Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 204. Ali Siddiq: Telling His Own Story

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Ali Siddiq is one of the most prolific storytellers in comedy. Although they work in a similar format, Ali and Mike’s paths have never crossed until now. Now they sit down to discuss the nuances of comedic storytelling, including how to make specific topics relatable to audiences, and Ali explains how he made his own path in comedy after serving six years in prison on drug charges. Plus, Ali and Mike, both parents of swimmers, share war stories from swim meets. Please consider donating to the Houston Food Bank Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you feel like you're in the mainstream or not in the mainstream? I feel like I'm not in either space, man. It's like I'm in my own lane. Well, I think so, too. You know, but that's a, it's a gift and a curse. Yeah, it's a gift and a curse. And, like, I don't get invited to a lot of stuff. Yeah.

You know, but it's one of them things when people see me, oh, I'm every year. But you didn't invite me, though. That is the voice of the great office. Ali Sadiq. Ali Sadiq is a comedian who I've been a fan of for a while. He is a brilliant storyteller, absolutely fascinating life story. He's extraordinarily prolific.

If you search him on YouTube, you'll find days worth of comedy. Nine comedy specials. Fascinating life story. He actually went to prison for six years. Talk about it in the show today. He's from Houston. He lives in Houston still today. He produces pretty much all of his specials independently,

which we talk about a lot on this podcast, and he's a really inspirational example of it. So I think you're going to love this episode today, completely unique. By the way, thanks to everyone who signed up for working it out. Premium on Apple Podcasts. We just released a new episode. This is a premium episode where I play

seven minutes of one of my comedy seller's sets. It's basically one of the stories I'm working on on this podcast, except with a live audience. And it's crazy because I never imagined when we started the podcast, I was like, well, what if I shared material in progress? I was like, oh, that would be kind of crazy in a certain sense because you're quote unquote blowing material.

That's what comedians, when I was coming up in the 90s, would say you can't share material before you put it on a special or put it on TV or put it on an album because you're blowing that material. And so we're like, with this podcast, it was like, oh, you could. Like, we could talk about material. But then, and then what I found is I would tour and people would be interested in the evolution of those jokes. And now with this premium episode, I played audio, which will not be the audio of the final record. the final album, the final special.

It's a work-in-progress piece of audio, but it's professionally recorded. You can hear where the laughs are. And then we talk, me and Gary Simons and Mabel Lewis, talk about what I'm going to do next and how I'm going to change it and how it's going to evolve. It's a great episode. It's in the premium feed.

If you sign up for the premium feed on Apple Podcasts, you get no ads on any of the episodes, and you get bonus episodes like the one I just described. And also you support the show. We appreciate it. five bucks a month, and then you get no ads on any of the episodes. Plus, you get these bonus episodes like the one I just described. And you support the show.

We appreciate it. Also, I have some tour dates with John Mullaney, Nick Kroll, and Fred Armisen coming up in the fall, so stay tuned for those. I will also be at the Netflix's A Joke Festival, May 6th, at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. That's just Mike and Friends, Mike Barbiglia, working it out, and Friends in a really cool venue. I played it before. It was very super fun. It's going to be like, probably like, 30 to 4.

45 minutes of new material from me and guests, the guests will be great. I'm not going to tell you who they are. Tickets at berbigs.com. If you're anywhere near Los Angeles, thanks, by the way, to everyone who signed it for text message alerts. I've had the mailing list for a million years, but now we do text alerts just in case it's going to your spam. You text berbigs to 91744-7150, and you will be the first to know about my upcoming shows. I really think you're going to love this episode with Ali Sadiq today. A phenomenal storyteller. We talk about how to make personal stories relatable to a larger audience.

We talk about making your own path in comedy, working inside the system versus outside the system. Very wise person, very funny person. We didn't know each other before. I think one of the best things about this podcast is I'm able to meet people who I've just admired from afar. So enjoy my conversation with the great Ali Sadiq. How old were you when you started? 25. Oh, 25.

Is that the first mic that you went to? Yes. Just joking. Yeah, just joking. Comedy Cafe, December 4th, 1997. Wow. Yeah, so almost exact. Yeah, I think 97 was mine too.

That's crazy. And it was in Houston? Yeah. And did you just have a sense from the moment you got on? you were just like, this is where I should be kind of thing? Before. Before. Before I got on.

What did you? What did that feel like? What was that moment? People tell you? People like, you're hilarious. You got to get on stage? No. No?

