Liberty University Student Chandler Henry captivates viewers through popular YouTube channel

 Chandler Henry spends his days brainstorming, filming and editing content and videos to be posted on multiple platforms of social media—most notably YouTube. 

Henry is a senior digital media performance major at Liberty University with a growing YouTube channel that currently has almost 57,000 subscribers with over 10 million views worldwide, and viewership in every country in the world. 

Henry’s viewership for his main YouTube channel Rise Magic, which focuses on magic and cardistry perfomances, has come to expect at least one video a week to go live on his channel. 

“Sometimes it is a challenge to keep up with demand from viewers,” Henry said. “Even though the internet is usually inconsistent, viewers still expect a video from you at least once a week sometimes three times a week.” 

Henry’s channel was born when the ongoing health concerns he has had since he was 16 forced him to miss the spring semester of his sophomore year at Liberty. 

“My health issues definitely played a huge role in everything about the whole YouTube thing, it’s a huge part of my life and has definitely been a challenge to keep up with YouTube while it all has gone on, with being in the hospital a lot at times during this journey,” Henry said. 

But Henry is back for his last semester at Liberty and anticipates graduating with his classmates. 

“For a while I expected that I would have to drop out,” Henry said. “It’s a miracle honestly that I was able to get back to school and be healthy enough to attend. I’m extremely thankful to still be on track to graduate in May.” 

For Henry, balancing his studies and his channel can be a challenge. 

“One of my biggest frustrations is that the people I have met online do YouTube as a full-time job,” Henry said. “They devote all their time to creating content, editing and uploading and I have to juggle being a full-time student while also trying to be on YouTube full time.” 

Henry also has a secondary channel with a smaller viewership that focuses on more serious content including a documentary about a mixed martial arts fighter, Joe Pyfer. The documentary is over an hour long with over 15,000 views. 

“I’ve already started releasing a feature length documentary that was very well received,” Henry said. “Professor Underation helped me submit it to some contests and he told me he thinks it will win. I find out the results in February. So that is exciting for myself and my career.” 

Henry stated that if his YouTube success continues to grow it could end up being a full-time career for him. 

“I am very set on doing things independently as a filmmaker and working on more serious projects,” Henry said. “… but, I guess the short answer is still I don’t know, let’s see what happens.”