When I agreed to do a video with YouTube giant Dude Perfect in July of 2017, I knew that I would be a huge opportunity for me to expand my online presence – still, I never could have guessed that this collaborative project would change my life as profoundly as it has since then. That is why I am extraordinarily excited to announce that I will be working with the Dude Perfect team again to produce another Card Throwing Trick Shots video on July 20th!
As is always the case with both the Rick Smith Jr., Inc. and Dude Perfect teams, we had to find a way to outdo ourselves with this sequel to the first project. This was a difficult thing to do given the awesome camerawork, stunt ideas, and production of the initial video, but we are absolutely pumped about the results. In my 20+ years of working as a card thrower and magician, I can honestly say that this video contains some of my finest moments as a performer. It goes without saying that the guys at Dude Perfect are incredible entertainers, and every time I work with them their great energy seems to bring out the best in me. Aside from the classic Rick Smith Jr. stunts – including my good old “card through a cucumber” shot – we included tricks like throwing a card into the middle of an oreo, lighting a match with a card, and cutting piece of celery from the Dude Perfect guys’ mouths. It was certainly some of the most creative content I have ever been a part of!
Even given the massive reach of the first RSJ/Dude Perfect video, this second production is expected to draw a viewership up to five times larger. This means that as many as 73 million people will likely see our work together. The potential subscriber yield for my YouTube channel stands to be absolutely enormous – the first collaboration brought my channel up from just a few thousand subscribers to somewhere in the 400,000 range. It seems crazy to say, but expecting this collaboration to have an even larger impact on our long-term viewership is actually reasonable given the huge scope of the release.
Looking back on the three or so years that have passed since I was first given the opportunity to work with Dude Perfect, I can barely believe how much my career has changed; I went from being a performance magician who happened to have a YouTube channel to a performer whose digital presence is an integral part of his career. The growth of my YouTube and Instagram channel has helped me to build out a second half of my business and opened more doors than I can even count. Because of the success of my collaboration with Dude Perfect I was able to make videos with YouTube celebrities like Slo Mo Guys, Josh Horton, Kevin Lustgarten, Mark Rober, David Dobrik, and many more. These projects have served not only as an opportunity to spread my image to a massive online audience, but have introduced me to some of the greatest friends and business partners I could have asked for; even after performing on-stage for 20 years, I found myself picking up tips on how I could engage fans creatively from the many influencers I have come across on this journey.
I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the impact that the Dude Perfect team has had on my career, and I will never stop being thankful for the opportunity they gave me back in 2017 – as YouTube’s fastest growing channel, they recognized the potential for our talents to be combined in a mutually beneficial project that ended up being invaluable in my effort to expand my brand’s reach. But even with this said, I am confident that the upcoming video release will not only be bigger than the first, but may even prove to be the single biggest moment in my career. To showcase my hard work to almost 100 million people (and maybe even more) is undoubtedly the opportunity of a lifetime.
I encourage you to check out the video when it drops on July 20th – even my oldest fans will see tricks that they have never witnessed before, and I personally guarantee that you will find the production to be different than anything you have seen on my channel before. And as always, visit my website today for more information on booking a show – even through the crazy times in which we are living today, we continue to perform for clients in a safe, socially distanced manner.
If you have been following my YouTube journey up to this point, I want to sincerely thank you for the support in making a dream of mine come true – without the help of my long-time fans and supporters, it simply would have been impossible to grow my digital presence to it’s current size. On behalf of the whole Rick Smith Jr. team, we appreciate your enthusiasm for what we do!