Kid, just saw watching TV. Yeah. Just felt like I wanted to do that. Yeah. Make people laugh. Yeah. Yeah, I really don't agree with that. You make somebody laugh.

You're supposed to be a comedian. I think that that cheapens our craft. Yeah. So much. It's like, it's a lot of people that made me laugh. I never told them they should be a comedian. Yeah. I know people that's good with knives.

I don't ask them to be surgeons. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I don't, nah. But I think that's the slate of hand when you're really good. Like, your stuff is like that. Your stuff is like, like, oh, he's just talking. Yeah. Yeah, my uncle would be just talking, but he, he, he's the funniest person I,

I know I've never said, hey, you should get on stage. That's funny. I know he wouldn't survive it. He was like, he would freeze up. And I've seen people do it before. You know, I used to go to open mics and somebody would ask me to go come that was in the barbershop. That was barbershop funny.

Yeah. And then they would get to open mic. And see, this is different. Yeah. Than everybody in a barbershop that knows you. Yeah. You know, I think that's the whole thing about stand-up. When you're, our craft is to make people laugh

or entertain people that have no idea who we are or what we're even talking about. I'm not even familiar with the story. Yes. And then I'm finding this story hilarious. You know, I don't know this person. But, you know, but when you around people who know you, it's easy to make family laugh.

Yeah, yeah. Because they know the stories. You know, I know Kim when she was little. But who is Tracy? Who the fuck is Tracy? Some random person named Tracy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

And then I get into it and be like, yo, Tracy's crazy. So that's, you know. Right. It's like the goal of a professional comedian is to explain who Tracy is, why she's funny. And then by the end, people are like, obviously. Tracy's funny. Obviously, Tracy's funny. Yeah, yeah.

We know Tracy. A thousand strangers are like, yeah, I know Tracy. Yeah, I know who. I have a Tracy. I have a Tracy. Yeah, that's the thing. When you identify, you say something and you describe it so well that somebody said, you know something, I know this person.

Yeah. But this person's named Larry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. I got one of those who's named's Larry. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's exactly right. How old are your kids?

They're big difference, right? Yeah, he was, which kids? I have different kids. How many kids do you have total? Nine. Nine kids. Yeah. But you're...

Which ones? The 30, the ones in the name. You have one who's 31 and you have... 32. 32. You're younger's like... Two? 32.

32. Youngest is four? Five. Wow. Yeah. What's the difference between what you teach your kid who's, who's five now versus when you, when your first kid it was five. All lessons are the same.

Now, the problem is the leniency of the lessons. I give you more time to learn it. At first it was like, no, you got to get it today. I said it today, you get it today. Now, the five years like, she's five. Right. What I think she's going to? Right.

She's fine. What are you going to do? Okay. You know, she don't know that you're not supposed to throw stuff on the ground as you finish eating. She don't know that. Right. But she's been throwing places.

But today, you know, she forgot. Yeah. You know, I'm way more lenient. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a different, you know, and I see it just like, I'm getting ready to shoot another special in a couple of days. It was crazy.

I just came up with the title for it after all the stuff together. But my first love. And it's a... a lot about my first love and she was different, you know, when she first met me versus how she is now. Mm-hmm. You know, she's totally different, like, because she does a different life. Yeah. You know, with my parents, my mom, she kind of read me under frustration, kind of like, you know.

so frustration and, you know, and fear and all of these type of things versus how she is with my son. My mom was real. My son get away with murder. Yeah. Like, and I was like, yo, you would have killed me. Yeah, yeah. Over that.

Like, you wouldn't even did that. Like, you know, she. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't even cared about my feelings in that. Right. Like, she's totally different. Versus your kid. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You know. I mean, very fertile territory, very relatable. It's a thing. Like, I don't, my kids are under, and I said it last night, you know, we went to a basketball game to celebrate another family. Yeah. And as we riding home, I said, me, y'all just don't really realize how different your life is from mine. Yeah, of course.

I never remember going anywhere as a family. Yeah. Like, ever. Yeah. Like, my whole 52 years, I can't, that's a memory that I don't have. When you were a kid. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You just never went out with your family. Nope. Well, because your parents are split from each other pretty early, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember going out with either one of them new, situation.

I don't remember. I don't remember. Like, me or Sima ago? Like, I don't remember that. We do anything? Like, it just always was.

Didn't go on vacation. One or the other. Right. Didn't go to basketball games. Didn't go to concerts. That's crazy. I never went to, my dad came to one basketball game

and mama came to two football games. Yeah. My whole, like, and I played sports the whole time. No kidding. High school. In middle school.

