Rahat Hossain

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

Rahat Hossain
Personal information
Born (1989-12-19) December 19, 1989
Virginia Beach, Virginia
NationalityAmerican
OccupationYouTube personality, magician
YouTube information
Also known asMagicofRahat
Channel
Years active2007–2018
GenreMagic, comedy, pranks
Subscribers6.88M
(As of July 29th, 2020)
Total views1,276,575,334
(As of July 29th, 2020)
Associated actsDennis Roady
100,000 subscribers 2010
1,000,000 subscribers 2012
Alma materOld Dominion University
Updated February 1, 2018

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.[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 video uploaded on his YouTube account was titled "Maxi-Twist by Rahat".[2] He uploaded almost 50 videos of this genre before filming hidden camera pranks.[3]

Career

Invisible driver prank

Hossain posted his hit video, "Drive Thru Invisible Driver Prank," on January 9, 2013.[4] 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[5] 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.[6]

In June 2014 Toyota featured Hossain in a similar invisible driver stunt in Europe, steering the Toyota Aygo.[7]

Homeless lottery winner

In a video posted on March 4, 2014, Hossain pranked a homeless man named Eric, where Eric "won" a lottery using a "losing" lottery ticket Hossain gave to him. With the "losing" lottery ticket, Eric "won" $1,000, which was all part of the prank. After receiving the money, Eric tried to give Hossain half of it, which Hossain declined to take. The video was viewed nearly 28 million times.[8][9]

In the following weeks, Hossain posted another video in which he said that people (who were touched by Eric wanting to give half of the money to Hossain) asked how they could donate to Eric. Hossain set up a fundraiser, the goal being to collect a total of $20,000. The fundraiser collected more than $44,000 to a final tally of $66,000 from over 3,000 donors. 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 Hossain offering to buy dinner for Eric, but first Hossain says he has to stop by "his" house to get something. It was later revealed that it was, in reality, the house paid for by thousands of internet contributors for Eric. In a matter of days, the video received about nine million views.[10]

In February 2018, a video was posted by Eric and an interviewer giving a new update. Eric claimed that he did not have access to the money and the house needed constant maintenance. Eric alleged that he had not received any of the money raised from the fundraiser, he only stayed in the house from Hossain's second video for two months rather than a year and sometime after Eric left, the house was sold for $61,000 ($5,000 less than the amount raised in the fundraiser).[11] Hossain responded on June 5, 2018 in a since-deleted Twitter post stating that the money was transferred to Eric and that he would provide bank statements to prove his innocence.[12]

On June 11, Eric stated he no longer wanted the money from Hossain and forgave him for his actions.[13] In a July 2018 interview, Eric again accused Hossain of keeping most of the money from the fundraiser.[14]

As of June 2020, Hossain has been inactive on YouTube since April 2018. He is also inactive on social media as of fall 2018 as well.[15]

References
  1. 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. 20 July 2007. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  3. "MagicofRahat". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  4. Undercoffler, David (11 January 2013). "Driverless car or ghost? Drive-through prank video goes viral". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  5. Clarke, Suzan (10 January 2013). "Invisible Driver at Drive-Thru Inspires 'Epic' Video". ABC News. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  6. "'Invisible Driver' Prank Spooks Drive-Thru Workers". Huffington Post. 9 January 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  7. "Toyota Aygo: Invisible Driver Prank in Europe (video)". Toyota. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  8. Grimes, Stephanie (May 8, 2014). "YouTube prankster gives homeless man a new home". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  9. Hossain, Rahat (March 4, 2014). Homeless Lottery Winner.
  10. Landau, Joel (8 May 2014). "Prankster Magic of Rahat gives a home to his homeless friend". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  11. E Tube (February 16, 2018). Magic of Rahat you did me wrong and you know it. ERIC THE HOMELESS MAN 2018 UPDATE.
  12. Twitter.com https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5dP7g8vjQVEJ:https://twitter.com/MagicofRahat/status/1004138556795875329. Retrieved 10 August 2018. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. "Goodbye YouTube / Magic of Rahat I FORGIVE YOU, PEACE". Youtube.com. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  14. Red Bwoy TV ANIMALS (July 17, 2018). Homeless lottery winner Eric said magicofrahat did him wrong 🔴.
  15. "MagicofRahat". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
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