Profitable comedians entertaining large clubs, perhaps (7,5)
I believe the answer is:
playing cards
'clubs perhaps' is the definition.
(club is a kind of playing card)
'profitable comedians entertaining large' is the wordplay.
'profitable' becomes 'paying' (similar in meaning).
'comedians' becomes 'cards' (I've seen this in another clue).
'entertaining' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'large' becomes 'L' (eg in clothes sizes).
'paying'+'cards'='payingcards'
'payingcards' enclosing 'l' is 'PLAYING-CARDS'.
(Other definitions for playing cards that I've seen before include "26 are red and 26 black" , "(Pastime using) constituents of a pack" , "Kings, queens etc" , "They come in packs" .)