Want to look like a total genius with supernatural powers? It’s simple, have someone else do all the work for you and feed it to you on a silver platter. When you work with stooges, plants, or confederates, mentalism effects are easy. Lots of performers will tell you that they’d never use a plant, but let’s be honest: mentalists lie for a living. Co-conspirators are friends or assistants that do much of the work for you by pretending to be someone who you’ve never met before. Keith Barry, a mentalist from Ireland, famously used a friend in the audience to pretend that he was able to instantly hypnotize someone randomly. We have the footage and photos with Keith and his buddy in Blackpool at a convention. It was all an act. Just like every mentalist effect. To be clear, Keith is a talented performer and that’s the point. Intelligent artists use every possible technique to their advantage, and stooges are the perfect example of something that not only works well, but has been used by some of the top names in magic history. To learn more, sign up for a free account and you’ll get access to all kinds of free tips, tricks, routines, and techniques.