Contents

Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Tally-Ho! à la Walton .............................................................................................................................. 4
History of the Tally-Ho Plot ................................................................................................................. 6
Discussion about the Tally-Ho Plot................................................................................................... 7
BEE! ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
NEW BICYCLE! ......................................................................................................................................... 11

Copyright © 2020 by Harapan Ong

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in
any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

www.instagram.com/harapanong

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Acknowledgements
Big thanks to Roy Walton, who first showed me the trick that made this little booklet
possible. Rest in peace.

A number of magicians have helped me with the crediting found in this book, but I’d
like to give a special shout-out to Denis Behr who helped me a lot with research into
the history of this plot.

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Introduction
In 2013, I took a little trip up to Glasgow, Scotland and visited Roy Walton in his magic
shop, Tam Shepherds.

He took out a deck of Tally-Ho playing cards and showed me a spelling trick unlike
anything I have seen before. It involved the box, the cards and a surprising location of
a four of a kind as a finale.

For some reason, it intrigued me and stayed in my mind for a long time.

On the train back to London, I began developing variations of his trick, using other
brands of playing cards that I know of. I also began developing a new presentation for
the trick so that it can entertain both magicians and laypeople.

Since then, I have discovered that what Roy had showed me was his variation of a
Henry Christ trick called “Tally-Ho!”, first published in 1971.

I will now describe, with Roy’s permission, his variation of Henry Christ’s “Tally-Ho!”
trick, which I have titled “Tally-Ho! à la Walton”.

It is very important for you to read through this trick described within the next few
pages. It will be the basis on which all other items in the booklet will be built.

Read it, try it, and most importantly, understand it.

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Tally-Ho! à la Walton
by Roy Walton & Harapan Ong

Begin by secretly controlling the four

Nines to the top of the deck. This initial
secret setup can be done before the
trick begins, or it can be done during
the trick with a Spread Cull.

While doing a few false shuffles

(keeping the four Nines on top of the
deck), explain to the audience that the
United States Playing Card Company
has devised a simple way for customers
to check if their deck of Tally-Ho
Playing Cards is a genuine Tally-Ho
deck or a counterfeit - in fact, the
instructions are all printed on the card
box itself!

Explain that the four words,

“Dougherty”, “TallyHo”, “Playing” and
“Cards” will be used to determine the authenticity of the deck. They will be spelled
and dealt into four piles (since there are four words) but they can be spelled in any
order the spectator chooses.

For example, the spectator chooses to spell the word “TallyHo” first. Begin dealing the
cards from the top of the deck face-down onto the table in a horizontal row in this
fashion: For “T”, “A”, “L” and “L”, deal a card for each letter from left to right, forming a
horizontal row of four cards. For the remaining letters “Y”, “H” and “O”, go back to the
leftmost card in the row and deal from left to right again, dealing on top of the
previously tabled cards. This should result in a horizontal row of four piles of cards –
two cards in the first, second and third pile, and one card in the fourth pile.

(For instructional purposes in the rest of the

booklet, the piles will be labelled pile 1, 2, 3 and
so on from the left to the right as a convention.
That is, the leftmost pile from the magician’s
perspective will always be pile 1, and the pile to
the right of it will always be pile 2, and so on.)

When the next word is chosen by the spectator to be spelled, always begin the spelling
and dealing from pile 1 and deal from left to right, going back to pile 1 to deal once you

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have reached pile 4. This is done for all four words, regardless of the order they are
chosen to be spelled in. Each word is spelled directly on top of the previous four piles
of cards.

(For instructional purposes, this spelling procedure described in the previous

paragraph shall be referred to as the Standard Spelling Procedure.)

Regardless of the order in which the four words are spelled, the end result after
spelling all four words will be four piles of cards on the table – pile 1 will have nine
cards, pile 2 and 3 will have seven cards and pile 4 will have five cards. The bottom
card of each pile will be a Nine that you secretly placed on top of the deck at the
beginning of the trick.

Collect the four piles back by stacking pile 1 on pile 2, and then by stacking the
combined pile of 1 and 2 on top of pile 3. Finally, place the combine pile of 1, 2 and 3 on
pile 4. In other words, you are stacking the packets on top of one another from left to
right. This procedure places the four Nines at the 9th, 16th, 23rd and 28th position in
the combined pile.

Explain that to check if the deck is genuine, simply spell the four words individually
into four piles, but this time in the order from the top to the bottom of the box
(“Dougherty”, “TallyHo”, “Playing” and “Cards”). Spell the word “Dougherty” by dealing
one card for each letter into a single pile on the left, followed by spelling “TallyHo” into
a second pile on the right of the first pile. Continue spelling “Playing” and “Cards” into
two other piles to the left of the first two piles, bringing the four Nines to the top card
of each pile on the table.

To finish, turn over the top cards of each pile to reveal the four Nines. Explain that this
is not a coincidence, but in fact how you now can be sure that this is a genuine Tally-
Ho deck. Point out the words “No. 9” on the bottom right corner of the box, showing
that the cards have produced the number printed on the box. This is the definitive
proof that the cards are indeed a real deck of Tally-Ho No. 9 Playing Cards!

