CHAN CANASTA
(1920 – 1999)
EARLY LIFE
Chan Canasta was born Chananel Mifelew in Krakow, Poland on January 9th, 1920.
His father was a Polish Jew and most of his family died in the Holocaust.
As a young man he studied philosophy and science at Krakow University before leaving Poland for Jerusalem, where he went on to study psychology.
He was a well-educated man and he also spoke several languages.
When the Second World War started, he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force. He saw action in many parts of the world and he became a British citizen in 1947.
MAGIC CAREER
Once demobilised, he started to study magic much more seriously and he would happily perform a few effects to entertain friends.
He took his name from a card game and started working as Chan Canasta.
Canasta wasn’t content with just doing sleight of hand so he began learning memory feats which enabled him to quickly memorise words on selected pages of books or the order of cards in a shuffled deck and he incorporated these skills into his performances with huge success.
His popularity soon started to grow and he would frequently astound magicians.
He despised anything that he considered to be an abnormal aid and he rid himself of all sleight of hand.
He depended on his uncanny ability of being able to anticipate the reactions of his audience and would take risks, not every effect worked but failing occasionally was encouraged by Canasta.
He also believed his audiences enjoyed the suspense and they reacted to his ‘failings’ as though it just proved his skills were not down to magical chicanery.
Canasta would often say;
“Failure makes the success more exciting”.
During his career he became well known for having no fear of failure and for taking huge risks, these would become some of his biggest strengths.
His basic repertoire consisted of a variety of forces, the use of a stacked deck where he would force a single or a stack of cards, and a book test which involved multiple spectators.
Canasta combined his childhood hobby of magic with his study of psychology and memory demonstrations to create what he called Psychomagic.
He would present his performances as experiments in anticipated reaction, which would appear as pure mind reading & influence.
By calling his effects experiments, he both distanced himself from magic and also allowed for some degree of failure, after all that is the nature of experiments.
He realised that the most interesting thing on stage wasn’t the effects he performed, it was the people themselves.
Canasta possessed the unusual ability of a photographic memory, otherwise known as eidetic memory.
This enabled him to instantly state the number of vowels on a page selected at random from a book by a volunteer or to forecast the sequence of playing cards in a suddenly shuffled deck.
After being amazed by a performance in Amsterdam in 1949, Harry Stanley invited Canasta to work with him in London.
Harry described him as an extraordinary man who can force a card like nobody’s business, has a marvellous photographic mind and is a great psychologist.
Canasta had a warm personality and was able to develop a strong rapport with his audiences. Not to mention his unique talent and understanding of psychology, this made him an instant success.
His risky, psychological approach and not being concerned with failure only added to his intrigue.
After an expose of his methods in the People newspaper, Canasta was invited to write articles for them entitled; Train your brain with Chan Canasta, in which he described basic mnemonic systems and other memory stunts.
TELEVISION
The BBC offered Canasta his first TV show in 1951, the show focused on mental effects, it was called;
“Chan Canasta: A Remarkable Man”.
The show was presented as a series of experiments which attempted to understand mysterious powers.
His high impact performances were ideal for television.
He didn’t require props, just a few armchairs, a small number of guests and a host.
His charm and intelligence made him an instant success on TV.
He seemed to achieve the impossible by transmitting his thoughts through the TV cameras into the homes of millions of viewers via their TV’s.
CELEBRITY
It wasn’t long before he become an international celebrity.
During his career he made over 350 television appearances and American TV welcomed him too. He appeared on shows hosted by Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar.
He returned back to London in 1962, to star in a TV show for a new station, hosted by Dan Farson. These were late night half-hour specials which featured celebrity guests and a small audience.
One of his favourite phrases was “Whatever you decide will be.”
In 1971, he made his last appearance on TV and was now pursuing his passion as a painter but he will always be remembered as an amazing performer and a pioneer of mental magic.
Canasta has influenced many renowned mentalists of today, including British mentalist; Derren Brown, who has written about Canasta’s influence.
RETIREMENT AND DEATH
He retired from magic and continued to paint.
In the mid 90’s he accepted an invitation from David Berglas to visit the Magic Circle where he took part in a Q&A session with the members.
Chan Canasta died in London at the age of 79, on April 22, 1999.
Comments, questions and suggestions are always appreciated, get in touch using the form on the contact page or the comments below and if you haven’t already, then please subscribe to my Newsletter.
T T F N
Ryan