Ali Siddiq does some of the best acting I’ve ever seen in his new standup show. The whole thing is full of felt WTF’s that have made him America’s reigning ghetto existentialist. Like post-accident Richard Pryor, Siddiq consigns comedy to the ashes when he relives the loss of his half-sister, Ashley Rae Mitchell, who died when she was eight years old. Per Siddiq, her exit had a killer upshot: “I’m so dead inside I’m a fucking monster in the streets.” Siddiq isn’t being slick. He’s not out to excuse his own crimes even as he makes art out of collateral damage.
You can cut to the “chapter” where Siddiq recalls the death of his baby sister below (beneath the video of his whole show).
I’m recalling just now Ashley Rae’s a presence in another sequence when Siddiq recalls what happened when he lost his high school girlfriend (whose family suddenly upped and left his city). Siddiq images her sitting at the dinner table with him after he’s begun to recover (with help from his mother’s meatloaf): “Bro-bro, you cry-cry?”
That chapter of “Domino Effect II,” “LL hits different,” has a soundtrack that proves Siddiq was stuck on L.L. Cool J’s “I Need Love.” Mainline culture’s “smart” obliviousness to L.L.’s moment of true feeling in the 80s always seemed momentous to yours truly. Let that go, though. Leave me to my souvenirs, but don’t pass on Ali’s loves and losses.