Dynamo in Auckland on April 9 (left) and in his promotional posters
There’s a lot to tell you about the way this tour by British magician Dynamo was announced. A lot to tell, but the best part cannot be told. The media who assembled for his New Zealand tour announcement were instructed to switch off recording equipment for the last part of the presentation, and that we would be privy to a show for our eyes only. And so we were indeed treated to three magic acts by the young British magician, who will be coming here for at least three stadium shows in July. I can tell you he got the media involved (I ended up on stage myself) and that they were a lot of fun, leaving us suitably scratching our heads.
In person, the man himself comes across as a down to earth bloke with a nice sense of humour who you could imagine sharing a meal with around your kitchen table. He hails from Bradford, in England’s north, and he strikes you as a decent working class lad who’s made good and who isn’t putting on airs and graces. He imbued the room with a positive vibe, and that must surely be a huge part of his success.
Before the magic tricks, Dynamo (real name Steven Frayne) took questions, and to his credit MC Mike Puru didn’t shirk from asking the obvious one. We had just seen a video promoting Dynamo, showing a slim young man walking across the river Thames, suspended over the sides of buildings, and wowing small audiences with his street magic. But the man who came out to talk to us was much heavier than the one onscreen. It turns out Dynamo has been battling Crohn’s disease, a nasty and incurable condition. He told us he’s managing it, and has used periods of convalescence to come up with new ideas for his show. In fact he says he’s spent two years on this show, called Seeing Is Believing. He’s had to work out how to take magic which works best in an intimate setting and perform it in front of a stadium audience. He’s obviously not going to give too much away, but he did say the show (at Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena and Auckland’s Spark Arena) will involve the audience, and it won’t just be the ones up at the front of stage who will take part. And he hinted that some reference to New Zealand culture may be reflected.
So, to the tour details: two dates in Christchurch have been announced, Friday July 20 and Saturday July 21, and then Thursday July 26 in Auckland. You’ve got to think more Auckland dates will be added, but that will soon become apparent after tickets go on sale at 10.00am on April 16, through Ticketek.