MAGIC WORDS
The tuxedoed stage performer will snap his fingers and something
will appear.
-- Sidney L. Friedman, Your Mind Knows More Than You Do (2000)
Meanings:
• Magic moment
"Then, of course, there's providing a magic moment: Snap your fingers
over the deck." -- Tom Ogden, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Magic Tricks
(1999)
Common Magician's Applications: Triggering. For example: "The
magic hasn't even begun to take place yet. Not until . . . now! . . . and you
snap your fingers. It happens, at that instant, at the magic moment." 0 Simarily,
"[D]on't forget to snap the end of the pack first, that's what works
the magic."51
In Literature:
• "What, you snap your fingers and poof, it isn't there anymore?" -- Silver
Ravenwolf, To Stir a Magick Cauldron (1996)
• "I will snap my fingers twice! That will make this trick twice as snappy.
Now, without looking I will tell you the color of this crayon behind my
back." -- Ray Broekel and Laurence B. White Jr., Abra-ca-dazzle (1982)
Snarfugeez
Common Magician's Applications: Triggering. For example: "You repeat
the trick. This time you say a magic word: snarfugeez! Like magic, the
water stays inside the glass."
Sneezumsnackum
In Literature:
• "'Of course I can fix him!' said the fairy prince. 'Wait a minute.' So he
stood up on one foot, and swung his fish pole around his head three times,
so that the line whistled in the wind, and then he pronounced the magical
word, 'Sneezumsnackum!' Then he cried: 'You will not be sleepy any
50 Tom Ogden, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Magic Tricks (1999)
51 Mark Wilon, Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic (1975)
Ibid.
