DYNAMO PAGE 1 AND 2:- 19/10/2015 16:35 Page 2
Magician / Illusionist? Whats the
difference and which are you?
Im Dynama, haha, I try to create my own
thing. If you were to try and define an
illusionist though it would be the vegas
kind of magicians with the big boxes,
show girls, its almost like the glitz and
glamour, old Hollywood style, its really
cool but not really my style. A magician
is someone who can make you suspend
your disbelieve, so show you something
and not claiming it to be an illusion, but
shows something that appears to be
real, but physically not possible. So what
I do to be different is add in elements of
dance and entertain, I've taken
inspiration from the likes of Michael
Jackson and Kanye West and other
comedians like Dave Cook, he's a
massive American comedian, even
actors like Kevin Spacey. So Ive studied a
lot of people to help me create my
show. I've had to learn a lot to be able to
perform on stage in an arena where
people aren't directly in front of me, like
my shows and street performances, and
thats been really scary for me.
Why have you decided to do the arena
tour?
Doing a stage show three years ago
would of been the last thing on my
mind, its not me, even the first couple I
performed I was petrified, but I'm really
starting to enjoy it now and getting
more comfortable with it. I didn't want
to perform in a stage school way, I'm not
your typical 'jazz hands' kind of person,
and my friends would crucify me if I did
haha, so I need to keep it authentic and
keep it random, its been a great learning
curve for me.
Do you devise your own tricks / acts?
Do you work with an illusion
developer?
With the street magic I perform I work
with other magician and friends and we
talk through ideas and how it works,
sometimes they look at me like I'm
insane, but then for this show, because it
is a massive arena tour and its not my
domain at all, I have had to work with
many professionals. I got in the Director
of Matilda, a guy from New York called
Thomas Caruso, Iv'e heard so many
amazing things about him in the theatre
world, he has helped me develop myself
and grow into this without loosing
myself, which is what I was really scared
about. Ive worked with an amazing
vocal coach Barbara Houseman, she has
worked with Daniel Radcliffe and people
like that, and she has helped me a lot, I
wanted, no matter where I was going for
people to be able to understand me but
without loosing my accent you know. Its
hard cus the Northern accent down
south, people don't know what your
saying sometimes. I also found a great
guy, Paul Kieve, he created all the magic
ideas that they actually used in Harry
Potter movies, so the the team we have
brought together is like my dream team,
its amazing. Iv'e also been lucky enough
to have people like David Copperfield
call me up to give advice and support
whenever Ive needed it, they have all
been so supportive. Its been a crazy
journey making the tour.
So you obviously do a variety of things
from walking up and down the streets
performing card tricks to walking on
water, obviously completely different,
so what do you prefer doing the most?
I love interacting with people in general,
so magically it comes down to the
spectators and I adapt to who ever I
meet on the street, its improvised,
where on stage its not as improvised as
you would like it to be, it has to have a
beginning, middle and an end, a proper
show. Hopefully I have still managed to
involve the crowds with this tour though
and there are elements of the show that
involve every single member of the
crowd, so it is trying to keep the
intimacy, and hopefully when you see
the show you will agree we have
managed to put it on a grand scale.
You obviously had a tough time
growing up on a rough council estate,
bullied at school and growing up with
Crohn's disease, how did you keep the
optimism and confidence as you
developed?
The optimism definitely came from my
grandpa, he showed me everything was
possible and supported anything I
wanted to do, I think part of the
confidence comes from the the estate I
grew up on the and the things I had to
deal with there were far harsher than
anything Ive ever had to deal with again.
So I can go to rough areas and towns,
which would normally petrify people,
but because I have had far worse and
scarier situations in my life that I have
got through and survived, it has given
me the confidence in my life to grow.
Its clear from your book that its not
just about being good at magic, you
have to be good at blagging too, so
explain what you mean by that?
Ha, yeah I believe talent can only get
you so far, hard work will always trump
talent, I'm fortunate to believe I have
talent in what I do, Im confident in my
skills as a magician, my skills as a
performer are something I have had to