By 2016, Victor Pope Jr. had amassed more than one million followers on Vine, a now-defunct phone app where he performed six-second comedy skits with his offbeat humor. When we met for the 86th dinner interview in February that year, Victor told me his real passion was for standup comedy. During our meal in Arlington, Texas, Victor shared his plan for an eventual move to New York and to become one of the greatest standups of all time.
In the years since our meal, Victor has shifted from comedy to rapping. He gave a 2021 interview to Dallas Global talking about it, and from all accounts on his Instagram the transition has been a successful one. Perhaps I should have added the word “maybe” in parentheses before “future” in the headline. Oh well.
Despite the change in career, it was a great experience to spend a few hours in Victor’s company — and even manage to get him to laugh at some of my jokes (if you know me and my puns, you know how rare that can be).
And my interview used to feature embedded examples of Victor’s Vines but unfortunately the death of that app means those are all broken links now. Still, you get to see pictures of our smiling faces and some tasty Mexican food.