Comedian Ali Siddiq On Creating His Career Out Of His Time Behind Bars

Stand-up comics often draw from their personal experience. For Ali Siddiq, a career in comedy was born out of a life experience not funny in any way — his six years in prison. Last year, Siddiq was a finalist on NBC’s comedy competition show “Bring the Funny.” He’s performing at the Atlanta Punchline this weekend, but he first joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes in studio to discuss his career.

On how his stand-up career began: 

“It started on ‘F-line’ [a unit in prison], where I was the janitor and put over the block. These people were locked up like 23 hours a day, and they got the worst clothes, the worst food, no TV, no nothing. I started listening to why they were mad all the time, and it was because they would get the worst of the worst. So I started making sure they had better things. I used to watch this show ‘Martin,’ and I would watch very intensely so I could remember all the parts and go and perform it for them on the block.”

On performing his Comedy Central special in front of incarcerated people:  

“I went to the unit a couple times and spent some time with them, and I was very comfortable in this environment. It was like, ‘now I’m free, and I can bring a better perspective on how to make it out of this place.’ I tried to do that while I was in the situation, so to go back and people see someone who made a plan inside of prison, came out of prison, and put their plan into action. I think it gave them a perspective that this wasn’t the end. You can get out of this with the right mental fortitude and be the same as me. I’m not a superhero; I’m just a focused person with a genuine love for myself that I didn’t want to be back in this situation.”