Chan Canasta revisited...

Chat about specific magicians and their shows, their careers and their place in the history of magic.

Moderators: nickj, Lady of Mystery, Mandrake, bananafish, support

Dude That's Cool Magic Playing Cards for Magicians A web site set up to sell my book, THE STRIPPER DECK, and future magical/mentalism titles. MagicWorld Magic Shop for Magic Tricks Visit Magicbox for all the latest and best effects! Manufacturer of modern & unique magic apparatus!

Chan Canasta revisited...

Postby IAIN » Apr 13th, '07, 10:09



I believe it was Marvell who asked about him a while back...There's a mini biography of the man on wikipedia thats pretty much true if you are interested...

For a little while now, i've had the Britland/Breese Canasta books, the audio book, and the dvd of a half hour show of the late great man...

It seems to be that alot of magicians at around that time, had a somewhat snotty attitude towards him. Mainly because of his methods...

Some were of the obvious and therefore sneaky and never noticed, some were tried and trusted traditional methods...and the rest was bare faced cheek and psychological ploys...

One of the reasons why i love Chan so much, is that he flew by the seat of his pants sometimes...well, quite often really...and bear in mind, telly was live in those days too - if it screwed up...that was it...

His manner - polite, measured, precise and adamant...his build - a tall, slim gent with an excited grin and swept back hair...superb...he had a real air of control and power about him...

And what stood him apart from other mentalists and magicians, was that he strode the scientific and psychological approach instead...he stated very strongly that he didnt believe in telepathy, but his experiment would look very much like it...

"whatever you say, it shall be so..." is what he said to Ted Moult, after him picking two unseen cards, and placing them into his two pockets...chan named the two cards, and then told Moult that whichever pocket he thought that the cards would be in, then "they shall be!"...and he was right too...much to everyone's amazement...

The People newspaper would expose various mind-readers quite often those days, and chased after Chan too...exposing some of his effects, however, Chan embraced that fact...and was surprisingly quite open about how they "might" be done...

He did fail, on live tv, but it never seemed to matter to him...people were still amazed at how close he got to achiving the impossible...getting so close to a prediction can still be a miracle if performed correctly...a lesson we should all embrace in my opinion...

Magicians were often not impressed by him, except a few, Basil Horwitz loved him, and most importantly, the public did...they were mystified and entertained by this charming man...with his clipped half english-half east european accent....

He released The Book of Oopses, an interactive mind reading book, and had his own column in a national tabloid for some time too...

He seemed quite a private man too, shunning the limelight after the 60s, and performing at people's dinner parties instead, as he fell back in love more and more with painting instead...he would also perform at casinos and the occasional low-key stage show...

His act, using playing cards, books, people, letters and numbers to construct predicted sentences, words, actions and thoughts - using his very own self-labelled PSYCHOMAGIC...(which, if you google that term nowadays, is something completely different!)...

His book test, is a thing of terrifying beauty...bold as brass, and the best there is...

a stepping stone between magic, and psychology...and the acceptance that not everything would work...no tricks, but experiments...no rabbits or wands...but pencils and paper and playing cards...

no outs, no safe-bets, but excitement and wonder...

i salute you mr canasta, you will remain a wonderful inspiration to me, and i can only hope i can contribute a fraction of the amount that you have to magic...

if you look at some modern day people, you can see echos of canasta reverberating through them...i hope to hear that echo for many years to come...

Chan Canasta - Chananel Mifelew, 1920 - 1999...long may your memory remain...

IAIN
 

Postby mark lewis » Apr 13th, '07, 10:45

I liked him a lot too. I watched nearly every episode. I liked the time he told a thief who stole a Goya painting from the National Art Gallery that by mind power he was going to force him to put it back. Scotland Yard was not amused and interviewed Chan after the show. They thought he himself had stolen it for a publicity stunt!

He was the only mentalist (if you could call him a mentalist) who would do 4 tricks in half an hour (he was very long winded) three of which would go wrong and one would work yet the public were astonished and bewildered. They would completely ignore the failures and remember the successes.

