Rahat Hossain
Rahat Hossain (born December 19, 1989), also known by his username MagicofRahat, is an American YouTube personality, vlogger, and prankster who produces pranks and magic tricks on YouTube. Since creating his YouTube channel, his channel has received over seven million subscribers and over one billion video views. Early life Hossain's parents are from Bangladesh. He was born and grew up in Virginia Beach, where he showed passion for building things with cardboard and duct tape. Hossain attended Old Dominion University in approximately 2009, majoring in criminal justice . In college, he began uploading videos featuring card tricks. The first video uploaded on his YouTube account was titled "Maxi-Twist by Rahat". He uploaded almost 50 videos of this genre before filming hidden camera pranks. He would be inspired by other youtubers and improve on them, He would upload videos of himself doing something another youtuber had already done before him, but improve the showmanship in his own way. Career Driver drive thru pranks Hossain posted his hit video, "Drive Thru Invisible Man Prank," on January 9, 2013. The video shows him dressed up as a car seat and fooling workers at various fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's and Chick-fil-A. Hossain said he constructed the car-seat outfit in 12 hours after being inspired by an image he found on the Internet of a "guy who'd actually had a car-seat costume similar to what I built". The prank gained immense popularity and was featured on Fox & Friends, Good Morning America, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, among others. As of 2014, the video received over 40 million total views. In June 2014 Toyota featured Hossain in a similar invisible driver stunt in Europe, steering the Toyota Aygo. Homeless lottery winner "scandal" On March 4, 2014, Hossain uploaded a video titled "Homeless Lottery Winner" in which he pranked a homeless man named Eric Aursby. The video begins with Hossain explaining to the viewers his intention to help Aursby, who was described to Hossain by members of the community as a "nice and respectable guy". Hossain would give him a losing lottery ticket that the store clerk of a nearby convenience store (who was in on the prank) would exchange for $1000 cash, giving Aursby the impression that he had won the lottery. Immediately after receiving the money, Aursby began insisting on splitting the "prize" with Hossain and subsequently broke down in tears when Hossain declined. In the following weeks, Hossain uploaded another video in which he discussed the overall response to the lottery ticket prank, with viewers (who were touched by Aursby's gesture to offer half of the money to Hossain) asking how they could donate to Aursby. Hossain set up a fundraiser, with the initial goal being to raise a total of $20,000. The fundraiser ended up more than tripling this amount and collected roughly $66,000 from over 3,000 donors. Hossain remarked that he wanted to "improve his lifestyle", emphasizing Aursby's personality. While collecting the money, Aursby moved into a hotel room