Chan Canasta (born Chananel Mifelew, 9 January 1920 – 22 April 1999) 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 Chananel Mifelw in Poland in 1920s. Mifelew's father was an emigre from Russia. Mifelew attended Krakow University where he studied philosophy and natural sciences for his first year. However, he then left Poland and went to Jerusalem to study psychology. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, and he volunteered to join the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Western Desert, North Africa, Greece and Italy, and eventually took up British citizenship. He was twice married and died in London at the age of 79. Magic career Stage career Canasta moved to Great Britain in 1947, following a stint in the Royal Air Force. Starting as a card magician who took his surname from the popular card game of canasta, he became a well-known stage magician performing feats of memory and book tests during the late 1940s. Over the course of his career, Canasta performed at the London Palladium, the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and at the Playboy Club circuit. Canasta didn't refer to himself as a magician or a mentalist; he often used his own term "psycho-magician" but was most commonly billed as "A Remarkable Man". Television In 1951 Canasta recorded his first television show for the BBC - a sparse affair with only a few props that concentrated on mental effects. He became TV's first celebrity magician in the 1950s, and broadcast his last show in March 1960. Throughout his career, he made more than 350 television appearances, including on the Ed Sullivan, Arlene Francis and Jack Paar shows. 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. He performed experiments in thought using two packs of playing cards. He would ask a spectator to think of a card then another to pick the unstated thought-of-card from a different pack; or he would place cards onto a table and ask a