How do I solve 1 across in Times Cryptic 29540?

Question

Accepted Answer

1 across reads "Straight entertainers with stuffing knocked out by a funny show" (2,2,5 letters); the answer is AS IT COMES. It's a letter-selection clue: take specific letters from a longer source. 'First of' means the opening letter, 'extremely' means first + last, 'regularly' means every other letter, 'oddly' / 'evenly' means odd or even positions. The full step-by-step breakdown is on this page.

Straight entertainers with stuffing knocked out by a funny show (2,2,5)

1A — Straight entertainers with stuffing knocked out by a funny show (2,2,5) — AS IT COMES