Flight by Michael Afshin & Vortex Magic

One of my earliest loves was coin magic. In particular, I enjoy coin magic performed in parlour settings; the format of which is often seen in the form of a 3 Fly coins across type of routine. I have also released a set of gimmicked coins in a routine of mine, "Cheating on Misty".

Flight is the type of routine that I would like... if not for the quality of the props supplied. The basic routine begins on the tabletop, with a kind of matrix routine with 3 Morgan Dollars. Each of the coins are openly placed under playing cards, whereupon they magically come together under one of the cards.

The coins are then put away into the performer's pockets, and are then reproduced from the air, one after the other. After some byplay of visual translocations, vanishes and productions, the coins are again placed under their respective playing cards. However this time, when lifting the cards, the coins have completely vanished.

I was intrigued when I saw the packaging, it being a slick looking black box with silver stamping. At this price point, I was not sure what to expect, but I found myself somewhat confused when I saw the coins. They are actuallyreplicas  of Morgan Dollars. You get 3 coins, along with 2 more gimmicks to go with the set to make all the magic work.

It might be that I have been handling coins for years, but these "coins" feel weird and strange to me. It might be the weight or the finish used, but they really did not feel right in my hands. They look fine ?C which I suppose is good enough within the context of this routine; the coins are never handled by the spectators. However, at the risk of being repetitive, these feel nothing like Morgans.

The routine itself is pretty alright, although I found certain parts to look unnatural in handling, and also illogical in sequence. Still, I might be over critical as in the live footage, the lay people seemed to enjoy the routine.

All things considered, this is not a set of coins I would personally use, and I believe serious coin workers out there would already have their own set of preferred coins with which to work. If you do like the routine as it is, I am pretty sure that you would probably use your own coins, along with your own moves to produce the exact sequence of effects shown in the video.

Flight comes with online video instructions as well as the coins.