In 2022, when a lot of us were still tiptoeing out of hibernation, Ali Siddiq released two new hourlong comedy specials, “The Domino Effect” on YouTube and “Unprotected Sets” on EPIX. With more than 9 million views, “The Domino Effect” sprang to status as one of the five most-watched comedy specials of the year. Siddiq is promising a sequel in June.
Meanwhile he’s a popular guest on podcasts, including the “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which boasts 15 million subscribers and counting.
In the wake of 2013 appearances on Def Comedy Jam, “Live from Gotham” and his own half-hour set on Comedy Central, that franchise named him its “No. 1 Comic to Watch.”
But Siddiq broke into multimillion-viewer status with his own 2014 special, “This Is Not Happening,” a first-person comedy set about a prison riot he’d experienced years before. The hit segment of that show was a specific story, “Mexicans Got on Boots.”
Now Siddiq regards that set, and everything associated with it, as ancient history. Since then, though, he’s come up with about as many other good stories as he’s had sunrises. Storytelling is almost literally in his blood.
“All my uncles, my grandmother, my mom — if you asked a question in my family,” Siddiq said, “that’s how you got the answer — with a story that related to whatever question you asked, so you could remember it better.”
One reason the lesson stuck was that, if he was in trouble, his punishment was to write about it.
“I’ve been writing probably since I learned how to write,” he said. “My mom is a history professor, so I had to write when I got in trouble. I had to write what I thought I did wrong. She didn’t have time to spank me!”
Now, in addition to touring with his comedy show, Siddiq writes books. “The stories that I tell onstage turn into books. I just put out the book, ‘Domino Effect.’ ”
The book’s focus is decision-making. At this point, we should suggest that all MBAs and other success-seekers should stifle their yawns, as well as their thoughts, that it might be just another dry thesis about how to get ahead. Siddiq’s subject matter all but mocks the genre.
While his core belief is that the choices we make are connected and set the course for our lives, his comedy is intimate, poking fun at everyone from felons to family members, and choices from the tiniest to the most grandiose. In the book as onstage, he tells the stories from the point of view of fancifully named characters of his own invention.
“I tell stories about my life and things that I’ve seen to kind of help people grow or be comfortable in some of the things they may be going through,” Siddiq said. “I’m going through it at the same time. I just tell stories about how I got to those spaces.
“I’m really not a slapstick type of comedian or a comedian that tells untruths. In order to get what I actually do, you’ve got to see it,” he said. I don’t tell jokes. I talk with a lot of humor.” As an example, he cited the influence of Bill Bellamy, an early presence on Def Comedy Jam who’s credited with coining the term “booty call.”
In his downtime, Siddiq does public speaking. As we spoke to him, he had just emerged from a visit to a classroom. “When I speak to kids, I talk to them about experiences that I’ve had, but also about the social dynamics of whatever they’re going through.
“I used to be a person that teased people, because I was teased. I tell them what I would’ve done if I’d been brave enough at that age.
“Like my son,” he said, “he was getting teased and I’m, like, ‘Son, the thing about getting teased is this, it’s not about not ignoring it. It’s about addressing it and letting people know that it doesn’t bother you.”
Eager for an example, we asked, “What should I have said when I was a kid and people teased me about my freckles?”
Siddiq shot back, “You’re just jealous you don’t have them!”
After we both had a good laugh, he cautioned, “I tell them to talk to an adult about it. When something’s bothering you, you say it; you don’t hold it in. A lot of people are anger hoarders!”
Ali Siddiq “I Got A Story to Tell,” 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, tickets start at $30, rialtotheatre.com
Improv “Friendsgiving”
Unscrewed Theatre is having friends over for the holiday weekend. Members of Tucson Improv Movement (TIM) will be dropping by for a special show combining the talents of Tucson improv companies. TIM is dark for Thursday and Friday, but some improvisers will not be deterred. This is the second year for this special event, which last year generated as much laughter onstage as in the audience.
Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, unscrewedtheatre.org, $8, live or remote, $5 kids. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, “Friendsgiving!”
OTHER SHOWS THIS WEEK
Corbett Brewery, 309 E. Seventh Street, 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, free, “Off the Deep End Comedy,” Anthony Drew and Cody Beeson open, Xavier Morris and Travis Minor feature, DJ Payne headlines, Cory Lytle hosts.
Laff’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, laffstucson.com, $15, $20 preferred seating. Kabir Singh, with more than three million views on “Dry Bar Comedy,” and a string of appearances on major TV shows, is a perfect example of why Indians can’t be serial killers.
The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress Street, Tucson, 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, $10, “The Downtown Comedy Show,” Chris Quinn hosts stand-up comedians Anthony Jenkins, Allana Lopez, Tony Bruhn, Christy Cassel and Av Reyna
Tucson Improv Movement/TIM Comedy Theatre, 414 E. Ninth Street, tucsonimprov.com, $7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam, dark for the holiday Thursday, Nov. 23, and Friday, Nov. 24; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 15Nov. 25, “Your Favorite Movie Improvised” and “The Meeting;” 9 p.m. “4th Avenue Confessions.”
Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, unscrewedtheatre.org, $8, live or remote, $5 kids. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, “Friendsgiving!” 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed (NBOJU); 9 p.m. NBOJU Uncensored.
