TLPP: Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship w/ Victor Varnado

Victor Varnado is many things: standup comedian, founder of Supreme Robot, King Super Nuts, and the man behind the Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship. He's also the guy who built disability gaming tech worth $500K — and never saw a dime. Lou sits down with Victor for one of the more wide-ranging conversations we've had on this show: Richard Pryor's evolution as a performer, what a histology class taught Victor about how history gets told, the UCB rap battle comedy scene, why AI is "like discovering electricity," and how you turn tic-tac-toe into a global competitive sport. Oh, and the story of the National Science Foundation grant Victor received to build voice-control and audio-description software for disabled gamers — software that could help people who are paralyzed, blind, or deaf play video games without extra hardware — that got sold to a tech company for shares against their IPO... and then the IPO never happened. TOPICS: — Gary, Indiana, The Jackson 5, and tall-tale fathers — Richard Pryor vs. George Carlin (and why Pryor won) — The histology class that changed how Victor sees the world — Bombing at the HBO Aspen Comedy Festival callback — 7 years of rap battle comedy at UCB (Battle Ish) — Supreme Robot: how Victor builds and tests IP before finding investors — AI and what stays valuable when everything changes (people's attention) — Opening for Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall) and Gilbert Gottfried — Norm MacDonald on Sam Kinison and what comedy is actually about — Tic-tac-toe as a strategy game (and how to make it competitive) — The disability gaming tech that a company bought and buried — Neuralink and the medical future Victor actually wants Play the game: highscoregamearcade.com 0:00 Intro — who is Victor Varnado? 1:35 Growing up in Gary, Indiana and the Jackson 5 4:40 Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and the art of performance 6:15 The histology class that changed how he sees the world 9:30 Moving to Minneapolis, bombing at HBO Aspen, and going solo 11:30 UCB, the Hammer Cats, and 20 years of NYC comedy 13:50 Battle Ish: 7 years of rap battle comedy at UCB 16:10 All those unfilmed shows — and why Victor actually recorded everything 18:30 Supreme Robot: his IP incubator explained 21:10 AI is like electricity — and why that's scary and exciting 24:40 Opening for Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall 26:40 Opening for Gilbert Gottfried at Caroline's 27:05 The joke he's working on about marriage 29:20 Norm MacDonald, Sam Kinison, and what comedy is really about 31:55 The Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship — yes, really 36:10 HighScoreGameArcade.com and the 100M player goal 37:55 The National Science Foundation grant and disability gaming tech 40:10 The $500K he never got — and what happened to the tech 41:40 Neuralink and the medical future he actually wants 42:15 Outro The Lou Perez Podcast is part of the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network. Watch full episodes of The Lou Perez Podcast and more on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ  Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081  Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU  Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r  TheLouPerez.com |  info@thelouperez.com  Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez #comedy #standupcomedy #victorvarnado #AI #disabilitytech #tictactoe #UCB #lionsofiberty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices