Celebrity Travel: Go away with Yassir Lester

When Yassir Lester isn’t working on the Showtime series “Black Monday” or the animated Fox series “Duncanville,” you can hear him on the comedy podcast, “My Brother’s Sneaker,” which he co-hosts with his brother, Isaiah Lester. “We came up with the idea by saying, ‘What if we talked about sneakers, but weren’t losers about it and were actually funny, unlike the other sneaker podcasts?’” said Lester, who lives in Los Angeles. Fans can stay in touch with him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/yassir_lester) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/yassir_lester/).

Q: Where was your first stand-up performance?

A: I did my first open mic in the Atlanta area when I was 19, so this must have been 2003. It was at a comedy club that was inside of a go-kart racetrack. I’ll let you guess how it went.

Q: Do you remember your best on-the-road show and the worst?

A: Here’s the thing, I don’t necessarily remember the best shows, because the bombs always hit so much harder. I can recall a good meal, but I remember a bad one. Does that make sense? So there’s plenty of fun shows, but my worst one was in a place called Mesquite, Nevada. A woman ran up to the stage to give me the middle finger during my set and said, “You f------ suck!” That, and in Long Beach one time a dude heckled me just by saying, “Look at you with all that acne on ya face!” Crowd loved it and I was devastated.

Q: What have you been doing during this pandemic during down time?

A: Walks. Some short road trips with my girlfriend Chelsea Devantez, (who’s the) head writer for Jon Stewart’s new Apple+ show, and our dog. I’ve been drawing a lot again and teaching myself to paint with the help of the phenomenal artists M.K. Komins, Michon Sanders and Taravat Talepasand.

Q: Many actors and musicians have told me that they will never ever complain about having to travel for work.

A: What? Who said that? That’s insane. I mean, it’s for sure an inconvenience. Yes, hopping on a plane is mad easier. But also, there’s something to be said about the world making us stop and slow down and maybe there doesn’t need to be 6,000 planes in the air constantly. If anything, I went the opposite way about work and realized maybe I was focused on it too much. I know I am in a very blessed position, so this isn’t me being ungrateful. I think that as a culture, America values work too much.

Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?

A: I like Big Bear Lake and Palm Springs, California, a lot. I like spots where there’s no expectation of doing anything and you can truly relax. The inverse of that is New York. It is just always fun. Living there or passing through, you don’t have to make plans, something will find you. Like crime.

Q: If you could only pick one place to eat, would you choose a casual meal or fine dining at a nice restaurant?

A: Casual Meal. Fine dining nine times out of 10 is a scam. People who aren’t rich know what good food actually should taste like, because they value a dollar more and don’t want to waste it on some nasty charred rhubarb steak yogurt or whatever. Rich people are mostly eating out of exclusivity, not flavor. They are idiots.

Q: Do you speak any foreign languages?

A: I only speak fictional languages – that crap from “Game of Thrones” (or) the nerd language from “The Lord of the Rings.”

Q: What are your favorite cities?

A: New York, Washington, D.C., Palm Springs, Columbus, Big Bear Lake and Atlanta, ‘cause I’m from outside there – a city called Marietta.

Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?

A: Dave & Buster’s. Or Japan.

Q: What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?

A: I look at the “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" website to see if there are any good places in the new location. That’s about it.

Q: What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?

A: I went to Las Vegas once and the moment I got there I realized autopay had hit my account and I had no money. We need to raise the minimum wage in this country.

========

(Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author and travel writer. You can respond to this column by visiting her website at www.jaehakim.com. You may also follow “Go Away With…” on Twitter at @GoAwayWithJae where Jae-Ha Kim welcomes your questions and comments.)