Dynamo performed magic as a kid to thugs on tough estate who’d have battered him if he was no good
HE has levitated over the tallest building in Britain and walked on the Thames — but now Dynamo is taking on the world’s most powerful man.
The UK’s top magician is using his skills to pass through Donald Trump’s controversial wall between Mexico and the US.
Bradford-born Dynamo says his tough upbringing on one of the most deprived areas in England means he is not afraid of anybody — not even the perma-tanned President.
The 37-year-old trickster — real name Steven Frayne — said: “Growing up in the Delph Hill Estate, I performed magic to ruffians who would have battered me if I got it wrong. It’s put me in good stead.
“When I’m creating magic the agenda is to create the most amazing thing. It’s not political. I have to be fearless in order to attempt these things. It’s not exactly like I asked for anyone’s permission.”
Trump was actually the least of Dynamo’s worries during the making off his new three-part Sky One series Beyond Belief. He was alone as he entered Mexico, leaving him vulnerable to drug gangs who might kidnap him.
Dynamo revealed: “It was very risky. The area I crossed into is just on the outskirts of Juarez which has high cartel activity. It was very daunting. I had to try and get to a certain meeting point.
“All the camera crew was left in America. I think the adrenaline helped me keep going. It’s probably one of the riskiest things I’ve ever attempted, but I’m so glad that I did it.”
The magician’s new series is a staggering turnaround after he was left fighting for his life in 2017. He had become the first illusionist to sell out three nights at London’s O2 Arena when a bout of food poisoning led to arthritis and left him in hospital for almost six months.
Since he was a teen, Dynamo has lived with Crohn’s disease — a condition which affects the digestive system and leaves sufferers in extreme pain. But his new health battle looked like it might end his career.
Doctors told him that they were not sure he would ever hold a pack of cards again, let alone tour the world. He said: “Magic is the thing I love more than anything else. I didn’t want to give it up.
“But it was touch and go wherever I would be able to perform again. The doctors said that they weren’t sure if they could find any medicine or anything that would clear up the arthritis.
“I’ve had Crohn’s for many years, so I knew how to deal with that in some respects, but with the arthritis it was something completely new. And I’d relied so much on my skills and my dexterity over the years, so I did take it for granted.”
His new series opens with the chilling 999 call from his wife Kelly asking for an ambulance after he started coughing up blood. It was later in hospital, during a series of dreams triggered by the morphine given to him for the pain, that Dynamo first conceived the tricks that feature in the programme.
He said: “I still had my mind. I knew I had magic in me, irrespective of whether or not I could physically perform it myself or not. I just had to try and find a new way to put it out there and actually started to develop it while I was in a hospital bed.”
One of Dynamo’s incredible sequences sees him drive a taxi blindfold backwards through the streets of Moscow.
He says: “The police pulled us over and there was very loud shouting going on between our translator and the police. If you’re a policeman and you see that happening on the road, you’re going to pull them over. It was inevitable it would happen. We were lucky that we managed to drive around as much as we did before it happened.”
But the incident didn’t end with Dynamo in a Russian jail cell. He chuckled: “Luckily they managed to sort it all out. It turns out my show Magician Impossible had been very popular in Russia. They understood who we were and we were filming a programme. They were kind of excited.”
But a stint in prison is not far from where Dynamo predicts he might have ended up had he not been introduced to magic as a child by his beloved great-grandfather.
Former serviceman Kenneth Walsh became his role model and taught him the tricks he had learned while in the navy during World War Two.
The eldest of four children, Dynamo was brought up by his mother Nicky Goodwin after his dad, who died in 2015, walked out on the family.
Dynamo said: “He went to jail when I was four years old so I didn’t really get to see him. If I followed in his footsteps or his friends that were still around I could have ended up following his path which wouldn’t have been ideal.
“When I go back to Bradford now, it saddens me in some respects. I see people still doing the same job that they were doing when I left over 20 years ago, and I’m not discrediting them.
"It doesn’t matter what job you do, if you’re earning a living for your family and providing that, you’re doing a good job, and I’m not belittling anybody by saying that I just say, I think I could quite easily have fallen into that trap of, you know, not necessarily expanded my horizons.”
He now hopes, that after six years off the telly after his medical battles, this means he can get back to where he wants to be, performing to millions.
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He said: “I had so many people in Bradford, telling me I was a madman when I was jumping on trains to London to try and make a career of magic. It took me ten years to get Magic Impossible on TV, to get people to take this seriously. And then you know it’s been six years off of TV for me to come back.
“I’ve learned that patience is a virtue, and you can’t rush these things. And I’m so thankful that I stuck to my guns and I’ve continued to do what I love. And I’m so lucky that I’m able to continue doing it. And hopefully, this is just the beginning of the next chapter.”
- All episodes of Dynamo: Beyond Belief are available on Sky box sets and NOW TV.
Reality shows don't do the trick
DYNAMO hopes he can inspire a new generation of magicians – but says he is not convinced going on a reality show is the way to make it.
In three of the last four years, a magician has been in the top three of Britain’s Got Talent – with Richard Jones winning the show in 2016.
But Dynamo says he thinks show creates “flash in the pan” overnight successes, who then quickly disappear.
He said: “On the talent shows like Britain’s Got Talent, there’s been a few magicians that have won but they haven’t really necessarily had the staying power to live outside of the bubble of it.
“So I think it’s very hard to come out of those reality shows, and survive on your own. The show creates a star that lasts a year, and then they create another star that lasts a year, and you know it’s like it’s like a conveyor belt. It almost takes advantage of the talented people.”
Dynamo made it by getting a grant from the Prince’s Trust, buying a camera and starting a YouTube channel before he was commissioned for TV.
He added: “If you went into schools now and ask a child, ‘What do you want to be when you’re older?’. Back in the day, they might have said, ‘I want to be a lawyer when I’m older, you know, or a policeman’. You ask people now, ‘I want to be famous’. ‘Yeah, OK, but famous for what?’
“If you’re passionate about something, then don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t kind of work or happen overnight for you, you know, the long road to success is often going to put you in better stead than being that flash in the pan, get you 15 minutes of fame.”
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