Host squeezed in a lift, beside oneself (5)
I believe the answer is:
manic
'a lift beside oneself' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'host squeezed in' is the wordplay.
'host' becomes 'mc' (short for master of ceremonies).
'squeezed' becomes 'ani' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mc' enclosing 'ani' is 'MANIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for manic that I've seen before include "Wildly energetic" , "Showing wild energy" , "Showing wild excitement" , "Deranged" , "crazy" .)