Earlier this year, I met the magician and inventor Mark Setteducati, who was one of the organizers of G4G6.
Trying to find a landscaper's phone number, I dropped a bunch of business cards on my desk, and Mark's flipped open.
Another view:
Some of things Mark invents (and patents) are magic tricks. But wouldn't it ruin things to have to reveal magical secrets in patents? Mark seems to have found a solution in the obscure language permitted to patent writers. Here's the abstract to his Spectator failure trick involving suspension illusion, US Patent 5,409,420:
A magician's prop comprised of a flat body having an elongate body portion extending along a central axis rearward from a head and elongate lateral portions extending laterally and forward from locations on respective opposite sides of the body portion behind the head to free end portions protruding a small distance in front of the head. A ballast weight and a magnetic element of less weight are concealed in respective free end portions, with respective centers of gravity thereof spaced in front of the head. The resultant weight distribution of the body is such that, when extending horizontally, the surreptitious addition and removal of a hidden magnetic balance weight to the magnetic element by a magician's sleight of hand sets the object into and out of balance extending horizontally from a single pylon positioned under the head, the improbable horizontal balance providing an illusion that a portion of the body remote from the head is suspended. A second magnetic element can be provided to obtain an alternative point of adherence for the balance weight and a point of balance alternative to the head. The ballast weight can be omitted and a third magnetic element and a second balance weight.
Yeah, that pretty much spoils it.