And two games, two football games. Your whole life. Yeah, two football games. Wow. And my dad came to one basketball game. And we're talking about, we're talking about high school. We're talking about seventh, eighth grade. Yeah.

Eighth grade. You're talking about eighth grade. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. When I think about it. Yeah, for me, it's very. I go to my daughter's swim meets like practically every weekend.

And that's, that's, and swim meets are really tough. Oh, yeah, they're a lot. It's a long situation. You never thought that you would eat pasta that you boiled it night before in a bag. Oh, yeah. You just eating pasta. You didn't think that was going to happen? My whole thing with swim meets is you go, oh, I'm watching my daughter swim for two and a half minutes.

I'm watching other people's kids swim for four and a half hours. I didn't sign up for this. It's crazy. And then you think that it's not a say, it's like you checking things. Like, when is your event? Like, when is your event? Dude, I got the app. I got the app with the event times.

We've been here since. Why do they tell us to be here this early? No, I know. Your event is at 11. We've been here since 6. We went at 7 one day. It's like, no one showed up until 8. Like, how come we did not get the memo and no one's coming to late?

It's your first meat, did you have food already? Oh, no, no. We didn't know anything. You went straight to concessions. You was buying something for concessions. And you was like... With the vending machines. Then you start realizing like, we spent $40.

Eating, eating bugles and vitamin water all day? It's like, you know, my oldest daughter swam for years. Yeah. Like from six to all the way through high school. Yeah. lifeguard, everything. Yeah. She's swimming for a long time.

Yeah. Like, a long time. Yeah, so you went through a lot of the things. She would do the 500s. Oh, the 500s. Like, you're like, yo, you, it's like 20 laps or something. I'm not, why do I have to hold this boy for you? I'm not a part of the team.

I miss being a swim parent, though. Now I'm an ice skating parent. Oh, that's cool. Which is even crazier. What's funny, like, you did a four-part special. Yeah. So good. I couldn't recommend it more highly to the listeners.

It's on YouTube. It's free. No credit for it. No, what do you mean? No credit. No comedic credit for it. What do you mean? You know, when you do something that's never been done in a craft.

Oh, okay. No credit for pioneering, like, a four-part special. Yeah. Yeah. Like, comics with, I think this is amongst the comedy community, we have like this disease where I, that we think that some comic that already is huge, if we support them, that they're going to say, you know something, I saw his post, he reposted my stuff, let me take him on the road, right? Right. investing in. But the people that's around you,

they really can't see the excellence in you because they feel like they're around. I could imagine people being around Jordan and not seeing it. Like, how can you not, how could you be around Magic Johnson and not see it? You're on his team.

Yeah. You know, LeBron's teammates saw it. They definitely did. They clearly. They clearly did. Like, yo. But I think Magic, Jordan's and Magic's teammates got it, right? I don't think Jordan, I think, Jordan teammates got it.

But in comedy, I don't, I think it's two levels, it's two different levels of things. I see the, let me say how it's it. The mainstream side is, like I used to be so against the mainstream side of comedy. Yeah. Like, they're soft. Yeah. Mainstream is so much better. It's so, it's humongous.

The, the level of better is insane. For the consumer? For people watching the specials? For comics. The level of comedy, in like the, like, Netflix, HBO space, you mean? Like, that mainstream? A monk's, like, give you an example. So, when I went to Comic View, when I was on Comic View,

We would go film and it would be all these comics there. It was like this competition of who's going to have the best set on Comic View. Yeah. Comic View on BT, which was huge in its day. It was like, when you walked in the door, it was like, it was competitive from every aspect of it. My hair cut is better than yours. My clothes are better than yours.

I smell better. I'm going to do. I got more. It was just so much competition. It was crazy. Yeah. So then I walked on the set of this is not happening. Yeah.

Going to be on Comedy Central. And it was so inviting. Yeah. It was like, nice haircut, nice outfit. Man, you smell great. Man, I hope you have a wonderful set. Yeah. Okay.

What's the difference? Like, why is it so much competition over here? Yeah. Versus over here, it's, I want you to go out and have a good show so we can get another season of this. Yeah. I want to be the standout person that's just about me. Right. Two different aspects of it.

