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Anyone watch it? It was shocking. He did a "dynamo shuffle" and picked the "top card", didn't even make it clear what on earth was going on, and did a matrix-style leaning back without falling over... where weirdly he didn't move from the spot during the entire performance...

Yup - his second performance was pretty lame... but his first (with Robbie Williams) really was pretty good.

It's a real shame, he has obvious skill - but a truly awful presence.

Hmmm, my wife hates magic, she said it was lame. will have to have a look. IMHO as being in the TV/meeja/theatre meself, the fault is with the agent/manager/leech/friend/hangers on not the artist at this boys level

I hate making these sort of posts, but I have to ask.

What is so good about Dynamo?

Maybe he performs differently in person, but even as someone with an interest in magic, I wasn't that interested in his performance.

Yes, when you are performing for TV live in front of millions, you have the right to be nervous, but in general his skill is fairly decent but he's actual performance and image doesn't do much for me. Normally you get magicians on TV that perform simple tricks (like David Blaine stuff - invisible decks, two card monte, etc) but they manage to pull it off by their attitude, patter and presence. Dynamo seems to have fairly decent skill but seems so dull. Is it because he's hip (no one uses that word, do they ?) and trendy? Is that why he's so popular?

He's a good magician, and I'll probably never be as good and successful as him. I don't want to be so negative, it's just, I wonder how he gets these sort of jobs when I see so many do better. Good on him though .

As for his performances, the first trick was quite good, seemed to pull it off well. The second one was also quite well, but like you've already mentioned it was slightly too ambiguous. The matrix levitation thing did seem quite awkward, it was horrible seeing how he was standing so awkwardly close to the presenters and standing completely still.

Again, it's probably difficult to pull of these sort of gigs. So, overall, he's done pretty well. But I didn't find it that exciting....maybe it's because I already have an interest in magic, don't know. Would like to hear what others think.

I missed it as I was at a gig! hopefully it will be on youtube at some point.

Tony Hyams wrote:hopefully it will be on youtube at some point.

Abracadabra!

I only saw the one with Robbie, nicely done effect but as usual with Dynamo he's got the showmanship and charisma of a cabbage.

meh.

how can anybody say the first trick was good? it was all out of frame. 1st rule of telly magic, is to keep in frame. Everybody knows that.

Ok Dynamo may not have any showmanship,charisma and he may be dull but he does ONE thing extremely well the same thing David Blaine does extremely well they stick to IMO one of the most important rules in magic they K.I.S.S and that is why they have so much success most of the effects they do are visual,short and simple but they work for the people who matter the SPECTATORS they are not magicians magicians and why should they be why do they care what the rest of us magicians think I know for certain if I was in there positon I wouldn't give a damn what any other magician thinks as long as my spectators are happy then so am I.

Ok think about the second effect Dynamo looked nervous he may not have had any personality and no one may have not had a clue what was going on but when the trick was over everyone knew what happened and the rest don't matter all the audiance remember is Davinas card swapped with Dynamos whilst it was in her mouth and he didn't go near it
a classic example of the K.I.S.S principle

rant over and out.

daleshrimpton wrote:meh.

how can anybody say the first trick was good? it was all out of frame. 1st rule of telly magic, is to keep in frame. Everybody knows that.

agreed on that part thoe people watching at home would have struggled

Dynamo is more sucessful than most on this forum, simply because he has found his audience. He has narrowed down his select group, got a personality(albeit a bit of a lemon) and does his own thing. Good for him. Magicians may not like, in fact many won't who aren't magically inclined, but he was on BBC1, at prime time, raising money for charity. Give him a break, perhaps.

I think Dynamo is great,

He does simple effects that work very well for him and others, I agree with Lenoir says that he has found his audience and has got his own style again this might not be everyones cup of tea but if it works him then why change it.

He's a good guy and a great magician, I wish him all the best and I look forward to seeing more.

I think ajaxjones might have hit the nail on the head.
I've seen people (non majicians) who've honed their art in the same arena as Dynamo - hiphop clubs - and after they get "good" by a layman's standard they get an entourage who blow a steady stream of sunshine up their rear end and it pretty much stops their improvement dead in its tracks.

Other people in the same scenario who didn't get sucked into a fan club improved massively on the same timescale and in the same scene... the only real difference was that they fell in with a crowd who pushed eachother to improve rather than continually patting them on the back and cheering no matter how badly wrong something went.

As I've said before - I'm delighted for Dynamo. He's come from a really rough area and made a good go of it... you simply can't fault him for that.

His performance, though, leaves a lot to be desired and that's got nothing to do with magic... it's performance and that's universal accross the performing arts.

I think that with a wee bit of pushing in the right direction he could go from famous and ok to being really amazing - even with the same kind of tricks... but having seen snippets of his performance for a good few years now - nothing seems to be changing in that regard. Pity. With the right people around him, pulling him up on things like performing out of frame, losing the crowd and so on - he'd go from the kind of person who gets admiration from the lay people and flack from magicians to being someone much more roundly admired.

Personally, I wish him all the best and really hope he can raise his performance - if he does that I won't be able to find any fault with him (well, except the dynamo shuffle - I'll always hate that! :p).

Is anyone reminded of David Blaine but with less talent?

Plus, he's very ill.