Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself

Away from, away from this business. This, this, this shit, it beats you up, man. It beats your spirit up, your soul up to the point where you at times think about quitting, maybe you feel suicidal, you know, this, this. This kills you, man. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we got one of my top five, dead or alive. From stepping on the Stage at just 14 to redefining sketch comedy on MAD TV, this man didn't just chase the spotlight, he commanded it. He's a comedic powerhouse who's mastered impressions, tackled Hollywood, and has kept audiences laughing for decades. Please give my guy a huge round of applause and welcome the bold, the unfiltered, the relentless, Mr. Aries Spears. Aries, how you doing today, brother?

What's up, brother?

Man, I told you offline. I'm honored to have you on. You are literally one of my favorite standups in the world. Just honor you took time out of your busy schedule to be here, bro.

Oh, no, man. Thank you for being somewhat forgiving because I was supposed. I know we were supposed to start this at 2 o', clock, but I was actually coming from doing another podcast by comedian Harlan Williams, so that LA traffic is a monster. So I just got a little bit of that traffic. But I'm, you know, I'm here now, so thank you.

I appreciate it, man. You know, on Mick Unplugged, I always like to ask my greats, my favorites, my legends, what their. Because is that thing that's deeper than your. Why that thing that really is your purpose, that fuel. And you've been doing this, man, since 14 today, in 2025, what's Aries Spears? Because what's that thing that's driving you, bro?

Because I still feel like I haven't arrived, you know, in terms of where I have always seen myself and in terms of what I've always wanted, I don't. I'm not there yet. So I still desperately and very badly want to reach that level.

Well, I don't know about what you think, but. But, bro, I think you're there, man. Like I said, you are. Literally. I know a lot of people seen Aries. I've seen Aries over 20 times. It's always a different set, and I don't think people understand that, man. Like, in standup, it's real easy to have, like, your routine and just some cats, as you know, we're not going to name names. They run that for 10 years and like, you go See them once, you don't have to see them again. With Aries, you get a new experience, bro. Every freaking time. How do you do that, dude?

Well, I think a huge testament to that is, you know, my crowd work, you know. You know, I almost liken it to being a quarterback on a football team, you know? Yeah, you got your playbook, a lot of your material, but every now and then you gotta be able to call a, you know, a quarterback, you know what I mean? Recognize the blitz and call an audible, you know what I'm saying? So. And that to me is like being able to do crowd work. So I like the spontaneity of. Always makes the crowd feel like they're involved and it's just. For me, it's a, It's a much more fun time.

Yeah, yeah. I tell all my buddies, man, like every time I go see Aries, I know you're a sports guy too. It's like it's game seven for you. Every set, right? And it's like, game seven, two seconds left. Aries wants the ball every damn time, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, anybody that know me and listen to my podcast and follow me on social media, know that I'm a Michael Jordan fanatic. So, you know, like, Jordan, yeah, give me the ball. I want the game winning shot, you know, I want to be able to, you know, pump my fist in the air. Victory. And I want to, you know, I want to be the man.

Yup. And you do it every time, man. And you talk about crowd work. I always try to sit up front. I know you gonna get me. I know you gonna get my wife. You know, the last time we were there, you told my wife, her name is Marcy. For all the viewers and listeners, you said, marcy, you're as white as uncut cocaine. And I literally spit out everything I had in my system at that moment, bro. Like, your crowd work is un real, dude.

Thank you, brother. Thank you. And you know, that that was something very early in my, in my beginnings that I was intimidated by because, you know, you, you, you, you're basically on a wire with no safety net. And not everybody could do that well, you know, but I said to myself, if you're going to be a complete comedian, you need to have all the facets of your game on point. You know, it's like, again, the Jordan reference, you know, there was no weaknesses in my mike can do it all. So I was like, you know, I know I could do the impressions. I'm pretty quick, I'm pretty Savvy, I know. You know, I could talk about relationships and pop culture and whatever, even get a little political, even though I don't think that's my thing. But I wanted to be able to go, yo, you got. I just don't understand how you can be a comedian and not implement that into your skill set, because it's just such a. It's such a strong tool to have to showcase, to show people how quick you are. So I take pride in that, man. I studied, you know, DL Hughley and Joe Tory, who were vicious, vicious when it came time that, you know, chew somebody's ass up. So, you know, I just kind of always wanted that in my repertoire, you know, And I liken a lot of what we do to sports, you know, because I think there are certain similarities. And I always say, I look at it like football. It's like you could be a Hall of Fame championship quarterback a la Brett Favre, a la Peyton Manning, and stay in the pocket, which is your material, or you can Michael Vicket and be able to scramble for the first down, which is going off the dome. And don't get me wrong, you don't have to be able to go off the dome to be a great, you know, hall of Fame championship quarterback. And those guys never Michael Victor, they stayed in the pocket, and they're two of the best. Tom Brady, probably the Goat. But I just felt like, you know, if you're going to be. If you're going to be deadly, why not be twice as deadly instead of being, you know, singularly deadly, you know, so that. That I just wanted to be able to do both.