Two different aspects of it. You know, it kind of, mainstream kind of feels like old classic comedy when I would listen to a Rodney Winfield. or Rinaldo Ray talking about stuff that they wrote for Richard. Yeah. You know, or comics say that we would write for each other to make sure that you're going on Ed Sullivan. We're going to write some stuff for you to make sure because there's somebody else trying to get in the door. No, of course. You know, so we're writing for it to making sure that everybody is doing well versus just about me.

You know, and I've never been into the just about me because I've always. played on the team. Yeah. But do you feel like you're in the mainstream or not in the mainstream? I feel like I'm not in either space, man. It's like I'm in my own lane. Well, I think so too. You know, but that's a gift in the curse.

Yeah, it's a gift and a curse. Yeah, like I don't get invited to a lot of stuff. Yeah. You know, but it's one of them things when people see me, oh, I'm every year. But you didn't invite me, though. Right. You know, so.

Do you ever, okay, do you ever get, do you, are there big mainstream comics who are particularly respectful or disrespectful to you? Are mostly respectful. I would imagine. Mostly. Yeah, I would imagine, like, the biggest comics would go, yeah, you're one of the best comics. I don't think there's a lot of dispute there. Yeah, but then it's weird with people. People think, because they like somebody, that somebody can't be.

better than the person that they like. But it's not even a better thing. It's like sometimes work is just different. Work ethic is just different. You know, it's like I can watch somebody say I love Anita Baker. Yeah. One of my favorite artists, Nita Baker, Winnie Houston. But I can't deny L.A. is insane.

Yeah. And I just listen to how back, like, how do you deny somebody that you know, it may not be your favorite at this point, but it's, you know, they're really good. Yeah. You know, and I sit back and I watch other comics. I'm like, this dude is growing into his own. Like, I'm a fan. It's like, okay, I like Richard Pry. Okay, I like it.

And even with Richard, I try to figure out. Do I like him because he was the first album that I listened to? Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. You know, do I like Eddie because it was the time? Mm-hmm. You know, did I like Cosby because of all the, you know, Fat Albert and, you know, and all the works because I didn't see the sitcom he was in. I just saw himself and then Fat Albert and then the Cosby show.

and then I saw the movies with him in Sydney Portier. Okay, do I, because I felt like Dick Grigley was so smart, is that the reason? But then I understand why I liked Don Rickles. Yeah. You know, I understand why I liked Rodney Dangerfield. But do I look at, can I not say that there's a D.L? You know, I'm saying there's a Bill Burr?

Yeah. You know, do I not, or do I just stay in that realm? These are the only people. These are the greats. And that is they do. Carlin, you know. So nobody. So, like, people asked me one time,

do I think I'm the best storyteller? And I said, now, if you asked me a couple years ago, I said, no. I had to put Cosby and Carlin in front of me. Yeah. I don't anymore. Good for you. Yeah, like, when I look at it, I'm like,

I think, you know, Joy Diaz, it's like if I rank it, which I don't, I would go, Joy Diaz is four, Carlness, three, Ciesbius, two, I'm one. Where's Pryor? Five. Five? He's priors below Joey Diaz. Come on. What are we doing?

When we're talking about stories, Joy Diaz is, and I'm not just talking about the stories, I'm talking about the mechanics of telling the story. Yeah, yeah. Joy Diaz is really good when I look at it. Okay, so if you break down what you think is a worthwhile story for you to tell on stage, what makes it, what pushes it over the top to being stageworthy? having an underlying message at the end. Yeah. I'm not just telling the story just to be telling it. Because it's, if I tell a, if I tell a story about, say if I told a story about drugs, let's go like the prior.

If I told a story about drugs, it's going to be a story that you can kind of see the message in and lead you away from doing drugs. whatever the message, whether it's selling, doing, handling, being out with somebody that you wasn't supposed to be. I'm going to give the underlying message. It's not going to be the dog and the monkey type thing. Prior was clearly high when he was doing this. Monkey was talking to him and a dog jumped over the fence. You know, I'm going to beat you on to eat you next week.

I was like, okay, where is the messaging this? Like, you know, but prior tells stories like my Uncle Mac. My Uncle Mac stores are very embellished, and they always something wild. And then I don't, like, at the end of the story, I'm like, okay. Right. Did that happen? Right. Where do we go from here? Where is the rest of it?

Yeah, yeah. Like, what did I get out of this story? And my grandmother's stories were always historic. Yeah. It was something about teaching. Yeah. Something generation. My mom's stories were very informationally against me.

Proof of why you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Proof of I should have just aborted you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So when I draw from the people that I learn how to tell stories from, you know, my grandfather was a very subtle storyteller. Yeah. You don't even know that you in a story until you, what is he talking about? Oh, this is, I'm supposed to be listening.

