COMPERE Mike Manera says: "Comedy is such a weird thing. It's so British. It stems from the music hall tradition when acts would stand up in front of an audience and try and make them laugh. It's not like playing a musical instrument."

Mike, who runs the Queen's Head comedy club in the West End, has just taken over booking in the acts for Funny First Mondays, the monthly mirthfest at O'Neill's, Victoria Street. Mike says he's looking forward to recruiting comedians who share his sense of humour.

"I'm looking at acts that are clever," says Mike. "Not in an arty sense but those who produce really original material."

The size of the venue also allows Mike to book bigger headliners than he is able to do in the West End, and to represent a balanced mix of male and female performers.

Future headline acts include controversial comic Josh Howie, Finland's Tomi Walanies and Matt Green who is currently filming a new BBC sitcom Baggy Trousers.

For the June gig, Mike has secured headliner Matt Kershon from the US comedy show, Last Man Standing. Apart from being a Comedy Store regular, Matt has a list of credits that include tours with Marcus Brigstocke, Jeff Green and Ed Byrne.

Main support act, Ava Vidal, kick-started her stand-up career on the BBC Talent Urban Sketch Show and was the only female comic to reach the finals of the BBC3 New Comedy Awards.

Support comes from Rick Kiesewetter, born in Japan and raised in New Jersey by a German and an Italian, and zany housewife Sharon Court who breeds tropical fish and standard poodles.

In between acts Mike passes his observations, which largely have to do with class structure and living with multiple sclerosis - the two main elements in his forthcoming Edinburgh show.

"It's partly about me living with MS and it sounds very worthy, but it is funny as well. I have had bad moments but I've been fine for a few years now.

"No one really knows why it happens, but it's supposed to be stress related. The biggest impact for me was being told as a 30-year-old man that I could never work full time again, so running the comedy clubs fits in with my lifestyle."

Mike also works with disabled adults for a charity in Wood Green training people to work in horticulture. Surrounded by plants in a three-acre greenhouse is a far cry from his early career promoting fish fingers on TV. Apparently, Mike landed the commercial while still at school.

"I'm from a working class family in south east London," he says. "My dad was a bus driver but for some reason I was sent to a posh private primary school. We lived on an estate in north Peckham and I talked like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

"I was eight at the time and didn't have a lot of say in it. I did elocution and they picked me for the role. I also did an ad for baked beans and all I can remember is being dressed in red in a studio and then being sick in the changing room. I don't remember seeing myself in them and I've never met Captain Birds Eye."

Funny First Mondays returns on Monday, June 4. Doors are open from 7pm. Details www.starts.org.uk