I recently bought a used Jo-Anne the Card Duck at a local magician's swap meet, something I've always wanted! The mechanism works but it came with no alphabet cards. The card receptacle is sized to fit a standard deck of playing cards, but children relate better to alphabet cards. An online search of magic shops has not found cards specifically for this purpose. I looked in Dollar Tree, but they only have Dr. Seuss cards, which are oversized and decorated with Dr. Seuss characters. There is a local school supply store I could check. I also suppose I could make some by running some card stock through my printer, but they would not be plastic coated and might tend to stick together. Another option is to buy a blank deck of standard playing cards and print the alphabet by hand on them. Suggestions appreciated.

Another issue is that, while the mechanism works, it may not be the most fine-tuned these days. It seems to need a little help--that is guidance from my hand--to ensure it successfully picks up a card. Are there any online instructions for this prop? Better yet, is there a book on the subject? I found a routine in kid's stuff, but it involves the duck picking out a large number of cards, which I think would be pushing my luck. Maybe a routine in which only one card needs to be selected would be best.

Here's three options:

https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/playin......ns-deck/

https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/card-m......g-cards/

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/11864

The DMC Alpha deck is great and you can do many other routines with it.

Vijay

Tommy James also sells Alphabet Playing Cards:

https://tommy-james-magic-products.mysho......ng-cards

---

There's an abundant supply of ABC Flash Cards (from Creative Magic) on the used market.

Many decks are in new / unused condition. Simply post in the Buy and Sell area.

Some are standard decks, but there are also matching trick decks (as shown in the link below).

Note - you can't order from the Creative Magic website any more, but I'm providing the link so you have more info about the various decks, and so you can see what they look like.

http://www.creativemagic.net/flashcards.htm

- Donald

Something that has worked for me regarding the alphabet cards. I got a blank face deck of bicycle cards and just wrote the letters on using a big Sharpie marker. I did that when I made my alphabet cards for Chico the mind reading monkey.

Thanks for the responses. I thought of a routine for the duck that only requires a selection of one card, if others are interested. I show I have just the right cards to spell out the birthday child's name (I might even make a stand for the cards), but the last letter is missing. I shuffle the deck, and then Joanne picks out the correct card to complete the name! If I think she's up to it, I could have her pick out the wrong card twice and then the correct card on the third try.

When doing online research for routines with a card duck, remember that there are other names for it as well - educated duck, dippy duck, etc. This might help when doing a Magic Cafe thread search, or YouTube video search, magic dealer search, etc.

You mentioned Jo-anne the card duck above.

A year or two ago, my wife and I were watching an episode of "The Repair Shop" (UK show), and they repaired one of these magic props. That duck was named Mathilda.

More info on that episode here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004xh1

- Donald

About 16:16

Hopefully others can view the link Frank posted.

For me, it has a blank box, and reads:

"Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

I guess it's blocked for Canadians.

- Donald

What a great story. Thanks for sharing that link!

Of all the decks suggested above, the Tommy James Magic Products cards look like they would have the best visibility. I am in contact with the webmaster to find out if they are standard Bridge size and plastic coated. The other option is to make my own with blank cards, say with a Bicycle back. Of course, I could use two or more stripper decks and discard the printed cards, but does anyone know of a good source of blank cards?

I watched the episode of the BBC television program posted above. Very interesting! My duck, while very similar in appearance (but without the hat or kilt), seems to be slightly different in working, as there is a piece of fishing line attached to the lower beak, the tension of which causes it to open at just the right moment as the head dips downward. There is no built-in method of adjusting its tension, which means a new piece of fishing line would need to be cut and a meticulous amount of experimentation would need to be done to get it at just exactly the right length. This would require more patience than I have, so I think I will have to be happy with having the duck select just one card and my hand guiding it just a little bit!