BALTIMORE COUNTY — Storyteller, writer, and comedian Ali Siddiq has a way of world-building and immersing audiences in his stories.
Talking 'Prison Riot,' achievement, accountability, and fatherhood with Ali Siddiq
His firsthand accounts can span anywhere from the extreme situations he faced as what he would call a "street pharmaceutical rep," trying to survive a prison riot, or even navigating being a father in the 21st century.
His approach is that of an uncle pulling his nephew to the side and dropping some much-needed wisdom at a family function.
Even though he may not be as famous as some of your favorites yet, his trophy cabinet tells a different story.
Siddiq is fresh off winning an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety for his comedy special Ali Siddiq: My Two Sons.
Not to mention this is the first time an indie-produced and -released YouTube special has been nominated and/or won a major award, and it is the third most viewed special on any platform in the past year.
In addition, seven of Siddiq's specials are on Neilson’s “Top 50 Biggest YouTube Specials of All Time.”
Vulture crowned you stand-up comedy's most prolific storyteller. What does that mean for you?
Ali Siddiq:
I was delighted when I saw it, you know, to be recognized in that manner. I think it just gave me some bragging rights amongst my friends, "'like yo... you see what Vulture said, right?'"
It really just added some pressure to the to the craft, you know, my desire to be better than I was the year before, you know, and constantly gain more traction, and really stamp me in the position to where people understand what I'm doing when I get on stage, and when they come to a show. I don't think people have to ask me anymore. "'Well, what can we expect when you get on stage?'" - a story.
Speaking of stories, I was introduced to your artistry through "Mexicans Got On Boots" and the "Mitchell story," and both of those two of my favorites in your inventory, and they hit me on different levels.
The first level was like all great storytellers, you were turning tragedy into comedy. Second level was you are humanizing the incarcerated, who society feels is the worst of us, the least of us, and thirdly, you are putting a microphone to, and a camera on some of the terrible conditions of the prison system.
My question is, was it ever a goal for your art to be considered a catalyst for prison reform?
Ali Siddiq:
No, it was designed to have messages in it for a lot of different aspects, the prison aspect, the humanity aspect, the aspect of fatherhood, the aspect of, thinking before you move, being accountable for things that you have done to give healing that you are not your mistakes, you know.
Strategically, when I'm telling a story, I think that I've placed so many gems in there for you to develop from that sometimes people don't understand that what I'm actually doing is trying to bring you closer to a situation, for you to understand it from a different perspective.
That's the piece of my family that I can give people, you know, that's what, how I came up, you know, I came up with learning from stories, you know, and I think that most of us have come up like that.
We have just forgotten that our parents, or our uncles, or aunts, or our grandparents would tell us stories to get us to understand something, or to realize, or to think of it on a different level, and you know, like a lot of things we've gotten away from those type of things.
I got to double back, really quick. "Mexicans Got on Boots," again, one of my favorite stories. You talk about how, when you first get to prison, they tell you, "Hey, look, brother, the Latinx brothers here, they got this thing where they put on boots and they start attacking people, and you spend a lot of your day gathering context, doing investigative work, and arming yourself.
I just wanted to know, from a fan's perspective, was there any way out of this scenario? Could you opt out of this, was there anywhere to hide and avoid this?
Ali Siddiq:
Yeah, I think in the story when, when Mitch is talking to me, and he's explaining, "'when we get out there, it's gonna be people that's not involved in the riot, and you just let them in, they not gonna have on boots... you just let them get by you.'
And I wondered, like, "'So why am I out here? I don't even know what's going on. Y'all just recruited me into this situation. Just let me know what's happening because you told me, and I guess that's the part of it that I was trying to convey in that instance was in this situation you don't know all the signs of what's going on, so to premature think before you're locked up, that you have this caveat of, well, "'I can just survive.'"
It's not necessary that you can survive because you're in a situation that you have no idea how things move.
So, something as simple as Mexicans outside with boots on, and you know that they issued everybody these boots.
These are not no special boots, these are the same boots that you have. Like, what makes it different that they have them on on in the rec yard?
Because they don't wear them on the rec yard. They wear sneakers because they're playing handball. And you're thinking, like, man, how was I to know that if somebody didn't tell me?
But the weirdest thing is, if you ask 90%, you ask 100% people, what is the name of that story on this is not happening. They're going to say "Mexicans got on boots," and the title of that is "Prison Riot."
It's like the saying has become the title. That's not the title.
"'You talking about prison riots?'"
"'And they [fans] like naw Mexican got on boots.'" Prison riot.
"'No, Mexicans got on boots.'"
I'm like, "'look it up, that's not the name of my thing. Then they [fans] like, I don't care what it's called. It's called prison riot, have at it, man.'"
But Mitchell is definitely called "Mitchell." But yeah, man, I appreciate that, that you have a starting point. I think that was a lot of people's starting point.
I got on a show that was about telling stories, and it kind of highlighted what I actually do versus me always being on stand-up shows and me having to condense stories, because I've always told stories.
There's not a time in my career that I can think of that I didn't tell a story, because my first.. and I defend myself with this man.
My first actual joke that I wrote on paper that I have is me telling a story about how my relationship totally switched once my daughter's mom got pregnant.
I was the love of her life, and all these things, and it would be a lot of loving moments to when she got pregnant.
This was the devil, like "'Yo.. yo and I didn't understand, like, 'Yo, what is her deal?'" And then, like, I would be in a room, and she would say, "'hey,'" and call me out my name. "'Hey, MF, you know I'm in here thirsty.'"
"'How? I'm watching the Knicks. How I know that you're thirsty?'"
