Company with help for speaker, often upstanding performer (5)
I believe the answer is:
comic
'often upstanding performer' is the definition.
'comic' can be an answer for 'performer' (comic is a kind of performer). I am unsure of the 'often upstanding' bit.
'company with help for speaker' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'com' (as in .com).
'with help' becomes 'c' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'for' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'speaker' becomes 'I' ('I' refers to the person saying it).
'c' put after 'i' is 'ic'.
'com'+'ic'='COMIC'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for comic that I've seen before include "Children's periodical" , "Professional joke-teller" , "Raising a laugh" , "Amusing, laughable" , "Funny, droll" .)