Name Jonathan Yevin | ||
Jonathan Yevin (born May 8, 1978) is an American humor and travel writer. Yevin is known as the youngest ever staff writer at Spy Magazine, where he worked from 1995 until it folded in 1998. He is also widely recognized as a pioneer of "no-baggage" travel, having embarked on many voyages around the world with only a passport, money, phone and toothbrush.
At Spy Magazine, Yevin made his mark with high concept pranks that were hailed as refreshingly original. The Village Voice's James Ledbetter applauded a 1996 stunt in which Yevin, posing as an octogenarian widow named Mildred Goldstein, offered a cross section of Christian universities $20 million contingent upon their incorporation of her surname into the name of the school.
Biography
Yevin was born in the Bronx, New York City. His father was a high school history teacher in the South Bronx. Recognizing that Yevin was extraordinarily gifted, his parents pushed him to apply for the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a public magnet high school in Hackensack, New Jersey. To compensate for his lack of a stimulating curriculum, Yevin began publishing an underground zine called The Fine Print. Taking advantage of an apprenticeship program, he then applied as an editorial intern at Spy Magazine. Soon he was submitting articles to Spy as well as other magazines, such as Scholastic. Yevin's first article was a feature entitled "Straight Outta Wall Street," detailing the various ways gangster rappers invest their money.
Yevin graduated from the Gallatin program at New York University.
He also joined the Men's Fitness, Drill, Cracked, Stuff, and Penthouse magazine mastheads as a contributing writer.
In one infamous stunt for Frommer's Budget Travel, Yevin traveled from Ecuador to Mexico with no luggage. Yevin has since made a habit of luggageless travel, with follow-up trips in Europe, Africa, and Asia. "The secret of no-luggage travel is that it’s the easiest thing in the world," said Yevin in an interview. "Just do it."
In another piece for Cracked, Yevin tried to collect a $100/head referral fee from the U.S. Army by mass enlisting civil war reenactors, which Chris Mohney of Gawker called "pretty inspired."
During this time Yevin also worked in film production, as an Assistant Director in such projects as the Bob Balaban feature Bernard and Doris and the Travel Channel's food special Dahlicious.
Yevin lived in Africa from 2001-2003. Initially he worked for the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), and later on, several Tanzanian safari companies. Eventually he was signed to play basketball for the Stonetown Yankees club team in Zanzibar, leading them to the Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa championship tournament. Later, he played basketball for El Zamalek club team in Cairo, until the coaches found out he was Jewish, accused him of being an Israeli spy, and chased him out of the country.
In 2004, he was employed as a ringside photographer for boxing promoters Don King and Tony Brown.
In 2004-2005 Yevin lived in Sao Paulo, Brasil, where he was signed to Elite agency as a fashion model. He has modeled for designers Coogi and Kenneth Cole, as well as photographer Youssef Nabil.
Yevin currently runs Modern Urban Design, a New York City-based rooftop gardening and landscape design company.