talkmagic.co.uk

daleshrimpton wrote:You should never judge a trick, or a performer souly on the reactions on videos.

I agree with you there, in reference to videos advertising products. A good example is Paul Harris' True Astonishments. They had to make the reactions look like it was worth the price tag, which is massive if you compare it to buying the 3 book set the tricks came from.

daleshrimpton wrote:How many times do you hear of people going and getting the latest Gizmo.. Gecko, or Tarantula for example, selling said Gizmo 6 months later, because " Its not quite for me"?

I think the reason this happens is because people discover the method isn't as impromptu as they might first have thought. Obviously the trailers used for these effects want you to believe you can do things any time any where but we all know it rarely works like that. If someone were to return or sell a product because the audience are reacting how they want them to, i fancy they need a brain transplant.

Anyway, we were talking about his method of misdirection as opposed to anything else, and i still maintain it works for him and he's doing very well with it. I feel a lot of magicians don't rate his performances, probably because they either can......or think they can........do a better job themselves. That's as maybe, but sometimes i suspect the green eyed monster lurks around some of those comments.

We've all got different styles and we're always telling each other to be ourselves and perform as we feel comfortable. Dynamo's just being Dynamo.

I don't personally like his performances just like I don't like McDonalds burgers but that doesn't mean that I can go slateing what he does or how he does it. Some people obviously do like him and he's doing very well for himself, much better than 99% of people on the forum are likely to do.

Can't we just let people perform what and how they like with out getting up ourselves about it?

danalbion your quote still contains exposure, please delete.

Dynamo i've been told is a nice guy who's made it pretty big as far as tv magic goes. I'm still not sure he's grown up though, he still, to me performs like a kid with his mumbling monotoned voice, not quite Blaine but if it works & clearly it does who are we to care or pass judgement on what we see.

The participants should be the ones voicing opinions & they clearly enjoyed it.

Still don't like his turning his back to the audience during his 'dance'/misdirection. I did that when I was 4.

Russ

I only posted this because I thought it was a bit of a novelty. I had no idea I was going to open a can of worms!! I will be a bit more careful with my posts in future!!!

Lady of Mystery wrote:Can't we just let people perform what and how they like with out getting up ourselves about it?

Thats the point i was trying to make Lady of Mystery. I just used waaaay more words than you.

And Mr Whizz. don't get like that, the whole idea of a forum is discussion. If we all agreed with each other, this would be a pretty dull place. As far as I'm aware, no-one's fallen out, or gotten out of order, it's just a discussion. It's interesting to know how others work and what they'd do in a similar situation.

It is interesting how we can sit in judgment watching another perform. We all do it, and for the most part there is nothing wrong with it. Just keep one thing in mind. We are watching him, not the other way around.

Well that got some rather interesting responses...

I should point out that I'm not judging Dynamo's performance (particularly the "Dynamo shuffle") on any kind of magical basis. Other than a few bar tricks - which were incredibly basic - I'm brand new to magic since the last few weeks.

I'm judging his performance (particularly the "Dynamo shuffle") as a lay person.

I've seen dynamo's performances on videos for a few years now - and while I certainly agree he's stepped his game up a huge amount - I think the Dynamo Shuffle needs to be dropped from his routine entirely because it looks awful and always has.

The main basis for saying that is from my background a... get this... a DANCER... on the very same scene (hiphop) as Dynamo cut his magical teeth.

Ever since I first heard about some kid from Bradford doing magic tricks at jams I've thought the really (seriously) bad bit of dancing he does (a circular side-slide - taken from the dance called "popping") took what was/is a good and improving routine and made it a bit tacky and kinda cringe worthy.

Not because I think he shouldn't need that to misdirect (clearly someone who can manipulate cards like Dynamo doesn't needs something like that to pull off a card control - I've seen him do FAR more blatant controls/forces and get away with it no bother) but because I think it cheapens his whole act and looks really... really bad.


