Ruben Padilla

Share Secret Agenda – March 17 – Give It a Stab I’m getting rid of my cutting boards – this is the card stab routine I’ve been waiting for.  I’ll need to carry a Svengali deck around and I’ll have to practice my two-handed fan, but that’s a small price to pay for this genius [...]

Share Secret Agenda – March 16 – Cyclic False Shuffle I’m always on the lookout for a good full deck false shuffle. This one is great.  And it’s the first three words of this entry, “For lay audiences…” that really makes all the difference in the world.  I don’t care much about fooling magicians.  This [...]

Share Secret Agenda – March 13 – An Emotional Out I’m not sure how many of you are actually pulling down books from your shelf and looking up an item when Roberto cites an effect or sleight, but I’m being careful to follow his suggestions (and I’m fortunate to have a large library). I pulled [...]

Share Secret Agenda – March 12 – Solution for out and Quickie I like Roberto’s solution, but am not too fond of ringing in a duplicate card.  I believe him when he says just that already having it present inside the deck is a safe alternative, but I’d like the option of doing this anytime, [...]

Share Secret Agenda – March 11 – Out and Quickie And, like a good teacher should, Roberto has challenged and encouraged us to create a scenario whereby the infrequent challenge can be utilized as a procedural effect.  I should have known this was coming. Better yet, I should have challenged myself without Roberto’s prodding.

Share Secret Agenda – March 10 – A Humorous Out I wish that opportunities to use ideas like this one occurred with more frequency. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, due to strong audience management), it’s rare that a spectator challenges me to find a thought of card. Nevertheless, I wish audience members would step up and [...]

Share Secret Agenda – March 9 – Push-In The big lesson here isn’t a new and natural way to insert a card into the deck (although I like it), but rather, the way that Roberto developed this. He made himself aware of how he naturally does things, so that when the opportunity presented itself for [...]