Max's Major Problem

Last week, Max Major performed a distasteful and controversial magic "prank" on streamer Kai Cenat. Viewers watched live as it went horrifically wrong.

Note: this story contains suicidal themes.

It takes place at night on the basketball court behind Twitch streamer Kai Cenat's extravagant mansion. He's surrounded by friends who have live-streamed their journey out of the house to discover a surprise waiting for them. The surprise? A makeshift structure has been built in the basketball court. Strung from it are three nooses.

Magician Max Major is there, standing on a yellow painter's platform below the three nooses. He informs Kai that he'll need to pull one of three cables. If he pulls the wrong one, Max will be hoisted into the air by his neck and likely not survive.

Kai’s friends stand silent around him. Two assistants help Max remove his shirt and loop one of the nooses around his neck. Kai protests. He seems afraid. Max’s hands are tied, and, to be honest, he looks petrified.

Kai pulls one of the handles, and everything seems to go disastrously wrong. Max's entire body is pulled several feet into the air by his neck. His team rushes in to help, pushing away the yellow painter’s platform and releasing the noose so Max can fall to the floor.

Medics rush in, too, as members of the production crew hold Kai and his friends back from helping.

Max survives, though we do not see him on stream again. There’s enough confusion that most people watching are likely thinking that whatever is going on, Max put Kai in a terrible situation.

None of it makes any sense. Why perform such a distasteful and seemingly dangerous stunt live and seemingly out of nowhere as a surprise? It’s traumatizing for viewers both present and at home.

At no point did Max suggest that his team didn’t know which handle was connected to which noose.

Are we supposed to believe that his entire safety team saw Kai pick up the wrong handle, and no one stepped in to stop it?

After the live hanging, for the first time, the words "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" can be seen appearing on the screen in clips online. The text is moved to the left corner as if a member of Kai's team has added it hurriedly.

Kai reacts audibly, "Wait, no; I might get banned!"

It's a little wild that that's one of his first reactions, but Max can be seen to have survived. Twitch’s strict rules could very well have resulted in Kai getting banned for apparently live-streaming himself hanging a man. Twitch's primary user base trends young, with a significant portion between 13-34.

Max's team insists Kai and his friends leave the area. Kai protests, asking if he can stay and whether Max is okay.

Kai returns to the house and continues to livestream his reaction to what happened. About five minutes after hanging Max, Kai clicks a link and watches a new video on Max's YouTube channel titled "A Message to Kai Cenat."

Max speaks to the camera in the pre-recorded clip: "If you're watching this, that means that something has gone terribly wrong. But what you don’t know is that this was all according to my plan... I planned to influence you to make the wrong choice, and I knew you’d pick the red handle."

It’s very easy for an audience to believe Max could have recorded three "message" videos for all three handle colors. The video has no payoff or meaningful twist.

You’re not left thinking, "Wow, of course! I should have known all along," as you might after a clever twist to a dark Derren Brown stunt. Instead, you’re left thinking, "That was mental; he put Kai's career at risk and traumatized viewers for a very weak one-in-three prediction payoff with nothing to prove he didn't simply record three videos."

Even worse, you might think the stunt genuinely went wrong, Max is injured but had recorded three backup "message" videos in case the stunt failed.

One clip of the hanging posted to Twitter amassed 1.6 million views within hours.

It’s easy to avoid infrequent stories like this, but what happened with Max Major had a short but significant impact on the perception of magic.

When multiple commentators and news platforms discuss a "magician" performing on the most-watched Twitch stream of the week, magicians—frustratingly—need to pay attention.

Kai Cenat was "Streamer of the Year" in both 2023 and 2024. His personality-driven, celebrity-studded live streams have redefined the platform. He himself is known for pranks and dangerous stunts, like the time Kai set off an insane number of fireworks in his bedroom alongside MrBeast.

However, it’s difficult to argue that Kai’s history of stunts counts as implicit consent for Max to perform such a dangerous and distasteful act.

Max Major is best known for his participation in America’s Got Talent. He’s appeared in several of Kai’s streams in the past, performing close-up magic and mentalism. This stunt was pitched to viewers as the culmination of his appearances on Kai’s stream and his first attempt to do something much bigger.

Max’s "explanation" video—it’s worth noting that news outlets are calling it an explanation rather than a reveal or twist—didn’t calm the outrage from Kai's audience. Many viewers called it dangerous and distasteful.

Fans on forums like Reddit debated whether Kai knew about the stunt beforehand. The consensus was that, based on the authenticity of Kai’s reaction and the risk of him getting banned, he did not know ahead of time.

Many fans suggested Kai should have stopped the moment he saw the noose. However, with the amount of production and safety crew present, it’s easy to imagine he felt at least one of them had thought this through. Perhaps they hadn’t.

One notable Twitter response reads: "Max Major is literally evil. He tried to sabotage Kai Cenat’s incredible career, and he won’t apologize because he knows it could be used against him in court. Sick."

Ultimately, this comes down to a combination of poor taste and bad writing. We've seen performers like David Blaine and Derren Brown pull off dangerous stunts in ways that feel meaningful. But this was shock for the sake of shock. Max and his team never stopped to ask a simple question: "Why?"

When Blaine performs his death-defying stunts, there is purpose and meaning behind them—though there's debate to be had about whether his audience expects or wants to see Blaine repeatedly injure himself on stage.

Meanwhile, Derren often uses his stunts to improve someone's life or explore what it means to be human. A stunt can have a comedic payoff or be shocking for its own sake, but people need to opt in, and the scenario must be crafted carefully.

A closer parallel might be Jonathan Goodwin’s hanging stunt on Death Wish: Live, a late-evening UK show. In that case, Goodwin, an escapologist and stuntman, performed in a context that appropriately framed the danger. The presenter reassured the audience within seconds that Jonathan was alive, and the show’s title and tone set expectations clearly. Still, it remains a bizarre watch.

It's worth noting that the Goodwin clip is age-gated on YouTube.

Context matters.

Irish mentalist Keith Barry performed his own gallows stunt in 2007, which he had previously done in other countries. His version involved audience participation and a straightforward setup: one noose had a break while the others held life-sized dummies. Barry’s noose broke, and he fell safely to the ground. While there was some criticism over the stunt's insensitivity towards suicide and the risk of copycat incidents, Barry dismissed concerns, arguing that avoiding such material would put performers out of business.

By contrast, Max’s stunt lacked appropriate context, purpose, and a satisfying payoff. It felt reckless, unsolicited, and designed to shock with disregard for the consequences.

While there is a very understandable discussion about the ethics of magic effects which rely on themes like these, it would help all of magic if the ones who do perform seemingly dangerous magic stunts (and there always will be people who perform them) at the very least... think them through and perform them well.

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