Chan Canasta

Chan Canasta (born Chananel Mifelew, 9 January 1920 – 22 April 1999) was a British magician. He was a pioneer of mental magic in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming the first TV celebrity magician in the 1950s, and then in later life he turned to painting. Born in Kraków, Poland, he was the son of a Polish-Jewish educator.

Personal life Chan Canasta was born as Chananel Mifelew to a Jewish family in Poland in 1920. Mifelew's father was an emigré from Russia. Mifelew began studying philosophy and natural sciences at Krakow University in 1937 at age 17 before emigrating to Mandatory Palestine a year later, where he studied psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, and he enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940. He participated in Allied campaigns in North Africa, Greece and Italy. After being discharged from the RAF, he began to study the occult, extra-sensory perception, and magic tricks. He emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1947 and eventually became a British citizen.

His final BBC TV appearance was in 1971, on Parkinson, for he had left television performing behind several years earlier, although he did reappear on Israeli TV on 11 November 1983.

Technique Canasta called his effects "experiments" rather than tricks.

Art career Canasta retired from the stage at the height of his fame to pursue a dream to become a painter. In his later years he established a second career as an artist, signing his work not as Canasta, but as Mifelew, managing to command high prices for his illustrations of colourful landscapes. He had successful gallery shows in London and New York City.