“Odd. It didn't feel like a half century.”
Voted Best of the Bay eight times. A first-place trophy for magic. Hundreds of five-star strangers from six countries. All from the same fourteen-year-old who did his first corporate show in 1976.
Twenty years as Jack. Fifty as a performer.
Twenty of those years have been in this costume. Before that: two years on roller skates as a working pirate character at Les Pirates, a French restaurant in Los Altos, tableside magic six nights a week and a cabaret show on weekends, in the early 1980s. Art and wine festivals as himself, starting the same era. Twenty-seven years running Circus Minimus, his own original act, at the Cupertino Oktoberfest, the last few of them as Jack. The ship even played Cupertino a couple of those years. Twenty years as Jack is one chapter in a longer, continuous one.
- California State Fair a dozen years
- Big Fresno Fair
- Kern County Fair
- Alameda County Fair
- Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival 10+ yrs
- NorCal Pirate Festival headlining 8 yrs
- San Mateo County Fair
- Magic Castle, Hollywood week-long run, 2025, as Jack
- Lodi Grape Festival
- Folsom Renaissance Faire
- Merced County Fair
- Berry Festival
- Stanislaus County Fair
- Valhalla / Tahoe Renaissance Faire
- Cupertino Oktoberfest 27 yrs, mostly as Circus Minimus
- Santa Clara County Fair
- Santa Cruz County Fair
- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk their own stages, family events, 2-3 summers
- Monterey County Fair
- Sonoma County Fair
- Bodega Seafood Festival
- Bodega Fisherman's Festival
- San Jose Fantasy Festival
- Vacaville Fantasy Festival
- Long Beach Pirate Invasion
- Napa Town and Country Fair
- Siskiyou Golden Fair
- Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair
- San Bernardino County Fair
- Santa Barbara Fair & Expo
- Yuma County Fair AZ
- Mid-Winter Fair
- Silver Dollar Fair
- Dixon May Fair
- Antelope Valley Fair
- Glenn County Fair
- Shasta District Fair
- Mother Lode Fair
- Sonora Christmas Festival
- Placer County Fair
- Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fair
- Sierra-Plumas County Fair
- Kings Fair
- San Benito County Fair
- Chowchilla/Madera County Fair
- Madera District Fair
- Merced Spring Fair
- Antelope Valley Spring Fair
- Salinas Valley Fair
A week-long run at magic's most exclusive stage.
In 2025, Jack played a full week at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, the private clubhouse of the Academy of Magical Arts, twenty-seven shows in the Parlour of Prestidigitation. No other pirate act on the circuit can say that.
Best of the Bay runs its "Best Family Fun" category as a public vote. Capt'n Jack Spareribs has won it eight times since 2009, seven of those years in a row. That's not a panel of judges... it's audiences he plays fairs and festivals for, voting again and again, year after year.
Real trophies, real votes
In 2021, with fairs shut down, Jack moved his whole act onto a webcam: an aloha shirt over the pirate coat, a real tiki bar, the 1944 Original Mai Tai recipe, and mind reading through a screen to a crowd of strangers he'd never met. Over 400 performances that year alone, for Fortune 500 teams, small families, and couples on a date night, in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Canada, and every corner of the U.S. The reviews came in from all of it, and they're real, still up on Airbnb today.
“Thank you, Captain Jack, for a DELIGHTFUL afternoon. We found our jaws on the floor with your excellent tricks and have some new bar bets to show friends! Most importantly, we will be making the 1944 Original Mai Tai whenever we can.”DebbieSpencers Wood, United Kingdom
“The kids were engaged throughout the show... the highlight was Maynard the monkey wishing my daughter. Ace dresses up as a pirate and his studio decor is very well made, kids were very fascinated and almost believed he is one real pirate. It was the best zoom party I have ever seen for kids of this age group.”VedikaMumbai, India
Twenty years in the pirate coat, one Zoom account, and reviews from six continents. Same guy either way.