{"id":1224,"date":"2026-06-04T22:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:38:38","slug":"comedy-writer-bridger-winegar-said-no-gifts-now-he-has-more-than-300-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=1224","title":{"rendered":"Comedy Writer Bridger Winegar\u00a0Said \u201cNo Gifts\u201d \u2014 Now He Has More Than 300 of Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n

\n\tIn February 2020, Bridger Winegar decided to tease his forthcoming podcast on Instagram with what he thought was an innocent enough caption: \u201cOn March 12th, all hell breaks loose.\u201d His podcast launch, as he soon learned, would not rank among that week\u2019s more significant events.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Other Side of the Box\u2019 Filmmaker Caleb Phillips Signs With WME (Exclusive)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone else is acknowledging that the world is essentially over, and I\u2019m online doing self-promotion,\u201d says Winegar. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis podcast, I Said No Gifts<\/em>, 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\u2019s \u201csomething that somebody grabbed on their way out of the house or found in their car.\u201d The quality of the present ultimately does not matter, thanks to Winegar\u2019s day job as a comedy writer and his skill for booking equally funny guests.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinegar has worked on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Single Parents, Black Monday <\/em>and The After Party<\/em>, among many other series. But over the last five years of his career, the podcast has been the biggest constant. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of jobs,\u201d says Winegar. \u201cSo to have this be the stable thing in my life is very\u2026 odd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the eve of releasing his 300th episode, which dropped June 4 and features his former Kimmy Schmidt<\/em> colleague Ellie Kemper, Winegar spoke with The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

\nWhat percentage of gifts would you say you still have after 300 episodes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI would say 97 percent, which is horrible. When I started, you can imagine my mindset: \u201cI\u2019m going to ask successful comedy writers and actors on the show. They have bank accounts. Certainly, they\u2019ll be bringing me nice things that will improve my life.\u201d That\u2019s probably 4 percent of what I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve integrated into my life. When I do a live show, I\u2019ll take some and give them away to audience members, but the rest are just taking up space. <\/p>\n

\nWhat\u2019s the most expensive thing you think you\u2019ve got?<\/strong>

<\/strong>This is not an expensive<\/em> thing; I got a gift card for indoor skydiving. Listeners are always now sending me videos of the art of indoor skydiving. It\u2019s beautiful\u2026 people doing ballet in a tube. So there\u2019s that, and I got a very nice waffle maker. D\u2019Arcy 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\u2019t gotten a boat yet.<\/p>\n

\nWould you endorse indoor skydiving?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAbsolutely.<\/p>\n

\nWhat about the worst gifts? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJamie 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\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve just thrown away immediately. Then her assistant was like, \u201cHere\u2019s our phone number, give us a call. She wants it back.\u201d I DM Jamie after, like, \u201cDo you want this back?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cNo. What? Why would I want that back?\u201d We also did a live show in New York and Bowen Yang brought a 30-pound bag of birdseed. That stayed in New York.<\/p>\n

\nHow would you define a bad guest?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve 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\u2019re like, \u201cOh, you\u2019re on this thing.\u201d They show up not knowing what the podcast is at all and bring some gift that is related to something they\u2019re promoting.<\/p>\n

Read more Max Kleven, Stuntman, Second-Unit Director on \u2018Rollerball,\u2019 \u2018Batman Returns\u2019 and \u2018The River Wild,\u2019 Dies at 92<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThere is nothing more boring than someone who won\u2019t veer off message. And I\u2019ve found that it actually does the opposite of what\u2019s intended. Readers immediately click away. You have to Trojan Horse promotion. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe reason people listen to podcasts is to hear weird things about people\u2019s lives. It\u2019s like you get to peek in. So then it\u2019s about a thing, a movie or whatever that somebody hasn\u2019t even seen yet. That\u2019s tough. The thing I\u2019ve learned is that it seems like every huge star, every big person who\u2019s ever been on the podcast, has not only been an immediate yes \u2014\u00a0 but when they come on, they\u2019re game for the entire thing. Oh, I can see why you\u2019ve been able to make it so far. You\u2019re easy to work with. You\u2019re enthusiastic. You\u2019re not just funny, you\u2019re good at working with people and willing to play along.<\/p>\n

\nDo you have any white whales?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes, Martha Stewart. I would love to have Amy Sedaris on, but she\u2019s in New York and she doesn\u2019t do a lot of podcasts.<\/p>\n

\nYour podcast is produced by Exactly Right Media, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark\u2019s network and studio that skews heavily towards true crime because of My Favorite Murder<\/em>. Do you know what the overlap is with your audience? Have you courted the true crime fans?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe majority of them want nothing to do with my podcast. There\u2019s a group of My Favorite Murder <\/em>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, \u201cWhy are they making this?\u201d (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\nIf you were a podcast bro, what problematic political figure would you platform?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIf I\u2019m a Joe Rogan?<\/p>\n

\nYes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWhat a horrible question. Do you know who I would just love to confront? Bari Weiss. Dumbass of the year. Whatever\u2019s going on there is so crazy to me.<\/p>\n

\nAimee Mann wrote and performed the theme song to I Said No Gifts<\/em>, which is frankly the reason I started listening in the first place. She\u2019s a legend. Did you have to pay her?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo. She\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve gotten what you need.<\/p>\n

Read more Nick Bilton to \u201860 Minutes\u2019 Staff: \u201cHell of a First Week\u201d But Ready to Move On In \u201cGood Faith\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comedy writer and podcaster Bridger Winegar has gotten more than 300 presents since he started I Said No Gifts. Most of them are still in his garage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1100,222],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-bridger-winegar","tag-podcasts"],"yoast_head":"\nComedy Writer Bridger Winegar\u00a0Said \u201cNo Gifts\u201d \u2014 Now He Has More Than 300 of Them - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=1224\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comedy Writer Bridger Winegar\u00a0Said \u201cNo Gifts\u201d \u2014 Now He Has More Than 300 of Them - US Property Moves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comedy writer and podcaster Bridger Winegar has gotten more than 300 presents since he started I Said No Gifts. 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