Dying for his magic isn’t something Dynamo intends to do, but that’s not to say he couldn’t see a morbid upside. “I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t put myself in that position,” he says.
“But if I went out that way then obviously it’s good for the legacy. I like to put the art first. I take calculated risks.”
Such as when he walked down the side of the LA Times building, apparently unaided.
“If it hadn’t worked I would have died because it was, like, eight storeys high,” he said when we met backstage at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, where he’s just performed in front of more than 4000 people.
Born Steven Frayne on a Bradford estate to an English mother and a father with Pakistani roots, Dynamo, 33, has a reputation for pulling off spectacular stunts.
He was crossing the River Thames on foot when the police intercepted him in front of gathering crowds, and he has levitated above the London Shard (“the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life”).
His has been an extraordinary rise from rags to riches which, thanks to his talent and a growing self-belief, he has achieved against the odds.
His mother, who had him when she was 17, could little afford to keep him in the latest schoolyard fashions on her modest hairdresser’s salary, and he didn’t meet his father, who spent time in jail, until he was 18.
“My mum’s partners and I didn’t always see eye to eye,” he says in his Yorkshire accent. “One of them was quite racist and never accepted me as his stepchild.”
His mother did her best to give him a comfortable life, he says, but he moved in with his great-grandparents when he was 15.
“We’ve got a good relationship,” he says of her. “But because she was young it was almost like we were amazing friends. I don’t remember her tucking me into bed at night or reading me stories.”
On stage, Dynamo is able to work a huge crowd with his charismatic brand of magic; sitting next to me now, though, he cuts a diminutive figure.
He suffers from Crohn’s disease and weighs just more than 48kg. His slight size didn’t help at school, where he was called a “Paki”, even though he had assumed his father was white, like his mother.
Bigger boys would take him up a hill, put him in a wheelie bin and roll it to the bottom. Terrifyingly, for a child who couldn’t swim, he was also thrown into a reservoir; that was the moment he first wished he could walk on water.
This story of childhood trauma is woven into Dynamo’s live show through graphics projected on to a screen; he’s dedicated the current tour to his late great-grandfather, the man who introduced him to magic as a small boy by making matchsticks disappear, and who taught him to make himself so heavy that he became impossible for bullies to pick up.
“I couldn’t believe it worked,” he says. “They ran away and thought I was a bit of a demon child.”
After dropping out of art and design college, Dynamo spent a year travelling round the US, intent on honing his skills with magicians in Las Vegas and beyond. He was such a fast learner, he was invited to perform in New York at an event commemorating Houdini. When an audience member shouted out, “This kid’s a dynamo”, his stage name was coined.
His inflammatory bowel condition means he survives on a diet of grilled chicken, mashed potato, vitamin injections and juices.
Aged 19, he was admitted to hospital for six months and nearly died. But while there, his resolve to become a professional magician hardened, and he drew up a business plan.
With help from friends and a £2000 (R47534) start-up loan from the Prince’s Trust, Dynamo sought YouTube stardom. He blagged his way backstage at events and tried out his magic on famous names.
Snoop Dogg, Coldplay and Gwyneth Paltrow all appeared on his first DVD. Channel 4 made a documentary about him in 2006, and Watch, a Sky channel he’d never heard of, offered him his own show.
Dynamo remains as delighted by magic as he was when his great-grandfather first induced in him a sense of wonder.
“For me, magic is a feeling, an emotion,” he says. “It’s in all of us, but it’s brought out when you witness something that to you is impossible – an out-of-this world experience. It’s that rush of excitement you get when you’re brought back to a childlike state of mind where things happen in the world that you just don’t quite understand.”
“As we get older, we become skeptical and we think we know how everything’s done, but magic gives you the ability to make you forget and think like a child again.”
His enthusiasm has helped to weave live magic performances back into the mainstream of popular culture. Thanks in part to the success of the American magician David Blaine and British illusionist Derren Brown, there is a West End appetite for shows such as The Illusionists and Impossible.
Until very recently, though, the idea of appearing in front of giant audiences horrified Dynamo. “I was scared of it. But I know I’ve got the ability to take over a room when I perform magic. It’s been quite a difficult journey to get to the point where I can go out there and not be embarrassed. Now, when I go on stage, I feel like these people are coming into my house.” — The Daily Telegraph
Magic made mainstream
“But if I went out that way then obviously it’s good for the legacy. I like to put the art first. I take calculated risks.”
