Known for his surrealist comedy, the El Salvador-born, Brooklyn-based performer Julio Torres, 37, is a former staff writer on “Saturday Night Live” and the co-creator of the HBO series “Los Espookys.” He most recently wrote, directed and starred in the film “Problemista” and the HBO series “Fantasmas.” This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A Serendipitous Shopper

I don’t do Christmas, and I don’t like weddings. I’m never like, “I have to find a gift for this person.” It’s usually more spontaneous than that. I love giving gifts. I don’t like traditions.

I think gifts are a nice way of making people feel seen. A good gift is like a bridge between two people — it’s a way of communicating, “You are on my mind when you’re not in front of me.”

At a Salvation Army or maybe a Goodwill, I saw this teapot that looked like a flower about to blossom, and I gave it to my friend [the actor and playwright] Cole Escola. It was no occasion or anything. It was just sort of like, “I’ve been to their apartment, and this person needs to have this.”

Board Games and Balloons

Tilda Swinton and I made a movie together, and she’s given me many little gifts that I love, including this necklace that has a balloon charm. What I like about gifts it is that it gives you insight into how that person thinks of you. A big yellow balloon? That’s happy, that’s joyful, that’s whimsical. It’s a nice symbol and a nice reflection.

From her I also got this board game called Labyrinth. It’s complicated and playful and childlike. And again, that’s like a nice reflection, because the worst kinds of gifts are the ones that don’t really say anything about either party. Gifts should be like hugs — if you want to give one and you have that kind of relationship with someone, then that’s wonderful. But I don’t like doing things out of expectation.

Stone Ranger

I had an HBO special a couple of years back called “My Favorite Shapes,” and a lot of the props featured were little trinkets that people gave me. Just cheap little things that people were like, “This reminds me of Julio.”

I do occasionally get a stranger handing me a gift. At Newark airport once, this person gave me a coral stone — this very smooth orange rock that was supposed to be for creativity. I’ve gotten a lot of stones from people, randomly. And I’ve kept all of them.

As told to Anna Diamond