Aries Spears
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Away from this business, 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 kills you, man. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
When he did that, he pointed that out. I almost wanted to wake my girl up and be like, listen to this right here. You need to appreciate it. It's such a And it's weird because it's like the people that you wish would show you love and adulation and praise are the people that don't, meaning your family.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And the people that love you and praise you sometimes more than family, often more than family, are strangers. So it's crazy that the appreciation that you seek from your loved ones, your kinfolk, they almost take you for granted and don't see you as that because they know you went before that. But the people that really appreciate you are the people that aren't associated to you by blood.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And, um... When he said that, it was like, man, you need that because away from this business, 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 kills you, man. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Yeah, I mean, you know, being the sole breadwinner, being the main source of everybody financially, being responsible for people, not being able to say no when you know you should, feeling like you're being taken advantage of, you're underappreciated, um... dealing with the politics of show business, the racism of show business.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
You know, they like to coin this term in Hollywood amongst black entertainers. Like there's Hollywood and then there's black Hollywood. But the truth is sometimes black Hollywood do you dirtier than white Hollywood. Black Hollywood don't support you sometimes the way they should like white Hollywood. And they smart enough getting white Hollywood to treat you right.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Find out that your own do you worth, aren't it supported? That's what I'm telling you, man. It's a game. It's an evil game, man. But you stay in it because one thing can change your life around forever. Whether it's a viral video, a commercial, a TV series, a movie, you are always one thing away from making $2 million an episode. When you know those are the kind of numbers you're playing with,
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Yeah, he take the abuse. Chris Rock said it best. He was like, Hollywood is like an uncle that molested you but put you through college.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I think that might have been true at one time. I think the guy that kind of, if you can even, you know, if you want to brand, you know, brand somebody with a title, which I guess in some degree is pretty useless, because it's all subjective. But if you were to brand somebody with that title, I would give that to Jay Pharoah.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
He does so many, and it seems like he's constantly coming up with new ones. So I would give that to Jay Pharoah. My only thing is this. I just never wanted to be known for just that. Correct. And I'm not pointing the finger at anybody, but I think there are guys in this game who do great impressions, phenomenal, but aren't the best comedians.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And then there are guys who are phenomenal comedians who do impressions, but the impressions, eh, they aight. I always wanted to be like Eddie Murphy and be able to marry the two perfectly. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, for me, doing impressions is like being in the NBA as a basketball player and dunker. I can dunk anytime I want. I want you to know that I can play defense.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I can grab boards. I can pass. I got high basketball IQ. So to me, the first important part is the stand-up, is the material, is the wit, is the shot look, is the quickness, the improv. The impressions part is easy.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
No doubt. But that's what I'm saying. Like, when I say I study Eddie Murphy, like, that to me is what makes him... Like, Richard Pryor is, like, the Babe Ruth. You know what I mean? Like, he... But Eddie Murphy, like, you know... I don't want to give Pryor Babe Rube. It's almost like Eddie Murphy is Michael Jordan and Richard Pryor is Bill Russell. You know what I'm saying?
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
He got more chips, but in terms of totality. And that's why when I get into goat arguments with people, people go, well, if it's about rings, Bill Russell, he got 11. If it's about rings, Robert Ory, he got seven. No, it's about totality. You talk about goat gumbo, the recipe to goat gumbo is more than rings. It's everything.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
It encompasses rings, popularity, impact on the game, stats, you know, it's athleticism. It's all of it. And Eddie, to me, had all of it. You know, he killed on every level, TV, SNL. Stand-up, hilarious to Raw, even though I wish he had more stand-ups. Movies, of course, the billions of dollars he made, paramount. You know, yeah, Eddie's just complete, man.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I think it's going to go back to what it once was. Because of political correctness and wokeness and the whole moisture movement, the comedy cocaine got diluted. You know what I mean? A lot of baking soda stepped on. And a lot of people scared to take risks because of cancer culture. I've never...
