I SEE U, Episode 17: Prison Sells and Comedy Shows

Comedian Ali Siddiq spent six years in a maximum-security penitentiary on a 15-year sentence for trafficking cocaine. Siddiq discovered his voice to make people laugh behind bars. And now, he’s found success all over the country and across the globe with his laid-back, sometimes stand-up, comic storytelling about being locked up, fatherhood and racism. Though he’s appeared on major outlets like Comedy Central, Showtime, HBO and BET, he is reluctant to leave the city of Houston — a place he calls home — and relocate to media-centric cities like Los Angeles, New York or even Atlanta. Is this unwillingness to move preventing him from “being seen” more in television and movies? And how has his incarceration impacted his own style of comedy flair? Find out as host Eddie Robinson invites veteran comedian Ali Siddiq into our I SEE U studios for an open and honest dialogue about his career, what he’d be doing if he hadn’t gone to prison and how he’s dealing with the notions of ‘cancel culture‘ in his profession.