Spreading a little magic in the Downtown Eastside

While most people were hitting the mountains when snow covered the Lower Mainland this past weekend, for Jason Yu, it was the perfect time to spread a little magic in the Downtown Eastside.

Inspired by a romantic craze that’s sweeping China, which involves celebrating the year’s first snowfall with chicken and a beer, Yu thought who needs chicken and a (root) beer most of all on a snowy day?

His answer, perhaps the homeless people would appreciate the food and a bit of magic added to their day.

“Magic has been my passion for more than 10 years now and I want to use it as a tool to make an impact on the community,” Yu told Global News. “I also want to raise awareness around helping out and caring for the homeless people.”

Marrying the two ideas, the 24-year-old Yu and his friend went to the DTES and found Nina. Yu made a bucket of chicken and a root beer appear – as if from nothing – in front of her eyes. Her reaction, Yu said, was amazing.

Yu recorded the moment because he said he finds traditional videos around homelessness very serious and this was his opportunity to make a video that could motivate people to be more involved in caring for the homeless.

“Her reaction to the magic turned out to be way stronger than I expected because she thought I must be a witch and used black magic,” Yu said.

Yu, a Simon Fraser University graduate, is a professional magician and has been honing his skills for more than eight years.  But this isn’t the first time Yu has used his magic skills to spread the love.

In  2012, he launched Project 100, which involved Yu and five of his magician friends going around the city on Valentine’s Day using magic to collect 100 smiles from people.