Magician Turns $1 Into $100 for People in Need

Magician Stuart Edge isn’t pulling rabbits out of his hat—he’s pulling $100 bills and giving them to homeless people and others in need.

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Earlier this week, the Utah-based magician withdrew $1,000 from his own savings account, combed his neighborhood for people in need, and offered to show them a magic trick. It works like this: Edge shows the person a $1 bill, folds it, and places it inside his or her hand. Then, he takes out a $100 bill, folds it, and asks the person to hold it in the same hand and make a fist. Then, Edge reaches into his or her hand hand to pull out a bill, which is somehow always the $1 bill. Watch the video below.

Now, for the hocus-pocus: Edge said, “If you believe that you can make the bills switch, if you want it bad enough, I’ll let you keep whatever is in your hand. Just believe. Ready?” Both parties first-bump and open their hands. Edge is now holding the $1 bill, and the other person is holding the $100. The people involved in the trick are stunned—one man, in disbelief, asked, "Will it become a $1 later?" and a woman hugs him and says, "You're an amazing person."

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The video of the trick, posted to YouTube earlier this week, has received more than 1.3 million views and almost 20,000 likes as of Friday morning. “I think of myself as a YouTube prankster but with a feel-good message,” Edge, 24, told Yahoo! Shine. “With every video, I try to make people happy and I love magic.”

Edge paid for his education at Utah Valley University in part by working as a Porta-Potty bathroom cleaner. It was only when he got a job at a company that creates YouTube videos for a tongue-scraping product that he was inspired to make his own videos. 

In December, he shot “Mistletoe Kissing Prank” for which he walked around dangling mistletoe between two people, daring them to kiss. The video went viral and today has more than 20 million views. In April, he created “Magic Kissing Card Trick.” For that, he had a random woman choose a card from a deck and sign her name on it with a Sharpie, then fold the card and hold it in her mouth. Then, Edge did the same. He asked the girl for a quick peck and when their lips parted, they were each holding the other’s card in their mouth. In case viewers doubted Edge's magical powers, he also performed the trick on two unsuspecting people. Today, the video has over 11 million views and even landed him a spot on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that month.

For his latest video trick, Edge drove around town for six hours looking for the right people to film. “We wanted to find people who were truly in need, so initially, we approached them and made small talk to get a sense of their personality and whether they were truly in need,” said Edge. “People were wary at first but if there was a connection, we asked if we could film them helping with a magic trick. We also got permission from everyone to post the video on YouTube.” A few of the many characters Edge met were a single mother, a guitar player, and an elderly couple who had been living in a small camper because they had lost their home. “They said they always try to give back by offering rides to other homeless people,” he says.

A few months ago, Edge quit his job and now makes his living off the advertising on his YouTube channel. And no, he won’t reveal how the money trick works. “It’s magic,” he said.

For his next trick? “I’m making a ‘best of’ video, featuring the funniest and feel-good moments from all my videos,” he says. “I’m going to keep on producing. You’re only as good as your next video.” 

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