Episode 2 Dynamo: Magician Impossible

I'm going to take you on a journey into my world...

-We meet again.

-..from the UK to the USA.

How you just going to be hanging out of my head like that, man?

I'm going to bring some magic into people's lives

so come with me as I attempt the impossible.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

In this episode, I leave Matt Horne lost for words

and take a trip to one of my favourite places, Miami.

-I don't understand how he did it.

-Oh, man!

My name's Steven Frayne, but most people call me Dynamo.

Magic is all about the element of surprise.

I love to create something extraordinary

in the most ordinary of places.

Sometimes it's the things we don't expect that are the most powerful.

MUSIC: "Teardrop" by Massive Attack

'I have headed down to London

'to meet up with comedian and Gavin And Stacey star

'Matt Horne for a game of pool.' What is this?

-'With a few surprises.'

-MATT CHUCKLES

Yeah, that'll do.

Here we go. You're going to clean up now.

-Seen this?

-Wa-ay!

My own show.

There are variations on it.

Yes!

-I got a pack of cards here.

-Yeah.

-Just think of a card.

-Yeah.

-Got one?

-Yeah.

When I was first starting doing magic,

every time I'd leave the house, off to do gigs,

-my brothers and sisters, kind of, liked to play a trick on me.

-Right.

You know, they'd take my cards

and literally mix 'em face up into face down.

-That's a mean trick.

-It's pretty annoying, right?

-I'm going to actually mix the cards, like this.

-Right.

-Do you want to push them together for me?

-Yep.

-Like that?

-Yeah, perfect.

So, as you can see,

the cards are mixed face up into face down.

-That's fair, right?

-Yup.

There's cards back to back, you know...

..all over the place.

-You're thinking of a card.

-Yeah.

For the first time, name it out loud.

-Eight of spades.

-Watch.

-Ha-ha!

-Every card rights itself apart from your card.

-Amazing.

He's amazing.

It's incredible. How did you do that?

Take a card out.

-Remember it?

-Yep.

-Show it the them guys.

Stick it anywhere.

And then just take the deck, just spread it all over the table, yeah?

-I'll help you.

-What, willy-nilly?

-Willy-nilly, yeah.

Try and make sure that none of the cards are touching each other.

-Oh, I see, OK.

-That's perfect.

-That's a right mess.

Perfect.

-Pool ball.

-Yeah.

Put it anywhere you want.

Take the cue. Hit the ball around the table.

-As long as it hits two cushions, I'm happy, yeah?

-OK.

So I want it to go anywhere.

I'm going to let you decide - do you think the ball is closest

to either this card, this card this card, that card?

-It's up to you.

-It's closest to this card, here.

-So this one, right here, yeah?

-Yeah.

-You sure?

-Yeah.

-Name the card out loud.

-King of hearts.

I'll let you turn it over.

-It can't be.

-Take a look.

God, it is.

Unbelievable.

Look at that. Amazing.

Amazing.

-I want to try one last thing with the cards.

-Yeah.

I'm going to go through like this, just say stop.

-Stop.

-Right there? Remember the card?

See that?

-Just mix them up.

-Oh, you know I can't shuffle.

-That's good though.

-Is it?

-That's better, right?

-That's marginally better.

I'm going to place the deck inside the pocket.

-Right, in the pocket.

-And watch.

Amazing.

Amazing stuff.

I had no idea when I was waking up today that I would see that.

Unbelievable.

Whenever I need to vanish from the UK,

I always seem to end up in America.

Back in 2002, I flew out to a magic convention at the New York Hilton.

I'd been to visit some of my family in the US when I was younger,

but this time I was on my own, with only a couple of hundred dollars

and a deck of cards in my pocket.

One evening, I was performing to a large group of magicians

in the foyer of the Hilton when someone shouted out,

"This kid's a dynamo!"

From then on, the name just stuck.

I love coming back to the States whenever I get a chance.

It's like a movie set - there's a surprise around every corner

and I always bump into some amazing characters.

One of my favourite places to visit in the States is the city of Miami.

See the Chihuahua?

APPLAUSE

-That was amazing!

-One more time.

-Watch.

Gone. What time is it?

THEY GASP

I love the way that true astonishment can even make

a grown man feel like a kid again.

-Watch.

-No, no, no.

-What time is it?