Magicians of the time used to criticise him as they do with anybody that is in the TV limelight. I remember that they hated the time he exposed the memory act on TV. Harry Stanley told me Chan couldn't understand what the fuss was about because "I learned this in Hebrew School. It is something that all the kids know"

I liked him a lot. Far better than that dreadful Derren Brown anyway. A much better accent for a start and far less working class.

mark lewis
Elite Member
 
Posts: 3875
Joined: Feb 26th, '05, 02:41

Postby B0bbY_CaT » Apr 13th, '07, 13:09

Abraxus, thanks for a most interesting and informative overview. regretably i am familiar with the name but have never seen Chan Canasta perform. sounds very interesting.

Mark, does Derren Brown owe you money? i dont get it... you are a very deep thinker, you appreciate subtlties, you favor entertainment, you enjoy a sense of humor...

it seems to be the overwhelming opinion of most that DB possess all these things in abundance! his books outlining his thoughts on presentation, his views on religion, his dastardly ploy of posing as a "real" spirit world communicator and gaining "official" endorsment before revealing the whole thing was nothing more than "gobble-dee-goop"... as hilarious as it was clever.

how can the Mark Lewis we have come to know here not enjoy this?

have you read any of DB's books?

B0bbY_CaT
Senior Member
 
Posts: 792
Joined: Mar 30th, '06, 15:08

Postby IAIN » Apr 13th, '07, 13:14

ahem! this is a chan thread, not a derren thread senor gato...

IAIN
 

Postby B0bbY_CaT » Apr 13th, '07, 13:43

sorry old chap.

fair call.

B0bbY_CaT
Senior Member
 
Posts: 792
Joined: Mar 30th, '06, 15:08

Postby mark lewis » Apr 13th, '07, 21:55

I agree. I have no wish to discuss working class British performers with accents and attitudes to match.

Instead I am far happier to discuss a master of psychological trickery who was doing this kind of stuff before all the young whippersnapper "mentalists" were born. He was quite riveting to watch despite being terribly long winded and doing 3 out of 4 tricks wrong.

90 percent of his work was with cards (thus debunking the notion that mentalists shouldn't do card tricks) and he only used two methods. The Classic Force and a stacked deck. Along with a lot of bluff and guff of course.

A true master.

mark lewis
Elite Member
 
Posts: 3875
Joined: Feb 26th, '05, 02:41

Postby B0bbY_CaT » Apr 14th, '07, 00:17

any web source where i can see some Chan Canasta performances?

B0bbY_CaT
Senior Member
 
Posts: 792
Joined: Mar 30th, '06, 15:08

Postby magicofthemind » Apr 14th, '07, 10:04

I still have a copy of the wondeful "Book of Oopses", 1966, bought in Smiths for 6 shillings (30p). It commands high prices on Ebay now! It's printed on black card throughout - most impressive - and is a great source for psychological and mathematical effects.

Barry

User avatar
magicofthemind
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1197
Joined: Nov 28th, '06, 19:27
Location: London, England (SH/CW)

Postby mark lewis » Feb 28th, '08, 02:34

You CAN now see Chan Canasta on You Tube. I can't be bothered posting a link. Seek and ye shall find.

mark lewis
Elite Member
 
Posts: 3875
Joined: Feb 26th, '05, 02:41

Postby Ed Wood » Apr 10th, '08, 19:24

Here you go, an absolute classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yv7dHO0vu4

The famous book test going wrong on Parkinson but Canasta still manages to pull it round. It just doesn't get better than this.

Ed Wood
Senior Member
 
Posts: 461
Joined: Apr 4th, '07, 17:29


Return to Magicians' Hall of Fame

Best prices around! Best prices around! World-Of-Magic, Suppliers of quality Magic Worldwide Web Design for Magicians Aeternum Servare Secreta UK's Online Magic Tricks and Jokes Shop offers kids and beginner magic tricks and jokes. Sorcery Shop - Home of the ITR

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron