He sold drugs.
He went to prison.
Then he became stand-up comedys most prolific storyteller.
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To start every stand-up set, comedianAli Siddiqsits and waits for the audience to calm down.
Hes got a lot to tell them, and hes not in a rush.
This leads to Siddiq selling crack in hopes of making enough money to buy a fresh tracksuit.
The nearly hour-and-a-half set builds to Siddiqs multiple failed attempts to kill a neighborhood tough guy named Quincy.
The special debuted on YouTube in 2022 and now has almost 13 million views.
Im a fucking monster in the streets.
The special ends with his arrest.
By the end, hes 25, an elder on the inside.
Siddiq explains how he became a comedian in the fourth and final special.
I didnt start telling jokes to protect myself, he says.
They dont have access to a television, so Siddiq recapped episodes ofMartinfor them by playing all the characters.
This remains his style to this day: long stories told without embellishment, filled with fully embodied characters.
The Domino Effectseries is an achievement without precedent in the history of stand-up.
He has two other stand-alone specials hes been touring about his present-day life as a middle-aged parent.
Now I know there are going to be a bunch of other people trying it, says Siddiq.
They should call it the Ali.
I can namevery few comedians who can tell stories as long as you.
The way that I tell the story is based upon how my family has always told stories.
Like, So Im in this room, and the guy whos interviewing me has a glass of water.
I have a bottle of water, but theres another glass of water in there.
So then the whole time we talking, I just keep wondering,Whose glass is that?
Its a full glass of water.
How much stuff can happen when you put your drink down?
Then I would say, You know something?
Im going to say all of these things.
You obviously have plenty of stories.
How do you determine what goes in a special?Specials cannot be current.
Specials have to have perspectives.
People think they can just film their club show and call it a special.
I did that withDont Judge a Book by Its Cover, and I called it an hour.
But I didnt give you anything to learn from, so that doesnt make it special.
When I moved in with my pops, it was a different lifestyle.
He was still living basically like a bachelor, very fast-paced.
This man would leave me at home by myself.
When I was 10, his thing was like, Grow up.
Living with him, I grew out of the 10-year-old phase.
When my son was 10, he was really 10.
You say the trauma and anger he triggered in you has gotten you into fights and even in jail.
Why didnt you include that story in the specials?Its not covered because its not settled.
I dont think people understand me.
Its likethe story with Mitchell, the C.O.
It is somebody that I still got a problem with.
To this day, I dont like men touching me.
Every week, Im almost going to get arrested at the TSA.
As soon as they say We got to search you …
I dont really want your hands on me.
It came from three instances.
This guy tried to molest me when I was 6.
A guy tried to molest me when I was 9.
Unfortunately, the person when I was 6 was a family member.
Then I was being abused from 7 to 9.
You didnt make your presence felt enough, bro.
But how can she be?
Shes trying to check that that we can eat.
The man is not just abusing me; hes abusing my mom.
Why was she with him?
In the first two specials, you get into the ups and downs of your drug dealing.
And Im stacking this money, because I really dont have nowhere to spend it.
I cant really buy a bunch of stuff, so when I really flexed was at school.
When I lost that job, Im out in the streets pretending like I had a job.
They order something, and I just put it in a bag out the window of the drive-through.
You know how McDonalds got that thing up there that says Billions Served?
Hey, man, at least 60 to 70 of those servings are mine.
Ive always been a saver.
Why am I like this?
But Monday I just got paid to cover travel, like $500.
Im too honorable to call everybody and say, Hey, Ive overpaid everyone.
I need some of that money back.
I did a photo shoot with you guys.
I spent $3,000 on my outfit thinking that show would end up paying for it.
I was like,Oh well, Ali, youve made $12.
Aye, its the cost of business.
By the time my mom had her, she was solidified.
My stepdad, Ron, which is Ashleys father, was in the house and a good guy.
She got a chance to be a mom, and I loved being a big brother.
I wouldnt care what I was doing.
Then Id pick back up at 5 or 6 at night, after she was straight.