Oh, my God! No!

I headed down to a tattoo parlour in Miami beach to surprise

legendary tattoo artist Dow Hokoana and members of Young Money,

one of the world's biggest hip-hop collectives.

I wanted to see if I could leave a permanent impression on them,

like the ink from Dow's needle.

-How are you doing?

-Hi, I'm Dow.

You don't even know how much I love illusions.

Let me try something with your money. You got any money?

Have you got a bill, though, rather than a coin?

What've you got here? Let's have a look.

A 20, a 20.

We're going to try it with a dollar, yeah? Can you see this?

-What's your name, sorry?

-Cheech.

-Cheech. Dynamo.

So I've got Cheech's dollar bill, yeah? Um...

-Can you see on the bill it says, like, "Washington DC," yeah?

-Yeah.

-It says it on all one dollar bills, right?

-Yeah.

I just want you to name a different city.

Not Washington DC, yeah?

-Brooklyn, New York.

-Brooklyn, New York.

-Hold on to the bill, right here.

-OK.

Watch.

You see that, right?

Yeah. I can read that.

-Oh, get the

-BLEEP

-out of here!

-THEY YELL IN ASTONISHMENT

What?!

Wow.

That's sick as well. See that?

You've got to get that on shot. Young Money.

-Young Money.

-I just got the one. See, it says grandpa.

Cos my grandpa got me into magic, yeah?

-He's always watching over my shoulder.

-Really? That's dope.

I want to get more, but I don't want to, like,

get one and it go wrong or just not be the right thing.

-Have you guys got any that went wrong, or you don't really like?

-Uh.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-The one on the back of my neck.

-Not from me, right?

-No!

-THEY LAUGH

-Early years, early years.

-Early years, yeah?

-Me.

-Which one?

-My eye.

-Show me.

She's winking. One of her eyes is winking,

but I really want her eyes to look open.

But since he did it on my collarbone,

it ain't come right, the way I want it.

-Can I take a closer look?

-Yes.

Tell you what -

hold really still, yeah?

-This won't hurt.

-OK.

Watch.

THEY GASP

-No way.

-Let me see that.

-No.

Get out of here.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

What am I supposed to do when someone can go, "Boom,"

-and there's you're tattoo?

-Dog, what the...?

THEY LAUGH

Get him to just do this like that and her eye just pop out.

And I can't even, like, take it off, it's there.

Just here.

-It sure looks much better now, huh?

-THEY LAUGH

There was no eye existing. It had scarred and fallen off,

typical of a tattoo that's not done perfectly.

He literally went like that and there's the eye that literally

I would have tattooed had I redrawn it.

But I didn't tattoo her. I did not touch her with a needle.

I love the craziness of South Beach, but sometimes it's good

to get out of the tourist areas and experience the real city.

I headed down to Little Havana,

which is the epicentre of Miami's Cuban community,

to see what I could find.

I've never smoked in my life, but I ventured into an old cigar shop

to show some magic to the customers.

Can you just blow me a big blast of smoke towards my hands, yeah?

HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

Yeah. Watch.

No way.

Blow me some more, blow me some more.

How did he...?

-No way.

-How is he doing that?

Can you smell it?

Anyway, I'm Dynamo. Nice to meet you all.

Nice to meet you.

I mean, that was real smoke.

He had more smoke coming out from thin air,

just coming out,

you know, out of his hand and into the cup.

It went through the coaster into the glass.

I don't understand how he did it. I...

I don't know how he did that.

'As I continue my tour of Little Havana,

'I came across some locals hanging out outside an old retro cinema.'

Do you guys watch a lot of films?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-What's your name, bro?

-Josh.

-Josh? Do me a favour - just name a film.

-Name a film?

-Yeah.

-Uh, There Will Be Blood.

-There Will Be Blood?

-Yeah.

That film's not playing at the cinema over the road, is it?

-No, it's not.

-No, there's Rambo: First Blood, which is kind of close.

-I guess.

-And you could have had any film, right?

-Yeah.

-Watch this.

HE INHALES DEEPLY

-Oh, my God!

-What?!

-Yo, that is nuts.

-How'd you do it?

-What?!

There Will Be Blood.

Oh, Jesus Christ, lord and saviour!

Yo, let's go watch a movie right now.

LAUGHTER

It doesn't make sense.