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
cut my comedy coke pay i've always kept it 100 bolivia yayo you know what i mean and and part of that is because one i never feared cancer culture because i think hollywood kind of closed its doors to me and wrote me off a long time ago so how can you cancel what hollywood to a degree has already canceled um and the only thing i can do from this point
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
is figure out how to become the rose in the concrete and rise up. Yeah, they've shut their doors to me. But whether I get around it, get over it, get under it, I might not be able to get through it. But there is a way.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And so, you know, and maybe to some degree, while I might not like that to be the case, I'm kind of glad it is the case because I don't know that I would have been happy with myself if I would have sold out or diluted my product for the sake of trying to appease people, appease feelings. You know, there's nothing better than having that laugh if you feel like you're not supposed to have it.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
that sticker that you feel you got to hide. Because you know what's funny. We know what's innately funny, instinctively funny. And to somehow shield yourself from that, because society has told you that's wrong, when you're in a place where its sole purpose is for that.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
That's like, I don't go to strip clubs where I see girls with face sheets on. Like, what are we doing here? You either show me your titty or you don't. Right. I mean, I want to see the areola. I want to see the size and the thickness and the length of the nipple. I want to see it all. That's why we in a strip club. Right. Paint these on my jokes.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Well, you know, it has yet to be written. So I don't know that I fully know. But based on what they say now, you know, I'd like to believe that that gets better. You know, like I'll almost cringe a little bit when people say, call me GOAT. You know, yo, man, you wanted to go.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
So you use the word legend because that to me is Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Red Fox, the dudes who are on the Mount Olympus looking down on us. You know, and I don't think my body of work has been strong enough or extensive enough to warrant that title. Now, if that's how you feel and that you want to give me that. OK, but I would never give myself that.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
You know, sometimes when the ego needs to be fed, you know, y'all do a better job of feeding me than the people who are supposed to.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Appreciate it, brother.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
uh you know got the podcast spears and steinberg uh which you know got like 600 some episodes and this is very important i tell people listen man start from the beginning i know it's a lot but binge it it's worth it it's like masturbation and potato chips once you start to pay stop
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And plus, if you do it that way, you get to follow the evolution of the show from how we started to where we end up, the characters that you'll get to fall in love with, the callbacks, the jokes. And we didn't get on YouTube until two years after we had started. So all the first couple hundred episodes aren't even available on YouTube.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
So I stress to people to really listen to it on the streaming platforms, then watch it. But if you do go watch it, it's on YouTube. It's Spearsburg Pod. Please hit like and subscribe. Or you can slide into my Instagram and my DMs, and I'll send you the links. Chop it up with you. Spears and Steinberg is the name of the podcast.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Well, I think a huge testament to that is, you know, my crowd work. You know, I almost liken it to being a quarterback on a football team. You know, yeah, you got your playbook, a la your material, but every now and then you got to be able to call a quarterback, you know what I mean, recognize the blitz and call an audible. You know what I'm saying?
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Agape is one of my soldiers in comedy, man. That's another brother that I know that because of his stance on race, and his honesty about racism and white America, much like me, and he doesn't hold his tongue, he is not where he should be. He is undervalued and underappreciated. But I'm doing everything in my power with this movie I'm trying to get together to change that.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Because a lot of people, when they saw me and him do that on the podcast, so many people in the comments were like, man, You and God need to do something together. Man, y'all two, I would love to see y'all two. Y'all chemistry, y'all funny. So, you know, we hear a lot of times brothers talk about it, but very seldom do they be about it.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
So I'm trying to be about it and get this movie off the ground, which will showcase me and him doing what we do.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And that to me is like being able to do crowd work. So I like the spontaneity of it. it always makes the crowd feel like they're involved. And it's just, for me, it's a much, it's a much more fun time.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, anybody didn't know me and, Listen to my podcast and follow me on social media and 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 there and victory. And I want to, you know, I want to be the man.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Thank you, brother. Thank you. And, you know, that was something very early in my beginnings that I was intimidated by. Because, you know, you're basically on a wire with no safety net. Yeah. And not everybody can 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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
You know, it's like, again, the Jordan reference. You know, there was no weaknesses in Mike. Mike can do it all. So I was like, you know, I know I can 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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
But I wanted to be able to go, yo, 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 strong tool to have. to showcase, to show people how quick you are. Um, so I, I, I, I, I take pride in that.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And then I studied, you know, DL, Julian, Joe Torrey, who were too vicious, vicious when it, when it came time to, you know, chew somebody's ass up. So, you know, I, I just kind of always wanted that in my repertoire, you know, and, uh, I like it 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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
