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.”