Meet Scott Syme Jr. | Founder & Magician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Scott Syme Jr. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Scott, what is the most important factor behind your success?
For my business, White Rabbit Entertainment Productions, we feel the most important factor to our success is storytelling. We specialize in creating magic experiences in multi-sensory environments. It is the story that is told by our guests to their peers is what we are most interested in. We have to create an environment that is worthy of telling others about. Sure, we have magic performances, charcuterie and cocktails, it is all fun, but we have to make sure it all constitutes into making a specific memory that becomes a story. That happens through excellent execution of what we do, coupled with the feeling that we share with our guests. That feeling of joy is what comes upon our guests. When you experience something like that for yourself, it is worth telling others about it.

Our experiences can feel bigger emotionally than they are physically. For context, I think of one of my favorite bars in Hollywood, Good Time At Davey Wyanes. You enter the bar through a refrigerator door, this simple detail of story telling to that 1970’s themed bar is excellent because it instantly gives guests a story to tell. Not a “once upon a time story” but a story they will tell friends like “last night we went to this bar in Hollywood and the entrance was a refrigerator door, you have to see it!” Not only does this give a story to the guests who go to that bar, but it also equips them to want to come back with different friends so they can experience it as well, genius!

At White Rabbit Entertainment Productions, we are interested in the story of showing our guests a different type of magic experience through creating pure fun and amazement. We do this though mainly enjoying ourselves at our own events. Joy is caught not so much taught, joy is infectious. Our guests get swept up into a frenzy of wonder that leaves them feeling joyful. The type of story that actually happens to you is more powerful than the story that is taken from an onlookers point of view. It is like the difference of saying “I saw someone riding a bike” vs “I just rode a bike for the first time”. Stories where we live to tell the tale are stories that have meaning and staying power. I hope the stories our guests say about us, have that same staying power.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The power of believing in others before they deserve it or earn it is so important in my story. I first moved to LA over 10 years ago and in my first week of being in LA, I went to a show at this, now defunct, comic book shop on Sunset-The Meltdown. I saw magician Justin Willman perform along with comedy juggler Micheal Rayner. I spoke to Micheal after the show and he asked if I wanted to perform magic at Flappers Comedy in Burbank with him. I performed magic on stage there for the ten years I have been in LA! Having Micheal saying yes to me and believing in me before even seeing me perform was such a pivotal moment. This is the same story time and time again with others coming along side me and believing in me before I could really see it for myself.

The story of White Rabbit Entertainment Productions, (White Rabbit) is essentially the idea of how do we make pure fun. We do that by creating experiences in multi-sensory environments. We have our guests leave with a story worth telling. There are magic performances, charcuterie and cocktails all rolled into one event. We are still a very new business and it takes time to craft exactly how we want to position ourselves and give out the expression we are going after. I am excited to see where it will all lead to. Ultimately, it is really about how well we treat our guests who come to our events. We feel that spreading true real joy is contagious and leads to guests telling others about what they experienced at White Rabbit.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Oh gosh, are you ready for this? This is what I live for! If a friend were to come to LA for the first time, here are some of the activities we would do.

First, we stop at Erewhon in Beverly Hills to pick up snacks and sparkling water for our driving tour across LA. We drive around Beverly Hills and walk down Rodeo drive and then I point out that the first Cheesecake Factory started in Beverly Hills.

Then we drive around Culver City and go past the movie studios, I mention how the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz stayed at the Culver Hotel during filming of the movie and how Charlie Chaplin once owned the hotel and lost it for a dollar during a card game to famous actor, John Wayne. We then get coffee at Destroyer and talk about the architecture around that area of the Culver City and point out the incredible restaurant, Vespertine.

We return to Beverly Hills for lunch at Honor Bar and get Ding’s famous crispy sandwich.

After that we would go to the top of Doheny and see the view of the west side from the very top up there. Continuing to Prince St pizza for a pizza slice as a snack. We then have a Hotel lobby bar crawl! Hotels include The Beverly Hills Hotel, Sunset Edition Hotel, Pendry Hotel and then my favorite The Sunset Tower Hotel.

We end the night by going to a comedy show across the street at the Comedy Store.

Other places to hit on this trip:

Coffee at the following places: La La Land in Santa Monica, Maru at the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills, Eyes Peeled Coffee on Robertson Blvd and Cognoscenti Coffee in the arts district of Culver City.

Restaurants: Hillstones in Santa Monica, Great White for breakfast in Venice or West Hollywood, Gjelina for lunch in Venice, HiHo Cheeseburger, The Apple Pan, The Warehouse in Marina del Rey for the $10 mai tai! Canter’s Deli on Fairfax and Don Cucos in Toluca Lake.

Sweets around LA we would go to: Holey Grail Donuts, Jeni’s Ice Cream, California Donuts on Third St in Little Bangladesh-trust me on this one.

Bars/Lounges: Good Time at Davey Wyanes in Hollywood, Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills, Grain Whiskey Bar in Playa del Rey, Tower bar in the Sunset Tower Hotel, The One Hotel bar.

Activities: if you are a guy, you must go to the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown LA head to the 70th floor mezzanine and go to the restroom to pee on the view-again trust me on this… Smoke a cigar at Seven Grand in downtown Los Angeles, Beach time in Manhattan Beach because it is away from the locals, Shop at the Grove and Westfield Century City, see a movie at Universal City Walk.

There is so much to do and not enough time, those are the first spots that come to mind if a friend were to visit.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Thinking on my story in creating White Rabbit Entertainment Productions, there are so many people to credit and mention. When I first moved to LA over 10 years ago, on day one, my friend from high school, Addison said I should get into magic full time and make it happen. I unfortunately was too scared to make that leap but Addison kept being one of my biggest cheerleaders, I thank him for our continued friendship and the massive encouragements to keep going. I also credit my friends George and his wife Rae. It was one evening at Employees Only bar in West Hollywood where the discussion of the idea of a magic show with a cocktail component came around. It was a month later we did the first show together at a fancy high rise in downtown LA. It was the brainstorming of ideas that spurred me on to make it a reality and to turn White Rabbit into what it is today.

I also have to thank my parents. The thought of having a son as a Beverly Hills realtor turned Magician is a jarring story. It was their eventual approval and belief in the idea of this company that really helped me leap into making this company real. I also have so many other friends to thank as well who believed in me despite me not always believing in myself through this process. The list goes on and on!

Lastly, Someone who I have only met once in person, but have researched lectures and podcasts of his for so many years is Disney Legend and Imagineer, Tony Baxter. His teachings and thinking on storytelling have really been cornerstones to what we do at White Rabbit.

Website: whiterabbitla.com

Instagram: whiterabbit_la

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/scottsymejr

Yelp: White Rabbit Entertainment Productions