Thanks David and Bear Trees. Martin Breese it is

I love the 60s spy-music intro they give him.

When watching this clip, I'm reminded of seeing a clip of Dai Vernon. We've all seen mentalists and magicians who are slick and polished and flashy, and where evrything is a too-obvious scripted clever line.

Then I saw Vernon doing the cups and balls. His moves were perfect, because they didn't look like moves at all! It just looked like an old guy doing exactly what he said he was doing. The oft-discussed Vernon "naturalness" in action.

Seeing Chan Canasta, there is that same quality. No flashy moves, no "Look at how effing cool I am" attitude. It all just looks natural, it doesn't look like he's *doing* anything.

Chan Canasta had the Dai Vernon mojo in spades.

Rory

It makes me think that the whole 'mentalism vs. mental magic' debate is a waste of everyones time. He refers to it as 'psycho-magic', because the effect of mind reading is magical (by the true definition of the word Magic). So mentalism IS mind-magic, because it should always be magical.
And it's easy to see why Chan Canasta is Derren's 'hero' in the world of magic and mind-reading. He was just so calm and cool about it all...

Since the first time I saw Chan Canasta on video I was blown away by his love of his audience and his humility. You couldn't help but be drawn to him. I got the feeling that you really wanted him to succeed.

Rick

I recommend people stay away from mr. canasta, purely cos I don't wanna share...

the britland books on him are superb...i've got the audio cd and dvd of the performance too...fascinating...

I love his over-politeness mixed with his sterness at times...

"You said it with a smile on your face..." an aligator's smile that was when chan castigated the presenter..

and I also love the fact that he was somewhat of an outcast from both the magic and mentalism fraternity...

This is my first time seeing Chan Canasta in action -- wow!

Early on in this topic folks talked about Canasta's easy handling of his mistake in the book test. My sense is that this wasn't a mistake at all, just part of the presentation.

-Phil in KC

A real pleasure to watch. Thanks for sharing the link.

I believe there was a documentry film done called "The Amazing Mr.Canasta". Anyone see or heard of it?
I think he's great, I bought the DVD intending to watch it once & I've watched it at least 20 times. The accent, the look, the gratious charm. Fantastic. I wonder what laymen thought of him? Did they think he was a magician? a mindreader? a cardshark?

Do you know a good tool for downloading it. I've tried but had no luck
Cheers
TJ

Vixy.net

David thanks for the link vixy.net
I love his natural performingstyle this man is a genius
I will download it now

I was in his live show when he was in Israel many years ago.
Amazing
2 card effects and the book test and a lot of persona

Lior