Here’s a nifty little packs pretty flat, plays pretty big trick with props your kidshow audience already know – ZooPals Paper Plates. It also lets you give away a prize to the birthday kid, the best behaved kid, or whomever you wish to reward. Enough with the hype, here’s the trick:

Effect: Amid a ton of by-play, a child chooses what kind of pet you should have. You open a paper bag that’s been previously set out and inside is a stuffed animal that matches the child’s choice. The animal wears a nametag with the name of the child’s own pet. You give the toy to the kid as a gift.

Method: The animal is forced using a stacked pile of paper plates. The name is written on the animal’s nametag using a gaffed paper bag that allows you access to the tag.

Required: A specially organized set of Hefty “ZooPals” paper plates, a stuffed animal to match the force, a name tag, a Sharpie and a specially gaffed paper sack.

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ZooPals Setup: Purchase a few packages of ZooPals paper plates and sort the plates into the animal types. You will need 6 plates that show your force animal. You can cheat the system by looking at the side of the packages to find sets that are heavy in certain animals. The example shown uses a tiger as the force animal. Make a light pencil mark on the back edge of the force animal plates so you know which ones they are. You also need to have 11 different animal plates that do not duplicate. This isn’t that hard because the guys at Hefty have a million of these different plates to choose from and every package has a good assortment.

You will now create a semi-Svengali deck of paper plates. Take three non-force plates and stack them together face up. Now take the six force plates and interweave them with 5 five non-force plates. Add them to the face up stack. Add 3 more non-force plates, preferably very identifiable animals on top of the stack. Here’s a picture of what my stack looks like:

Close the stack and put a large rubber band around the plates to keep them in order.

Stuffed Animal Setup: This one’s easy. Get a stuffed animal that matches your force plates and attach a small paper tag to its neck with a rubber band. I suggest you get tags made of oaktag or other similar sturdy paper from your local office supply store. My tags are about 3”x4” and have a nice little hole already punched in them. You can decorate the tag if that’s your style. Write “My Name is” on the tag and leave plenty of room at the bottom for the name to be written in.

Paper Bag Setup: This might be tough to get the gist of so I’ve created line drawings that help clarify the workings. The bag has a slot in the back and a piece of cardboard inside to act as a writing surface. The slot should be positioned so that the tag naturally hangs lower than the slot. Put a little blob of blue tack under the slot to hold the tag steady. Here’s what I mean:

Once the bag is done place the animal in the bag and position the tag through the slot. Stick the tag in place with the blue tack and fold the bag closed.

Performance: Have the Sharpie accessible in your case so that you can write on the tag. Do not bring out the bag right away, but instead start talking about pets. Whip the kids into the frenzy that is appropriate for your performing style. Bring them back down and ask the birthday child to stand up at their seat. Ask the child if they have a pet. If so, ask what the pet’s name is. If not, ask them what kind of pet they would like if they could choose and what they would name it. Once you have the name, work your way back to your case and uncap the Sharpie with one hand. Write the first letter or two on the tag and lean back out (but with the case still obscuring view of your writing hand). Tell the kids you have an animal in the case (write a couple more letters). Finish writing the name as you play up the situation. The idea is to conceal the fact that you are writing using the byplay as misdirection. Believe it or not, you can get away with it because they don’t know what is going to happen. Once the tag is written, detach the blue tack from the tag. Give the bag a shake as you bring it out – this will draw the tag back into the bag and make the angles a lot cleaner.

Tell the kids that you couldn’t decide what kind of pet you wanted, so you need their help. Bring out the plates and show just the first couple. “See, here’s a dog, and here’s a … a … a….” The kids will fill it in. Now show a couple from the back and make sure the plates end up back in the original order. Showing the animals gives you a great opportunity for gags, puns and jokes. Have the kid come up to help you choose the animal. Hold the plates face down and start dealing plates from the top to the bottom of the stack. Move plates singly, face down, to the bottom. Give the child their instructions as you move the first non-force plates. Have them tell you to stop whenever they want. Time this so that they say stop in the force range. If you pass the force plate range, cut the rest to the bottom and start over. You can keep that up all day if the kid is being difficult. When they say stop, check for a mark to see if the top plate is a force plate. If it is, turn it up and show it. If not, flip the entire stack face up and that will be a force plate. Show that the plates on either side of the force plate are different animals and that the child chose (in my setup) a tiger.

Keep the chosen tiger plate in your hands and dump the rest into your case. Play up their decision. Tell them that you can’t possibly have a pet tiger – it won’t fit in your apartment…. You get the idea. Build it up as an impossible choice. Get the kids worked up over the tiger. Point to the paper bag that’s been sitting out and say “Well, if you choose a tiger then I guess the puppy dog in here won’t do.” Wave your wand (or whatever signifies the magic) and say the magic words. Open the bag and, with trepidation, pull out the tiger. Act relieved that it’s a stuffed animal. As you ditch the bag, notice the tag. Read the tag out loud “My name is __________.” and look at the helper kid with shock! “Why, that’s your pet’s name, too, isn’t it? I wonder how that happened! I tell you what, since you did such a good job, take _________ the Tiger as a special prize. Thanks!”

There you have it. Packs small, plays big, gives a prize to the child of your choosing, gets the kids involved and burns up to 10 minutes of time if presented with enough by-play.

Credit Where Credit is Due: The plate stack and handling was inspired by the tabloid force in John Rigg’s Procrastinating Prognosticator trick. The name on tag effect was inspired by lots of routines, including ideas by Larry Becker, Ted Lesley and Ken deCourcey. The cardboard writing surface in the bag was inspired by my favorite local Chinese restaurant that puts a sheet of cardboard in the bottom of every paper bag used for take-out.