Rahat Hossain

Rahat
Personal information
Born Rahat Hossain
(1989-12-19) December 19, 1989
Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S
Nationality American, Bangladeshi
Occupation YouTube personality, magician
YouTube information
Pseudonym MagicOfRahat
Channel name MagicOfRahat
Years active 2008-present
Genre Magic, comedy
Subscribers 4,105,606 (14 December 2015)
Total views 493,969,951 (12 October 2015)
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 7 October 2015.

Rahat Hossain (born December 19, 1989), also known by his username MagicofRahat is an American YouTube personality, vlogger, prankster and magician who produces pranks and magic tricks on YouTube.

Early life

Hossain grew up in Virginia Beach. He was born in Virginia, where he showed passion for building things with cardboard and duct tape.[1] Hossain attended Old Dominion University in approximately 2009, majoring in criminal justice.[1] In college, he began uploading videos featuring card tricks. The first-ever video uploaded with Hossain's YouTube account was named, "Maxi-Twist by Rahat". He uploaded almost 50 videos of this genre before filming hidden camera pranks.[2]

Career

Invisible driver prank

Hossain posted his hit video, "Drive Thru Invisible Driver Prank," on January 9, 2013.[3] 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[4] 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".[1]

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.[5]

In June 2014 Toyota featured Hossain in a similar invisible driver stunt in Europe, steering the Toyota Aygo.[6]

Homeless lottery winner

In a video posted on March 4, 2014, Hossain gave a homeless man named Eric a winning lottery ticket that was worth $1,000. The cashier was also in on the prank. After receiving the money, Eric said, "I've been doing this for a long time. A long time. And never, never had a friend, had somebody do what you just did back there. Never". Later on his Twitter account, Hossain posted that he was happy to help the man and he "tries to help people as much as he can". The video received an overall positive reception by the public[7] and was viewed nearly 16 million times.[8]

In the following days, Hossain advised willing Internet users to donate more money to help Eric, his goal being to collect a total of $20,000. He raised more than $46,000 from 3,000 donors after setting up a Fundly site. Hossain said that he wanted to "improve his lifestyle" and emphasized Eric's personality. While collecting the money, Eric moved into a hotel room and was given a job. On May 7, 2014, Hossain uploaded a video to YouTube titled, "Homeless Man Gets A Home." The video shows him offering to buy dinner for Eric, but first he says he has to stop by his house to get something. It was later revealed that it was, in reality, the house was the very one paid for by thousands of Internet contributors. In a matter of days, the video received about nine million views.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ollison, Rashod (18 January 2013). "Local man's video drives him toward fame". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Maxi-Twist by Rahat". YouTube.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Undercoffler, David (11 January 2013). "Driverless car or ghost? Drive-through prank video goes viral". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Clarke, Suzan (10 January 2013). "Invisible Driver at Drive-Thru Inspires ‘Epic’ Video". ABC News. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "'Invisible Driver' Prank Spooks Drive-Thru Workers". HuffingtonPost.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Toyota Aygo: Invisible Driver Prank in Europe (video)". Toyota. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Touching moment homeless man 'won' $1,000 on the lottery when well-wisher gave him winning ticket". Daily Mail. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Grimes, Stephanie (8 May 2014). "YouTube prankster gives homeless man a new home". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Landau, Joel. "Prankster Magic of Rahat gives a home to his homeless friend". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
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