Comedian absolutely right to defend further comment (8)
I believe the answer is:
quipster
'comedian' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'absolutely right to defend further comment' is the wordplay.
'absolutely' becomes 'quite'.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'to defend' indicates putting letters inside.
'further comment' becomes 'ps' (postscript in a letter).
'quite'+'r'='quiter'
'quiter' placed around 'ps' is 'QUIPSTER'.
(Other definitions for quipster that I've seen before include "Maker of witty comments" , "wisecracker" , "wit" .)