Dynamo the Magician has just performed his biggest ever stunt – and he’s gearing up for a return to the live stage too. He tells Dianne Bourne how Manchester has played a big part in his career
I’m on a call with Dynamo the Magician and when I start out by simply asking “how are you?” I get quite the unexpected answer.
“l’m a bit sore because I just escaped from a burning car 100ft in the sky in New York at the weekend,” he tells me in a ridiculously matter of fact way. He continues: “I was put in a straight jacket, chained up to the car on the inside and then it lifted 100 feet in the air, set on fire and I had to escape.”
Not quite the answer I was expecting, but then Dynamo has made a career out of breaking conventions hasn’t he?
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It turns out my call with Dynamo has come fresh from one of his biggest and most dangerous ever magic tricks, emulating the magic of the iconic escapologist Houdini. UK viewers will get to see how it all played out later this year on a special on Sky TV called Dynamo v Houdini.
It seems daft to ask if he did manage to escape without too many spoilers, although he laughs: “Obviously I made it out as I’m here talking to you today – but my body is definitely feeling it so I’ve been in the hospital for the last couple of days just getting checked out and you know just making sure I’m all right. But what I’ve just achieved is probably the greatest, biggest stunt I’ve ever achieved in my entire life.”
Burning car aside, Dynamo tells me he’s “the healthiest I’ve ever felt” which is brilliant news to hear after his health issues over recent years. Dynamo, real name Steven Frayne, took a step back from the limelight five years ago amid diagnosis with inflammatory conditions Crohn’s Disease and arthritis.
But now, he’s back, recharged and reignited with his passion for performance having announced his first major UK tour in 10 years, which will start in Salford in January 2027.
Dynamo says of managing his conditions now: “I’m in a very good routine at the moment and you know I’m pacing myself. I am feeling probably the healthiest I’ve ever felt and mentally I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time, you know.
“I’m so excited I feel like a curious kid again. It’s like I found magic all over again.”
That will be music to the ears of fans of the star, who became a global sensation with his street magic, and conjuring tricks in front of some of the world’s biggest A list stars in the noughties. He announced earlier this month that his new UK tour will all be starting in Salford at the Lowry next January.
And it feels like a fairly full circle moment for the magic man. His last tour started in Manchester 10 years ago, but more importantly than that, it was Manchester that gave Dynamo his very first stage – thanks to one of the city’s most iconic sons, Ian Brown.
He says: “My first ever, ever time on stage was at an Ian Brown gig. He asked me to come up and perform, I always used to come and perform backstage after for his friends and for the crew, right, but then when I got there he goes ‘do you wanna come on stage and do something’.
“He brought me out in front of like 20,000 people at Manchester Arena – and I’ve never been on stage before in my life.
“It was terrifying right? And also it’s an Ian brown crowd so I know they’re a tough crowd to please – I mean you’ve gotta have a certain level of swagger!
“I think I did pretty good under the circumstances, but that was terrifying. It was my first time experience, and the fact that someone of his stature would share the stage with me all those years ago, I think it was like 2004 or something like that.
“Now, I’m excited to go on tour and go on stage, I finally found myself.”
He says he chose smaller theatre venues for the new tour to be able to have a better intimacy with his fans. “I love being able to actually see everybody in the audience and connect with people and the best thing is as well is after every show I get to hang out with everyone.
“When I do my shows after the shows I just stay around and meet everybody because I think it’s important that people who buy these tickets for these shows they’re people who have supported me over the years so to be able to thank them first hand you know at the end of every show I think it’s important.
“I don’t think that many people do that anymore but these people have supported me through thick and thin – when I’ve been too sick to perform magic and I’ve been in hospital they’re the ones who’ve been sending me messages online on social media and giving me the kind of the strength that I need when I didn’t have it myself.”
He first met Ian Brown over their mutual love of Adidas trainers – introduced to each other by Speziali designer Gary Aspden. He has remained good friends with Brown, as well as other Manc stars like John Squire, Bugzy Malone – oh and Liam and Noel Gallagher too.
He laughs: “I’m a northerner, through and through. I mean, let’s all stick together. You know what I mean? I just look at these guys, they’re legends – what they do is iconic and if I can be anywhere there, or if I could inspire people in a tiny way similar to the way that they’ve inspired this city then I’m doing something right.
“They’re constant sources of inspiration for me and when I come to Manchester, when I go on that stage. I need to always try to be a little bit Ian Brown and have that swagger.
“With Manchester, you can’t take it lightly. When you hit that stage, you’ve got to bring the A-game. But thankfully, I’ve got the best in the business to look up to.”
We chat over zoom at his “secret magic studio” in London, where he now lives with his wife and pet dog, and where he’s already plotting what will come on the new tour.
There’s another reason for choosing smaller venues for this new tour, as he aims to rebuild the magician.
He says: “In the last few years, I’ve really had to take notice of my body and listen to what I can or can’t do. I am the magician everyone loves. So, you know, there’s obviously a couple of things, you know, as Dynamo, but as Steven, I have to realize as well, that I’m also human and I need to pace myself.
“Because if I’m going to give the audience the best Dynamo experience ever. Then I’ve got to make sure Stephen’s right.”
He performed a run of acclaimed shows in London last year under his real name rather than his stage name of Dynamo. I ask why that was.
He muses: “I think I wanted to make sure that as Steven I was good enough, you know, like I didn’t feel like a Dynamo. I was in hospital at times and I couldn’t even make a cup of tea, doing the simplest of tasks felt impossible.
“Yet as Dynamo I’d do all these crazy things all the time and I didn’t feel like I’d live up to that – it’s a lot of pressure and I think I’ve lived through a lot of imposter syndrome – probably I still do.
“But the things I’ve achieved over the last year, I finally feel like I’m in a place where maybe you know maybe the audience is going to get to see the Dynamo they all loved as well as Steven.”
He laughs: “I mean, it’s not even about me. It’s about the audience because I do what I do on that stage, but without all of you guys, there really is no magic.”
While the tour has a special start in Salford, it will also end on a high – with a big homecoming for Dynamo back to his hometown of Bradford.
“To still be doing magic all these years later and to finally be bringing a show back to my hometown – it is a real full-circle moment – but also it’s going to be the best audience I’ve ever had because there’s friends and family who have never got to see me.
“It’s going to connect on a different level – like for me representation that you can actually relate to is important for inspiring hope because there’s lots of kids still on the estates in Bradford who might think that there’s no way out or think that they you know how are they going to become successful in their own right and seeing me knowing that I’ve come from where they come from and I’ve done what I’ve done shows them that it’s possible you know.”
Dynamo the Magician’s Up Close and Magical tour heads across the UK in 2027, starting at Salford’s Lowry Theatre from January 21 -27. Tickets are on sale now.




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