Yeah. And that's how he navigated. So all these different. levels to draw from and then you pick when are you being jovial in a story when you being informational you know when you have some really deep point that you're trying to get to or you trying to like soothe somebody in a story yeah dominole effect too was the whole thing was about getting people to understand about loss and very of losing things up into the ultimate loss of life.

Yeah, your sister. Yes. Yeah. And then coming full circle understanding that you kind of lost yourself in this. Yeah. So three, first day of school is, no matter how long you have been living, it's always a first day of learning something new for you. You know, like, when you, I don't know how old you were when your kids started swimming.

But it was a whole different, like you've done, probably did multiple things before then. Yeah. Then you get there. And it's like, oh, I have to learn this new world. Yeah. One of my favorite tracks of yours is when you talk about your mom giving you the front door key and just being like, I got to make sure I don't lose the front door key. Yeah. And there's something about when you're a kid and you're given some responsibility, how terrifying that is.

Losing that key was the worst thing. Yeah. And my sister, she saw me from a distance and noticed that I didn't have a string around my neck. She was like, what your key? It's like, I don't know, parents felt like if somebody found that key, there's no apartment number on it, but it's like they would know. like where to go like how so you I've seen you saying other interviews like you don't think of things as bits

you think of everything as stories but it's like how do you decide what's a story like you're like oh front door key how do you go like okay that's a story that's a story for the stage because I'm only I'm only telling things that happened to me yeah or like

I don't have a I'm not drawing from any other place besides the inside of me so I don't have a a bit. Right. I'm not. Because a bit, it seems like, because I've written them. Yeah.

You know, it's something I had to work on. Mm-hmm. I don't say it a lot because it seems in the comedy community because everybody wants everybody to be the same. Yeah. And I don't have the same story as nobody else. So I don't want to sound arrogant. I haven't written anything in six years.

Wow. You haven't written, in other words, you haven't written anything down, but you've, thrown stuff on stage. Domino Effect 2, the first time the director, anybody ever seen it was when I did it. Wow. I didn't run it. Wow.

You didn't run it? No. So you, right, and it's very personal. You're talking about your sister dying. It's deep. Couldn't have ran it. Yeah, yeah. You didn't want it.

It's impossible for me to run that anywhere and be intact. Yeah. It is one You just said to the director I have a special I'm not going to really tell you what it is I got it Yeah

And where'd you film it Houston Houston And in In the Houston improv And I told them what I wanted to look like Yeah I said man I wanted to be

The light post I wanted to look dark I wanted to look like When I was on the block Yeah They made it happen And they never knew what it was. It was crazy.

My manager didn't know it. I just kept saying, trust me, I got it. Yeah. And then like, all right, you say you got it. Like, what you're going to wear? And I'm like, man, I got it. Like, because me even explaining it was too much. It's like I just had it.

You'd lose it. You'd lose it. Yeah. I feel like you're a throwback. In some ways, like, it's a throwback to, like, a prior, like a Richard Pryor era, in the sense that, like, Richard Pryorah had this tough upbringing, Peoria, and he saw a lot of stuff. And at a certain point, he figured out how to tell those stories in a way that, like, crushed. And I feel like that's, to me,

when I watch your stuff, I'm like, that's exactly what you're doing. Like, you've had a really, you've had a challenging life. You know what I mean? Self-imposed. That's not self-imposed. Yeah, man. You think so? A lot of this was, like, I explain this all the time.

I didn't ever have to sell drugs. Right. My mom had a job. Right. My dad had a job. Even though my dad wasn't there, my mom still had a job. Yeah. She was, my mom had a lot of great work ethics.

Yeah. Two jobs went to school. You know, when she couldn't take care of us, she would send us to her brothers and sisters. You know, my mom got nine siblings. So they had jobs. You know, my aunt's registered nerds. One of my aunt worked for Nabisco for 35 years. My uncles worked in the medical field.

One of my uncles was a cobbler, which is crazy. My uncle Lamont, right? he used to come to family functions and he always had this long leather jacket on leather hat shoes and he looked so tough all the time

and nobody ever said what he did and I always like yo Uncle Lamont worked for the mob definitely kills people for the mob so for a year this is year this is year Like all throughout my childhood, early adult.

I'm like, yo, my uncle Lamont works for the mob. There's no other explanation. Same other jacket. Same other hat. It's definitely the Ice Man, the Black Ice Man. Yeah. So I do Comedy Special, Comedy Central in 2018. My uncle, I'm in L.A.

