Viewers are convinced they have found a vital clue as to how Dynamo escaped after being buried alive in a 6ft grave.
The magician, 40, whose real name is Steven Frayne, performed his terrifying ‘final act’ under his stage name live on air in one-off show on Sky, Dynamo Is Dead on Thursday.
Dynamo had three vital minutes to dig himself out of five tonnes of soil before he would suffocate to death.
The illusionist managed to break through to the surface at the two minute 47 second mark, and now some eagle-eyed fans have theorised just how he managed to do it.
Viewers believe a key 20 seconds from when the soil fell on Dynamo to the camera angle changing allowed the magician time to stand up so he would be close to the soil’s surface.
Viewers are convinced they have found a vital clue as to how Dynamo escaped after being buried alive in 6ft grave
The magician, 40, whose real name is Steven Frayne, performed his terrifying ‘final act’ under his stage name live on air in one-off show on Sky, Dynamo Is Dead on Thursday
The magician then would have to control his breathing as the digger dumped the five tonnes of soil into the grave, but would be close enough to the surface to free himself.
Fans to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their theory on the illusion, with many agreeing the trickery was down to clever camera angles.
Viewers wrote: ‘The camera pans away from the bottom of the hole for about 20 seconds whilst the digger drops the dirt. By the time the camera pans back, he’s already near the top. From that point it’s a breath control exercise.’
‘Some of those tricks were quality but not that believe he’s buried when the camera moves away nonsense….’
‘Anyone watch that buried alive with dynamo?!! Obviously what happened was they chucked the couple of buckets of dirt on him the camera panned away he stood up before the tipper wacked the 5 ton on him!’
‘Wow he managed that without getting his face dirty!!!! Very clever what camera angles can do.’
‘Lay down, camera pulled back, he gets up and hunched over so as not to be seen by the low angle as the soil goes in. As it gets tipped in – he stands up so it means less distance to pull himself up and out. Definite earpieces in too.’
‘So, when the camera moved away and you couldn’t see the grave, he probably stood up or crouched down before the rest of the dirt went down. Then he held his breath for a bit before climbing out.’
Some viewers believe a key 20 seconds from when the soil fell on Dynamo to the camera angle changing allowed the magician time to stand up so he would be close to the soil’s surface
The magician then would have to control his breathing as the digger dumped the five tonnes of soil into the grave, but would be close enough to the surface to free himself
Fans to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their theory on the illusion, with many agreeing the trickery was down to clever camera angles
Others believed there could be a trick ledge or secret compartment where Dynamo went when the digger dumped five tonnes into the grave.
‘I love @Dynamomagician but surely the burial is set like a wwe buried alive match and then the camera panned up here went into the secret compartment?’
‘Enjoyed all of the show and the messaging other than the last trick! He had plenty of time to move himself to a trick ledge away from camera.’
Commentary overlaid the footage of Dynamo digging himself out of his own grave.
It said: ‘He’s done it. The feat that Houdini failed to do. And that’s the first time that anybody has ever managed to escape from being buried without a coffin.
‘Steven Frayne, what a legend. That’s unbelievable.’
The reference to Houdini is American escapologist Harry Houdini who kicked off the trend in 1915 when he was buried without a coffin beneath six feet of earth.
Dynamo took to Instagram to share this poignant picture of him saying goodbye to his past stage name
The magician said the programme was called Dynamo Is Dead because he thinks it will be his ‘final act’ under his stage name and he feels the need to ‘move on’
But he panicked while trying to dig his way out and, by the time his hand broke the surface, he had fallen unconscious and had to be pulled free by his assistants.
British magician Alan Alan attempted the stunt again in 1949, but he too had to be rescued and was moments from death when he finally emerged, shaken but alive.
Antony Britton had a go in 2015 but also had to be saved by rescuers, with photographers capturing the moment his hand burst through the soil.
Illusionist David Blaine had more success in 1999 with a variation on the stunt in which he spent a week underground in a transparent coffin.
Dynamo revealed the programme was called Dynamo Is Dead because he thinks it will be his ‘final act’ under his stage name and he feels the need to ‘move on’.
