In this episode, we sit down with Victor Varnado, a veteran comedian and entrepreneur who's built a thriving business at the intersection of comedy, content creation, and AI technology. Victor shares his unique journey from comedy to entrepreneurship, revealing the psychological principles behind great comedy and how he's leveraged online platforms to scale his career beyond traditional comedy clubs.

We dive into Victor's creative process, his approach to online content for scaling his reach, and how he's using AI to build innovative storytelling apps. Victor also unveils his most exciting experiment: the Worldwide High Score League, a global gaming competition designed to be accessible to players anywhere in the world.

About Victor

Victor is a New Yorker cartoonist, filmmaker, and has performed as an award-winning comedian on Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live, with writing credits for Marvel, Vice, and Salon.

Victor was awarded an NSF grant for his accessibility technology and is now shaking up creative AI with his tool, the Writing Coach (inside Magic Bookifier), which has made a major difference for first-time authors and educators. He’s currently collaborating with Rising Tide Educators on BrightWrite, an educational initiative bringing these tools to neurodivergent students.

His approach to blending humor, empathy, and technical creativity is rare, and his studio, Supreme Robot, reaches 25,000+ creators and comedy fans.

Connect with Victor:

• Victor’s Instagram: instagram.com/robotosupremo
• Supreme Robot (Victor's Company): supremerobot.com
• Worldwide High Score League: worldwidehighscore.com

Key Topics Discussed

Comedy & Creativity

• The psychology of laughter and the "ABD joke" structure
• Why the best jokes require audience participation in the punchline
• Overcoming social anxiety while performing on stage
• The difference between talking about comedy vs. doing comedy

Business & Content Strategy

• Why Victor stopped doing live shows unless they are recorded
• The scalability advantage of online content vs. live performances
• How one 2-minute clip can reach 700,000+ views across platforms
• Balancing data-driven decisions with creative authenticity
• The danger of chasing the algorithm vs. following your passion

Career Inflection Points

• How hiring the right person increased the number of meetings with key decision-makers
• Going from one high-value meeting every 6 months to multiple per week
• The importance of having a high conversion rate with decision-makers

AI & Technology

• Building storytelling apps that guide users through creative processes
• Creating a screenplay writing app that teaches proper script structure
• The shift from coding to "thinking" and architecture roles in the AI era
• Model-agnostic approach: focusing on how to use AI rather than which model
• The critical skill of asking AI the right questions
• The "42 answer" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy applied to AI prompts

The Worldwide High Score League

• Creating a truly global, accessible gaming competition
• Designing for web browsers to ensure access for players with less powerful devices
• Building fair competition infrastructure with centralized score tracking
• Plans for expanding the arcade with more games and daily prizes

Notable Quotes

• "The thing I like about doing comedy the most is being funny and talking about comedy is not super funny at all."
• "If I just put out recordings of myself performing, way more people in the industry see me, and I also could pick and choose what they see."
• "It's gotta be a combination of both. Like what do you love and what is working? Where's the Venn diagram where that works best?"
• "The job was never coding. It was thinking."
• "All you have to do is tell AI what you want and then say to AI 'What information do you need from me so that you can help me with that?'"