My uncle comes to sit down at my aunt. house and he said, hey nephew, hey man, you ought to let me make some shoes for you. I said, what? Yeah, man, I'd be saying you got nice shoes on your feet. You ought to let me make some shoes for you. I'm like, why would he be making shoes? Like, is this some type of cold? Yeah, code word.

Like, he said, I said, why would you be making shoes? He said, because I'm a cobbler. I'm going to make shoes 411. We're making shoes 35 years. I was like, you make shoes? Yeah. He's like, yeah, I make shoes. Like, I'm like, no, you work with a mob.

Like, who told you that? That's so funny. I couldn't believe my uncle was a cobbler. That's so funny. I'm thinking this man had been killing people with a mob for decades. It's funny. Well, it's funny. Like, one of the things that it hits me when I'm listening to your comedy and your story

because you were in jail and you sold drugs and you had all these. dramatic things. There's similarities to the comedy world. Like the same hustle that's in that world is a lot of the same hustle that's in comedy. This is why I don't believe a lot of people when they say they was hustling in the streets. I don't believe you.

Say more about that. Because of this. Then you wouldn't be asking for so much from other people. You wouldn't be mad at people not giving you something or doing something for you because in the streets. When you hustle, you get it on your own. You don't hope you hustle. That's right.

I'm a gangster when gangsters never told you they was gangsters. Yeah. It wasn't a badge of honor. It was something that you hid. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't like, hey, hey, I'm going to get my shirt. I'm a gangster. It's like, no.

People's like, what is he doing? Yeah, yeah, sure. There was still a lot of mystery around us. What is he doing? Yeah. You know, I could have been. been anything at the time. This is like with comedy.

I was in open mics late at night. Mm-hmm. And this is when your girl was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And you, it's like, it's always a what are you doing era. Yeah, so what are you doing era? Yeah, it's like, because it wasn't.

No phones, no accountability. And so you, you've been around the same time as me. I had no idea how to become a comic. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, no earthly idea. I try to explain that now to people about our era that it wasn't a thing you did. It wasn't a choice.

It literally, like, it was so unpopular and so uncool to be a comedian. Like, what are you doing? Like, what do you mean? Yeah, like, you had to explain it to people, I explained it. I said my dad once. I'm being comedian.

He goes, comedian, what do they do? Strip? No, they do comedy. They had no idea what I was talking about. It's like, I thought my mom I was going to be a comedian. She's like, no, you're going to get a job.

Like, this is my job. Like, because you had no. If somebody would have asked you in 1997, what, how do you become a comedian? What would have been the first thing you wouldn't even wrote? You're like, nothing.

Nothing. It's, I have no guidance. No. At all. Like, I don't even know where to go. Like, I'm asking, like, okay, how do you even start this conversation? I would go, I would, in D.C., I would go in the back of, like, the local weekly magazine and just be like, what are, what is an open mic of any kind? Like, is there a music open mic?

I could go. And then I would just show up and they'd be like, what do you do? I do comedy. be like, we don't do that. I'm like, well, I'm going to use my time for that. I started at Apollo Night. Like, where people were booing, people who were juggling. Apollo Knight.

It's like, you would sing, people would dance, they would juggle, they would do magic. Wow. And they would do everything. Is it in Houston? In Houston. Wow. And you would get booed. Yeah.

And then, like, you wasn't juggling fast. The first of all, juggling is an amazing talent. And most people can't juggle anything. Yeah. But man, boo, juggling socks, you suck. Like, what? He's juggling socks. It's amazing.

And then he opened the socks. It's so hard to explain. Where you start. Yeah, so hard to explain to people. But it's not unrelated to, like, where you came from, which is like, which is. You don't hope you hustle. It's like you just figured it out.

Even your YouTube specials, it's like, they're on Netflix, they're on HBO. You're like, no, I produced them myself. I put them on YouTube. They got seen by tens of millions of people. That's a crazy outcome. Yeah. Like, that is, through one lens, you go, well, that's the least likely outcome you could possibly have. Through another lens, you go, well, of course that's what happened.

Like, both of those things are true at the same time. At the exact same time. Yeah. And it only happened because I had a special on Comedy Central. I did a half hour and a full hour. And I posted something about my special and they copyright infringed me. Mm. I was like, what?

But it's my face. Comedy Central did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they sent you notice saying, pull this down. Yeah. Yeah.

