RickieV found his own answer. “Close your macbook – it goes to sleep, make sure the power adaptor is plugged in.
wait 5 seconds,
with a wire or wireless keyboard press any keys and wait about 5 sec. The Mac should wake up and show the monitor screen on the external monitor.
After 1 minute, you could open the Macbook Pro monitor cover and the monitor should stay turned off. Allowing you to use the iSight cam with the monitor off and saving the life of the monitor.
Hope this helps other people who’s been trying to do this too.”