-Wow.

-That is so weird.

-Come on, that was dope or what?

-Yeah, it was.

He asked me to think of a random movie, I thought of one

and he just pretty much blew the letters off and he got it.

-He thought of a movie...

-He didn't even say a word about the movie.

He didn't even, like, say the movie out loud, he just thought about it.

That's creepy! That made me believe in magic. That's creepy!

Maximo Gomez Park sits on the corner of 15th Avenue

and it's where everyone comes to play dominoes.

I thought I'd try my hand at a couple of games - Dynamo style.

-What's your name?

-Juan Carlos.

Juan Carlos, Dynamo. Nice to meet you, my man.

I want to try something using dominoes, so we'll take...

This is, what? Is it three-zero or three-white?

Hold your hand out.

See that?

Look at that, and then if you take this hand

and just put your hand on top.

And if I take the... Let's see.

What have we got?

I'll take a three/one.

So, three/one, three/zero. Watch.

Take a look.

Oh.

Thank you.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

He's a monster, he's a monster.

Just mix these up.

And then, each take one.

I'll take one as well.

-You've all got a domino, yeah?

-Yeah.

Take your domino and just mix them up, between you five, yeah.

I'll turn around, yeah.

Done that?

All make sure you look at the domino you've got, so you know what it is.

So, all look at the domino.

Cual es?

And then put it face down so I can't see it. Don't let me see it.

All right.

Take your domino, like this.

And just hold it between your hands and put it like this.

Put it like this.

All right, perfect.

So, you all know which domino you've got.

I've not seen them, you mixed them up. Right?

I'm going to start with you, yeah?

Just told your arms out like this.

Yours has got a big number,

a number eight and a three.

Put it on the table.

So I can see it.

Eight and three, yeah?

I'm going to try with you now.

Hold your arms out. Look at me.

Yours is a...

number seven and a four.

CHEERING AND LAUGHTER

I'm going to try with you. You're going to be difficult

cos you've got glasses on, but I'm going to try. Look at me.

Yours is a bit difficult cos you've only got one number and it's...

So it's a number eight and zero, nothing, nothing, yeah.

-Eight and nothing. Have a look.

-Ah!

See, eight and nothing.

LAUGHTER

Two more, yeah?

You've got...

You're a bit like him. You've got a blank, yeah,

and you've got five.

Show everyone.

-Cinco, blanco.

-Eh?

-Wah-hey!

-Oh!

Put it on the table.

One more, yeah?

Seven, three.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Oh!

-Seven, three.

In fact, look. If you take these, yeah.

Together.

Like this.

Like this.

-Like this.

-Seven, seven.

-And the one that I had... Oh, seven, yeah.

The one that I had.

Oh!

Yes!

I'd arranged to meet DJ Irie,

the official DJ of Miami Heat basketball team at a diner

in Little Havana, where I had a few surprises in store for him.

-You're enjoying Miami though, right?

-It's awesome.

-Like, you know, in England, like, now, it's raining.

-Yeah.

-There's no girls walking round in bikinis.

-No bikinis. Ha-ha.

One of the things though, right, that I'm not getting used in Miami.

-What's that?

-I'm from England, right.

-All right.

In England, we have a cup of tea.

-Right.

-None of this iced tea mumbo-jumbo.

It's a hot day, you got to, you know, get refreshed.

To make iced tea, what? You get tea bag, ice and water.

Pretty much.

So, you have like...

-Yeah.

-It's still iced tea.

-Yeah.

-Still iced tea.

-What I'm going to try to do...

If I...

-just separate the ice from the tea.

-Ha-ha-ha-ha.

-Separate the ice from the tea.

-Oh, you are bugging right now!

We'll take it a step further, yeah? Cos we got ice from the tea. So...

-Take the tea from the water.

-Come on, man.

-Come on, man.

-Leaving just water and tea. So, that's iced tea.

-You're not going to share the tea with me?

-I'll call you.

-You better.

HE LAUGHS

Yeah-ha-ha. This is so crazy.

Are you for real right now, man? Are you for real?

So, Irie, how long you been DJing for?

-So, I've been in the game now, like 15 years, man.

-15 years.

15 years, deep in the game.

You've mixed a lot of records, right?

I probably play, like, 200 records in one night.

You've got to keep it fresh, play new songs.