It's insane. And so you were like, like, oh, forget this. I'm going to just put up my own stuff. Doing my own. I'm going to film it myself, put it up myself. Yeah, I'm like, man, I'm not doing that. And so I just knew

when I started, the Apollo night couldn't have been the only way to start in my mind. So I started getting, going to clubs and would ask, hey, do y'all have anything going on at this time?

It's like, no. I say, well, can we start a happy hour? a comedy show, and then I would get a spot, and I would start bringing other comics that were trying to get on. Yeah. But I'm doing the boat at a time. It's like, I'm the host, so I'm, I'm. Yeah.

And that's the thing, man, to be in a host of your own room, it was probably the most beneficial thing. It's the smartest thing you could possibly do. Because some, it would be like, people wouldn't show up, like, comics wouldn't. show up to late or sometimes there's only be like two comments so now you're using using another new comic as just a break almost like you go out there and you do

seven minutes and then eight minutes and then they struggle then you come back and you're like oh yeah I guess that next thing you know you're doing you're doing 45 minutes yeah it was because we actually didn't know just imagine you started and I applaud you on this, you know, and I think that the guys in our era and the ones before should really have a healthy respect for the craft and what we accomplish, because you started in a time where you had no earthly idea what you can make.

Who knew? No path. It's like the forest. And you just got to, you got to start navigating the road through this forest. Yeah, that's right. You had no idea what you can actually make and you have been doing this for 28 years and surviving and making a living off of this for 28 years. Yeah. So you are a real person that remember getting $20.

Oh, yeah. Five. Yeah. Like. We used to get five at the comic strip on the every side. It's $5 months. That's a club. I'm talking about from another person.

Like, I would go in my pocket and literally give somebody $20 of the $100 that I got paid from this happy hour that I came over. They gave me $100. They gave me $150. And then I booked four other comics and gave them $20. But what, okay, but let's dig underneath this, which is like, where does the drive come from to be like, there's no path? I'm going to find a path. Like, where does I come from? And my dad saying the same energy that you can put in for somebody else can put in for yourself.

So if you're trying to, and you have a desire to do something, then just do it. You know, my mom, two jobs and going to school because she wants to another profession. She wants to graduate. She's 20 years old. She's got two kids living in a place that she's not from. Do I stop? Do I give up? Right.

What am I doing? If she's doing that, what am I doing? Do I just grind? My grandmother coming from Clarksdale, Mississippi, being in a cotton field, like, do I stop here? Do I keep pushing? You got this lineage of people in my family. that never gave up on anything.

If you're going to make it, you're going to have to do it. Yeah. It's like, are you waiting on somebody that comes to save you? Oh, okay. Let me know how that works out. You know, like in Houston, I chose never to move to L.A. or New York. I would come to New York and do homes.

I would go to L.A., But I never said I would move there. Oh, you got to move. You got to move. And I think when somebody tells me that I have to do something bothers me because, like, why would I have to do it? It doesn't make. I know what you mean. There's something that really bothers me about when people say you have to do this or it has to be this or this is the way it's done.

For me, it's like all these red flags go off. Like what? Like what? I have to. So even with young comics now, some young comics actually think that I'm mean because I don't give them cookie-cutter nonsense. Yo, man, what would you say? What would you say to a young, inspiring comic? Nothing.

I wouldn't be talking to you. What would I be talking to you about? Man, I'm just asking, you know, you don't have no, no, no. tips for me? No. I said, now, what I will do, I'll give you my number and then we can talk. And I can get to know you and then I can guide you because I don't know what you want to do in comedy. So what you want me to do? Okay, you want me to give you some cookie cutter. Stay on stage. Keep writing. Yeah.

But am I telling the comedic actor to keep to stay on stage or keep writing? I'm telling the actual stand-up or I'm telling the sketch guy, what do you want to do in comedy? What do you want to be? So I got to know, kind of know that first, and then I can guide you from there. I say, or you can just pick up my book, applied advice. And out of the 13 things that's in there, those things were isolated for me.

Those things were given to me. Those are the 13 pieces of advice from 13 different people that I respected that gave me the advice at the... I say, but even with this, I got that advice at the time that I actually needed it. Yeah.

Like, in comedy, as you know, it's peaks and valleys, highs and lows and lows and it's like, I got a... I'm on fire this year. the next year, I don't even know if I'm, I don't even know if I want to do this. Yeah.

