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Yep, shows is unneeded but where's the theme. Circus?

I don't want to interrupt your dialogue, teenie & ixion, but I have answers for 4 others that seem to work OK without using that theme word in any way, namely:
1,3, 8 & 19 down.
Please confirm you are sure they also (!) work using that word (etc). Obviously your answers (assuming they are indeed different ones from mine) would make a more satisfactory whole i.e. if there are no exceptions to the rule. All seems very odd to me, but you're probably right --- I just need a bit of gentle persuasion!

GK in 8 down isn't cartel the theme word?

I forgot to mention: "cartel" bothers me in 8d. Could be another variant of course. But how is the answer (which I have) to be parsed then? I can see 2 different words for "food", but mine can be smoked, the other one not (as far as I know......)

cmk: are you implying "C" can also be a drug?

.................or do you mean just leave that out i.e. the word is redundant???!!!

No - I have 'e' as the drug in a food which can be smoked - as can the warning.

..if that's the case, I can now see how the first word in the 19d clue could also be redundant! The whole thing seems to be getting rather redfundant, though, in my humble opinion, if that is the point!

GK, E is the drug and cartel the theme word. All the clues are themed. I've just parsed 24 it's a 'sounds like' one.

(just read your latest reply): so how about 3d, Can't see anything redundant OR missing there! Nor in 1d, come to mention it...................