You've also got to kick in some of the classics, you know.

Give people a little flashback, you know, some nostalgia.

-So, it's a balance, you know.

-Yeah, yeah.

What I want you to do is I want you to imagine, like, a mix right now.

Yeah? I want you to think of two songs,

it don't even have to be a mix that you've actually done before.

-OK.

-It could be something totally obscure.

All right?

-Have you got two songs in mind?

-I've got two in mind.

Just take off your glasses a second. I need to see those eyes.

Ha-ha-ha.

My big blues? Ha-ha-ha.

I'm getting...

something like...

..like # Dooo-ooo. Ooo. #

Is that something that resembles one of the songs you're thinking of?

-Yo, man. Get out of my head, man.

-Hold it.

Get out of my head, man.

# Drop it like it's hot Drop it like it's hot. #

-Snoop Dogg, Drop It Like It's Hot, and Pharrell, yeah?

-Yes!

Gosh.

Keep thinking of the other song though, yeah?

So you'd mix Snoop Dogg feat Pharrell,

Drop It Like It's Hot, with...

Oh, this is a good one. I like this one.

-Come on, man. Get out of my party, man.

-This is kind of older.

It's classic though. You walking around in there, man.

It's DMX. Party Up.

-Party Up, yeah?

-HE LAUGHS: Yes!

This is so crazy, man. Yo, man.

That sounds like a good mix.

How you just going to be hanging out in my head like that, man?

Could you take anything with this?

You can keep your pin numbers and your bank details.

Dude, come on, man.

Those were the first two songs that came to mind.

I'm... I'm speechless, man. I'm speechless.

You were just all up in here.

You were all up in there, man.

Maybe there was like a sign running past my eyes or something like that.

I don't know what it was but he literally looked into my eyes

and he told me exactly the two songs that I thought of.

Like, that is beyond... That shut it down for me. I was done.

DJ Irie had recommended a great Nicaraguan restaurant called Yambo,

so I thought I'd check it out. Mmm-mm. Good choice, Mr Irie.

-Kiwi.

-Kiwi, that's a beautiful name.

Does anyone here have, like, a dollar bill I could borrow?

-If it's 100, you might never see it again.

-Yeah, right.

-I want double back.

-We've got a 20, yeah.

So, just write your name on there, I've got a pen.

Just sign it, yeah, or just write your name.

Will I still be able to use it?

LAUGHTER

So, we've got Kiwi, is it visible?

Hmm-mm.

Everyone can see it, yeah?

Watch.

Look out!

-Forget about your money.

-That's OK, I'm all done with that.

-Oh.

-Don't do that.

Bye, 20.

-That's half down on a pair of shoes.

-Ha-ha-ha.

You must put it out.

Uh-oh.

-Smells bad.

-Watch.

-It smells like burning money.

Watch.

-Oh, my God.

-What the hell?

No, you didn't.

Wow. That was good. Perfect.

It has your name on it.

-What's that?

-Wow, look. Wow.

-Oh, my God.

-The same bill. Same bill.

No, man.

-Great.

-Oh.

Very good.

It was incredible and it was the same bill that he burnt.

-So, it was great.

-It was amazing, though. He burnt it.

I mean, actually, we sat here and watched him burn it.

How he put it in here, I don't know.

The light just went off - and "poof!"

As the sun went down,

I decided to hit some of the roof parties down in South Beach.

MUSIC: "Day 'N' Night" by Kid Cudi

Can you just take a card out, grab one, quickly.

Show everybody.

Oh, that's my favourite.

Put that anywhere. Anywhere, yeah. Anywhere.

-You remember the name of the card, right?

-Yeah.

When you think of it, look at me.

-I think I've got it. Yeah.

-OK.

You could've had any one of these cards, right? Watch.

Make them all disappear.

CHEERING

Do me a favour.

Can I borrow one of your flip-flops?

Is that all right?

Actually, we call them thongs.

-Can I borrow one of your thongs?

-Course you can.

How about this.

Sorry, so we've got Tanya and Rick, yeah?

Tanya and Rick's thongs, as they call them.

I call them flip-flops, whatever.

Let me try this.

Watch.

-Ah!

-Get out of here.

-Our thongs are stuck.

-That's your thong, right? That's your thong.

See that, right there.

-He really actually did that.

-That's the whole point.

