Aparna Nancherla Has a Major Book-Buying Problem While Traveling
The comedian and actor comes to terms with being an overpacker while sharing her biggest travel tips.
We’ve long been a fan of Nancherla and her signature blend of dry, deadpan, whip-smart humor. Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve almost certainly loved her work (in particular her voice): She’s been in everything from BoJack Horseman and A Simple Favor to Corporate and The Great North. Most recently, she appeared in Netflix’s Unfrosted and ABC’s Abbott Elementary.
I grew up really enjoying travel. My parents were both doctors and they would go to lots of medical conferences in all kinds of cities. They brought me along and I remember really enjoying those trips. We went to Hawaii once, and I saw my first wholphin, which is the child of a whale and a dolphin, and that really stuck with me. I also remember going to LA with my dad for the first time, and the OJ Simpson white Bronco car chase happened during our trip. I just remember being in our hotel room that evening and being like, “Hey, we were on that highway today.” Not that I understood the implications of what was happening at that age, but now I'm kind of like, whoa, that was weird.
As a kid, I had a very exotic vision of travel, and as I've gotten older and had to travel more for work for comedy, I’ve still retained some of that vacation mentality where it's sometimes hard for me to remember, oh, you're still working when you're in a different city. You still have to answer emails.
My first trip to Paris was very exciting. It was just a very, very classic Paris experience of just walking around the streets. It was in August and I was going window shopping, and I just remember all these stores having notes in their doors that they were gone for August. “Be back next month.” I was just like, oh my gosh, I've been living my whole life wrong. My French friends know how to live: I'm not working for a month. Deal with it.
I went to Rome for the first time for a small cameo in a movie in April, and that felt very surreal. I got to be there for a week, but I only had to work for two days. I went to the Colosseum, I went to the Vatican. It felt very touristy, but I was there for work, so I think that felt very fortuitous. I was checking into the hotel with one of the other actresses I was there with, and I think the concierge thought we were a couple. When they realized we weren't, they kind of were nicer to my friend, and then I think because they were embarrassed that they had messed it up and they kind of tried to just get rid of me as quickly as possible. I was like, okay, this is not what I would've hoped for, but fine.
Rapid fire
Window, middle, or aisle seat?
I've historically been a window seat person. I like being able to kind of nestle into the row and having that wall that you can nap against. I like being able to supervise the view for the rest of the row. Now, because of aging and my weakening bladder, I think I have to maybe eventually accept that I'm going to have to be an aisle person because I just am too conflict-averse to have to keep asking someone to get up so I can go to the bathroom.
Pack light or overpack?
I am so much an overpacker. Even just going about my day, I'm bringing things that just do not make sense. I think if I had a “go bag,” it would be like a three-piece set of suitcases. I was just gone for two weeks and I brought maybe seven or eight outfits, but I would say I probably wore four of them on rotation.
The thing about being an overpacker is when you do suddenly need one of those random objects, like your old journal, you're like, see, this is why I was smart and this is why I needed this in this moment.
Favorite way to pass time on a plane
I always hope that I can get some work done, and the few times I have, I am like, can I get some sort of credit for this? I feel like I should earn miles for this or something. I used to be someone who could sleep on flights, but I seem to not have that ability as much these days, so I end up watching something or reading most of the time.
Biggest travel fear
Something going wrong with the plane and obviously crashing is the end point of that fear, but then I think really bad turbulence almost feels worse to me. You don't know whether it means you're going to crash or it's just going to be scary for some unforeseeable amount of time. I did read this story once about this plane that, I don't know, entered some kind of weird air pocket and it plummeted 60 feet without anyone realizing, and then everyone hit the ceiling really hard, and I always think about that. I'm sorry if I just introduced that fear to a reader.
Favorite travel snack
Some sort of trail mix where you're getting different bits in one bag where it's not all one thing, like a pretzel mix or some sort of mixed nut situation. I think I need that small jolt of novelty.
Go-to drink order on a plane
Lately it's been seltzer. I think it's like I'm trying to hydrate more, but at the same time I need excitement. And seltzer feels like it maybe meets those needs in a very minimalistic way.
Must-have travel essentials
I'm a big reader and I don't think I'll ever get an e-reader or tablet. It would be way more efficient for traveling, but there’s something about a paper-bound book I just can't wean myself off of. I was just on a two-week trip and I brought five books and then I somehow got another five while I was traveling. I can't not buy books. Two of them I bought in the Edmonton Airport, which makes no sense. The airport has a program where you can return a book for credit and the lady was selling me on it and I was like, oh, sure, sure. I'll be dropping by Edmonton again to return these two books.
I read this book called Liars by Sarah Manguso that's really quite brutal. It's a book about a marriage falling apart. It's an autopsy of a relationship in such close detail that you're just kind of white knuckling through all of it.
I tend to run cold, so I'm always afraid I'm going to suddenly be freezing for a flight, so I always bring a flannel or a hoodie, something you can feel cozy in. I still feel like they haven't figured out the in-flight blankets. I don't know why the technology has not improved, but they're still just essentially felt rectangles.
I have some flannels from Outerknown that are very cozy, but generally whatever. I wear them around the house a lot, and when I travel I like to find ways to remind myself of home. I am a homebody at heart.
I'm trying to get better at drinking more water. Sometimes it feels like I just am virtue signaling that I seem like I drink a lot of water because I don't think I am actually drinking more water. But it does feel like it's better to have more water available than to kind of be at the mercy of the beverage cart coming around.
If you’re having a coughing fit on board a plane, especially post-pandemic. I just feel like everyone suddenly is like, “Why are you on this flight? We let you on here?” I get a lot of throat tickles now. I have some acid reflux and water doesn't help, so cough drops really are my last hope.
It always feels pretentious to say, but I am really sensitive to noise and I feel like at airports and airplanes, there's just so much unpredictable noise around you that sometimes I won't even have anything playing. I'll just put them on to create another layer between me and the world. Lately I have been addicted to a British murder mystery audiobook, so I think something about a British narrator talking about some kind of quaint death is somehow comforting to me.
I used to have a pair of Bose headphones and then those were on their last legs. I bought a new brand going down one of those internet worm holes where I was just looking for some more eco-friendly headphones and I ended up on some back alley website. The ones I have now don't even have a logo on them.