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

Lions of Liberty Network

Lions of Liberty

News, Comedy, Politics, Business

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, welcome back to the Luke Perez podcast on the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network. Today, I'm joined by Victor Barnado. He is the founder of Supreme Robot. You might also know him as King Super Nuts.
0:28.0	And he's also here to talk about the worldwide Tic-Tac-Tow Championship.
0:30.3	Victor, thank you for joining me.
0:32.6	Yes, that is great.
0:36.9	I am delighted to be here.
0:37.8	Fantastic.
0:42.5	Yeah, they're all, they're all mine.
0:44.7	These ones, I actually, I read all of them.
0:47.7	So, yeah, so I'm, I'm kind of flexing. I used to be a much, much bigger reader.
0:50.7	When I lived in the city and, you know, was able to take the subway everywhere.
0:55.0	I was, I was, you know, always had like my nose in a, in a book. Um, yeah, it provides a nice,
1:00.9	a nice background, you know. So what was a John, it was John Waters, I think who said if,
1:06.3	if you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.
1:16.8	So every time I'm a married man, so I always bring my wife in here and just remind her.
1:18.8	Like, let's do this.
1:31.4	Before we started, Victor and I were talking about, I remember seeing Victor in the old UCB days, Uprice Citizens Brigade Theater in New York.
1:36.2	I'm sure, I think you probably did stuff at like pianos too and like the other,
1:37.2	everywhere.
1:40.1	I'm a staple in New York.
1:42.1	I perform all over in New York, definitely.
1:43.0	Yeah.
1:44.7	I've been here for many years.
	...

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