No, I love that dude. And I've always wanted to ask you this question because, you know, Aries also is never going to hold back, right? And every time I see you, and it never fails. There's always someone who pays their money to go to a comedy show but sits up like they don't want to be there, right? And like, I do. I do public speaking, and I see it a lot, too. Like, you spent your money. Why are you making the comedian work hard? But Aries will call you out, man. Like, why do people, like. Do you understand why people do that, bro?

Listen, I just. When you say, you know, one person. I'm retired from performing in the city of Cleveland because that whole city does that. I did a radio show to promote my performance in Columbus, Ohio, which, out of all the Ohio's. Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus is my favorite. But I didn't know that the radio station I was doing the airwaves, reached out to Cleveland. So I took the dump on that city so bad, I was getting death threats from Clevelanders. People hitting me up in my social media, man, you come back to Cleveland, we gonna pull up. And I said, pull up. Cause I'm done. I'm done with the city of Cleveland. There's something so miserable about that city that Cleveland is America's reckham. It's just a horrible experience. And listen, I'm not even saying you gotta give me anything, because I don't mind earning what I need to get right, but to just sit there with just two things. One, a state of misery and heaviness. And two, you know, listen, man, I think. And I don't think this is just relegated to Cleveland. I think there is. There's a mentality and an attitude that exists within the culture and the community. And people that grow up in the hood, ghetto street. Not saying all of them, but a lot of them come with a mentality where, quite frankly, you're just not open enough, savvy enough, and intelligent enough to get what I'm serving. You know, you playing checkers, I'm playing chess. And some people, mentally, they just don't have. They're not equipped to follow what you're doing. It's above them. And. And again, I'm not trying to make that sound like I'm better than anybody, but I'm better than some people.

Yep.

You know what I'm saying? So between the level of intelligence or lack thereof and. And. And. And the. The misery and the attitude, man, I'm over it. I've been doing this 36 years. I've been down those waters. I'm swam in the waters. That's. That's how I. You know, most of the clubs that I did start starting out in Jersey and New York, you know, whether it's Newark, Long island, you know, Queens was them rough clubs. So I've earned them stripes. Yeah, I'm gonna have to do that if I don't have to.

Yeah, bro. It baffles me to this day. Like, I. I see it all the time. People just sit there. It's like, typically, it's usually a Thursday night sometimes, but mainly Friday night, Saturday night. Like, it's the weekend, right? And you get in a frequency. Aries, Spears, yo. Like, why would you just go in there? Oh, all right.

I'm here.

Like, I. It baffles me to this day, bro.

No, it's. It's crazy. And, you know, if any people from Cleveland See this or hear this. You know, I'm not saying you're not. You're not a good people because I've mentioned great people in Cleveland. But comedically it just is a heaviness, man, where it's like, you know, the difference between some people coming and going, yeah, make me laugh. Because I want to laugh. Versus, yeah, show me what you got me. It's like, come on, man. Come on, man.

Yep. So that's a challenge to my guy, Andrew Ryan, who is actually in Cleveland. You got to do better, bro.

Come on, man. And what's crazy, the part that kills me is the responses are so cliche. They're so unoriginal. What I get is, well, you just ain't funny. Tell better jokes. You just ain't funny. Listen, I've been coming to Cleveland and taking money out of there in terms of working there for almost 20 years. Why do you think that is? Because I'm not funny. I do five sold out shows, add three more and they sell out. Why do you think that is? Because I'm not funny. I go there and I make 50k for the weekend. Why do you think that is? Because I'm not funny.

Right.

That is the most unoriginal shit I've heard. It's almost like when you get. When people insult you, they either turn into women or children. You know, they either say, you know, like a child would say to another child, well, no, you're a poopy head. Or like a woman who goes, After 10 years of being in a relationship, now, I'm telling you, I don't want to be with you no more. Oh, that's why you got a little dick and you can't fuck. He was with me for 10 years. Make that make sense. And listen, if I perform all over the country, let's say I'm just throwing a number out there. I do 20 cities and in 19 of them, same material, same amount of energy and passion, and I'm killing 19 out of the 20. And Cleveland is city number 20. You mean to tell me I'm going to let you guys be the testament to my great.