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History of the Tally-Ho Plot
As mentioned in the introduction, the Tally-Ho plot, which refers to the plot of
spelling words from the card box for a trick, has its roots firmly in Henry Christ’s trick
“Tally-Ho!”, which was published in Harry Lorayne’s book Reputation-Makers, 1971.
That trick introduced the concept of spelling four words found on the standard card
box of a Tally-Ho brand of cards to locate a four of a kind - in this case, it located the
four Nines, a reference to the “No. 9” printed on the card box.

A later variation using Fox Lake Playing Cards, titled “Spell Fox Lake” was published
by Bob Mason in The Complete Magick Vol. 1, Issue 90, 1973. Fox Lake Playing Cards
were much more commonly found in commercially sold gimmicked decks in magic
shops during that time, and in this trick the four Aces are located by spelling four
words on the box.

Eight years later, Peter Marshall published a version of the same plot using Bicycle
Rider Back Playing Cards, titled “Bicycle!” in Apocalypse Vol. 4, No. 1, 1981. In this trick,
five words from the box are spelled out to locate five cards, which are then revealed to
be the Royal Flush in Spades.

Later variations on the plot include locating two different four of a kinds by spelling
the words on the box (“Tally-Ho Extended” by Harry Lorayne in Personal Collection in
2001), and even spelling four words unrelated to the card box (“Blue Collar Marriages”
by Ronald A. Wohl in M-U-M, Sep 1995, “Must To A Void” by Phil Goldstein in Genii
Magazine, Nov 1995, and “Any Deck Tally-Ho Extended” by Harry Lorayne in Genii
Magazine, Feb 2003). There is also a version that spells words found on an American
nickel (“The Nickel Knows” by Terry LaGerould in Harry Lorayne’s Best of Friends,
1982).

Roy Walton’s version of Henry Christ’s “Tally-Ho!”, described in the previous chapter,
is a small variation of the original effect. Roy has changed the number of piles the
cards are initially dealt into - Henry Christ’s version deals into five piles, while Roy’s
deals into four. This is a seemingly small but important modification, and the reason
for that will be described in the next chapter. I have simply added a different
presentation to the routine, which will be further elaborated on as well.

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Discussion about the Tally-Ho Plot
Spelling tricks often get a bad reputation for being long, boring and contrived, making
them unlikely candidates for tricks that would be found in any professional
magician’s repertoire.

For example, one could easily criticise this plot on a few points:

1. In the trick, you are spelling four to five words… twice. Doesn’t that make the
trick twice as long, and hence twice as boring?
2. The spelling procedure of distributing the cards into different packets,
collecting them up and spelling again is way too contrived and unmotivated.
3. Why are you producing the four Aces (or any four of a kind) at the end? It is a
nice little coincidence, but there is no significance to that production.

While I do not promise all the solutions to all of the problems above, I believe that
these three points boil down to one word - motivation. If we can find a way to present
the trick such that the spelling procedure and the ending revelation makes sense to
the audience, the trick will have a clear direction in the audience’s mind (making the
trick less boring), and justifies all the spelling and the production at the end.

If we look at previous versions of the plot, the most commonly used presentation for
this trick is to claim that the spelling procedure is used to “check if the deck of cards
is marked”. To me, that line of reasoning is a little too far-fetched, even for the most
gullible of spectators. In my opinion, there needs to be a better reason why you are
spelling words found on the card box itself, which might suggest a need for a tighter
link between the brand of the deck and the final revelation at the end of the trick.
Spelling through words to find out if a deck of cards is marked sounds way too
ridiculous, in my opinion.

Hence, I feel that the best versions of this trick that have been published involve the
final revelation also being linked directly to the card box itself. For example, in the
original Henry Christ trick, the final revelation involves not the four Aces or a Royal
Flush, but the four Nines, which is a very nice reference to the “No. 9” printed on the
box. It gives the routine much more motivation because by spelling the words on the
box, the result is producing cards corresponding to a number printed on the box as
well. Producing four Aces at the end would simply be a random revelation that may be
surprising, but not well-motivated.

In addition to making sure that the ending revelation is linked to the box, I feel that a
better presentational angle is also needed to justify all that spelling. My preferred way
of presenting the trick, while not perfect, is instead to offer to show your spectators a

7
foolproof system devised by playing card companies to check if your deck of cards is a
genuine or a counterfeit.

The idea for this came from a very common type of question that I personally get from
lay spectators, which include:

“Are those special cards, or can you use any normal deck?”
“Why do you use this brand of cards? Is it, like, a better quality deck for magicians?”
“How do you check if a deck of cards is considered good quality?”

