Capt'n Jack Spareribs' full self-built pirate shipwreck. Maynard the Talking Monkey, Jack's wisecracking ventriloquist puppet, in his own pirate bandana. Capt'n Jack Spareribs in full pirate costume, reaching toward the ship.

A pirate with mysterious magic, a hilarious talking monkey, and a full shipwreck.

Award-winning, family-friendly, and ready for any event you've got.

A Closer Look
The full pirate shipwreck lit up in green at dusk, its own hand-lettered sign reading The Capt'n Jack Spareribs Show, a lit Ferris wheel from the fairgrounds behind it.
The Ship

Built by Jack himself.

Welded onto a 6x10 covered cargo trailer, engineered to survive real wind, and it has. It's the backdrop the whole show plays in front of, not scenery someone rented.

The show →
Jack and a fellow performer working the stage in front of a packed crowd of mostly adults, watching closely, cameras up.
The Show

A show that gathers more adults than kids.

Magic, comedy, swashbuckling stories, and sea shanties, with Maynard the Talking Monkey stealing scenes and an unexpected ghost that gets a laugh instead of a scare. Family-friendly, but it plays to the adults standing there too.

Where he's been →
Where It Started

It started with a wooden sword.

Ace was six when his grandmother read him Treasure Island and his mother took him to Disneyland, where he rode the Pirates of the Caribbean and decided he wanted to be Long John Silver. He still has the wooden sword his great uncle carved in the 1940s, originally made for Ace's mother or one of her sisters, and a photo of himself holding it as a kid. By his early twenties he was a working pirate for real: two years on roller skates at Les Pirates, a French restaurant in Los Altos, tableside magic six nights a week and a cabaret show on weekends.

Capt'n Jack Spareribs didn't start in 2005. He started when Ace was six, with a wooden sword and a trip to Disneyland.

Ace as a boy, play-acting as a pirate in his backyard with the wooden sword his great uncle carved. Ace as a boy at Disneyland in 1968, at a ship's cannon along the Pirates of the Caribbean queue.
Fifty Years

"Odd. It didn't feel like a half century."

Voted Best of the Bay eight times. A first-place trophy for magic. A week-long run at the Magic Castle. Hundreds of 5-star reviews from 6 countries. That's the other page.

A young Ace Miles outside the Magic Castle in 1978.
1978
Capt'n Jack Spareribs outside the real Magic Castle building at sunset.
2025

See the full story

Book Ace Miles as himself, or bring in the ship and the pirate. Either way it's the same 50 years of doing this.

From the Logbook
“A professional. He gets the job done. Very organized, he was up and running in nothing flat. And we so appreciate that.”
Charley DalyCEO, Chamber of Commerce, Pleasant Hill Art, Jazz and Wine Festival
“Hands down, Jack Spareribs has the biggest crowds at our event, every single year.”
Steve MoralesEntertainment Director, Northern California Pirate Festival
Booking Jack

Depends on who's asking

A fair wants three shows a day and a strolling set. A corporate event wants scale and flexibility. A private party wants close and personal. A library or school wants something built for their space. Tell us which one you are, Fairs & Festivals, Corporate, Community & Groups, Private Events, or just say what you've got and we'll tell you what fits.