A • Midas touch "We recorded it with some girl backup singers the next week, and it was alakazam Ricky." -- Gabrielle Kraft, "One Hit Wonder," Speaking of Greed (2001) • Surprise "[T]he alakazam surprise in this world: / Love's miracle never dies in this world." -- Barbara Little, "Drink, My Love, and Deeply," Ravishing Disunities (2000) • Voilà "Supposedly an architect brought his four-year-old daughter in to work one day. Playing with her crayons, the kid produced the kind of picture a child that age will. Squiggles. The drawing got into the production line by accident and alakazam! Three days later it rolls off the line, ready to be lived in by some seriously deranged people." -- John Varley, The Golden Globe (1998) Origins: This word has its roots in an Arabic incantation.1 A similar- sounding Arabic phrase, Al Qasam, means "oath." Because Alakazam is a proper name, it may have originally been used as a magic word invoking the powers of a particular person named Alakazam.1 4 Alakazam has also been traced to a Hindu word meaning "flawless" and a spell intended "to stave off pain while performing some great act of physical endurance."1 5 Facts: The Japanese word for alakazam is foodin, a reference to the famous professional magician Harry Houdini or his predecessor Jean Eugène Robert- Houdin.1 6 For forty years, Danish professional magician Henri Alakazam (Henry Hermansen) toured his "Alakazam Magical Theatre" through Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. He passed away in 2001. "Alakazam the Great" is a character in a Japanese anime film by the same name (1961). Alakazam is a mischievous monkey who becomes monarch after forcing Merlin, the world's greatest magician, to teach him everything about magic. "Alakazam the Great" is also the name of a character by comedian Jonathan Winters. In an episode of the Flintstones cartoon series, Fred borrows a magic kit from magician "Rockstone the Great" and ushers Wilma and Betty into a "disappearing cabinet." "He says the magic words and, alakazam! They're gone. (They found the back exit and snuck out to go along with the gag.)"1 7 1 John Skoyles and Dorion Saga, Up From Dragons (2002) 1 4 Terry O'Connor, "Word for Word," PlateauPress.com (2004) 1 5 TheMagicCafe.com (2005) 1 6 Wikipedia.com (2005) 1 7 Tom Hill, TV Land to Go (2001)