Magician Dynamo reflects on fight for life with Crohn’s disease after suffering ‘severe’ coronavirus symptoms
HE has performed to 750,000 people during a live tour, sold out London’s O2 arena, counts Brad Pitt and Justin Bieber among his fans and has wowed TV audiences with his brand of intimate close-up magic and mesmerising big-budget stunts.
But all that came crashing down around Dynamo’s ears in the summer of 2017 when he suffered such a serious flare up of his Crohn’s disease that he feared for both his life and his livelihood.
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After a two-year battle to regain his health, Dynamo – real name Steven Frayne – makes a triumphant return to our screens this week in Beyond Belief, his first all-magic TV show since Magician Impossible ended in 2014.
Having suffered from Crohn’s since his teenage years – he had half of his stomach removed at the age of 17 – the 37 year old is used to managing pain and discomfort, but as he sits down for an interview with TV Mag during our exclusive photo shoot, Dynamo reveals that he’s never felt worse than when he got a bout of food poisoning three years ago.
“The easiest way to sum up Crohn’s is to imagine an open wound on your hand, but inside your tummy, and every time you eat it’s like rubbing dirt into that wound,” he explains.
“Obviously some food is dirtier than others and it can cause your tummy to bleed, so it’s a wound that never quite heals up.
"I don’t want to sound too disgusting, but with this food poisoning, there was a lot of stuff coming out everywhere. You know like in Family Guy when they vomit? It was like that, but blood.
"It was 4am and my wife rushed me to hospital. I could tell it was something to do with the Crohn’s, but when I got to hospital the highest dosage of morphine wasn’t even touching the sides. It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
He ended up facing a five-week stretch in hospital, much of it in isolation because doctors were unsure whether he was contagious or at risk from other people.
“I’m very comfortable in my own company because I was always left alone when I was on my estate in Bradford growing up – my dad was in jail and my mum wasn’t always around,” shares Dynamo.
“My imagination became my best friend then. So when I was in isolation in the hospital, after getting over the burden of thinking: ‘Am I ever going to perform again?’ I started to create loads of crazy magic. I’m not going to lie, I was definitely high on the medication the doctors were giving me!”
That stay in hospital wasn’t the end of Dynamo’s suffering, however. After he was discharged, he developed reactive arthritis, and was put on an extremely high dose of steroids to treat his swollen and painful joints. That resulted in his whole body puffing up, creating what he describes as a “moonface”, and pictures surfaced that shocked his fans.
“My appearance was changing and it was getting harder to hide that I wasn’t the same old Steven that people knew,” he says. “I didn’t want to be defined by my illness and I didn’t want to burden people with my problems.
"But when some images came out I decided to make a video on Instagram explaining to people the real story behind them. The outpouring of support I got spurred me on.
"But it was also quite funny because I never thought I would see in my Instagram comments people calling me fat – I thought it was hilarious because I have always been the skinny kid. I was sending the pig emoji to all of my friends!”
The 37-year-old magician revealed he has been battling "severe" coronavirus symptoms.
He is considered a high risk for the deadly illness because of Crohn's disease.
While Dynamo admits that he’s still only at 85 per cent fitness and is in hospital every other week for powerful infusions of medicine that helps keep his arthritis and Crohn’s at bay, he’s determined to turn what he describes as his darkest days into something positive.
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“It’s very easy to wallow in the sickness, especially when you feel like you’re losing everything that’s important around you,” he reflects. “Not being able to perform magic, for me, I didn’t see the point in being alive. It’s my identity. But it caused me to find myself in a different way. And I’ve definitely taken my disabilities and turned them into superpowers.
“Beyond Belief has definitely been the hardest I’ve ever had to work to create something, but it’s come from such a personal place. I genuinely think this is the best magic I have ever done. I want to show people I’m back. This is only the beginning of the return of Dynamo…”