Nothing Is Impossible: The Real-Life Adventures of a Street Magician
Read Nothing Is Impossible: The Real-Life Adventures of a Street Magician Online
Authors: Dynamo
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Entertainment & Performing Arts, #Games, #Magic
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE – THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
CHAPTER ONE – A MAGICAL AWAKENING
CHAPTER TWO – HUSTLE AND BUSTLE
CHAPTER THREE – MAGIC YOU CAN TOUCH
CHAPTER FOUR – AVOIDING THE STRAIGHT LINES
CHAPTER FIVE – THE HEROES OF MAGIC
CHAPTER SIX – REMEMBER MY NAME
CHAPTER SEVEN – OUT OF THE REALM OF NORMALITY
CHAPTER EIGHT – WHO’S THE MAGICIAN?
CHAPTER NINE – THE MAGIC OF TELEVISION
CHAPTER TEN – SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE
CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE LOOK ON PEOPLE’S FACES
CHAPTER TWELVE – LEAP OF FAITH
CHAPTER THIRTEEN – FLYING HIGH IN THE FAVELAS
CHAPTER FOURTEEN – REALITY IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT
CHAPTER FIFTEEN – DREAMS CAN COME TRUE
EPILOGUE – KEEPING THE MAGIC ALIVE
About the Book
When you’re a kid life can seem tough; tougher for some than others. But the darkest of times can also be the most enlightening.
When his late granddad showed him magic for the first time, Steven Frayne knew there was more to life than hiding from bullies. He had a destiny. A calling. In that moment Dynamo was born: the most exciting magician of the 21st century.
Since then, Dynamo has shocked, thrilled and amazed men, women and children from all walks of life, all over the world. With his mind-blowing illusions, he has catalysed a whole new era of magic.
Now, in his very first book, Dynamo invites you to join him on a breathtaking journey across the globe. Be prepared to levitate Lindsay Lohan in Singapore, transform snow into diamonds in the Austrian mountains and walk on water across the River Thames. Along the way, he reveals how to make the impossible possible, what it takes to pull off the greatest stunts man has ever seen, and why everyone needs magic in their lives.
This is no illusion. This is the real story of the awe-inspiring Dynamo.
About the Author
Dynamo
was born Steven Frayne in December 1982 in Bradford. He grew up on the notorious Delph Hill housing estate, where he was raised by his mother while his father spent long periods in prison. At the same time, he was forced to battle a debilitating form of Crohn’s disease as well as playground bullies.
After being introduced to magic by his beloved granddad and receiving a loan from the Prince’s Trust, he carved out a career as one of the most respected magicians and illusionists in the world.
His TV series
Dynamo: Magician Impossible
broke all viewing records for UKTV channel
Watch
and won three
Broadcast
Awards.
Dynamo now lives in London where he continues to dream up even bigger and better illusions to prove to the world that really nothing is impossible.
Dedicated to the man who inspired all of the magic in this book,
Kenneth Walsh (1927 – 2012)
PROLOGUE
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
STANDING ON THE
banks of the River Thames, I shivered slightly in the early evening breeze. With the Houses of Parliament lit up in front of me, and the doleful toll of Big Ben ringing in my ears, I could feel my stomach churning nervously.
This was it. This was the moment I’d been building up to for what seemed like the whole of my life. It all felt so surreal.
Back home in Bradford, I knew the man who had got me here, Kenneth Walsh, my great-grandfather, or ‘Gramps’ as I call him, would watch this; maybe even the kids who used to pick on me and push me around. As I teetered on the edge of the riverbank, a crazy kaleidoscope of everything that had happened in the last twenty-eight years raced through my mind. As clichéd as it may sound, my whole life flashed before me.
I thought of all the people who had told me I’d never amount to anything; the tough times growing up on my estate; Gramps showing me magic for the first time; the teachers who sneered at my dreams of wanting to be a famous magician; the years working clubs around the country to make ends meet; shuffling my cards for hours in a hospital bed; impressing everyone from Prince Charles and Jay-Z to Will Smith and Chris Martin; the
knock-backs that at one time threatened to derail my career; and the moment I was given the name Dynamo.
Since the age of twelve, magic had been my life. It was all I’d thought about, all day, every day. Every waking hour (and even in my dreams) I’d be conjuring up new ideas, new illusions, new ways to bring something special to the world. But never had I faced anything on the same scale as the challenge that lay before me now. I was about to walk across the River Thames.
Taking a deep breath, I nervously lifted my right leg. As my foot touched the surface of the increasingly choppy water, I heard a loud gasp. Above me, a crowd of people had gathered on the banks of the river and on Westminster Bridge.
Shock, surprise and anticipation clouded their faces. I felt the water flowing beneath my feet, soaking through my trainers, sending shivers through my body. I could feel a strong wind gusting across the river, making my heart beat even faster.
I was doing it. I was standing on water. There was no turning back now.
As the audience swelled from ten to 2,000 people, I tried to clear my mind. I had walked on water before at a swimming pool but never on a natural body of unpredictable water. The Thames is a different beast. It has incredibly strong, incalculable undercurrents and there’s always a lot of traffic. Completely unpredictable. One wrong move and I could be sucked under the murky water – the kind of vanishing act I would never want to undertake. Over fifty people a year lose their lives to this almighty river, so I had to carefully judge each step as the waves rolled around me. Until now, I hadn’t understood the gravity of what I was attempting to do.
Nevertheless, I could feel the excitement running through the crowd as more and more people gathered. The energy made my hair stand on end. The power from the spectators was keeping me up there, keeping me afloat. I looked across to the Houses of Parliament, a view I had admired many times, but not really looked at until today. These grand old buildings had seen so much history unfold but would also be witness to me, Steven Frayne from Delph Hill, trying to make his own mark on the world.