Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
Best known for “MADtv,” Aries Spears is one of the best celebrity impersonators alive.
This weekend, the standup comic cracks up the D.C. Improv from Thursday to Sunday.
“I’ve been doing [the DC Improv] for the last five years and it’s probably one of my Top 5 favorite spots to do,” Spears told WTOP. “Everything comes together so perfectly in that area: the nightlife is great, the hotel is amazing, the intimacy of the club is great, the history, the audience attendance record, the energy, the pay, everything is just perfect.”
Expect a high-energy show with plenty of audience interaction.
“My style of comedy is uncut cocaine — let’s get it,” Spears said. “I’m a buffet of comedy, man, so there’s a little bit of everything. … I’ve got some things cooking and brewing. Some of it is obviously done by request, so it depends on what the audience gives me.”
Born in Chicago in 1975, Spears moved with his family to New Jersey at age 11, listening to all the great standup comedians of the era and wondering if he could do the same.
“Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, all those guys,” Spears said.
He started doing his own stand-up comedy shows around New York City at age 14.
“I did ‘Def Jam’ when I was like 16 … so that was my first big break,” Spears said.
After HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam,” he moved out to Los Angeles in 1992, becoming a regular standup comedian at places like The Comedy Store, The Improv and The Laugh Factory.
“It was impressions, but as I kept going … and putting in more time and work, I didn’t want to become just a one-trick pony,” Spears said. “I really studied comedy in all its different aspects. To become a more well-rounded comic, you have to touch on everything.”
His first scripted TV role was in the sitcom “A Different World.”
“When you get on set and you see people like Kym Whitley, Kadeem Hardison and all those guys, it’s kind of a surreal moment,” Spears said.
He also appeared as Rod Tidwell’s friend in the blockbuster film “Jerry Maguire” (1996).
“That was a $50 million movie, so it was great,” Spears said. “They didn’t show me the money, but they showed me the experience. … My part wasn’t that big, so I hung out in my trailer, hung around on set and just got going when the camera said action.”
In 1997, he joined the cast of “MADtv for its third season and remained until the end of its 10th season in 2005, making him the second-longest-running cast member in show history.
“[My favorite sketches were] Bobby [Brown] and Whitney [Houston], any time we would do Shaq,” Spears said. “I was more a fan of a lot of everybody else’s stuff: Debra Wilson, Mo Collins, Will Sasso, Michael McDonald. It was just like a real fun fraternity.”
In recent years, he’s gone viral for his spot-on celebrity impressions.
“Everybody has their favorites, it just varies,” Spears said. “People yell out Denzel [Washington], Charles Barkley, Shaq, Paul Mooney, so everybody’s kind of got their favorite one. My favorite to do right now because it’s so new is Dennis Rodman and Tony Soprano. … Any time you do somebody new, it’s like a new toy on Christmas.”
Check out my favorite Aries Spears impersonations below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9IVGaeMGA
