Chicken Shit Bingo!

Chicken Shit Bingo is a Sunday afternoon tradition at The Little Longhorn Saloon, and it's one of those Austin things that's hard to explain until you've actually seen it. The premise is as simple as it sounds: a chicken is let loose on a numbered grid, and whichever square she lands on wins. The house band calls the winning number, and the winner heads up on stage to collect. It's a distinctly Texan oddity, and the Little Longhorn bills itself as the original home of the game, having run it for more than four decades.

The venue sits right in the middle of Austin's honky-tonk scene, with live music six nights a week and more than 600 bands playing throughout the year. The game has its own following, and the crowd gets into it—people cheer and even mimic animal sounds to encourage the chicken along. The prize changes from week to week, and regulars will tell you that most people don't really come for the winnings. The whole thing has a quirky, eccentric reputation that's caught the attention of more than a few: The Daily Texan's award-winning video department has covered it, and the PBS series Wild Travels featured the show. A second chicken was brought out later to join the first, so there's a bit more going on out there now than there was in the beginning.

It runs every Sunday from 4 PM to 8 PM at The Little Longhorn Saloon, 5434 Burnet Road, Austin, Texas 78756. Entry is a $2 donation per person in cash, and you get one ticket per person. Since it's a Sunday afternoon thing, it's easy to drop in for a few hours and see the chicken do her thing.