It's like you can 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 Vick it 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 quarterback.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
you know hall of fame championship quarterback and those guys uh uh never michael victor they stayed in the pocket and they're two of the best uh tom brady probably didn't go but i just felt like you know if you're gonna be if you're gonna be deadly why not be twice as deadly instead of being you know singularly deadly you know so then i just wanted to be able to do both
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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. And I did a radio show to promote my... my performance in Columbus, Ohio, which out of all the Ohio's, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus is my favorite.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
But I didn't know that the radio station I was doing, the airwaves reached down 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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Cleveland is America's rectum. It's just a horrible experience. And listen, I'm not even saying you got to 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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I think there's a mentality and an attitude that exists within the culture and the community. And people that grow up in the hood,
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
ghetto street um 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 people mentally they just don't they're not equipped to follow what you're doing it's above them and i'll get i'm not trying to make that sound like i'm better than anybody but
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
in some people. You know what I'm saying? Between the level of intelligence or lack thereof and the misery and the attitude, man, I'm over it. I've been doing this 36 years. I've been down those waters. I've swam in them waters. Most of the clubs that I did starting out in Jersey and New York, whether it was Newark Long Island, you know, Queens was them rough clubs. So I've earned them stripes.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I don't want to have to do that if I don't have to.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
No, 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 a good people because I've met some 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, man.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
It's like, come on, man. Come on, man.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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 $50,000 for the weekend. Why do you think that is? Because I'm not funny? That is the most unoriginal shit I've heard. It's almost like when people insult you, they either turn into women or children.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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. Math ain't mathing.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
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 greatness when you've been outruled by 19 other cities? Nah, it ain't me. It's you.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Get your shit together.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Well, you know, I grew up in the 80s, baby. You know, I'm built 80s tough. You know, and I came up at that time where, you know, prior to Eddie Murphy, you know, I was born in 75. So, like, you know, I always said Hollywood only really allowed one funny black man per decade. You had Dick Gregory in the 60s. Richard Pryor dominated the 70s. Eddie Murphy, the 80s.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And then by the 90s, you had the explosion of Def Jam, which introduced mainstream America to more than just one funny Black person. But for the 80s, Eddie Murphy was by God. So... You know, it was appointment television every Saturday at 1130 for me and my father to watch Eddie Murphy. And then when I saw 48 Hours and Trading Places, I was hooked. I said, that's what I want to do.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And then, you know, I eventually found out, you know, he and I, she had the same birthday, April 3rd. We both Zodiac size Aries. I just took all that as motivation to really want to do this. You know what I mean? And I knew I wasn't. I wasn't equipped to do anything else. I knew school at an early age.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Other than basic arithmetic and reading and writing, most of that is bullshit that's useless in life. And I knew that early. So I was like, you know what? I'm passionate about comedy. I enjoy making my peers and my family laugh. And, you know, I just, you know, when I went on stage for the first time at 14, 15, I just, you know, granted, was it nearly a season as I am now? Can't be.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
Oh, no, man. Thank you for being somewhat forgiving because I was I know we're supposed to start this at two o'clock, but I was actually coming from doing another podcast by comedian Harlan Williams. So that L.A. traffic is a monster. So I just got a little bit of that traffic. But, you know, I'm here now. So thank you.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
But to be that young and have that kind of an impact, I just kind of felt like, you know what, something special is happening here. So I just, that was the dream and I pursued it. And I got to, you know, I got to take my hat off to my mother. Because if it wasn't for her, you know, she really instilled the confidence in me to do it. Because my mother's a jazz and blues singer.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
And, you know, she used to sing open with the jazz great Lionel Hampton. And she once performed at the White House for Reagan. So she was always like my Catherine Jackson, my Michael. And she just really pushed me and believed in me and instilled that confidence in me. And I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
No, no, no, because I you know,
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
uh coming up i couldn't hang out with the other comedians because you know i'm a teenager you know they're grown they're you know they we they and establishments that serve alcohol so i i was never allowed to be a part of that my mother would bring me in i you know whatever green room they had for me to wait in i would wait in do my set and then after that head back to the crib no hanging out no nothing because you know basically
Mick Unplugged
Aries Spears Talks Cancel Culture, Comedy Evolution, and Staying True to Himself
I was the Spider-Man of the comedians. You know what I mean? I had Spool the next day. You know what I'm saying? So while Thor and Captain America and, you know, Hulk and Iron Man is out partying, I had algebra tomorrow. So, you know, I was Peter Parker.