TCA: Who Needs Psychics When You Have YouTube

Beverly Hills- Of all the new fall shows on CBS, none may be more hyped than The Mentalist, which stars Simon Baker as a former TV psychic who comes clean that his “powers” were a sham, and that it was his keen sense of observation, along with some cold reading, that propelled his career.

Baker’s character, Patrick Jane, gave up the lucrative TV psychic gig to take up shop as a detective, where he uses his skills to solve crimes.

Most character actors would seek out professionals in their field to talk to before taking on a role. Baker didn’t have to go farther than YouTube.

Sure, Baker and series creator Bruno Heller consulted with a magician from The Magic Castle, but according to Baker, that paled in comparison to what he learned from the Google owned video site.

 “The day I arrived [at the studio] and a day and a half later we were shooting,” Baker said. “ So Bruno [Heller] said ‘have a look at a few different people on YouTube,’ and I had a look at [some of them.] Next thing, I had my whole family around me, we’re all going ‘oh my god, how did he do that?’”

 “And then on YouTube there’s also people posting other clips where they debunk—they’re explaining how these tricks are working, through neurolinguistic programming and other techniques. There’s a lot of stuff you can look at on YouTube,” Baker said.

No kidding.

I bet if I looked at those vids I would be solving crmes in no time. Well, probably not. But YouTube did teach me how to make killer scrambled eggs!