Hop-A-Long Pete by Pete Biro

While playing around with Don Alan’s Ranch Bird, I gave thought to doing a routine without a gaffed deck, and came up with the following idea, which is real easy to perform, as all the work is done under terrific cover of misdirection. I sent the outline of the idea to Jay Marshall, distributor of the Ranch Bird. Magic, Inc. located a very hard to find item – a loose key wind up creature, which is just right for this routine. They asked me to routine and sketch out the handling, and they even named “him” after me.

Effect: Spread the deck on the table. Ask the spectator to place the frog anywhere and it will hop around and find the card. It hops all right but misses. Wrong card. “You know he’s an ink freak – sniffs marking pens. Should be able to sniff out your card.” Try again and fails. “What do you expect from a tin frog?” “Besides, he’s young yet. Do you know how often I have to clean out his bag? Right now!” Pick up bag by corner and shake out. Selected card drops out onto the table. Applause.

Act is over. Pack up your frog and your bag and go.

(Use any deck.)

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