It's interesting to hear people saying he seems like a nice guy - that fits exactly with things I've heard about him from people I know who've met and hung out with him.
To see someone come from such a truly rough place make something of themselves in such an incredibly positive way is always a good thing and for that (and his clear talent) I'll openly applaud him... but that Dynamo shuffle is still awful... I thought so as a lay (in reference to magic) person... as a dancer... and I still think so now I'm learning the art for myself and can see his act from a more technical viewpoint.


Nice guy?
I believe so.
Talented?
For sure.
Dynamo shuffle?
YUCK!

bmat wrote:It is interesting how we can sit in judgment watching another perform. We all do it, and for the most part there is nothing wrong with it. Just keep one thing in mind. We are watching him, not the other way around.

only because we are not on television. Id be more than happy to reverse the situation given the chance.

I don't think it matters if he's a good dancer or a bad dancer. What he does sticks out of the crowd and what really matters is — People notice Dynamo and remember him! In the art of performance, that's what counts, when it comes to booking somebody. Sticking out of the crowd and being remembered! Be happy for him!

We are discussing him here on this forum (and I'm sure on many other magic forums too) and people are talking about him on YouTube and various places of the Internet. I met him at the International Magic Convention two years ago and he seemed like a nice chap.

He does his magic a bit different from most others (and now kids are copying him) and at the end of the day, who gets flown to California to perform for Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Gwenyth Paltrow and many more? Who gets hired to do magic in TV shows and hired for TV commercials for Adidas and Nokia? Who pops up in Google with over 1.062.000 references?

Steven Frayne, from Bradford ... aka. Dynamo!

Gunnarkr
All true, of course.

However if you're suggesting that he's got there because of the Dynamo Shuffle - I have to disagree.
It's one small part of his act, and if he never did it again his act would not suffer one tiny bit. In fact I believe it would be massively improved.

Dynamo is famous because of his personality.
Dynamo stands out from the crowd not because of that horrible bit of dancing he does, but because nobody else was doing what he does.

Other magicians were table-hopping in restaurants, busking, doing corporate shows, performing on YouTube, ambushing the public in the street Blaine-style and so on. Dynamo was in hiphop clubs, doing something that made people remember him.

Noone I spoke to before I saw him said "he dances while he does card tricks" - and on the dance scene, that's the kind of thing that gets mentioned - it's that unimportant to his act.

He stood out on the hiphop scene because he was doing something massively different on that scene.
As to how he started getting noticed by the famous folks who are part of, or hangers-onto that scene I'd guess it went the same way as it went for myself and people I know who've become known on those levels...
...going to shows and blagging your way past bouncers, with no tickets, trying to use your skill to get into a sold-out show. In our case by offering to dance "for you" on stage - probably in his case by just showing tricks and hoping he gets comped a ticket... by ambushing performers when they sign autographs after the show and making sure his face stuck - probably giving out business cards in the process.

He's succeeded because he's good at what he does and was unique in his choice of audience.

Dynamo Shuffle or no, he'd have had that success either way... it doesn't make the move any less ugly though.

The dancing might seem bad to you because you obviously know about that sort of stuff, but to folks who don't know about it, it's probably impressive. (I certainly can't dance like that!)

There's lay people in all sorts of arts, not just magic.

Look at his card tricks. They're good, but maybe not that earth-shattering to magicians who've seen them before, know where they come from, or have an idea about how they're done.

To the Soccer AM people, who probably know as much about hip hop dancing as magic, it's all impressive.

You've got to remember though - he generally performs on the hiphop scene. They DO know what good dancing looks like.
I've never seen the Dynamo Shuffle get a particularly good reaction when he performs to his usual crowd.

It'd be like me taking my shakey-hands version of a trick I'd practiced a bit but never bothered to really polish and performing it in front of a crowd who regularly watch magicians.

One thing I can say for sure about lay people watching hiphop and funk style dances, is that they do react differently to good and bad execution. It does him no favours, and actually detracts from his act when he performs for his usual audience.