d he allows. \u201cI was making people laugh while I was inside, so [when I encounter] people who don\u2019t have any cares in the world because they\u2019re free, it shouldn\u2019t be hard to make them laugh.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd,\u201d he adds, \u201cNobody\u2019s trying to stab you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali Siddiq takes the stage at 8pm on June 6 at the Civic Auditorium, 135 W San Carlos St, San Jose. Tickets: $41.25-$142. sanjosetheaters.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Standup comedy takes many forms. Ali Siddiq takes a storytelling approach, allowing the pace of his comedy to ebb, flow and build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20182276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1932],"tags":[10768,5283,11543],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n