Steven Frayne on new Up Close and Magical show: 'It’s the first show I created from a place of happiness'

You’ll know him better by his former stage name of Dynamo, but Bradford magician and illusionist Steven Frayne wants fans to get to know him ‘up close and magical’ when he begins his 47-date residency at London’s Underbelly Boulevard Soho later this month.

“It’s about letting people share in the experience that you can’t hide behind big spectacle stage shows, you can’t hide behind the smoke and the mirrors,” Frayne tells indy100 in London. We’re part of a busy press day for the performer, and we’re slightly worried about the Wenzel’s takeaway lunch resting on the table which the magician is yet to tuck into.

“Although I still want to have a sense of theatre in that I want to utilise the beauty that you can create with lighting and haze and stuff like that on the stage. It’s a chance for everyone to get so close, that the magic is undeniable, and then they stop challenging what’s happening in front of them and they just get lost in the world of wonder for the 90 minutes they’re sat with me.”

And it’s the “incredible magic” in other people he meets which Frayne says is his “new focus and direction” when it comes to the future of his performances. “Magic is the ability to make somebody believe in something, and ultimately, if you can make other people believe in themselves, that’s the best kind of magic I could ever do,” he beams. “So, that’s kind of been the direction of where I’ve been taking things now, and it is a whole new approach now because I’ve spent all that time focusing on the magic in me, that I was missing out on the magic of others, and now my eyes have been open to that. I’m walking around this world and I’m amazed at everything I see.”

Usually that amazement can be found in those who have had their phone placed inside a glass bottle (he teases to us that he thinks he’s taken the trick to “a whole new level” for the new show), or watched as Frayne bends his body back to replicate the gravity-defying move from The Matrix, but his astonishment is noticeable as he explains this new show is taking place “literally next door” to where he landed his first residency as a magician.

The serendipity is like a kind of magic in itself, we say. “It really is,” Frayne replies.

It's an infectiously positive mindset from the 42-year-old, who revealed in his Sky special Dynamo is Dead back in December 2023 that the reason for his stepping away from the spotlight was a combination of health challenges (Frayne has the inflammatory bowel disease known as Crohn’s) and unimaginable grief, when his grandmother and his two dogs died in the same week.

Given this, there was a temptation for the first question in our interview to simply be ‘how are you’, but he smiles as he shares that his health “has been doing so much better”.

“To do a run of shows in London, close to home, where I’m near my doctors, where I can go home and make sure that I’m in the best state health-wise between each show, it’s the perfect foundation to set me up for, in the future, taking a show on tour,” he says. “If I do this 47-show run, and by the end of it, I’m still ready to go on tour, then that’s an amazing sign and that shows me that my body is ready to take on the challenge of going on the road.”

During our conversation, Frayne compares himself and the limitations which can be brought about by his Crohn’s disease with the impossible nature of his magic tricks as a performer. We ask him what his relationship with the idea of limitations – especially given the intimate nature of his upcoming show – looks like now.

“I feel like I am embracing my limitations, and learning to live the most amazing life within them, while still pushing myself in different directions, pushing myself in new ways, which is, I think, another reason why I wanted to do an intimate show,” says Frayne. “I’m just learning to push myself, but in more pragmatic, interesting ways, which has actually opened my mind to so many new magic ideas.”

There was also something epiphanic about his decision to bury himself alive as part of Dynamo is Dead (yes, that happened, and he tells us he still goes and visits the burial site), as he explains that deciding to bury the Dynamo brand with his nana and dogs caused a weight to be lifted off of his shoulders.

“I got to a place where I was in a really happy place - probably the happiest place I’ve ever been in - and then I was like, ‘oh, oh no, I’ve actually got to still go through with this because I’ve just told the whole country that I’m going to do it and I’ve just got all this budget from Sky to make the show and we’re doing it live,’ he jokes. “At that moment, the fight changed in me, because at the beginning, I was doing everything I could to put myself in that hole, but I’d never thought about getting out of it, but then, on the fateful night that I buried myself alive at the Angel of the North, 13^th of December, all I could think of [was], ‘you know what, I’ve finally realised I’ve got everything I need to get out of this hole for’."

He continues: “I realised I’ve never created from a place of complete happiness, so this show that I’m going to be doing at the Underbelly Boulevard … not only is it the most honest magic show that I’ve ever given, because I’m not hiding behind a mask anymore, it’s just me and it’s just something real, but, it’s also the first show in my entire life that I know wholeheartedly that I created from a place of happiness.”

And isn’t that a magical thing?

Steven Frayne: Up Close and Magical plays at the Underbelly Boulevard Soho from 28 March to 11 May.

Why not read…

• Crowds gather for magical event kickstarting Bradford’s year as City of Culture
• Magicians challenged to create sound-only tricks for visually impaired audiences

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.