From presidential rallies to pop-up shops, Wizard Studios has spent more than two decades shaping some of the most high-profile events in the country. What started as founder Matthew Saravay’s one-man operation has grown into a 50-person experiential production powerhouse based in Queens, delivering everything from political spectacles to brand activations. Executive Producer David Morris sits down with our CEO, David Litwak, to share how the company scaled, and what it really takes to survive and thrive for 25 years in an industry built on chaos. Let’s dive in.

David Litwak: Let’s get started. Tell us about your business. How did it get started? Give us the full origin story and any relevant parts of your career leading up to starting it.

David Morris: We’re an experiential production company. We started about 23 years ago, originally just off of a laptop by our founder, Matthew Saravay. He really had a knack for producing events and knowing the right people.

Since then, we’ve grown to over 50 full-time employees, servicing events all over the country, and even some international ones. We do everything from presidential campaigns to major tours, down to bar mitzvahs. It’s a very wide range of clients, but what’s great is that it allows us to create a lot of unique experiences.

I’m an Executive Producer here, and I focus on producing really cutting-edge events. I’m especially big on integrating technology, finding ways to weave it into the event experience. That’s really my specialty. So that’s a little background on who we are and what we do. We’re based in Astoria, Queens, but as I mentioned, we service events all over.

David Litwak: Very cool. I’m curious, you mentioned presidential campaigns. Tell me about that. Which candidate, which election cycle?

David Morris: We've produced events for every living President. Through that work, we grew exponentially and picked up a lot of new accounts as well. Politics is obviously a tricky space right now, but like I said, we’ve worked with both White Houses, and the Harris campaign was a big part of our trajectory.

David Litwak: I know, right, that world is often called advance, right? That’s the term for it. I’m curious, without getting too wonky right away, how did you guys actually work with the advance team? Did they hand things off to you, or what did that look like?

David Morris: So, campaigns specifically, it was pretty wild because things were constantly coming up last-minute. A lot of times, we’d literally just send our trucks out in a direction and say, “You’re going to be stopping here,” because events were only getting finalized day by day.

So yes, there was “advance,” but it was also a lot of improvising, making sure we had the gear staged in different places, making sure the right staff with security clearances were in place, and then just moving fast when details came in. Honestly, it was a huge logistical challenge, and I think half our team lost sleep during that time.

David Litwak: So, segueing back out of politics, I’m curious. You guys have been successful for 25 years in a business that, frankly, isn’t kind to time. Like you said, losing sleep, right? People don’t last long in hospitality.

I’ve been in it, construction included, for about four and a half years, and it’s exhausting, it’s grueling. How have you been able to survive for 25 years?

David Morris: Again, I bring it back to technology. Staying on top of the newest tech makes the events world so much easier. Being able to offer clients things they haven’t seen before, or wouldn’t normally think to use, and integrating those into events—that’s how you stay ahead of the curve.

You also have to really know how to manage your business: when your busy times are, when your slow times are, what projects to take on—and maybe most importantly, which clients not to take on. A lot of people love to talk about all the projects they’re doing, but sometimes the smarter move is to say no. Some clients just don’t fit with your brand or your mission.

So, knowing who you want to work with, keeping your goals clear, and always bringing in cutting-edge technology, that’s what keeps you around long-term.

David Litwak: That makes sense. Who do you consider not to be your client?

I think that’s a very wise piece of advice. In the startup world, especially, there’s that saying, you need to know who you say no to just as much as who you say yes to. The no’s are just as important as the yeses. Who do you guys say no to?

David Morris: The biggest thing is when people aren’t aligned with our company values. We won’t take on a job if we feel it could be detrimental to our own brand. If someone is promoting something, or it’s a company doing something, that doesn’t align, we steer clear.

It’s hard to give a single example, but we all know those companies you don’t want to be involved with, that you don’t want to align yourself with. Those are the clients we stay away from. If it’s promoting something really negative, or something that’s just not good for the world, that’s not something we want to be part of.

And we’ve turned down very large jobs, projects that could have been transformational, because they weren’t in alignment. At the end of the day, it was in the best interest of our company culture not to take them.

David Litwak: Yeah, I think I’ve been in those situations too, where you kind of get high on the drug of short-term money. But then the next day, the next week, the next month, you’re dealing with all of it. What seemed like a lucrative contract ends up coming with a hangover that’s so harsh you regret ever taking it.

To be clear, we’ve never taken on any clients we aren’t proud of. For us, it’s been more about the type of event. You know, if something requires too much, say, if there’s a lot of partying and chaos, then you’re left dealing with issues afterwards, asking yourself, “Why did we do that?” So we’ve laser-focused on a different type of event.

So tell me, what’s one of those amazing experiences where you’ve thought, this is why I do this, this is why I go through all of it at your company?

David Morris: We all live for that moment after an event, the hard work, the months or weeks of planning, all culminating when the client looks at you and says, wow, thank you. You can see the passion in them, the relief, the joy. That’s the moment I live for. Because right then, they’re already asking, what can we do next? And that’s when you get the chance to bring new ideas to the table and elevate the experience even further.

