How YouTube Stars 'Natural Born Pranksters' Turned Practical Jokes Into a Lucrative Business

Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy are Internet stars.

ByABC News
April 1, 2016, 12:03 PM

— -- Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy are the stars behind the YouTube channel "Natural Born Pranksters."

The three men have made a living performing outrageous pranks and stunts that range from chasing people with a chainsaw to scaring others with a fake, rubber snake.

Atwood once pretended to blow up his own child on top of an ATV though he said he knows where to draw the line.

“[Roady] and I know the ethical line,” Atwood told ABC News’ “Nightline.” “[Zdorovetskiy] steps over the line.”

Zdorovetskiy, who is originally from Russia, famously went streaking during the 2014 World Cup final.

“I got my cleats on, my sock, and I just went for it,” Zdorovetskiy told “Nightline.” “The best adrenaline I’ve ever had. I had tingles, all the flashing lights...I went to jail for an hour in Brazil, paid $100 bail and that was that.”

But pushing the limit on pranks has paid off big for the three men. They each have multiple YouTube channels with over 29 million subscribers between them and have racked up nearly four billion total video views. Atwood even landed on Forbes’ list of top earning YouTube stars in 2015.

Roady said he recalls watching the MTV show “Jackass” and wanting to do something similar one day.

“I just remember saying, ‘I'm going to do this one day. I know I can do something just like this in that same arena,’” Roady said.

The pranksters are now taking their act to the big screen, and their first film, “Natural Born Pranksters,” premieres in theaters today -- April Fools' Day.

The process of planning the pranks for the movie was “brutal,” Atwood said.

“We wrote for month in rooms...I think we ended with 400 pranks,” said Atwood. “And the movie has about 32 pranks.”

“You have to go through the legal process. [Lawyers] say, ‘No,’ a lot,” Roady said.

“Legal was really tough to get through it. It wasn't like YouTube where we just go out and do our thing, but with the movie, it had so many legalities and approvals and budgets,” added Atwood.

Some of the pranks that did make it into the film are bound to raise eyebrows, including one prank where a husband is surprised when his pregnant wife gives birth to an African-American baby because he is not African-American. The wife, who is also not African-American, was in on the prank.

“That was awesome,” Roady said. “It’s so different to find that specific accomplice, someone that’s about to have their baby and also willing to [set their husband up].”

And sometimes the pranks have even gotten Atwood, Roady and Zdorovetskiy into physical danger.

“We were in Finland filming a prank, and the prank was … we’re kidnapping a woman in front of people and we put her in the trunk,” Roady recalled. “My nose got cracked. Some guy was trying to fight us to get into the trunk, which was great. It’s good.”

“It’s intense. That’s the first time I ever had police grab their guns,” Zdorovetskiy added.

But there is one prank Zdorovetskiy said he wouldn’t pull.

“I was going to jump to the White House wall … but I couldn’t do it. I can’t do it because I’m not [an American] citizen, and I know I would get deported immediately,” Zdorovetskiy said.

“But when I get my [citizenship] … White House,” he noted.