How DOES he do it? He walks on water, strolls down skyscrapers and now magician Dynamo has a novel way of catching a bus Illusionist Steven Frayne travelled across Westminster Bridge with one hand placed on top of 15ft bus Latest levitating stunt from Bradford-born entertainer who is popular amongst celebrity clients 30-year-old has levitated Lindsay Lohan and performed for Jay-Z and Prince CharlesBy Guy Adams PUBLISHED: 22:01 GMT, 24 June 2013 | UPDATED: 06:57 GMT, 25 June 2013

+11Latest feat: Dynamo performed another 'it has to be seen to be believed' moment this week on Westminster BridgeThis may be one way to avoid rush-hour crowds. But what would the man on the Clapham omnibus think?With a smile on his face, and a stiff breeze running through his heavily waxed barnet, the celebrity illusionist Dynamo floats serenely across Westminster Bridge while levitating from the side of a double-decker bus.Pictures of the audacious stunt were splashed across the news pages yesterday, in a fresh PR coup for the street conjurer from a Bradford council estate who has used his fast hands and gift for mesmerising displays of old-fashioned trickery to gain international celebrity.The 30-year-old 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.Hes 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.All of which means that the recent bus ride through Central London is only the latest remarkable journey that Dynamo whose real name is the rather less exciting Steven Frayne has completed in recent years.Born in 1982 to a jailbird father whom he once described as a gangster who did some dodgy stuff, Steven was raised largely by his great-grandfather, Ken Walsh, a keen amateur magician.Thanks to severe Crohns disease, a dietary illness which affects the digestive system, Steven who to this day measures a mere 5ft 6 in, and weighs just 8st was small, thin and an easy target for bullies. More... How does he do it? Magician Dynamo stuns onlookers as he levitates from the roof of a London bus Schoolboy, 12, who was fascinated by TV magician Dynamo accidentally hanged himself in his bedroomHis great-grandad duly advised him to learn magic tricks as a way to protect himself. He showed me a technique to make myself too heavy to lift, Steven once recalled.The next time the bullies tried to pick me up, they couldnt. They gave up and ran away.I never had any trouble again. Word got round the school that I had super-powers, so I got a lot of respect.

+11Don't look down: Steven Frayne gave the crowds a thumbs-up as he larked around 15ft above the ground with nothing but the palm of his hand on the double-decker

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+11Thrilling: Smiling fans on the upper deck (left) have a prime view of how Dynamo pulled off the stunt. Onlookers on the bridge stared in disbelief (right). The entertainer is best known for his levitation tricksStevens 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 Houdinis death.It was a member of the audience at that gig who provided young Steven with his nickname, shouting the kids a dynamo!After dropping out of college, he received a 60,000 grant from the Princes 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.

+11Magic man: Steven Frayne has been praised for the modernity of his acts. He doesn't use the props or stagecraft of traditional magic showsCritics have praised the authenticity of Dynamos act, which has none of the rickety stagecraft, endless assistants, or general kitsch of traditional magic shows.I respect people such as [David] Blaine, [David] Copperfield and [Derren] Brown, but unlike them I dont need big stage sets and teams of helpers he has said.Meanwhile, fans who have watched him run down the side of tall buildings, walk on water, pull jewellery from his stomach and make mobile phones appear in beer bottles, tend to respond with a single question: How, exactly, does Dynamo do it?Here, to that end, we uncover the ingenious secrets that may lie behind some of his most famous tricks.

LEVITATING FROM A DOUBLE-DECKER BUSTHE 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 gobsmacked crowds as he floated serenely through Central London at the weekend, in a PR stunt designed to publicise the latest 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 Dynamos 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 magicians shoulder blades.

WALKING ACROSS THE RIVER THAMESTHE TRICK: Following in the well-worn footsteps of Jesus, Dynamo casually hopped over a gate beside Westminster Bridge one summers 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.

+11Biblical: Dynamo caused a stir in 2011 with a mind-blowing stunt that launched his TV series. He was picked up by a 'police boat' halfway across the riverHOW HE DOES IT: Close-up screen-grabs suggest that Dynamo wasnt 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

+11Defying gravity: The magician creates illusions that beggar belief but are often to do with perspective and masking realityTHE 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 tricks 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 Dynamos shirt as he landed on terra firma.

MAKING MATT LUCAS FLOATTHE 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 Arsenals Emirates Stadium, was staged to publicise a charity fundraiser.Its 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.

+11Up, up and away: Levitating stunts are Dynamo's calling card. He has performed the stunt on actress Lindsay Lohan and comedian Matt LucasHOW 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.

PULLING A NECKLACE FROM HIS STOMACH

+11Sleight of hand: A necklace appears to come out of Dynamo's stomach after he swallows itTHE TRICK: One of Dynamos most striking pieces of street magic was showcased in 2011 during an episode of his TV show filmed in Las Vegas.First, he borrowed a necklace from a woman sitting beside a swimming pool.Then, he proceeded to swallow the piece of jewellery.Finally, he pulled it from what appeared to be a hole that had been torn in his well-toned stomach.HOW HE DOES IT: Filmed with a wobbly handheld camera in Las Vegas, this stunt was almost impossible to work out.But a few months later, Dynamo repeated the trick under the bright lights of the One Shows BBC TV studio in London.Close up footage of this second stunt, performed for host Chris Evans, suggests that the stomach the necklace emerged from was in fact a prosthetic fake.The necklace appears to have passed from the magicians mouth to his false torso using sleight-of-hand.PASSING THROUGH A GLASS WINDOWTHE 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.

+11No need to open the door: The experienced magician has been practicing magic since his childhood. In this trick he appears to walk through a glass panel

+11Bypassed: Dynamo completes another successful trick. He has achieved popular and critical acclaim for his trickeryHOW HE DOES IT: This appears to be a clever re-working of an age-old favourite trick of stage magicians.Unsurprisingly, what we cant see behind Dynamos 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.

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