Comic Ali Siddiq on fatherhood, prison, and his biggest regret
6/18/202645 min
Siddiq grew up in Houston with a largely absent father. In his new stand-up special, he paints a picture of the flawed man he admired – and reflects on his own experience as a parent. Siddiq spoke with Tonya Mosley about his upbringing, his time selling drugs, and making the leap from prison to comedy.
Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews ‘Toy Story 5.’
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsIra Glass0:00
This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, one thing we like is a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things, but most times, the little mysteries are the best.
Speaker 20:10
Our lost and found is currently filled with pants. I don't know w- I, I, I've never seen this happen.
Speaker 30:15
Wait, this is true?
Speaker 20:16
This is true.
Ira Glass0:17
Mysteries of every size, each week, This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.
Tonya Mosley· Host0:23
This is Fresh Air. I'm Tonya Mosley, and my guest today is Ali Siddiq. He's a comedian, but that word undersells it. What he really does is tell stories, true ones from his own life, and he's told so many of them that while watching his specials, I realize Siddiq is giving us a memoir delivered one set at a time. For instance, a few years back, he went viral with a story about surviving a prison riot. Siddiq served six years for cocaine trafficking, arrested four days after his 19th birthday. He started doing stand-up after he got out, and nearly 30 years later, he's got more than a dozen specials, most of them independent on YouTube with millions of views. In his 2022 series, Domino Effect, he traces his life growing up in Houston, starting at 10, the year he went to live with his father and first got into trouble, all the way through the choices that landed him in prison. This month, he has a new special called My Father. It's about everything that passed between Siddiq and his dad before his father