Looking back on that time now – having just recovered from coronavirus himself – Dynamo acknowledges that self-isolation is nothing new to him. “In some ways, it’s kind of what I’ve been doing most of my life,” he says. “The area I grew up in wasn’t the sort of place where you could go and play outside. It was a bit too dangerous. So I spent a lot of time in my bedroom with nothing but my imagination trying to create magic. I find that I’m the most creative when left to my own devices.”
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At 17, he endured a long stay in hospital as doctors tried to work out the best way to deal with an abscess in his bowel.
“That’s when I first realised the power that magic had,” he remembers. “I was in hospital for three months before the operation because they weren’t sure what was going on inside me. I wasn’t bedridden so I was able to like wander around and to keep myself busy I was going around wards and performing magic.
“There were people who were in far worse situations than I was, people who were probably never going to get to go home. But it got to the point where every time I walked into their ward, their face would light up because they knew for that moment they were going to get to forget about their troubles and experience something amazing. It can change the way people feel. It can affect people’s emotions in a positive way.”
Dynamo, who has spent more time than most of us in hospital recently, is eager to point out that it’s doctors and nurses who are real magicians.
“One hundred percent. They are changing lives, saving lives and making the world a better place. I was on my balcony clapping for the NHS like everyone else. And it was it was an amazing moment. The whole country is appreciating all the hard work they are doing and now more than ever is a sign of just how important the NHS is in our country and how lucky we are to have a system like that.”
While in hospital, and even though he could hardly use his hands, Dynamo came up with 200 ideas for tricks he wanted to work on when he got better. Some of those form the basis of his new three-part series Beyond Belief, which combines his unique low-fi, high-impact style (racing a taxi in reverse around central Moscow – blindfolded, making symbols drawn on his hand appear on someone else’s) cut with personal moments from his long road to recovery.
“Magic was the thing that kept me going when I was younger, and whilst I was in hospital this time as well,” he explains. “Creating magic gave me the inspiration not to let my illness hold me back. It forced me to look at my illness and the adversity I was going through from a different perspective.
“In some ways, I think a lot of people will be able to relate to my situation more now with what everyone’s going through at the moment. Hopefully it will give a little bit of escapism for people who are definitely going to be sick and tired of being stuck indoors. Now more than ever, we need a little bit of magic in our lives.”
Dynamo: Beyond Belief is on Sky One and NOW TV
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