Haha! Gotcha!
Im a magician (Not just someone who knows how it is done, but
performs it, and
studying it for five years now -
studying not just the secrets, but other nooks and crannies in the art. Its my obsession.)
...And I'll tell you, they are NOT always the same.
I've met people who knows magical secrets, people who said that they love magic. But when they can't find new secrets, their fascination waned. They were hooked by the
secrets behind magic. Not
the magic.
Even after 5 years spending almost all day contemplating the art, I'm still far from mastering it.
This guy spent his lifetime studying the art. Obviously, he still felt he felt a lifetime is not enough - to quote him
"I learned magic when I was still 8 years of age. I wasted 8 years of my life."
The secrets isn't the magic. Secrets and deception are just a few of the ingredients of magic, aside from basic understanding of the human psyche, cognition,
theater (its a performance art afterall), and a
lot of other things...