And then, or you get something, you get in position, then somebody takes something from you. Or you felt like you put out your best work and then you didn't get recognized for it in the space that you wanted to get recognized for. And somebody comes and throws a log in your fire that you need. Yeah.

And for me, that was, it happened at different times. And, but the base of it is this guy named B.R. Burns, that was a playwright. I'm a young comic very early on and B.R. said to me straight out, that comedy is a long, hard road. Stay in line, though. Yeah, yeah. Because if you stay in line, you'll get your chance. Yeah.

But if you get out of line, you never get your chance. Smart. And that, I needed it at that time because I don't know what my direction. It was the time, 05, it was crazy. In 2005, this was a difficult year in stand up for me for some reason. Then 2007, I meet D.L. Higley. Yeah. And that relationship, you know, turned into something wonderful.

Yeah. D.L. I do something in 2009, and I'm complaining to D.L. about something like many of the dude, you know, doing stuff just like me. And it's funny when somebody does something that you don't know what they can do. They attempt to do it. D.L. was like, I'm going to tell you the same thing. Prince told

Templin. He tried to do a prince impression and Diel doesn't do impressions. I was like, you know,

he sounds crazy. It was terrible. Yeah. But the message was right on time. And then he also said to me right after that, he said, man,

the best you ever be on stage is based on how honest you want to be. Yeah. And these are the things that you kind of need. That's chilling. How do I... What's the Prince advice? Can you say?

Yeah, he was like... He said, Timberlin was telling him that everybody was out here trying to redo his sound. Yeah. And Prince was like, hey, this is the other pressure of the Prince. Are you the man?

And then Tim was like, yeah, I'm the man. Then create a new sound. And then he... That's great. And then D.L. hung up on it. And then D.L. hung up on me. That's so funny. Hello? Are you the man? They created a new sound. Yeah, create a new sound. You know, so.

Oh, love that. That's great advice. Do something new. That's nice. They copy in that, do something new. Wow. I mean, you can't follow that. You can't follow that.

The final thing we do is working out for a cause. Is there a nonprofit that you like to contribute to? And what we do is we contribute to them? We link to them in the show notes. Houston Food Bank. Houston Food Bank. We always love contributing to food banks. So I always tell people to support their local food banks.

Yeah. You know, we live in the country where no elderly people and no children should be hungry at all. No. We throw away more food in a day than more countries produce in a year. Yeah, it's outrageous. And it's outrageous, man. Yeah. And that's the thing.

Like, we have an abundance of food. Yeah. And it's kind of, that's one of them things with me and my family. I need you to, I understand when Mama said clean your plate. And then I understood it even more when you were being in school and you didn't eat something. And then now you're in the fifth period and you're starving. And your mind was like, if I would have just ate that last piece of pancake.

I wouldn't even be hungry right now. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but it's definitely, you know, a thing. Well, thanks for being here. We'll contribute to the Houston Food Bank and Ali Sadiq amazing work. Oh, thank you. Incredible. Thank you. It's an honor and a pleasure.

Working it out because it's not done. We're working it out because there's no... That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. You can follow Ollie Sidiq on Instagram at A-L-I-S-I-D-D-E-S-D. and on YouTube at Ali Siddee Comedy. He's got a zillion comedy specials free on YouTube. Check out berbiggs.com to sign up for my mailing list and to be the first to know about my upcoming shows. You can watch the full video of this episode on our YouTube channel at Mike Barbiglia.

And please subscribe. It helps us out. We're posting more and more videos by the day. Don't miss it. Our producers of working it out of myself along with Peter Salomon, Joseph Barbiglia, Mabel Lewis, and Gary Simons. Sound Mixed by Shub Sarah and Supervising Engineer Kate Balinski's special thanks. Thanks to Jack Antonoff and bleachers for their music. They've a new album coming out. They dropped one song.

It is fantastic. Special thanks, as always, to my wife, the poet, J. Hope Stein, and our daughter, Una, who built the original radio fort made of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. If you enjoy the show, please rate us and review us on Apple Podcast. That helps out. We've done over 200 episodes. All free. We did it.

Thank you all. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Tell that other parent who stuck it. a long swim meet. Go, hey, you must be new. While you're waiting what feels like hours for your child to swim,

you should try to listen to this podcast called Mike for Bigley is working it out. Mike for Biggley, it talks about the creative process with other comedians and creatives like Ali Sadiq. So you can listen to Ali, and also, for what it's worth, when you come to swim meets, bring some pasta in a bag.

Thanks, everybody. We're working it out. We'll see you next time.