The stand-up comedian Amanda Seales keeps busy. She’s a series regular on “Insecure,” her HBO comedy special “I Be Knowin’” came out in January, and she is now the host of NBC’s new comedy competition show, “Bring the Funny,” which premiered in July.
Success over the last couple of years has changed the way Ms. Seales travels. She’s often on the road doing stand-up and her traveling comedy show, “Smart, Funny and Black,” but now she’s doing it in style.
“I’m really fortunate, because at this point in my career I’ve already done the grind and grit of it all. Now I fly first, and I get to be in rooms that don’t feel like sex trafficking happened in them, and I don’t have to think twice about drinking the hotel room water even though it costs $37.”
She’s still getting used to it, though.
“On Delta First Class, they always give you a little first-class bag kind of thing and I’m a hoarder of those,” she said. “I have so many of those little bags! I think that’s basically the best sign to let you know I’m still new money and this is still a luxury for me.”
Here’s what she can’t travel without.
Surgical mask
“I started wearing a black charcoal mask on the plane because I started getting sick all the time from the circulated air, and now I feel like I’m a ninja when I’m in the air. It also makes people feel like they can’t talk to you, so that’s fantastic.”
Clothes for gigs
“I do standup and at one point I just decided, I’m not going to be trying to figure out what I’m wearing anymore. I’m going wear shirts from my own merch line and fun leggings, and that’s how I’m going do it. Because I hate packing, it wears me out. Anybody who follows me on Instagram knows that I hate packing almost as much as I hate racism.”
Clothes for travel
“When I am traveling, I am the tracksuit queen. Nobody can mess with my tracksuit game. Don’t even try. If you’re reading this, stop, don’t even think about it, you’re wasting your time. At this point, people have come to understand, if you’re looking for fly tracksuits, look no further: Amanda Seales, she’s the one.”
Hotel shoes
“I was never a germaphobe until I had to be in hotel rooms so excessively. Then it was like, I’m not going become a germaphobe but I’m going to become germaphobe-ish. The first thing I do is take the bag from the ice bucket and I use it as the cover for the remote control. And then I always bring flip flops for the shower and slippers for the room.”
Scarves and candles
“I never used to care about this, but once you’re in hotel rooms a lot, you just start caring about ambience. So, I try to bring some candles or some scarves, especially if I’m going to be somewhere for a week. I stayed in a room recently that felt like if an office had dorms. I was like, why is there a conference table in my room? I was sleeping in the belly of the Koch brothers. And I tried to spruce it up and put my Hermès scarves all around, and add some light, add some color over a lamp, but eventually I was like, this one is too deep in the depths of hell.”
Vibrator
“It was uncovered at T.S.A. one time and I just had to decide to double down. I looked on the monitor and I saw they had flagged it. And I was like, ‘I see what’s about to happen here and it’s not going to happen to me. They’re either going to embarrass me, or I’m going to embarrass them.’ So I said, ‘I don’t know if you want to go in that pocket, because there’s a vibrator in that pocket. You got gloves?’ And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and he looked at me, and he gave me my bag and that was that. Flip the awkward, always flip the awkward if you can.”
Lipstick and heels
“I only have two modes at this time, and it’s either glam or ‘former women’s basketball coach.’ When I put on a red lip, I feel glam in anything. And I like to have at least one heel with me at all times. Because you just never know. And sometimes you may just need to level the track suit up by wearing it with a heel, and then you just screwed up everybody’s concept of what fashion is.”
