Dennis Stewart performs magic, spins plates and makes balloon animals throughout the Tennessee-Georgia area. (Contributed photo)Over the course of his 15-year career, Ringgold magician Dennis Stewart has mastered illusions involving coins, silks and rings, but his favorite trick is making dollar bills magically appear.
Growing up poor in the Tennessee-Georgia area, Stewart didn't get many chances to visit magic shows. When he first saw an illusionist make sponge balls disappear, the young Stewart saw more than a way to "blow people's minds;" he saw a way to give back.
"I've always been taught if you're blessed, you give some of it away - even just to make people smile" the 56-year old said.
Now, whenever Stewart sees someone who's homeless pleading for money on the street, he asks to borrow what little change they've collected, promising to "make it better," and through sleight of hand, turns it into a $5, $10 or $20 bill.
"'You do real magic,'" Stewart recounts one man saying to him last summer. "They don't know if it's a scam or what, but it makes them feel good anyway, and they're just laughing."
The goal, Stewart said, isn't just to put money into people's hands; it's to put smiles on their faces. And the magician's mission is not exclusive to the homeless. Whenever strangers at gas stations ask for a little extra cash to help them fill up, he turns their $1 bills into whatever amount they need, and just last December at a show at Ringgold First Baptist Church, he turned a widow's coupon into a $10 bill.
"I make them smile, make them laugh," Stewart said. "If you're having a bad day or if you had a death in the family, sometimes it helps to put smiles on people's faces and take them out of that darkness."
Stewart performs shows for magic-lovers ages 2 to 90 at events from birthdays to weddings. Contact him at dewayne471@catt.com or 423-593-9796.