Every year the Magic Castle in Hollywood, Ca hosts a strolling contest for it's members. The contest basically goes like this: Spend 5 mins at each table. try to hit every table possible in the allotted time (i believe the total time is 2 hours.) Each table then choses who to vote for at the end and the top 3 magicians place. The judges consist of a mix of guests and magicians.

This is my first competition so I am not sure how to approach the situation. I have asked a couple of competitors and they have given me some good advice on the outline I should use to hit each table, but now I am curious about the content.

Here is my problem. 95% of the magic that I perform is heavily based on setup and storytelling. I can crank out some good visual pieces however they are most powerful when built up. With the 5 min crunch I will have to cut a lot of the fluff out. So I have 2 options:

1. Perform my own original pieces and cut the fluff and water them down to fit as much in during the allotted time

OR

2. perform more commercially available magic that hits hard and gets good reactions and sacrifice originality.

Anyone have any advice on this matter? I would love to perform original pieces. However my current act is a hybrid of points 1 and 2 (open with finger ring magic, then go into "Ninja +" by matthew garrett. End with my pokemon card to pokeberry effect.) this is just under 5 mins when performed at normal tempo so this set works as far as time crunch. However I am not sure how the lasting impression will have on the audience. Will the guy next to me who crammed 39 visual effects do better than me? Or will my originality with the pokemon cards and the slick sleight of hand with the finger ring impress them more?

How'd your act go? What's your Pokémon card to poke berry? That sounds cool. Is it something you have released? I'm performing a show on Saturday where they want it Pokémon themed. I said I'd try, so I'm searching the Café for inspiration. Any ideas?