Thursday, 29 September 2011

Street Magician Dynamo :

The last man to cause me to open my mouth as wide as it was on Tuesday is still the subject of a legal injunction; but this was an altogether cleaner affair.

I saw remarkable street magician Dynamo perform at the launch of the Panasonic TA1 handheld camcorder and it was a revelation; a welcome relief after withstanding so many formulaic press shows where some shockjock works a crowd; there but for the free booze.


A wizard with a deck of cards, you may have seen Dynamo perform on his recent webseries DynamoTV or on Soccer AM where his tricks are the show’s most watched videos on their YouTube channel.

The Bradford magician has been completing his run of DynamoTV – a web series (sponsored by Panasonic hence his appearance at the launch of their TA1) - where he takes his brand of gonzo trickery to his celebrity admirers and continues to challenge perceptions. His 720 degree spinning hand trick was enough to put me off my canapé at least.

The swarming media ranks ensured I didn’t get a word with him – real name Steven Frayne – until the following day before he takes a hiatus over his birthday and Christmas.

“I’m getting old now but because I’m magical I’m saying I’m 1001 years old.. I’m like Robert Pattinson I don’t age… and I’m very handsome.” He says.


Dynamo has been doing magic professionally now for over ten years, since his college days as an art and design student.

“I used magic to pay for the tuition, but it ended up taking over the college work and I was offered the chance to tour America to do magic all over the States.

“I went over there and I probably wasn’t ready but the whole American trip – I spent a year out there – was enough to help me hone my skills, I was performing every night all over the place.

“During that time I created a plan of action for coming back to the UK – how to take what I’d learned out there and bring it back home.”

Since landing back in the UK he has made Little Britain star Matt Lucas levitate in front of a crowd at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and performed a levitation trick for BBC1 Sport Relief.

His appearance on Soccer AM was a breakwater – the videos on the show’s YouTube channel are close to 100,000 views.

He has gathered a host of A-List contacts including 50 Cent, Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg as his show and skills have increased in consistency and profile. This so-called Underground Magic has routines spliced with, and steeped in, ultra cool and chic gorilla art, music, street dancing, base-running as post-modern pursuits and as such has earned him a reputation as a sharp and cutting edge icon; fronting commercials for Adidas and Nokia.

Growing up on Bradford’s Delph Hill Estate – one of the more deprived schemes in the area, and we realise Dynamo’s entry to magic was born from necessity – not desire.

“It was my grandpa who originally got me into it. It wasn’t like older family members showing you little magic tricks; it was different. I had some trouble with a couple of guys who I grew up with – I had no choice they lived on my street – and every day after school they’d wait for me, put me in a wheelie bin and throw me down the hill.

“My mum didn’t realise these guys were bullying me and she’d send me to school with them every day because they were a bit older than me – I eventually told my grandpa about it and he taught me how to take away their strength so they couldn’t put me in that wheelie bin and roll me down the hill. I got into it as a defence mechanism and to take the attention away from me.

“From that I learned other techniques and over the years I gradually took these techniques and created performance art from it.”

Hard to believe that someone can disarm the advances of two bullies by some simple defence techniques but in a recent episode of DynamoTV, he demonstrated his skill with DJ Whoo Kid, rendering the G-Unit rapper’s considerable biceps redundant as he tried to lift the very lightweight magician.

The Dynamo TV series comes to an end this month and has proved reliable currency for career and kudos for the Yorkshireman. His contacts book, personality and demand has increased no end across an edgy corner of culture.

“The last two episodes have been put on 50 Cent’s blog on thisis50.com, that’s one of the biggest hip hop sites in America so it’s getting well received and I think as well with all the different people we’ve had on the series it’s quite a good mix.

“You’ve got different sides of the spectrum like Keith Lemon – for that one it was very hard to keep a straight face; to keep the magic serious.

“Then you’ve got Dan Gold a very well respected tattoo artist. We try to make the magic fit the personality or the type of venue we’re in. For Dan Gold we did it in a tattoo parlour.

To be honest my favourite piece of magic I’ve done to date – even though it’s a small thing – was the Tinie Tempah album cover. Tinie never really shows his eyes but on film I got him to get his album out and got him to show to the camera what his eyes looked like, then I on the album itself I took two fingers and put them over his eyes and removed his glasses without opening the case or anything. It’s one of my favourite moments from the DynamoTV shoot so far.

"His reaction was crazy, I think he’s still got the album cover framed."

To my perhaps ignorant mind, some of these tricks are reminiscent of early David Blaine when he was first aired, taking street level magic to a mainstream audience. The illusions can emulate Blaine: his levitation trick; his undeniable skill with cards; and wrapping the package in an ultra-cool art, music and imagery chic way of gathering more disciples in every town.

Lazy comparison perhaps but is there some Blainery in his Dynamism?

“We both came up performing on the streets. Without his shows getting aired on television it wouldn’t have been easy to get my stuff out there. Having David out there showed that it works; the format works. It’s hard to break down barriers and open doors but he opened them for me.

“He (Blaine) follows me on Twitter, I’ve met him a few times – he’s a genius. You have to be a little bit odd and they say most geniuses are a bid mad. Some of the things he’s put his body through; he must have gone a little nuts in the process. Your body can’t endure that much. In a block of ice; on a pole for three days; being in London in a box with the local London hooligans around you – that’s enough to send you a bit crazy right?
“I don’t look at him as an inspiration more with an admiration. I try do my own thing. He brought magic into the 20 century I’m trying to take it into the 21st century.”

He’s being tight lipped as we enter the next chapter of the 21st century, with promises of more YouTube magic shows and ‘secret projects’ he cheekily plugs his Twitter and blog address so we can stay abreast.

“If I can make it possible – and that’s my job to make the impossible possible – some of the things I’ve got in my head that I want to do maybe next years or 2012 will be the defining moment (of his career) but some of the things I’ve done like the Tinie Tempah album cover and a thing called The Matrix which is levitation based on Keanu Reeves’ bullet dodge in the Matrix film.”

The trick is available on Dynamo’s YouTube channel, mysteriously monikered Krakatowa9 which has had well in excess of 1m hits and in his opening showreel, quotes testimonials from Will Smith and Gwyneth Paltrow before he freaks Pharrell out beautifully with his chain-through-neck trick.

Dynamo decided he wanted to become a professional magician as he lay on a hospital bed having nearly died from an organ-abcess following his breakthrough tour of America.

“In the States you get a lot of Hip Hop DVD mix tapes so I came back and wanted to make the first magic mix tape DVD because my clips on YouTube clips were getting a lot of interest. I got my start up loan and bought a laptop with a DVD recorder, bought a camcorder and bought loads of tickets to events and went on this mad mission.

But half way through I ended up in hospital so I was out of action for six months. Before hospital it was still on the verge of being a hobby. I was still doing part time stuff – I was working in a video shop but hospital gave me a lot of time to think. I thought ‘if I died’ – which I actually nearly did – ‘what would people remember me for; what would be my legacy?’

“Magic was my passion and the one thing that gives me the opportunity to leave that legacy.”

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