And I look back at this, it was like five parts to this. It wasn't a simple, "'oh, she's different when she pregnant. It was like five parts to me telling this one, conveying this one message to me, and how different women get when they pregnant.'"
You had this transparent conversation called "From Inside," where you go back in and you were talking to prisoners face to face, and you're getting them to be introspective and say, look where it went wrong, you know, you got to start from in here, create better habits, so when you get out there, you're not coming back.
You put up this stat at the beginning of the conversation, saying 70% of the time, where brothers and sisters leave this system, they are coming back within the first three to four years, and you also have specials when you go back to prison, and you talk to the incarcerated.
Between these two experiences, what has been the most rewarding aspect for you?
Ali Siddiq:
All of it, you know. You really can't separate it, you know, because everything has its own set of legs.
When I did the special, I was in this space in 2018... well, we shot it in 17, came out in 18, and that's not even, that's not even the first time I've said something.
My first appearance on Comic View, I came out and I said, this is for all those individuals who people said they would never make it in anything. They came out of incarceration. So I'm not here representing myself, I'm representing those people who can't, who are inside, who think they can't achieve anything.
And I'm here.
So that coming from that, and going into Comedy Central, years later, and walking into that building with a camera crew, and all these things, and them seeing visibly seeing me as a person that walked out these same doors, not maybe the same prison, but the same type of life lifestyle, and at that time me being able to talk to males and females to get them to understand where the mistakes led you to and what you can do and how you can transform yourself and rehabilitate yourself while you're while you're in here and that is a bigger and larger platform for people to see that I'm your example, if you need one.
Now, then, going into "From Inside" years later to where I gained more success, and I've been out longer - now it's me.
"Yo. What y'all going to do? Give me the thoughts.'" Because it's quite obvious that I'm successful in this, in this space.
I'm not an advocate, I'm not one of these, these people who was never in here, but they got a lot of sympathy and empathy for your situation.
I'm a person that you cannot short change, you cannot get around me.
I'm a person from inside of here that I know how you think, you can't game me, so let's get to the root of the problem.
We're going to find the root of the problem, so you can understand how to grow from that.
I used to always say it. I got a chance to say to other people that's incarcerated what my thing was, the years that I was locked up, I used to always say "'Am I the only person in here guilty? None of you, nobody has no responsibility. I'm the only guilty person? Ok, so you didn't do what you did? All right, I just to know, because you got a lot of tendencies in here. So if you're doing it in here, you're doing it out there.'"
Going "From Inside" and then to another one of your works. You talk about how your mom said at age 18, I don't care if you got a plan or not, you got to get on up out of here.
Ali Siddiq: Worst thing she ever said... worst thing she ever said.
*Laughs* You talk about, you talk about how that led to you getting into street pharmaceuticals, right, because you didn't have a plan, you had to make something out of nothing.
Ali Siddiq: Yeah, I was 15 that's crazy. She said it. [I'm] like, you jumping the gun, ain't you?
Yes, sir. And so, going to your special called "My Two Sons," which you won an NAACP award for. Congratulations on that.
You talk about how you and your oldest son kind of have a back and a fourth, and sometimes it boils over, and he's like, "'Look, I'm gonna go do my own thing, I'm getting about the crib.'"
But every time that he does leave, you let him come back home, and I think on a surface level, that's you just being a great father, as many would assume.
My question is this your way of hugging that 15 year old version of yourself who did not have that choice to come back home and who did not have a plan?
Ali Siddiq:
You can definitely say it like that, but it's more of me changing the narrative of how parents and what parents saying.
I never told him he had to leave. I just told him he had to achieve, and whatever your goal is that you want to achieve, I'm here for it.
Because I'm not, I'm not putting stipulations on you or what you should be. I'm not saying you should be anything, but whatever you're doing, you should be good at it.
And you should take this opportunity as a normal human being that has a lot of privilege to understand, "'Hey, man, I can flourish from here and do anything that I want to do, because I have a support system.'"
I was more talking about supporting and support system in this environment, because we are different parents than our parents were prior to us.
My mom parented from frustration, fear, and survival.
I'm parenting from freedom, faith, and fun.
I'm saying, like, yo, man, lets do whatever, you know. But I'm not, "'I'm not your mama left me, so you gotta get that thing. I'm like, yo, man, what we doing?'"
Hey, man, this is a loving family, bruh. And then, what we do, you got a lot of support here. Stop trying to have somebody else's narrative.
You don't live, you don't live good times. If people think about it in the ghetto, in the projects of good times, because this is one of my examples of life.
The Huxtables had just as much love in their house as good times, and Sanford and Son had just as much love in their house as good times and as the Huxtables.
Family Matters had the same rhythm of love, no matter the condition. It's not about the condition, it's about the heart, and how you love your family.
James and Florida love their family in the projects. The love didn't come just because we was living in a brownstone, in a nice area. So kids gotta understand, you don't have to go get it out of anything, it's already in you.
Yes, sir. At one time, everything you did, everything that you produced was owned by the state, you even had a serial number that was your supposed identity. Now you've done a full 180 and everything that you produce is yours, everything that you move, all the motion is yours, and it belongs to you. How does that make you feel?
Ali Siddiq:
One word: emancipated. 40 acres a mule baby went got it myself, didn't need no, stimulus package. But man, it's a good feeling to to own your own catalog and own your own work, man. You know, in the words of John Amos on Coming to America, "'I feel like break dancing.'"
I'm good, man. And I can't wait for people to see "My Father," June 21. I can't wait for people to see me live. I'm just happy in life, bro.
Ali is bringing his international custom fit stand-up tour to the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore on May 23 and May 24 Show and ticket information is available at here.
