Aries Spears brings side-splittingly accurate impressions to the Improv this weekend

You know that thing where you love someone’s art but you hate their politics? Let’s call it “Wagner Was a Nazi” syndrome. America has suffered through an advanced case of it lately, to wit: all those Annie Hall DVDs in the trash when we learned about Woody Allen’s idea of baby-sitting, or the parade of 60 women it took to finally convince us that when it comes to dating, Bill Cosby is a sandbagging sonofabitch. And Twitter is Ground Zero for celebs to show their asses, which is why sometimes avoiding your favorites’ feeds is a good idea.

Aries Spears’ stand-up has had us cry-laughing more than once – his impressions of Shaq and Charles Barkley are viciously, flawlessly hilarious – but we were bummed in December when he tweeted: “I don’t care how incredible a female mc is the best female mc could only hold her own wita a subpar male mc! Rap like sports is a man thing!”

UGH. Get with the now, Spears. We’re not giving up on him yet, though, and until he finally gets that HBO comedy special, his live dates are the best way to bask in the Shaq.

8 p.m. Thursday, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 and 10:15 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 3-6 | Orlando Improv, 9101 International Drive | 407-480-5233 | theimprovorlando.com | $25

This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2016.