One of the world’s top magicians, Dynamo has spooked everyone from Noel Fielding to Pharrell, and now he’s taking to the stage to blow the country’s minds. Luke Owain Boult speaks with him about the nature of magic, bullying, and whether he’s a wizard or an alien.
“I think it’s about 62 times a day,” laughs Dynamo when I ask him how often he gets asked if he’s a wizard or an alien, “They ask me all the time!” Dynamo is a man (or so he says) with a spectacular gift. Not only is he one of the most gifted magicians on the planet, and likely of all time, he has an incredible passion for what he does. I wanted to find out how he first got into magic: “My grandpa got me into it. But when he first started showing me magic, I wasn’t interested in performing it myself. It was just something that my grandpa would do and I was blown away by it. But then, when I was at school I had a bit of a hard time. These kids used to bully me. They’d pick me up and put me inside wheelie bins and push me down hills, that sort of thing. When my grandpa picked me up from school one day he saw what happened and he taught me a technique to take away people’s strength, which meant that they couldn’t pick me up anymore. I tried it the next day and it worked. That was my first ever time performing magic and it was a defence mechanism, not a performance piece. Then at school there were rumours going around saying that I was like some demon child because I’d managed to take the bullies strength away. My grandpa thought it was quite funny so he showed me more things that would scare people away.”
The way in which Dynamo speaks so openly about his experiences with bullying is humbling, and it led me to want to know what advice he had for people being bullied today: “In this day and age you have cyber bullying which didn’t exist when I was a kid. Now you can’t even be online without it and it’s horrible. One of the worst things I did, and one of the worst things you can do, is not tell people. It wasn’t until I told my grandpa about the bullying and he realised what was going on that had been going on that he managed to find a way to get me out of that situation. Speaking up and not being afraid to talk about it is the first step to moving forward and moving on from it in a way. Don’t feel embarrassed by it because it happens to a lot of people. The more we talk about it, the more we can stop it.”
I wanted to know what it was like to be a master magician; did it take the magic out of something you truly love? I asked whether being a magician took the magic out of seeing other magicians perform: “I definitely have an idea on certain things but it’s different with true masters, like David Copperfield and Derren Brown. Even for me it’s very difficult, sometimes I’m fooled and blown away by what they do. I’m always looking for a performance that’s going to amaze me again and remind me of that feeling that I had when I first saw my grandpa do magic all those years ago. It’s not necessarily about what they’re doing, it’s the emotion that they create when performing. Obviously, I’m a magician so I can probably work out a lot of the magic but seeing how they present it and how they perform it is what I really look forward to and that’s the bit that can often blow your mind. It’s like when you look at a musical performer, like when you watch Michael Jackson, he was magical because he was such an amazing performer.”
Dynamo, like the great musicians he talks about, is an ever evolving entertainer and showman, and is taking to the stage in his first ever live theatre tour: “When I first embarked on this crazy tour idea, I was very nervous and kind of apprehensive and, well crapping myself. But I’ve done 55 shows now, and since I did the first five, I enjoyed it so much that I look forward to going on stage every night. It was hard for me making this transition from TV because I didn’t want to lose any intimacy. I’ve always seen myself as that guy who’s just like everybody else, but blows your mind. I didn’t want to lose that when going on stage. I was never able to go on stage when I was younger, it had never really been a desire of mine and it’s always something that I’ve been scared of. But then over the past few years, I wanted a new challenge in my life. It’s a major achievement for me. If you come to the show, you have to be prepared to get involved. It’s a fully interactive show. There’s moments where every single member of the audience is involved, doing magic at the same time.”
With a new found love of live performance, I wanted to know if he was planning to return to our screens: “I’ve been doing a lot of TV spots for the tour itself as well. I’d love to do more television, but I’m not going to be doing any more Magician: Impossible, that section of my magical career is done with.” What strikes many about Dynamo is his imagination with illusions, and he seems eager to push boundaries. With such a busy schedule, I wanted to know how he had to time to work on creating new illusions: “I get a lot of inspiration from seeing a special effect in a movie and thinking ‘that would be cool to do live, without the use of special effects’. I get so much inspiration from film. I’ve also been performing magic for about 20 years now, so my mind now works where it’s constantly getting ideas and getting inspiration. I’ll be out with my friends and they’ll say ‘can you do magic with our phones’ or ‘can you magic up that girl’s phone number’. They’re always challenging me and getting me to try things and often I end up getting pictures in my head. That’s where the phone in a bottle came from. I was in a bar in Bradford, and I put someone’s coin, a 50p, into a bottle. After seeing that, someone says ‘can you put my phone in a bottle?’ I said ‘well not sure to be honest’. But I went away and thought about it and the next time I saw that person I put their phone in a bottle.”
Dynamo’s steely blue eyes rarely give anything away, and look to contain a mix of mystery and cheeky confidence. Having done some extremely dangerous illusions, such as walking down a building, I wanted to know if he ever feared for his life: “Sometimes, but I try not to think that anything could go wrong. My manager makes sure that everything is put into place so of course safety is of utmost importance. But there is always a risk. I’m touching wood now because I hope nothing ever happens. I think, for me, taking those risks is important for pushing my art form forwards, and always pushing the boundaries. They say no risk, no reward so I feel like I have to push myself to keep delivering the magic.”
Dynamo: Seeing Is Believing, Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Wed 3-Sun 7 Feb. Tickets: £45. Info: 029 2023 4500
words LUKE OWAIN BOULT, photos ANDREW TIMMS