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Dynamo - Crossword Magic

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squarebear | 21:56 Mon 09th Jul 2012 | Film, Media & TV
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Did anyone see Dynamo on Watch last Sunday?

He was doing a trick in a pub in which he took a copy of a newspaper with a blank crossword, rotated it with the puzzle complete and the puzzle was magically completed. How on earth did he do that?

I can't find it on youtube anywhere to show you exactly what I mean.
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Sorry I meant "rotated it with the blank crossword puzzle visible and the puzzle was magically completed"
Yes I watched him, brilliant yet again as was the last series. I never have been "into" magic but his kind of magic is so different I'm in awe of how it's done. I too wondered about the crossword in the newspaper, what I find amazing is he does all his tricks within close proximity to his audience and none of them seem to know how the tricks are done either. All good entertainment which you don't seem to get much of on tv nowadays.
Please don't tell that the new series has started. I kept looking out for it but never saw that it was starting.
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I found the clip. The trick I mentioned starts from 3:30. Amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCsdoNYdRIc&feature=plcp
This guy is so good, and he knows it.

We all know it can't be, don't we? But he almost makes you think it could be magic!
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I can only think it was a Cris Angel type trick where the audience are actually in on the trick and it's just the people watching at home who are fooled.

I would love to be able to do this one down the pub!
flobadob - its on again tomorrow night 10th July on Watch channel at 8pm
Yes Sb I wondered if the audience were in on it but seems there would be lots of people in difference places that would be as he goes about the streets. I guess it's the only way you could explain it - still good though lol.
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That's what Cris Angel used to do though Daisy. He was similar and his audience consisited of actors oaid to feign astonishment.

I agree, still good though. I shouted the wife in to watch when I saw this trick on Sunday.
It's trick photography - the woman in the clip is his grandmother.
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Yes that's the only way I could have thought it was done as she looked very unimpressed.
He's not that clever, 6d is wrong!
I would guess trick photography too. I notice that before the rotation, the 3 fingers of his left hand partially obscure the lights of the rightmost down clue but afterwards they are well away from the grid.
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I didn't notice that before with his fingers. Yes, it must be a camera trick which explains why his Nan wasn't particularly impressed.
Thank you sir.prize, I was doing a search on Sky+ for Dynamo but nothing was coming up. I now see that it is called New Dynamo so that's is why the search didn't work.
Well spotted Calibax, I've just run it through and saw it....huh and the camera never lies *Chortlesplutters*. One down...lots to go lol.
If you do a slow-mo (sad I know) of where he disappears in HMV, there is a cut as the camera's view is obscured by a girl's head
Before the camera goes behind her head there is free space above her head in the frame, which then disappears to her head filling full frame and then the clothes are shown.
he was on the one show the other evening. Not a show i generally watch, but he did a trick where he pulled what looked like a metal chain out of his torso, from the his side. Unless you are totally gullible, the presenters were wetting themselves, it looked like he had a fake, plastic type body wrap, can't see how can explain that, attached, so he wasn't pulling it out from his own skin. It looked fake, even on the TV
I watched it on satellite. If you pause it and take it step by step frame by frame, you can faintly see a crease in just the crossword portion of the newspaper. As he begins to rotate the entire newspaper as he approaches the top of the rotation you can see his fingers on the right side lift up ever so slightly, as soon as you see that begin to happen you also cat her and says "10 minutes? Your a bit optimistic arent ya?" The camera then cuts to a close up of grams face again and when it comes back to the wideshot, the puzzle is now facing grams and us the audience and he says "watch this" that is when we see the closeup of the paper and the trick itself. Im guessing a wideshot of the trick would have allowed us to very clearly see how the trick was performed, but instead they did a close up, the close up mixed with his rapid rotation of the paper causes a blur and therefore hides whats really going on. It is all smoke and mirrors, most of his tricks start with a distraction of some sort. Some tricks are spot on and boggle my mind and some are done poorly and are easily picked apart. For instance one I couldnt figure out, him floating in midair 8ft off the ground in front of thousands of people in brazil by the statue of jesus. Could not figure that out for the life of me.
I watched it on satellite. If you pause it and take it step by step frame by frame, you can faintly see a crease in just the crossword portion of the newspaper. As he begins to rotate the entire newspaper as he approaches the top of the rotation you can see his fingers on the right side lift up ever so slightly, as soon as you see that begin to happen you also see a the crossword puzzle flip over, revealing the finished crossword and obscuring the unfinished crossword. Once he stops the rotation and we see the finished puzzle, you once again can see the faint crease down the middle of the puzzle. Whats happened is he has cut out two identical puzzles from seperate papers. Finished one and left the other unfinished. He then folded both and glued the backside of one half of each puzzle to each other, possible adding some sort of weight or spring to it. The other halves of the puzzle he has glued down to the paper to cover up the original puzzle. As he does the rotation and lifts his fingers up slightly, the force from rotating it has flung it open swinging his crossword (door, if I may describe it that way) open from right to left revealing the finished portion and hiding the unfinished one. How he got it to stay open on the finished one I still have not figured out. I'm guessing it may of had some sort of spring mechanism hidden between the glued parts, or a small flat magnet or possibly a sticky substance to hold it in place once flipped. That is how it was done. If you doubt me I challenge you to pause it before his rotation of the paper and move forward frame by frame slowly. Also look for the crease in the middle of JUST the crossword puzzle, both before and after the rotation. Also you may notice, afyer his grandma looks at it and says "10minutes" she lays it down on the bar face up, Dynamo says "10 minutes? Thats as fast as you can do it aye?" And the camera cuts to a close up of his grams face. Then it comes back out to a wide shot and him saying "alright let me have a look at it" (NOTICE THAT THE PAPER IS NOW FACE DOWN) he then picks up just the portion with the crossword puzzle and folds the paper with the puzzle facing him and he talks to her a bit (this is the "distraction" that magicians use to advert your eyes away from what your hands are doing) he then looks at her and says "10 minutes? Your a bit optimistic arent ya?" The camera then cuts to a close up of grams face again and when it comes back to the wideshot, the puzzle is now facing grams and us the audience and he says "watch this" that is when we see the closeup of the paper and the trick itself. Im guessing a wideshot of the trick would have allowed us to very clearly see how the trick was performed, but instead they did a close up, the close up mixed with his rapid rotation of the paper causes a blur and therefore hides whats really going on. It is all smoke and mirrors, most of his tricks start with a distraction of some sort. Some tricks are spot on and boggle my mind and some are done poorly and are easily picked apart. For instance one I couldnt figure out, him floating in midair 8ft off the ground in front of thousands of people in brazil by the statue of jesus. Could not figure that out for the life of me.

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