but doctor, I am Pagliacci the veil
Clever one! (ha!)
learning “vocal” as a wordplay clue earlier and figuring “hearing” would be similar. Thank you for posting all these or I probably wouldn’t have taken a second shot at them!
They seem intent on giving us a string of puzzles where the lessons from the last don’t quite carry over! I’m glad that figuring out the main word quickly filled in the others, though.
That’s reassuring then, ha. Thanks for the confirmation! Definitely seems like once I’ve seen more of these, I’ll pick up more patterns. Like the ubiquity of oboe and err and eerie in standard crosswords.
The “in the AM” part, sure, but certainly not the step involving whisky (maybe whiskey would’ve tipped me off though). The substitution, subtraction, and insertion is interesting though; feels like working through a math formula and then checking if your work equals “little bit”.
Also, I went to look at the video comments and noticed the original version of the clue.
That “vocal” is the part meant to indicate finding the homophone for “too”?
re: first time being comrade’d
Is this 
gender euphoria?
No, I know why it was a wrong answer, hence my spoiler title. It was just a momentary lapse.
Edit: Ohh okay I now am mentally reading the answer with a dash inserted and get the full wordplay (beyond just the pattern recognition).
Staples??
The alternate clue on Minute Cryptic was significantly easier, though!
I love crosswords but have never understood these! Thanks for explaining it in a way that made me finally reach an answer. My favorite aspects are some type of themed wordplay or rebus so I’m looking forward to learning more.
One of my favorite puzzles had several starred answers like “chihanga” for a fried burrito and then the key was an answer “drop the mic”. It was puzzling and then very rewarding!
There’s no way libs wouldn’t have just started yelling at anyone who wants to apply pressure about how the midterms are only two years away.
Something about it clicked for me despite getting stuck on simpler clues! By the way, I’m having a fun time trying to solve full cryptic crosswords now. Do you think you could help me understand a particular clue I filled in but don’t quite get? The clue is:
Broaden identity in three directions (5)
With the letters filled in from nearby clues I got the answer “widen” and know “broaden” is the definition part of the clue. I gather that the wordplay comes from the start of identity somehow but can’t quite figure out how it works.