Cause of cracks that may bring down the house (8)
I believe the answer is:
comedian
'cause' is the definition.
(comedian is a kind of cause)
'cracks that may bring down the house' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'down' could be 'd' and 'd' is present in the answer.
'the house' could be 'co' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'co' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for comedian that I've seen before include "Humorist" , "Funny entertainer" , "Stand-up" , "Professional teller of jokes" , "Demoniac sort of funny man" .)