In the centre of San Francisco Michael Palin's amusing (5)
I believe the answer is:
comic
'amusing' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in the centre of san francisco' is the wordplay.
'in' becomes 'elected' (voted in).
'the centre' indicates the central letters.
'of' becomes 'o''.
'san francisco' becomes 'mic' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The centre of 'elected' is 'c'.
'c'+'o'+'mic'='COMIC'
'michael palin's' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for comic that I've seen before include "Victor once, say" , "Child's magazine" , "Amusing, laughable" , "Funny entertainer, often stand-up" , "Priceless" .)