For me, it’s about that trust, the faith they put in you, the budget they put behind you—and then being able to deliver, to hold true to that promise.

That’s what I wait for.

David Litwak: Any specific examples stand out in your career?

David Morris: Ooh, that’s a lot. Well, so I started, are you familiar with AND1 basketball?

David Litwak: Yeah, of course.

I’m a huge Lakers fan, grew up in Santa Monica back when Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel were the guys. This was before we were good, so I guess you could call me an OG fan. I definitely remember when AND1 was all the rage, but I feel like I don’t know what happened to the brand.

David Morris: They’re actually in Walmart right now, half a billion dollars’ worth of sales. I tell people that all the time. I was the marketing director there; I started as a tour manager after the ESPN tours.

Right now, the brand is mostly in Walmart: basketball shorts, socks, and underwear. They just dropped a new women’s line, too. They’ve also got some higher-tier products in Foot Locker and other spots, but the bulk of the business is at Walmart.

Shaq is probably the biggest competitor. His brand is a little bigger, just because of the volume they do. Shaquille O’Neal has had his own line for about 15 years now. I didn’t even realize it until I got into that world.

David Litwak: Wow.

David Morris: He sells shoes for $15, and you’d think, who does that? But he moves millions of pairs, mostly to kids who can’t afford the higher-end stuff. Beyond that, he’s also got all the Shaq-branded clothing. AND1 was always considered more of a premium product compared to Shaq’s line, but Shaq is definitely the biggest competitor.

David Litwak: Wow, I didn’t even realize Shaq had his own line. I knew he owned half the KFCs in the world or something like that, but I didn’t know he expanded into merch. I guess I’m not the target demographic for $15 shoes. He’s clearly trying to do something very different than Jordan.

David Morris: He is, but he’s selling, I’d say, close to a billion dollars a year. He’s turned low-quality into high-volume, and it works.

David Litwak: Interesting. Great. Yeah. Well, you brought up AND1 for a reason

David Morris: Yeah, so with AND1, one of the most special things was getting to work with the guys I grew up watching. We’d travel city to city, and even though they were older by then, people would cry when they met them. I got to produce experiences where fans could meet Hot Sauce, AO, Shane the Dribbling Machine, and legends of that scene.

And honestly, out of everything I’ve done since, all the major projects, all the big places, that’s the one that still gives me that gut feeling. Seeing the real impact something has on people, in the moment, that’s what keeps you going every single day.

David Litwak: Very cool. Was Stephon Marbury part of that at all? I feel like he was the last And1 star who was, hate to say it, really relevant.

David Morris: Yeah, but only briefly. He was with the brand for maybe two years before starting his own thing. That’s the funny part, people think of him as central, but it was short-lived. The whole brand was moving so fast, and contracts were crazy. They were constantly torn between pushing the streetball entertainment side, where they thrived, and trying to compete with Nike, which… they just couldn’t quite pull off.

David Litwak: Final question: What’s a horror story? You can keep the brand anonymous, but what’s one of those nightmare experiences?

David Morris: Oh, I’ve definitely had a few. Every bad experience usually turns into a problem we solve, but one stands out. Before I got to Wizard Studios, I was producing a pop-up in LA, and a whole shipment of product was supposed to arrive by semi-truck. The truck never made it in time. So, the night before the opening, we had to go out, buy up all the clothes we could find from local stores, and stock the pop-up ourselves. No one knew the difference, but it cost us a fortune. That’s the reality of this business: something always goes wrong. The job is making sure the client never feels it. Even right now, I’m juggling a project where the back-and-forth is brutal, but you just keep hammering away until it works. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding the solution. That’s the job.

David Litwak: Exactly. One thing we learned early on at Maxwell was the stress of relying on outside vendors. In the beginning, we didn’t own much, no DJ gear, no speakers, so every event was a waiting game. Is the equipment here yet? Is the delivery on time? You end up spending whole days babysitting logistics.

Now we just keep almost everything in-house. DJ equipment, speakers, lighting, you name it. Unless a client wants something hyper-specific, like 112 identical white chairs in rows, we can cover it. Honestly, the math made sense too: after two or three rentals, you might as well buy.

But more than that, it cut down the stress. Instead of sitting around waiting for the delivery guy to show up at 7 p.m., we can roll in a couple of hours before and know we’re ready. I can’t tell you how many mornings I lost just letting a rental company come pick up furniture. That’s not how I want to spend my time.

Obviously, in your case, with the pop-up, you couldn’t do that; it was a product, not gear. But it’s the same lesson: control as much as you can, because the less you rely on chance, the smoother the show runs.

Whenever you can keep things in-house to avoid headaches like that, it’s worth it. Thanks so much for your time, David.

David Morris: Appreciate it, man. Have a good one.

David Litwak: You too. Cheers.