Dynamo’s ‘thank you South Africa tour’

Hey presto! It’s no illusion – this award-winning English magician is here to astound you, writes SAMEER NAIK

STEVEN Frayne whips out a bunch of lottery tickets from his pocket. “Would you like to see some magic before we get going?” the world-famous magician asks.

The 35-year-old magician and illusionist – best known as Dynamo – has just stepped off a terribly long flight from the UK but doesn’t appear to be tired or suffering from jet lag. Instead, he seems keen to get on with some magic.

He places a stack of lottery tickets in the palm of his right hand. Then he covers them with his left hand. He claps his hands together and, in a flash, the lottery tickets miraculously turn into R100 notes.

This isn’t as outrageous as the time Frayne walked on water, but nonetheless it leaves everyone in the room flabbergasted. “That’s how I play the lottery,” Frayne says, with a chuckle.

The award-winning magician says it’s good to be back in South Africa – it’s one of the best countries he has visited. “When I came here the last time to film an insert for my show, Magician Impossible, I met the most incredible people. I was blown away by the reception I was given,” he says.

Frayne immediately alerts us to the fact that his biggest fans are also from South

Africa. “Do you know that most of my fans on social media are from South Africa? That’s crazy, right?” Frayne is in the country to promote his forthcoming Seeing is Believing Live SA Tour, which kicks off in May this year.

For those who aren’t familiar with the name Dynamo, he’s the magician who’s walked on water across the river Thames, levitated in front of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and walked down the outside of the LA Times building. He’s even predicted the soccer World Cup outcome.

“After four series of Magician Impossible, I was ready for a new challenge, and for a long time I wanted to take my show to the stage. “Like I did for magic on TV, the live magic show offers fans an entertainment experience never seen before,” he says.

“I can’t wait to amaze South African audiences with what I have in store for them. This tour is kind of a thank you to all my South African fans that supported me from day one.”

While Frayne has established himself as one of the most successful magicians of his generation, becoming a magician was never on the cards for him. “I was a really skinny kid at school. Actually, I‘m not any bigger now, but I had a bit of a hard time at school and I was an easy target for bullies.

“I grew up in a rough area in Bradford. My father was in jail and my mother was very young when she had me, so I never had the easiest life growing up. But my grandpa, the main male role model in my life, always used to do magic. It intrigued me but it never seemed like something I wanted for myself.”

It wasn’t until Frayne’s grandfather saw him being bullied at school one day that he decided to give magic a go. “My grandpa saw this bunch of kids beating me up and throwing me around, and so later that day he showed me some magic techniques to scare them away and to stop them from being able to push me around.

“When he showed me, I thought to myself, ‘Hang on, this isn’t going to work.’ I tried it out the next day and, crazily enough, the bullies couldn’t move me, and they were scared of me.”

Once a sickly kid from a notorious council estate with a jailbird father, Frayne is now one of the most awe-inspiring illusionists in the world. He has swallowed jewellery then pulled it out of his stomach, and even transformed snow into diamonds.

His street magic and illusions have earned him a huge fan base, with 2.36 million followers on Twitter, 708K on Instagram and four series of Dynamo: Magician Impossible under his belt.

Some of his biggest fans include A-list celebrities like former Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand and Hollywood star Brad Pitt.

Even though Frayne mingles with celebrities regularly, he admits he still gets starstruck at times. “I did a matinee show at the O2 Arena and my manager came in and told me someone had brought their kids to the show and really wanted to meet me. So I walk into this room and Brad Pitt comes running up to me and says: ‘Dynamo, your show was amazing! The kids loved it.’ I was slightly taken aback. I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s Brad Pitt in the flesh.’

“I met supermodel Kate Moss recently and I won’t lie, I was pretty starstruck then, too.” Frayne will start his South African tour in Pretoria in May before heading to Cape Town.