You can use a generator inside the list comprehension:
[x for x in (el.strip() for el in mylist.split(",")) if x]
# \__________________ ___________________/
# v
# internal generator
The generator thus will provide stripped elements, and we iterate over the generator, and only check the truthiness. We thus save on el.strip() calls.
You can also use map(..) for this (making it more functional):
[x for x in map(str.strip, mylist.split(",")) if x]
# \______________ ________________/
# v
# map
But this is basically the same (although the logic of the generator is - in my opinion - better encapsulated).
