A
Alacadabra
Facts: This phrase combines the two popular magic words abracadabra and
alakazam.
Common Magician's Applications: Triggering. For example: "Looking
to have something special at your next party? Just say the magic word
'Alacadabra' and our magicians will be there."129
Variations and Incantations:
• Ala cadabra kazam
This phrase combines the magic words ala, kazam, alakazam, cadabra, and
abracadabra.
"I do not know of a magic wand and an 'ala cadabra kazam' formula
to snap one out of it." -- SunSpiritGallery.com (2002)
Alakazam
(see also ala and kazam)
A word I did not understand
It sounded like magic
Like Alakazzam
-- Frigid Darkness, "Alakazzam," Allpoetry.com (200 )
Amazing how a few words could change a person's mood in an
instant. Alakazam! And not just words, but how a person said
them.
-- Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Possibles (1995)
Mystique: Alakazam's power lies in its mystery. The word is the very definition
of secret. It's something beyond understanding, something we can never
get to the bottom of,1 0 something so wondrous it should only be whispered,
if uttered at all. Alakazam expresses something unobservable, hence its appropriateness
for sleight-of-hand. It describes a contradiction -- a paradox --
hence its appropriateness for illusions demonstrating the impossible. It's an
ephemeral word, gone almost before it can be fully spoken: the initial ala is a
distant echo by the time the zam takes a powder. It's also an ethereal word,
inherently otherworldly.
Alakazam retains an aura of mystery -- and therefore magic -- even
as most other words have become mundane with usage. Serge Kahili King,
scholar of Polynesian philosophy, explains:
129 Bounce-4fun.com (2005)
1 0 Sam Mackintosh, "Mystery and Reverence in Family Ritual" (2001)