It takes a lot more than magic to become the ‘undisputed king of magic.’
Steven Frayne was once a misunderstood kid from the north of England. With a young mother and a father in jail, he suffered in silence from Crohn’s disease. Not feeling like he fitted in at school, he turned to the circus. He had no idea that he would go on to become the worldwide phenomenon that he is today.
Steven struggled constantly growing up. And he excelled at it. He used the struggle, the failures and the bullying, to push him towards his goals. His grandfather taught him to see magic in everything, even in hardship. The value of becoming yourself, even when others disagree. Steven became a boy with a magical dream. A dream he made a reality by creating a market for himself when there wasn’t a market. Whilst performing as a young magician, a man in the audience stood up and said: “That kid is just like a dynamo!” And he is – Steven is “just like a dynamo”. Or just Dynamo for short, the stage name by which he has singlehandedly recreated what magic is today.
Like for many others before him, Dynamo’s path has not been exempt from obstacles and self-doubt. Because going all-in requires sacrifice. It requires resilience against storms of backlash. Dynamo took breaks from magic. He fell out of love with it. He doubted himself. But the more he got challenged in his magic, the more it forced him to find new ways to approach it. Finding magic in new places. Learning new things. Grabbing opportunities. Educating himself. Although it took many years before he got his big break, Dynamo stood his ground. It was never about fitting in. It was about being true to himself.
25 years of hard work and not taking “no” for an answer leaves a legacy that equates magic itself with Dynamo. A legacy marked with an understanding of the chances he took and where he came from. He put his heart and soul into revolutionising the art form, and has in the process entranced an entire world.
