The Lou Perez Podcast - Victor Varnado

I sat down with Victor Varnado — comedian, founder of Supreme Robot, and the man behind the Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship. Victor is also King Super Nuts. That's not a joke. Well, it is. But it's also real. Victor built disability gaming software that could let paralyzed, blind, and deaf players enjoy video games without any extra hardware. He got a National Science Foundation grant to develop it. A tech company bought it for pre-IPO shares worth $500,000. The IPO never happened. The company got in trouble with the SEC. Victor never saw a dime. He tells the story without bitterness, which is somehow the most remarkable part. We also talked Richard Pryor, AI, the UCB rap battle scene, and why tic-tac-toe is actually a strategy game. Play the game → highscoregamearcade.com Here's what we got into: 🎤 Richard Pryor over George Carlin. Victor's case: Pryor holding thousands of people simultaneously is a technical feat that only becomes visible once you've seriously studied performance. Lou spent years in the Carlin camp. He's reconsidering. 📚 The histology class that changed how he sees the world. One class rewired him. The example that hit hardest: Carnegie's public library was originally open during hours when the public was at work. It started as a leisure club for the elite. The thing we think of as universally good was a lot more complicated at the start. 💡 Supreme Robot: build the IP first, find investors second. Victor's framework — create something, prove people want it, then go to investors with evidence instead of a pitch deck. His definition of strong IP: when he explains it, nobody says it's a bad idea, and most people who are even partially in the market for it want it immediately. 🤖 AI is like discovering electricity. What stays valuable no matter what: people's time and attention. Whatever you're building, that's what you're actually competing for. 🕹️ He built disability gaming tech — and a company buried it. Voice control layered on top of any game, no extra hardware required. A procedurally generated audio-description track for blind and deaf players. An NSF grant. A $500K acquisition that paid in pre-IPO shares. An IPO that never came. ⭕ Tic-tac-toe is a strategy game — if you put it in the right arena. The Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship launches to 100 million players via Facebook, YouTube, and Samsung TVs. Grand prize: $0. The system is incorruptible. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Intro: Victor Varnado and Supreme Robot 01:35 — Growing up in Gary, Indiana and the Jackson 5 04:40 — Richard Pryor vs. George Carlin 06:15 — The histology class that changed everything 09:30 — Bombing at the HBO Aspen callback and going solo 11:30 — UCB, the Hammer Cats, 20 years of NYC comedy 13:50 — Battle Ish: 7 years of rap battle comedy at UCB 18:30 — Supreme Robot explained 21:10 — AI and what stays valuable when everything changes 24:40 — Opening for Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall 26:40 — Opening for Gilbert Gottfried at Caroline's 29:20 — Norm MacDonald on Sam Kinison and what comedy is about 31:55 — The Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship 37:55 — The NSF grant and the disability gaming tech 40:10 — The $500K he never got 41:40 — Neuralink and the medical future he actually wants Watch full episodes 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 | 📧 [email protected] ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez