Piff the Magic Dragon der Put credits Fay Presto for enabling him to become a professional magician. Jobs included restaurant close-up performances for tables of diners; cruise ship work; and corporate work including "product launches, PR stunts, tradeshows and internal presentations" for global companies. In 2008, he created the stage persona of Piff the Magic Dragon (a spoof of Puff, the Magic Dragon), dressing in a green, red and yellow dragon costume, with self-deprecating humour and deadpan delivery. He is assisted by "Mr. Piffles", a chihuahua in a matching dragon costume. The character was created by happenstance, when van der Put was the only
Puff, the Magic Dragon at Cornell. He used Yarrow's typewriter to get the poem out of his head. He then forgot about it until years later, when a friend called and told him Yarrow was looking for him, to give him credit for the lyrics. On making contact Yarrow gave Lipton half the songwriting credit, and he still gets royalties from the song. In an effort to be gender-neutral, Yarrow now sings the line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" as "A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys." The original poem also had a stanza that was not