Such as when he walked down the side of the LA Times building, apparently unaided.
“If it hadn’t worked I would have died because it was, like, eight storeys high,” he said when we met backstage at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, where he’s just performed in front of more than 4000 people.
Born Steven Frayne on a Bradford estate to an English mother and a father with Pakistani roots, Dynamo, 33, has a reputation for pulling off spectacular stunts.
He was crossing the River Thames on foot when the police intercepted him in front of gathering crowds, and he has levitated above the London Shard (“the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life”).
His has been an extraordinary rise from rags to riches which, thanks to his talent and a growing self-belief, he has achieved against the odds.
His mother, who had him when she was 17, could little afford to keep him in the latest schoolyard fashions on her modest hairdresser’s salary, and he didn’t meet his father, who spent time in jail, until he was 18.
“My mum’s partners and I didn’t always see eye to eye,” he says in his Yorkshire accent. “One of them was quite racist and never accepted me as his stepchild.”
His mother did her best to give him a comfortable life, he says, but he moved in with his great-grandparents when he was 15.
“We’ve got a good relationship,” he says of her. “But because she was young it was almost like we were amazing friends. I don’t remember her tucking me into bed at night or reading me stories.”
On stage, Dynamo is able to work a huge crowd with his charismatic brand of magic; sitting next to me now, though, he cuts a diminutive figure.
He suffers from Crohn’s disease and weighs just more than 48kg. His slight size didn’t help at school, where he was called a “Paki”, even though he had assumed his father was white, like his mother.
Bigger boys would take him up a hill, put him in a wheelie bin and roll it to the bottom. Terrifyingly, for a child who couldn’t swim, he was also thrown into a reservoir; that was the moment he first wished he could walk on water.
This story of childhood trauma is woven into Dynamo’s live show through graphics projected on to a screen; he’s dedicated the current tour to his late great-grandfather, the man who introduced him to magic as a small boy by making matchsticks disappear, and who taught him to make himself so heavy that he became impossible for bullies to pick up.
“I couldn’t believe it worked,” he says. “They ran away and thought I was a bit of a demon child.”
After dropping out of art and design college, Dynamo spent a year travelling round the US, intent on honing his skills with magicians in Las Vegas and beyond. He was such a fast learner, he was invited to perform in New York at an event commemorating Houdini. When an audience member shouted out, “This kid’s a dynamo”, his stage name was coined.
His inflammatory bowel condition means he survives on a diet of grilled chicken, mashed potato, vitamin injections and juices.
Aged 19, he was admitted to hospital for six months and nearly died. But while there, his resolve to become a professional magician hardened, and he drew up a business plan.
With help from friends and a £2000 (R47534) start-up loan from the Prince’s Trust, Dynamo sought YouTube stardom. He blagged his way backstage at events and tried out his magic on famous names.
Snoop Dogg, Coldplay and Gwyneth Paltrow all appeared on his first DVD. Channel 4 made a documentary about him in 2006, and Watch, a Sky channel he’d never heard of, offered him his own show.
Dynamo remains as delighted by magic as he was when his great-grandfather first induced in him a sense of wonder.
“For me, magic is a feeling, an emotion,” he says. “It’s in all of us, but it’s brought out when you witness something that to you is impossible – an out-of-this world experience. It’s that rush of excitement you get when you’re brought back to a childlike state of mind where things happen in the world that you just don’t quite understand.”
“As we get older, we become skeptical and we think we know how everything’s done, but magic gives you the ability to make you forget and think like a child again.”
His enthusiasm has helped to weave live magic performances back into the mainstream of popular culture. Thanks in part to the success of the American magician David Blaine and British illusionist Derren Brown, there is a West End appetite for shows such as The Illusionists and Impossible.
Until very recently, though, the idea of appearing in front of giant audiences horrified Dynamo. “I was scared of it. But I know I’ve got the ability to take over a room when I perform magic. It’s been quite a difficult journey to get to the point where I can go out there and not be embarrassed. Now, when I go on stage, I feel like these people are coming into my house.” — The Daily Telegraph
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