From walking on water to levitating above skyscrapers, Dynamo is famous around the world for making the impossible possible.
Tonight he will take on his most dangerous magic trick yet in a jaw-dropping, two-hour special the world renowned magician will bury himself alive and try to escape – all live on TV. Ahead of the spectacular stunt, we’ve taken a look back at how Dynamo went from a bullied Bradford kid to superstar magician.
Stephen Frayne, or Dynamo as we know him best, was born on December 17 1982 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He shot to fame thanks to his TV show Dynamo: Magician Impossible, which ran from July 2011 to September 2014.
He has famously spoken out about how magic “saved him” after he was bullied at school. One of the first tricks he ever learned was taught to him by his grandad, who showed him how to make it seem like he weighed a large amount, so other kids wouldn’t pick him up.
In an interview with This Morning in 2017, he said: “I got beat up every day for weeks and people just looked at me like I was a bit of a loner, a weirdo, they just didn’t like me.”
He added: “But when I found magic, and started to show it to people, they started to look at me not like I was a weirdo. I was different but I was interesting, I started to find my own identity.”
He has gone on to perform stunts on Channel 4, in adverts for Pepsi, Nokia, and Adidas, and for big charitable shows such as BBC One’s Comic Relief.
According to Forbes, in 2016 Dynamo was the fourth highest-paid magician of the year. He was estimated at the time to be worth $18million (£13.6million).
Dynamo has achieved a number of magic tricks, including walking across the River Thames, levitating alongside a double-decker bus and above the Shard.
He also made numerous mobile phones ring in Times Square, walked down the LA Times building, and levitated near the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.
He won the Magician of the Year award from The Academy of Magical Arts and series two of his show also won TV show of the year at the Virgin Media Awards.
According to CelebrityNetWorth, the Bradford born magician now has a net worth of 4 million dollars. Outside of his spectacular magical performances, Dynamo has kept his love life largely private. He met his wife Kelly at a festival in 2011 and the pair tied the knot in 2012.
Not a lot is known about Kelly, but she’s from Bradford in West Yorkshire, just like Dynamo, and the two are still thought to be living in their Grade-II listed cottage in Hampstead, London.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Fli)
One thing Dynamo has remained open about are his health struggles – particularly his journey with Crohn’s disease, which he was diagnosed with at 15 years old, and his mental health.
He recently admitted in an interview that he “didn’t want to be alive anymore” at one point and the last few years had been so “up and down” that he almost quit magic altogether.
He didn’t think he was “good enough”, despite pulling off some of the most incredible tricks ever seen on television. Speaking to Chris Moyles on Radio X, the 40-year-old said: “My body was shutting down, my brain was shutting down to the point where I couldn’t really perform magic to the level that I used to be able to and that was a bitter pill to swallow for me. It kind of took its toll on me.”
Asked how bad his mental health got, Dynamo said: “It got to a point where I didn’t really see the point in being alive anymore. I think for me, losing my connection with my audience, not doing magic, I don’t really see the point of me being alive. And if I can’t do magic, then what is the point of my existence? That’s kind of what I thought.
(Image: CameraPress)
“I went to Tyson Fury’s gym and I was filming magic with him. We were talking really candidly about his mental health struggles, how he overcame it and what he does to cope. The thing is, when you come from a working class background, like me and like Tyson, you’re often told when you’re growing up, you don’t talk about your problems.”
Dynamo suffered from a huge heartache in 2022 when his dogs and nana died in the same weekend. But he has used that pain to propel him forward, as he plans to pull off his ‘most dangerous trick yet’ as he will bury himself alive and try to escape on live TV.
In an appearance on Lorraine, the magician shared that it was his grandmother, who died in 2022, was the one who inspired him to do the stunt. “The last year I felt like I’ve been living in a nightmare. I lost my grandma and she was the magic behind the magic,” he said.
“She got me into magic and I felt like it had died with her. I needed to bury the part of me that had died with her. When I came up with the idea (of being buried alive) felt like I didn’t have a lot to live for.
“But I have realised that I do have a lot to live for, a lot more magic to give and this is something that I need to do for me.” Dynamo is Dead will air live on Sky Max and NOW at 9pm tonight, December 14.
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