Criticise Dame blocking demands for way to identify comedian? (3,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
cap and bells
'way to identify comedian?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'criticise dame blocking demands' is the wordplay.
'criticise' becomes 'pan' (informal term meaning to criticise heavily).
'dame' becomes 'DBE' (Dame of the British Empire).
'blocking' means one lot of letters goes inside another (block can mean to plug a gap in something).
'demands' becomes 'calls' (call is a kind of demand).
'pan'+'dbe'='pandbe'
'pandbe' going within 'calls' is 'CAP AND BELLS'.
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cap and bells that I've seen before include "Insignia of a professional jester - bland places (anag)" , "Jester's insignia" , "Court jester's headgear" .)