I’ve discovered that a surprisingly large number of my spectators actually show

interest in the deck of cards I am using. So, I realised that this trick is perfect as a
lead-in trick to their question. For example,

“Why do you use Tally-Ho cards? Is it a better deck for magicians or something?”
“Yeah, this deck is actually printed by the United States Playing Card Company. They
have some of the best cards in the world and they just have better technology in
making their cards smoother and last longer. In fact, recently many other companies
around the world have actually been trying to produce counterfeit Tally-Ho cards.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s big business. That’s why USPCC had to introduce a simple way for
consumers to check if their deck is a genuine Tally-Ho deck. Here, let me show you…”

After the trick, when the Nines are produced, the presentation is now validated as the
cards have reproduced numbers that are printed on the card box. It makes much more
sense that the spelling procedure somehow proved that the deck is a genuine and not
a counterfeit. The whole trick coming full circle this way and being focused fully on
the link between the cards, the spelling and the words/numbers printed on the box is
much more motivated and logical.

Last but not least, another important criterion I have placed upon this plot is the
number of packets that the cards are dealt into initially. I feel that the best versions
are those that initially deal the cards into a number of packets that is equal to the
number of words used from the card box (e.g. if the magician is going to spell four
words in total, the cards should be spelled into four packets initially). For example,
Henry Christ’s “Tally-Ho!” spells four words initially into five packets, before re-
spelling them into four packets. In contrast to that, Roy Walton’s “Tally Ho!” variation
(described previously) spells four words into four packets, and Peter Marshall’s
“Bicycle!” spells five words into five packets. To me, having the number of packets
being always equal to the number of words used is a small but necessary justification,
as it makes more sense for four words to be spelled (and later-respelled) into four
packets, as opposed to spelling it into different number of packets each time.

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I will now present the methods and procedures for how the same trick can be
performed for ten other brands of playing cards on the market. With each deck, I have
attempted to make sure that the final revelation is linked to the card box in some way.

The description of the instructions will be brief, as the trick is essentially the same as
“Tally-Ho! à la Walton”, but done with a different deck of cards.

When in doubt, refer back to the trick description for “Tally-Ho! à la Walton” for details
on how to do or present the trick.

A few reminders:

The piles that are dealt out during the spelling shall always be labelled as pile 1, 2, 3
and so on from left to right, from the magician’s
perspective.

Also, please refer to the description for “Tally-Ho! à la

Walton” for the description of what the Standard
Spelling Procedure refers to.

9
 1. Secretly stack the four Aces on top
BEE! of the deck, making sure that the
Ace of Spades is the second card
from the top of the deck.

2. Carry out the Standard Spelling

Procedure, spelling the four words
“Casino”, “Quality”, “Club” and
“Special” into four piles based on
the spectator’s choices.

3. Collect the packets by

simultaneously placing pile 3 onto
pile 1, and pile 4 onto pile 2.
Finally, place the combined pile of
1 and 3 onto the combined pile of 2
and 4.

4. Re-spell the four words in their

proper order as found on the card
box, each word now forming its
own pile. Start dealing from the
left and end with dealing the last
packet on the right. The last card
of the re-spelling is revealed to be
the Ace of Spades, with the word
“Bee” printed on the card.

5. Point out the word “Bee” and link it

to the card box, explaining that
this is how you can be sure your
deck is a genuine Bee deck.
Replace the Ace of Spades on the
rightmost packet.

6. Finally, reveal the other three Aces

on top of the other three packets
as a bonus kicker finale,
explaining that this is why the Bee
deck is preferred by gamblers and
casinos worldwide!

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 1. Secretly stack the Ace of Spades,
NEW BICYCLE! any two Eights and a Five on top of
the deck, in the following order
from the top: Five, Ace of Spades,
Eight, Eight, and then the rest of
the deck.

2. Carry out the Standard Spelling

Procedure, spelling the four words
“Bicycle”, “Playing”, “Cards” and
“Standard” into four piles based on
the spectator’s choices.

3. Collect the packets firstly by

placing pile 2 onto pile 3. Place the
combined pile of 2 and 3 onto pile
4. Finally, place the combined pile
of 2, 3 and 4 onto pile 1.

4. Re-spell the four words in their

proper order as found on the card
box, each word now forming its
own pile. Start dealing from the
right and end with dealing the last
packet on the left.

5. Turn over the top cards of each

pile, starting from the right and
ending on the left to reveal the
numbers Ace, Eight, Eight and Five
in order.

6. Finally, point out the phrase

“Trusted Since 1885” printed on the
front of the box, emphasizing that
the year 1885 corresponds to the
cards revealed on each packet on
the table! This goes to show that
the deck you are using is indeed a
genuine Bicycle deck, trusted
since 1885!

11
Final Note
I have simply presented some decks I have discovered that have this cool spelling
feature in-built into its card box.

It is now up to you to discover other decks out there that have this feature too.

Grab some decks from your collection, from your local shop, or maybe have a look at
the deck in your hands right now - you might have a pleasant surprise when you
discover that there is a spelling trick built in it!

I hope you have enjoyed this little booklet of mine, and I wish you all the best in your
journey in the magical arts.

Harapan Ong
2020

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