In February 2020, Bridger Winegar decided to tease his forthcoming podcast on Instagram with what he thought was an innocent enough caption: “On March 12th, all hell breaks loose.” His podcast launch, as he soon learned, would not rank among that week’s more significant events.
“Everyone else is acknowledging that the world is essentially over, and I’m online doing self-promotion,” says Winegar. “It was such a strange thing, but it kind of helped that the first 16 episodes were already recorded and not just me and a guest talking [about] what was still left on the store shelves.”
His podcast, I Said No Gifts, has a simple enough conceit. Despite the title, each guest is compelled to bring Winegar some token to be opened and discussed. In an ideal scenario, the object says something about the guest. Quite often, it’s “something that somebody grabbed on their way out of the house or found in their car.” The quality of the present ultimately does not matter, thanks to Winegar’s day job as a comedy writer and his skill for booking equally funny guests.
Winegar has worked on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Single Parents, Black Monday and The After Party, among many other series. But over the last five years of his career, the podcast has been the biggest constant. “I’ve had a lot of jobs,” says Winegar. “So to have this be the stable thing in my life is very… odd.”
On the eve of releasing his 300th episode, which dropped June 4 and features his former Kimmy Schmidt colleague Ellie Kemper, Winegar spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about courting recording icon Aimee Mann to write and perform his theme song, the thrill of indoor skydiving and how his show accidentally made him a bit of a hoarder.
What percentage of gifts would you say you still have after 300 episodes?
I would say 97 percent, which is horrible. When I started, you can imagine my mindset: “I’m going to ask successful comedy writers and actors on the show. They have bank accounts. Certainly, they’ll be bringing me nice things that will improve my life.” That’s probably 4 percent of what I’ve gotten. The rest of them are just objects that are in my garage or at the studio, where it works for set dec. But, truly, there are probably 10 items that I’ve integrated into my life. When I do a live show, I’ll take some and give them away to audience members, but the rest are just taking up space.
What’s the most expensive thing you think you’ve got?
This is not an expensive thing; I got a gift card for indoor skydiving. Listeners are always now sending me videos of the art of indoor skydiving. It’s beautiful… people doing ballet in a tube. So there’s that, and I got a very nice waffle maker. D’Arcy Carden brought all of these very extremely expensive skincare products that probably ended up being worth hundreds of dollars, but they had been gifted to her. So I haven’t gotten a boat yet.
Would you endorse indoor skydiving?
Absolutely.
What about the worst gifts?
Jamie Lee gave me a chewed up dog toy, which did have a bit of a story to talk about. But that was garbage. To this day, it’s one thing I’ve just thrown away immediately. Then her assistant was like, “Here’s our phone number, give us a call. She wants it back.” I DM Jamie after, like, “Do you want this back?” She’s like, “No. What? Why would I want that back?” We also did a live show in New York and Bowen Yang brought a 30-pound bag of birdseed. That stayed in New York.
How would you define a bad guest?
I’ve started being able to sense somebody who is on purely for promotional purposes, somebody who may not even be aware. Their publicist has obviously reached out to a bunch of places and then, the morning of, they’re like, “Oh, you’re on this thing.” They show up not knowing what the podcast is at all and bring some gift that is related to something they’re promoting.
There is nothing more boring than someone who won’t veer off message. And I’ve found that it actually does the opposite of what’s intended. Readers immediately click away. You have to Trojan Horse promotion.
The reason people listen to podcasts is to hear weird things about people’s lives. It’s like you get to peek in. So then it’s about a thing, a movie or whatever that somebody hasn’t even seen yet. That’s tough. The thing I’ve learned is that it seems like every huge star, every big person who’s ever been on the podcast, has not only been an immediate yes — but when they come on, they’re game for the entire thing. Oh, I can see why you’ve been able to make it so far. You’re easy to work with. You’re enthusiastic. You’re not just funny, you’re good at working with people and willing to play along.
Do you have any white whales?
Yes, Martha Stewart. I would love to have Amy Sedaris on, but she’s in New York and she doesn’t do a lot of podcasts.
Your podcast is produced by Exactly Right Media, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark’s network and studio that skews heavily towards true crime because of My Favorite Murder. Do you know what the overlap is with your audience? Have you courted the true crime fans?
The majority of them want nothing to do with my podcast. There’s a group of My Favorite Murder listeners who are, I think, largely for the comedy side of it. They love true crime, but they also love comedy. That small group likes the podcast. But I think a lot of their listeners, initially, were actively annoyed with my podcast. They would hear ads for it and they were like, “Why are they making this?” (Laughs.)
If you were a podcast bro, what problematic political figure would you platform?
If I’m a Joe Rogan?
Yes.
What a horrible question. Do you know who I would just love to confront? Bari Weiss. Dumbass of the year. Whatever’s going on there is so crazy to me.
Aimee Mann wrote and performed the theme song to I Said No Gifts, which is frankly the reason I started listening in the first place. She’s a legend. Did you have to pay her?
No. She’s a saint. Actually, I bet there was something legal, just because of the network, where they probably paid her a little something. But it was like she was doing it for free. I hope she’s getting new fans through the podcast. I think the song deserves an award. Her husband, Michael Penn, helped produce it. They did just such a lovely job with the vague directive I gave them. And now that song should be a single. It’s funny that the only way you can listen to it is by being forced to listen to my podcast, but I guess you can turn off the podcast after 45 seconds and you’ve gotten what you need.
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