Mr. Thompson rose to fame with his YouTube channel, “The King of Random,” which explored life hacks, experiments and random weekend projects. It had more than 11 million subscribers.
One of his most popular videos, “How to Make LEGO Gummy Candy!,” which was published in May 2015 and explored how to make your own candy at home, had more than 34 million views. His most recent video, “Rice Cake Raft! Will It Float?,” was published on Sunday. Other videos explored helpful hacks, with precise directions and a bit of science, like how to open a coconut without any tools or how to create your own stress ball using a sack of flour and party balloons. Another popular video carefully explained how to make a laser assisted blowgun for $3.
Before YouTube fame, Mr. Thompson worked as an airline pilot for 11 years, according to a 2017 interview with the website Media Kix. Then he went into the real estate business and bought and sold houses. He earned enough income to become semiretired.
“Then I just started tinkering and learning about how the world works, which was inspired kind of by the idea of the Great Recession from the housing collapse,” Mr. Thompson said. “I was learning about things. I started making videos on YouTube showing people what I was tinkering with and what I was coming up with.”
As the channel grew, Mr. Thompson opted to shut down his real estate business and quit flying.
The tributes and condolences poured in via comments on Mr. Thompson’s Instagram page.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/style/grant-thompson-youtube-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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