I wouldve never put her in harms way.
My little sister Ashley was my peace.
I hate going back to that moment of the last time she touched me.
Im trying to talk to her like, Hey, shorty, listen, man, be strong.
I called my mom: Hey, you got to come.
She dont look right.
I looked at her and she said, Im gonna be all right.
And I knew she would go.
How did losing her change you?
I aint lost nobody.
I was not prepared.
Everybodys hearing about my sisters passing.
Im in the street, so I cant show no weakness.
I would have been a different person if she wouldnt have passed.
I probably would have got out of drug sales very fast.
I wouldnt have went till I got busted.
I dont have time to hold grudges.
Even the man who abused us, I probably wouldnt hurt him.
Quincy is different, because people look at my face and see the scar.
One eye is higher than the other one because the eyeball was turned over.
Ive done some things to Quincy, but is it significant enough?
I got a pretty good life.
What was it like to perform this night after night?I made the decision not to tourPart 2.
We shot it that Saturday, and that was it.
It is just a real terrible moment that hopefully people are able to learn from.
InDomino Effect Part 3, you go through the intake for prison.
Its free labor, and theyre not trying to rehabilitate people.
Theyre trying to make it hard and brutal.
Im not on a ship, but Im chained to somebody on a bus.
They fed us this stuff called VitaPro.
It was the worst thing, and it was coming out of peoples bodies in boils.
Domino Effect Part 4has a few stories in which you and your fellow inmates are having fun.
Theres a body-builder-esque pose-off, and theres a story where you dunk on someone in a basketball game.
How do you balance that?That was the hardest thing.
Its almost like the coaches that used to work inside the prisons.
Youre going to have to learn to be a man.
Youre going to have to stand on what you say.
This is a place of a lot of heavy consequences for mistakes.
Can you think of an example?In prison, man, you really just didnt disrespect people.
Im not even disrespecting the little nerdy, glasses-on white guy doing a puzzle.
Shit, burnt his whole shit.
So, I knew if you slap that little white boy, guarantee you going to need cosmetic surgery.
And youre told the only way you are going to get moved is if you get into a fight.
Then you hear someone getting a blowjob at night, and you decide to start hitting people.
told me, Hey, man, theres only one way out.
Its either this or you cause trouble.
You clearly dont belong over here, but they not letting you go, so deal with it.
This is a self-preservation thing.
Its not a hate thing.
I dont have any animosity against anybody.
If they would have put me in a tank of murderers, I would fight to get out.
I needed to get out for my own fucking safety.
I am a five-foot-seven, 120-pound man.
You dont want a label.
Im here because I didnt have a tag that put me in jeopardy.
And I dont think people understand that jeopardy is not just one-on-one.
You want me to get fucking gang raped in goddamn prison by Hispanics?
What do you want me, as a child, to do?
Im fucking 50 years old.
This is when I was 19.
Do you think that I go around fucking stabbing people now?
My street mentality is not my home mentality.
What makes sense in prison does not make sense on the street.
Ill give you an example.
If somebody was to call you a bitch in free society, whats your response?
Id say fuck you or whatever.Fuck you!
[Does an impression of the interviewer.]
Respond to it, why?
Its just a word.
In our current environment, if somebody steals from you, you go make a police report.
If somebody steals from you in prison, you dont go tell the C.O.s.
You go get your shit back by any means necessary.
You dont make any prison rape jokes in the special.It is hack.
Its ridiculous to focus on such isolated situations.
More people write books in prison and go to college than get raped.
I think that people still see prison as the 40s.
Society gives them a thousand chances.
You killed 16 women?
Im itching for your ass to be in my cell.
Im sitting on my bunk, scarier than a motherfucker.
You see what happened toWhitey BulgerorJeffrey Dahmer.
Whoever you think that you are once you come to prison, this shit is even, baby.
Domino Effect Part 4ends with you being released after six years.
If youre going to be really rehabilitated, you have to do that yourself.
Im so excited about coming home but so scared at the same time.
