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.
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’s brightest stars. Ali Siddiq comes to the San Jose Civic on June 6.
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. “But I’m just gonna remember the 25 minutes of it that I like,” he explains. “Each day, something’s gonna happen to me that—I’m quite sure—has happened to somebody else. I’m just aware enough to tell a story and not be embarrassed about it.”…