"Paint 1 side of cooky with Egg Paint in all-over design resembling back of playing card.” One sentence. Much work. Repeat.

Ah, the time-tested invocation again: Sim Sim Sala Bim. I remember that from . . . what? Johnny Carson, I think. Googling . . . ah. Here's an explanation.

Sim Salabim was magician Harry August Jansen’s (1883 to 1955) trademark tagline, while appearing as Dante the Magician.  He was a protégé of Howard Thurston, another famous stage magician himself.  Jansen needed a magic phrase for his act and he chose “sim salabim” as his mystic incantation.  Jansen was born in Denmark and he remembered a popular children’s song that had been the origin of his version of incantation.  So the children’s bit of gibberish in a song became the trademark of a 20th century well-known magician, but there is more to come. 

The song that Jansen’s “sim salabim” was taken from was the Danish song, Højt på en gren en krage, but interestingly enough that song took its “sim salabin” from a much, much earlier work.  It was perhaps from the medieval play called Robyn Hode:  A Mummers Play where a Turkish alchemist uses the incantation.  Now that’s pretty interesting that a bit of 20th century stagecraft is taken from a 19th century Danish children’s song, which in turn took it from a medieval play involving alchemy.