Earlier this week, he talked about his motivation behind the death-defying stunt, and confessed to having a difficult year after the death of his grandmother, Nellie Walsh.
‘She got me into magic and I felt like it had died with her. I needed to bury the part of me that had died with her.’
He added: ‘When I came up with the idea [of being buried alive] I felt like I didn’t have a lot to live for.
‘But I have realised that I do have a lot to live for, a lot more magic to give and this is something that I need to do for me.’
Speaking about the hazardous stunt, Dynamo admitted: ‘I think its one of the most dangerous things I have ever done.
‘I felt like the weight of the world has been on me and I’ve been living in the dark and this encapsulates it.
‘It’s nerve-racking and it’s really set in how scary this is now. I’m excited to see what life will be like after this.’
It comes after the star revealed how he was left unable to perform after a flare-up of his Crohn’s disease caused by eating a piece of undercooked chicken.
Dynamo explained problems with his medication saw his life to spiral into a ‘vicious circle’, as he felt physically well enough to perform but lost all pleasure from his work and fell into a deep depression.
In 1915, the American escapologist Harry Houdini kicked off the trend when he was buried without a coffin beneath six feet of earth
Dynamo with his grandmother. Earlier this week he said her death motivated him to take on his ‘most dangerous’ magic trick
Speaking to The Sunday Times for an emotional interview this week, he said: ‘You take magic away from a magician and you lose your sense of purpose.’
He revealed he began to self-harm and suffered an identity crisis, telling the newspaper: ‘The last five years, maybe even longer, I’ve at times lost the will to live.
‘Right now I feel happy to be alive. Albeit… I’ll be ultimately happier when I come out of that grave. Touch wood.’
Diagnosed with the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn’s in his teens, Dynamo had to have half his stomach removed and lived in excruciating pain for years.
He turned to magic to distract himself from his health struggles, became a household name in 2011 and gained fame from his incredible street performances, card tricks and stunts.
But his chronic illness has plagued him throughout that time, and flared up in 2017 after he ate a piece of raw chicken at a fast-food chain.
He disappeared from public view before opening up about the effects months later, telling fans he had been hospitalised with a combination of Crohn’s disease and food poisoning.
The performer revealed he was still dealing with the side-effects of his steroid medication, including arthritis affecting his hands, knees, toes, ankles and neck.
Dynamo said that that at times it got so bad that he was ‘unable to shuffle a pack of cards’.
He vowed that he would return to magic, and said he was working with ‘doctors and physio and doing everything in my power to get to 100 per cent’.
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How DOES he do it? He walks on water, strolls down skyscrapers and has a novel way of catching a bus
Dynamo has levitated Lindsay Lohan, James Corden and Matt Lucas, performed card tricks for the likes of Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Gwyneth Paltrow and Will Smith, and forced Prince Charles to cover his face in a mixture of terror and disgust during a skit in which he appeared to dislocate his little finger.
He’s also ‘walked’ across the Thames, turned Austrian snow into diamonds, made cardboard butterflies come alive, turned Fanta into Coke, and somehow managed to convert lottery tickets into banknotes on live television.
Steven’s interest in magic developed, and he began to earn pocket money performing card and coin tricks in local bars and clubs.
Word of his talent spread, and at 17, he was invited to perform at a conference in the U.S. to mark the anniversary of the escapologist Harry Houdini’s death.
It was a member of the audience at that gig who provided young Steven with his nickname, shouting ‘the kid’s a dynamo!’
After dropping out of college, he received a £60,000 grant from the Prince’s Trust to make a demo DVD of his ‘street’ magic.
The video impressed TV executives from the satellite channel Watch, who commissioned the first series of the Magician Impossible series which has turned him into a global sensation.
LEVITATING FROM A DOUBLE-DECKER BUS
Hovering 15ft above the Tarmac, with the palm of his right hand gently resting on the roof of a double-decker bus, Dynamo waved to stunned crowds
THE TRICK: Hovering 15ft above the Tarmac, with the palm of his right hand gently resting on the roof of a double-decker bus, Dynamo waved to stunned crowds as he floated serenely through Central London, in a PR stunt designed to publicise his series of Magician Impossible.
