Aries Spears

Ask comedian Aries Spears about the difference between white and black people, and he’ll go on for hours. He explains in stand-up routines that Caucasians are far more concerned about anthrax (“Black people aren’t worried about anthrax. Half the time we don’t open our mail.”), and they keep drinking when the cops show up (“Black people avoid the cops…y’all see the cops and get braver.”). Spears’s racial jokes sometimes border on the offensive (for instance, he’s kinda happy that Arabs took some of the heat off blacks after 9/11), but he’s funny enough to get away with it. You might recognize his spot-on impressions of rappers like LL Cool J and DMX from a couple of heavily circulated YouTube clips, and also from MAD TV, where his impressions and character acting won him his break in 1997. Request the LL rap about melting ice cream on himself (it’ll sound just like him) at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Houston Improv, 7620 Katy Freeway. For tickets and information, call 713-333-8800 or visit www.improv2.com. $15 to $17.
Thu., Nov. 22, 8 p.m.; Nov. 23-24, 8 & 10:30 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 25, 7:30 p.m., 2007