-Yeah. I guess you guys are going home together.

-Ah!

All right, watch.

-That's for you. That's for you.

-Oh, my God.

I can't believe it.

I feel kind of weird cos I don't know what just happened.

I want to try something with you, actually. Stand up a second.

-Just come over here.

-Over here?

I'm going to try...

Can you see my shoelace is undone, yeah?

No. No!

Oh, my God.

Woah. Wait, wait, wait, hold on.

You seen this?

Oh. That is fire. Fascinating.

I want to know how you do that, I want to learn that. I'll be lazy.

Watch me tie it up, buddy? I can do that.

No, wait. How you do that? Wait, wait, wait.

It was the last day of my trip

and I'd been invited to another roof party,

this time on top of the Beacon Hotel,

where I had one last surprise in store for the people of Miami.

MUSIC: "Good Life" by Kanye West

LAUGHTER

-Oh, my God.

-Ah!

-What's your name?

-Rachel.

-Rachel, how you doing?

-Hi.

-Dynamo. Step forward a second.

-OK.

The four of spades, right? Top card. Everyone can see that?

-See that?

-Yeah.

I want you to take the pen and just write your name on there.

-OK.

-Awesome.

So, we've got Rachel.

I just want you to bite down on it. Hold it right there.

Perfect.

I'll take the next card. The jack of hearts, yeah?

Everyone see that?

I'll write my name on there - Dynamo.

-So, we got jack of hearts.

-OK.

Give me your hands.

I'm kind of scared right now.

Easy, easy.

I don't like this.

Rachel.

Hey! Oh!

-Ah!

-Oh!

-What is going on?! Get it, Dynamo.

-Dynamo!

I want to try something a bit different. Something using sound.

You've heard of people who can throw their voices,

like a ventriloquist can make it sound like his voice is coming out of a dummy.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-They throw their voices.

So, I'm going to try something like that, but using...

-this.

-CLAXON

-Yeah?

-Ah!

-I'm going to use this.

-I'm a bit worried about that.

-What's your name, bro?

-Vince.

-Vince. How you doing?

-Just step out here.

-Oh.

-Yeah. Everyone, back up a little bit.

Right here.

Just turn towards me. Yeah, that's awesome.

I'm going to blow this horn.

But you're going to have your eyes closed and, don't worry,

-I'm not going to blow it in your ear.

-OK.

I'm just... OK. I'm going to blow it either in front of you,

like, right here, or behind you.

With your eyes closed, you've got to guess

whether I blew in front or behind.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

So, close your eyes.

I'm going to pace around you.

-KLAXON

-That's behind.

-Awesome. You guessed right.

-You can open your eyes, I was behind you, right?

-Yeah.

Now, it's everyone else's turn.

Yeah? So, I'm going to... Let's see.

If I position you right there.

We'll get you, kind of, right here.

You, come over this side.

Then you.

Right there. Then, you guys, we've got to get you in there.

And you guys, kind of... Yeah, that's awesome.

So, right, I want everybody to close their eyes, yeah.

Everyone, close their eyes.

I'm going to blow the horn three times.

On the third time, I want you all to open your eyes and look at me.

Everyone understand?

Awesome.

-LAUGHTER

-All got your eyes closed?

-I'm trying to think of where'd he be at.

KLAXON

KLAXON

DISTANT KLAXON

No!

THEY ALL SHOUT

Dynamo!

What the...?

My God!

-Oh, my God. Hold on a second.

-Wait a minute.

He's tricked us.

No way. He's Dynamo God, man!

In my time, I've found myself appearing in the most amazing places

and my journey's been full of surprise.

Sometimes, the unexpected can be one of life's greatest gifts.

-He ended up all the way over there.

-He disappeared, man, that's Casper.

He was here, then he was here, and then he was there.

-In like a second.

-He just teleported.

Yeah, he just did.

-He transported.

-He ended up over there.

-Well, he was over here, now he's over there.

-Dynamo's a

-BLEEP

-X-Man.

How'd he do that? That's all I want to know. How did he do that?

I want to do that. OK?

Coming up next time...

-How did he even do that?

-I don't know.

-How did he do that?

..I take my magic to LA, the city of angels.

That's so wild.

Oh, my God!

Oh! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

# Finally The weight is off my shoulders

# Play for keeps Until the night is over... #