HOW HE DOES IT: Levitation tricks tend to work one of two ways: either the subject is suspended from hidden wires, or a concealed platform or brace holds them secretly in place.
The fact that this trick took place out of doors, in broad daylight, using a moving stage, makes the latter explanation the most likely.
The position of Dynamo’s body would allow a support beam to run along his outstretched right arm (the bottom of which is concealed by shadow), to a brace in between his magician’s shoulder blades.
WALKING ACROSS THE RIVER THAMES
Following in the well-worn footsteps of Jesus, Dynamo casually hopped over a gate beside Westminster Bridge one summer’s evening in 2011
THE TRICK: Following in the well-worn footsteps of Jesus, Dynamo casually hopped over a gate beside Westminster Bridge one summer’s evening in 2011, and began stepping gingerly across the Thames.
After roughly a hundred yards, he was bundled into a passing police boat and whisked away.
HOW HE DOES IT: Close-up screen-grabs suggest that Dynamo wasn’t so much walking ‘on’ the murky Thames as across an invisible platform just below its surface.
Indeed, two flat-bottomed canoes, which passed between the magician and the shore mid-way through the trick, appeared to accidentally strike just such a hidden object.
The police dinghy is, meanwhile, believed to have been a fake, filled with actors.
STROLLING DOWN A SKYSCRAPER
THE TRICK: It was well after dark when Dynamo appeared on top of the art deco LA Times headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.
To gasps from passers-by, he appeared to dive from its roof, only for his fall to suddenly stop when his body had reached a horizontal position.
After that, he walked calmly down the side of the landmark building, at a 90-degree angle to vertical, before hopping to the pavement and wandering off into the night.
HOW HE DOES IT: This trick’s all about illumination.
Specifically, it revolved around a collection of dazzling, mega-watt floodlights at ground level.
These bathed the front of the magician in light, but created dark shadows behind him where a climbing rope and support harness are believed to have been secreted.
Slowed-down footage of the stunt, posted on YouTube, appeared to reveal the harness tugging at the back of Dynamo’s shirt as he landed on terra firma.
MAKING MATT LUCAS FLOAT
The streetwise Dynamo upped the ante by performing a similar feat on the 14st comedian Matt Lucas in 2009
THE TRICK: Old-school stage magicians levitate featherweight assistants who wear skimpy bikinis.
The streetwise Dynamo upped the ante by performing a similar feat on the 14st comedian Matt Lucas in 2009.
The stunt, at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, was staged to publicise a charity fundraiser.
It’s a long- standing favourite of the Bradford magician who has performed similar levitation tricks in several episodes of his TV show — most famously on Lindsay Lohan.
HOW HE DOES IT: This is a straightforward version of the ‘bus trick’. Like most outdoor levitations, it is likely to have been achieved using a hidden horizontal platform, rather than concealed ropes or wires. No video footage of the stunt exists, however, since it was only ever performed for a newspaper photo opportunity.
That raises a third possible explanation — that the photograph was achieved using computer trickery.
PASSING THROUGH A GLASS WINDOW
The magician disappeared behind the screen before quickly re-emerging on the pavement on the far side of the shop window
THE TRICK: The venue was a glitzy celebrity party on the ground floor of a shop in Central London.
Watched by footballer Rio Ferdinand and a selection of well-groomed soap stars, Dynamo handed his jacket to a pair of bouncers, who held it in front of him to create a shoulder-high screen.
To the bemusement of his audience, the magician then disappeared behind the screen before quickly re-emerging on the pavement on the far side of the shop window, as if through the glass, and scampering away.
HOW HE DOES IT: This appears to be a clever re-working of an age-old favourite trick of stage magicians.
Unsurprisingly, what we can’t see behind Dynamo’s makeshift screen is crucial.
Traditionally, the solid window slides discreetly upwards (once the screen is in place) to expose a secret hatch through which the conjurer can escape.
By the time the sight-screen has been removed, the window has been returned to its original closed position.