This is all nervous energy.
Thats why4is calledPins and Needles.
Im very normal and respected here.
I want to go home, but its very scary.
Being a former street-pharmaceutical rep is not a badge of honor to me.
If I ran into someone I dealt to, Id be elated that theyre still alive.
I was in Frisco for the Comedy Central festival.
Walking to the venue was hard for me.
I was literally blaming myself.
Im like,Yo, man, what did I do to contribute to this?
This didnt start last week.
This is the people who I sold dope to who had children.
This is the offspring of the chemically dependent.
Im still so affected by my particular crime.
It saddens me that I was a part of that destruction.
Years ago, people would ask, Man, why havent you gotten bigger in comedy?
And I was like, Because I hadnt paid the universe back the things for what I did.
The year you got out of prison was the yearOzpremiered on HBO.
Did you watch?I watched every episode.
What did you think?Thats why I didnt watchOrange Is the New Black.
I would watchOzand be like,What!?
Hes just going togrow his nails into some claws, and no officers going to say nothing?
What is all this free walking around?It was just so many things.
Theres an actual order.
One of the No.
Now that happens, right?
The person who said that is the most dangerous person in the prison.
Its so subtle, but thats the truth.
Got it.Im like, No.
Yall keep making the fictitious stuff that you make.
Im going to keep making my independent things that Im making.
They dont listen anyway.
I imagine over the years of this project, youve gotten some interest in adapting this into a movie.
Then we get down to the Whos going to own it?
part, and this is when the conversation gets different.
Now they like, Oh, hes a very shrewd businessman.
Im not just an artist.
People are coming to me wanting to do things with something that Ive already financed and made.
They got to understand how focused my mind is on being a truly independent owner.
If you could win Emmys as an independent, now theres no need for the web connection.
Were talking right after Netflixs big comedy festival happened, and there was this comedian brunch.
I dont know if you saw aphoto of it on Instagram.
They forget I was onComic ViewandDef Jamand Bounce TV.
But sometimes Ive not been around, and theres been years where Ive been very unapproachable.
Im getting ready to start another series calledIn the Shadows.
It is an account of how I got into stand-up.
When youre on parole, you are at the mercy of society.
I dont want people to be able to tie me to anything.
So I dont want to be around.
And Im not the person who shucks and jives.
Thats the other part that keeps me away.
I dont want to go somewhere and be fake.
I am a 100 percent complete street person, if somebody would give me a label.
You cant say nothing about me and then say, I was just playing.
No, I dont play, though.
But I love Sinbad.
Did you watchKatt Williamss special?Oh my God, yall.
I have this ability to watch your trailer and see everything I need to see.
The energy that you put into saying untruths, misrepresenting things … How much do you still feel like there is a debt?I dont feel it.
I think Ive paid it back.
Do you have more you want to say?No.
Im not going to waste my time talking about somebody else.
I dontClub Shay Shayit up.
I just talk about what I need to talk about.
I dont think I owe anymore.
I paid back the debt from my youth.
Thats why Ive reached a certain level of success, to me.
I wanted to be a comic.
I wanted to be able to sustain myself and feed my family.
I wanted to be a pillar in the community.
I wanted to be this natural human being and be able to grow food.
I have achieved that, so to me, Im successful.
So I think the universe is now giving me a little more back than me having to give it.
At the same time, I imagine that mustve been a mental burden for you.
I never thought I would say that.
Im a fucking happy person about achieving what I said that I was going to achieve.
I could die and be like, Yo, man, I fucking did it, bro.
I checked all the boxes.
I didnt want to move out of Houston.
I wanted to do great specials.
I wanted to be judgedon stand-up.
My mama proud, my family proud, my kids proud, and I fucking did it by myself.
Im elated, man, by this key in of freedom.
I can go get whatever I want to go get.
I can do whatever I want to go do.
Im in this world with no restrictions.
If I wanted to go buy a Bentley on a Tuesday, Imma go do it.
Who would have thought this shit?
Like I was a child.
