Haven't posted to often thus far, however I'd like to just say I place first in stage @ Abbott's and Magifest in 2001. The act I performed was vastly different than who I was perfoming against at that time, but that was enough to get the wins at both conventions. From those wins I learned the act was more entertaining and interesting to magicians. It did not have the effect on a lay audience I anticipated. Since then it has been back in the workshop, being changed to make it simply entertaining. As Steve mentioned before there are a lot of gold medals collecting dust. My advice to anyone is forget all about the winning. Create the act you've always wanted. Then, if you feel you want to put it up in front of your peers, you don't walk away from the competition let down because you didn't win. "Excellence does not require perfection".
Thanks
Sean Scott

It's true silent acts usually win over patter acts for some reason it seems to be a fact of life