Choice to keep iodine by sick American around California? It’s deceptive (7,8)
I believe the answer is:
optical illusion
'it's deceptive' is the definition.
'choice to keep iodine by sick american around california?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'iodine' could be 'i' (I is the chemical symbol for iodine) and 'i' is located in the answer.
'sick' could be 'ill' ('ill' can be a synonym of 'sick') and 'ill' is present in the answer.
'american' could be 'us' and 'us' is located in the answer.
'around' could be 'o' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'california?' could be 'cal' and 'cal' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for optical illusion that I've seen before include "One can't really see it" , "Something deceiving the eye" , "It's not what it seems!" , "outwardly deceptive" , "Mirage" .)