Victor

[00:00:00 ] Brett: [00:00:00 ] This week’s guest is Victor Agreda Jr.

[00:00:02 ] A polymath for hire? How’s it going, Victor?

[00:00:06 ] Victor: [00:00:06 ] Uh, it’s going well,

[00:00:07 ] Brett: [00:00:07 ] What’s a, what’s a polymath.

[00:00:10 ]Victor: [00:00:10 ] you know? Uh, it’s it’s funny. So I’m, I’m actually in a startup right now. We’re we’re in stealth mode. Uh, I don’t know when this will air, but we might be out of stealth mode by then. But the thing is, is that one of our, uh, one of our teammates was putting together, you know, the requisite investor deck, and they put me as polymath.

[00:00:26 ] I actually had to look it up and it’s basically a nice term for Jack of all trades master of none.

[00:00:31 ] Brett: [00:00:31 ] Oh, that is, that’s a way class. Your way to say that. Huh? Yeah, I had that. I had the actual job title, Jack of all trades for awhile. Uh, when I worked at agile, because I couldn’t, because there wasn’t really good at any one thing.

[00:00:48 ]Victor: [00:00:48 ] Well, you know, it’s, it’s sort of like, uh, nowadays in it, there’s a bunch of different job titles that will earn you money even like more money, even though you’re kind of doing. A similar thing that maybe 10 years ago [00:01:00 ] would have just been it admin. Right. And so it’s sorta like that. If you say polymath versus Jack of all trades, I think you can, you can.

[00:01:07 ]Brett: [00:01:07 ] So last time you were on systematic. I was 34 years old.

[00:01:12 ]Victor: [00:01:12 ] Holy cow.

[00:01:13 ] Brett: [00:01:13 ] It has been eight years since, since we’ve talked on the show, we have talked in person even since then,

[00:01:19 ]Victor: [00:01:19 ] That’s right.

[00:01:21 ] Brett: [00:01:21 ] it’s been eight. I like, I vividly remember talking to you. About, uh, magic and comedy. And I did not realize how long it had been until I looked it up just before we said

[00:01:33 ]Victor: [00:01:33 ] Time flies, man.

[00:01:35 ] Brett: [00:01:35 ] so, uh, so what are you up to these days?

[00:01:37 ]Victor: [00:01:37 ] Well, uh, it’s funny because I’m picking up magic again. Uh, comedy is obviously kind of off the, the. The plan with the pandemic. What I do know people who are doing comedy shows, there are still open mikes, believe it or not in my area. Um, but I’m not going to any of that stuff. I’ve, I’ve picked up magic is kind of a side thing to just kind of play with.

[00:01:59 ] But that [00:02:00 ] routed me towards a couple of other things that are somewhat in my wheelhouse as well, which is, uh, puppets. And, um, I’ve, I’ve long been a fan of the Muppets last year. I read the well actually year before that I read the. Biography of Jim Henson and it was very inspirational. And so, uh, aside from my work as a writer and, and doing some PR and doing some other sort of side stuff, I’ve, I’ve really gotten into puppetry, um, and working on a little show with puppets that really talk about feelings and kind of the human condition.

[00:02:34 ] Brett: [00:02:34 ] Wow. Yeah. So where I was on, uh, I didn’t interview with a puppet. I believe the name was Maddie. And so that was for this show. You’re speaking of.

[00:02:47 ] Victor: [00:02:47 ] That’s correct. Yeah. Maddie is the station manager for QTF M and this is a group of puppets that have come from another dimension, uh, in this weird looking sort of tugboat, this interdimensional tugboat. Uh, I figure if [00:03:00 ] Dr who can ride around in a police box from the 1950s, uh, these guys can be in a, uh, a tug boat.

[00:03:06 ] And, uh, QTF em, is this sort of pirate radio station from another dimension. And they’ve come here. Uh, somewhat accidentally, but also kind of on accidentally on purpose, uh, to study human beings and to learn about human beings.

[00:03:19 ] Brett: [00:03:19 ] all right. And is this, is this live yet?

[00:03:23 ]Victor: [00:03:23 ] Not yet. No, I’m, I’m, uh, I’m going to be slowly working on this, um, in my spare time and I’ve, I’ve conducted, you were actually the second interview that I did. And I’m working on about, I think, six more interviews and then we’ll have, I think four episodes, uh, that we’ll have all kinds of different things.

[00:03:40 ] So I even have a little bit of magic that I practiced on Instagram live over the summer. When the pandemic really hit the lockdown hit, I was like, Oh, let’s try out some of this, you know, video magic stuff. And, and that was a fun experiment.

[00:03:54 ] Brett: [00:03:54 ] Complete. Absolutely. Coincidentally, my last guest was David Wayne, who was also doing [00:04:00 ] magic on Instagram.

[00:04:01 ]Victor: [00:04:01 ] Oh wild. What are the odds?

[00:04:04 ] Brett: [00:04:04 ] And, and talking to you right now is making me realize there’s a friend of mine owns LARC toys in, I think it’s Kellogg, Minnesota. But it’s one of the, uh, one of the premier toy stores in the country and, uh, as kind of a creative outlet, he designs all of these puppets.

[00:04:26 ] And, um, I, I guess they’re all, they’re all puppets. Even if you don’t put your hand in them, right. Like, So these big animatronics and like he has a blast, he has a, a huge troll puppet that controls a smaller puppet, like Maryann that style I should show you this stuff. You guys would get a kick out of each other’s work.

[00:04:48 ] I’m sure of it.

[00:04:50 ] Victor: [00:04:50 ] Yeah, that’s amazing. Well, I I’ve got some, I’ve actually got a raspberry PI and some servo motors and stuff. And so my son is, is really he’s on a robotics team and that’s [00:05:00 ] something that I think once the robotics season is over, we’re going to play with. Some possible robotic puppets are like assisted.

[00:05:06 ] There’s actually a guy named Mario the magician. Uh, well, Mario, the maker magician, I think is actually his title and you should check out his stuff because he kind of reminds me of, I can’t remember her name now, but the one who did like the crazy robots, you know, that would like fling cereal and that kind of thing.

[00:05:23 ] Um, it’s very kind of low tech stuff like that, but he uses them in a magical context and they’re wonderful. It’s, it’s a true merge of electronics and puppetry, but in this sort of cute DIY, you know, low tech, uh, uh, sort of almost like folk art way.

[00:05:38 ] Brett: [00:05:38 ] I will find that for the show note. Sounds fascinating. So one of the topics that you pitched for this conversation was poker. Where does that fall into your life? Right now?

[00:05:50 ] Victor: [00:05:50 ] So I can say even still in stealth mode that that’s, that’s something that the startup that we’re involved in. And I didn’t know a lot about poker. I mean, I [00:06:00 ] knew it, I played poker a little bit here and there, but I’ve never, I was never one of those, you know, you went with me to see yes. Uh, I think once or twice maybe, and I’m not a big poker player, I’m not a big gambler.

[00:06:11 ] And so poker was never a thing that I really got, uh, into, but, uh, a buddy of mine from high school, Called me up last year. And it was like, Hey, I want to, you know, I mean, it’s the pandemic, right? So people were not, especially during the full lockdown, people