10 minutes.

How long does it take you to do an effect, how fast can you do it, how long can you drag it out. This is something I have never thought of before and now it looks kind of important. I got on to the idea after reading a challenge to give a ten minute interesting monologue. My response was ten minutes, there nothing that would take me ten minutes to talk about. I've always felt that most subjects could be summed up in a sentence or two, which is good for a conversation as it gives others a chance to ramble. But it's not so good when you have to entertain a room full of people with little more than the sound of one's voice. Now as a magician on stage various lengths of effect is a strength especially if you can use the time differences effectively to achieve a good pacing. But my goal is to be an MC and there may be times where I have to entertain the crowd for five minutes while the next performer is searching for a shoe. The advice I saw on this point was along the lines of "Get them to applaud the last performer, get them to applaud the stage kittens, get them to applaud the venue, remind them of the merchandise table and then do some entertaining for the next four and a half minutes." Now I'm thinking beyond the cups and balls I don't really know any effect that would take me more than a minute and a half if I drug it out as long as possible. Most of them being unsuitable for the situation anyway. Not only do I need an effect that can be drug out for a while but it needs to be able to be wrapped up quickly in case it only takes three minutes to find the shoe, can't put the whole show off by two minutes just so I can do some magic. Actually I think I own something that may be just right, it's been collecting dust because when I got it, I found that it was too far beyond my skill level to attempt, if I can fit it in with my MC character I think I may have to focus on those skills for a bit.