Steven Frayne's Miracles
The magician, formally known as Dynamo, is back on our screens with a new special that strikes a new tone.
Miracles from Steven Frayne aired over the holidays. It's the UK magician's big swing at making a Christmas special with his unique style of street magic and human stories. It's excellent.
On the eighth of June, I received a text from "D."
The magician, formally known as Dynamo, now goes by his full name, Steven Frayne, but I still can't quite shake the habit of calling him D.
The text I received was of a single image – a traffic light with one light brightly shining – a green light.
I'd spent a week earlier in the year helping craft the final pitch document for a special he'd been developing with plenty of talented people.
The text was his way of letting us all know that they'd received the green light and were going to make the special. Very exciting.
Participating in the early development of this show was emotionally complicated for me. I can't put it into words, and trust me, I tried.
I can certainly relate to Steven's difficulty navigating the press for his last special Dynamo is Dead. In it, he had to explain why he could no longer use his name without really being able to explain it at all.
I was first hired to work for Steven when I was nineteen. Ten months later, when I left under not-so-good circumstances, through no fault of Steven's, I was explicitly told by someone at the time that I would never work in TV again. It was not a great thing to be told at that age.
I'm pleased to say that everything seems to have since found its place.
Steven and I both continued to work on TV shows, and the person who told me I wouldn't is no longer doing the same.
A decade later, Miracles was my first time working with Steven again.
The role I played was tiny and early on, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I watched it today. It's the talented work of others who make shows like these.
I'd initially planned to write an article about how magicians seem to have a tough time reinventing themselves. I was going to share how odd it sometimes feels that Copperfield still talks about his Grandad on stage, etc.
I wouldn't wish what Steven has gone through in recent years on anyone, but if there is a silver lining, I was going to write that it is that he's been forced to reinvent himself—something I believe he's done well.
In many ways, Dynamo is Dead served as his "Wrecking Ball" moment—a hard reset. Now, let's see what's next.
I'm pleased to see none of that was mentioned in Miracles. The show hits the ground running, forcing you to come along for the ride with Steven Frayne.
I was utterly delighted by Miracles.
It's a specific kind of street magic at its best and the result of decades of hard work refining what Steven does. The show has excellent momentum in its editing and manages to showcase real human stories delicately and naturally.
By now, I've worked on several development shows that use a "magician gives back or helps people" format.
The tricky thing to navigate with shows like these is that it's very easy to come across like, well, like, a narcissist. It's difficult to perform magic without it sometimes feeling like some kind of "look at me" moment, and it's not always natural to go from talking to a cancer survivor to asking them to pick a card.
In most cases, making a car magically appear for someone who truly needs it can feel unnecessary–just give them the car already!
Steven manages to navigate this perfectly in a way I haven't quite seen before in Miracles. I think it's a testament to the casting and the pacing of the editing. But I also think it's got a lot to do with Steven's ability to share his own story honestly, share the spotlight, and perform magic that feels hand-made.
This is something I know Steven's been doing for a very long time off-camera, and it seamlessly finds its way onto the screen.
Every magician I've worked with is the best at something. When it comes to Frayne, I've always said he knows his audience better than any other magician.
He knows his role to inspire people the way people once inspired him – and he knows exactly who those people watching might be. You can see this in his big decisions – calling a Christmas Special "Miracles" because he knows how broad his audience is. But you also see it in the more minor decisions – making the real miracles the spectators and happily taking a backseat to tell their stories instead.
It's a must-watch for magicians looking to find ways to connect with their spectators instead of making every performance feel one-way. Please take note of how, after connecting with the contributors, he's able to elicit much bigger reactions from what would otherwise be considered relatively small, simple tricks.
To prove I'm not entirely biased, I will say that I'm not a fan of the one trick he does where he performs the haunted deck and then levitates the deck up into his hand. There are plenty of successful magicians who disagree with me about this relatively new kicker ending to the haunted deck. Still, I think it's a strong contender for worst kicker ever, close behind making a second person appear from the illusion box having just sawn someone in half inside it.
For the rest of the magic, it feels like Steven has finally nailed a rule he's been trying to put in place for as long as I've known him. Strong, intimate magic that's no larger than his own body. On the face of it, that doesn't sound so hard, but actually, for TV, creating great magic that can be performed anywhere, is that size, and still connects with viewers at home, is extremely difficult.
But he does it – it's the perfect street magic special from Steven Frayne.
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