Dynamo

Brighton Centre, King’s Road, until Sunday, January 31

“WHEN you think of intimacy and an arena they don’t always go hand-in-hand”.

Street magician Dynamo, aka Steven Frayne, is first to admit the idea of taking the close-up magic of his hit Watch TV show Magician Impossible to a 5,000-seater venue might be a little counterintuitive.

But he has spent eight months creating a show he can tour over 80 different dates across the country – including a five-night residency at the Brighton Centre which ends on Sunday.

Speaking from Ireland prior to an appearance on The Late Late Show, he said the reason behind his live show was reactions from fans to the four series of Magician Impossible.

“There were certain things in the TV show that I knew would work on stage,” he says.

“On television there are preconceptions that it’s not real. After all on films you see Superman flying – you know that on TV you can do anything. This was an opportunity for people to see things first hand, live in front of your face. That’s why I called the tour Seeing Is Believing.”

Dynamo made his name with stunning urban illusions from walking on the Thames, to trapping a mobile phone in a Snapple bottle.

As such he isn’t suddenly going to walk out on stage wearing a top hat and tails, or wheeling on giant props.

“There are no boxes or smoke and mirrors,” he says, adding one trick will involve the whole 5,000-strong audience. “I want it to feel like a stand-up comedian with magic.”

One theme which does run through the show is the influence his grandparents had on his life.

His 86-year-old grandmother appears on film, while the story of how his grandfather got him into magic forms part of the backbone of the show.

So the story goes he showed the bullied young Frayne how to make his tiny frame so heavy the bullies couldn’t pick him up.

“If he hadn’t shown me that piece of magic when I was seven years old we wouldn’t be having this conversation now,” he says. “He was central to everything.

“I didn’t have the easiest childhood, but against the odds I managed not to let all the difficult situations in my life hold me back. I’m proof of the fact that anything is possible if you work hard to achieve your dreams.”

It was indirectly through his grandfather’s magic tricks that Dynamo found his own distinct style.

“If I showed the magic my granddad taught me to my friends they weren’t cool,” he says. “I had to make it fit where I grew up.

“I knew I had something when I did magic and my friends would say: ‘That’s cool’.”

The next challenge was sharing the magic with a wider audience – for as Dynamo points out without an audience magic doesn’t exist.

Failing initially to get interest in a TV show he hit upon the idea of getting his illusions on YouTube, applying for a £2,000 Prince’s Trust grant to help pay for a laptop and a camera.

“When I started looking at YouTube the videos that got a lot of interest had celebrities, cats or babies on them,” he says. “I wasn’t going to do magic with cats and babies, so I went for the celebrities.”

He started to blag his way backstage at gigs, to be filmed performing illusions with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Ian Brown of The Stone Roses and Coldplay. The collected DVD, which he sold through his own website, led to him being offered his own television show.

It was when he met N.E.R.D. backstage at the Singapore Grand Prix back in 2009 that he felt he made a breakthrough.

“I knew Pharrell Williams as one of the coolest guys on the planet,” he says.

“I did some magic for him and he ran away screaming. It was an unbelievable situation – I would never expect to see anyone act that way at his level, but it shows what magic can do. It has this ability to break down stereotypes and show people at a human level.”

To be fair to Pharrell the fairly graphic trick which freaked the former N.E.R.D. frontman out saw Dynamo produce a Polo mint through his throat and onto a gold chain.

But then some of the illusions that Dynamo has created will put your heart in your mouth – not least his stunning vertical stroll down the LA Times building.

“I remember that moment on the top of the building vividly,” says Dynamo of the moment he went from standing on the ledge to swinging out 90 degrees to begin his descent.

“There was a bit of freefall and I knew if that piece of magic hadn’t worked I would have fallen to my death.

“It’s about creating moments of wonder that will live on 100 years from now.”

Starts 8pm, 2.30pm matinee on Sat, from £32.50. Call 08448 471515.