Ali Siddiq
March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, Manhattan; msg.com/beacon-theatre.
Ali Siddiq found out he was funny while serving a six-year sentence in prison, and upon release, he began his comedy career in earnest at clubs in Houston, his hometown. He scored early TV credits on BET’s “ComicView” and HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam,” and broke through in 2013 by winning a nationwide Comedy Central talent search. A subsequent performance on its series “This Is Not Happening” helped him go viral with his retelling of a prison riot. The network also presented his debut stand-up special in 2018, “It’s Bigger Than These Bars,” filmed at a county jail in Texas where he told inmates they could achieve a better future for themselves, citing his own path as proof.
Since the pandemic, Siddiq has come into his own by revealing even more layers of his life in three specials on his YouTube channel, each of which has garnered millions of views and critical praise. When surveying the best of comedy in 2023, Jason Zinoman singled out Siddiq for his storytelling skills, writing in The New York Times, “Sad and thrilling, odd and straightforward, rambling and intentional, these are yarns that grab your attention, then toy with it.”
Siddiq’s “I Got a Story to Tell Tour” stops at Beacon Theater on Friday. Tickets start at $31.50 on Ticketmaster. SEAN L. McCARTHY
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