mr beast show...

Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, is the biggest YouTuber in the country and possibly, by the time this story is published, the world. Rangy at six feet two and clad in a gray Nike sweatsuit, Donaldson has been walking me through his company’s warehouse, showing off the detritus of various videos made under the MrBeast banner, a melange of stunts, pranks, and eye-popping cash giveaways. In one area, there are piles of GameStop merchandise from a video where he promised to buy everything a contestant could fit into a circumscribed triangle (“He just wanted cash instead,” Donaldson says); in another, crates stuffed with inflatable dinosaur costumes for a video titled “Walking Into Random Stores With 100 Dinosaurs.” In the back, there are 1 billion Orbeez, tiny gel-filled pellets that Donaldson used to fill his best friend’s backyard for a video back in 2018.

Then, we come to the money. “If you wanted to rob us, here’s where you’d rob us,” Donaldson says.

The cash is guarded by an affable man named Tracy, a former physical therapist with bright blue eyes and an eastern Carolina twang; he is an operations manager at MrBeast YouTube LLC, and the stepfather of its founder. Piles of bills lie in a steel-plated closet in filing cabinets, stacked neatly in rows, all in ones. Usually, it’s a full million, but today there’s $100,000 missing, for an upcoming trip to Florida, where Donaldson and his crew will shoot a “Would You Rather” video — as in, would you rather swim with sharks for that money or walk a bridge of alligators. Some of the bills are crumpled on the floor at Donaldson’s Adidas sneakers: “It takes up more space and looks better on camera [that way],” he explains.

A funny thing happens when you see a lot of money in one place. As the smell hits my nostrils, crisp and pungent, like a pile of autumn leaves or a Xerox machine on the fritz, I start to think about the ways it could change my life, or the lives of those around me — the medical bills that need to be paid, school tuition, child care; all of the GoFundMe’s and charities it could help. I feel almost lightheaded, as if I’ve taken a right hook from a Paul brother square in the jaw (a recent Beast stunt that came with a $20,000 prize).