Best movie you have seen recently?
One Day In September. Shocking but brilliant. It is a documentary about the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich where the Israeli athletes were taken hostage by a group of terrorists. It was a quite confronting movie but very well made and a great story, nonetheless.

Best out-of-the-ordinary thing to do on the weekend?
One word: paint-ball.

Weekend best forgotten?
July 16-18, 4000BC. I hear it really sucked.

Best kept secret in Victoria?
Camping spots in the forest near Healesville.

Best weekend breakfast?
Porridge with banana and honey, followed by poached eggs with mushrooms and tomatoes.

Best pick-me-up song?
Footloose by Kenny Loggins.

Best words of wisdom?
Know your role and shut your mouth.

Best weekend company?
The sun.

Best way to spend a rainy day?
Making money selling umbrellas to people who didn't read the forecast.

Best subject at school?
Wagging.

Best place for a meal?
The Groove Train in Richmond.

Best overseas holiday destination?
New York City or anywhere in Canada (except Winnipeg). It's one thing to have everyone in Canada questioning why you would be travelling to Winnipeg, but it's another to have everyone in Winnipeg questioning why you would visit there. It's that sort of town.

Best day of your life?
The day I high-fived the Pope. In Year 7 at Orana Primary School my class was taken to see the Pope off from Perth airport following his papal tour. And while his hand was up for other members of the crowd to receive a blessing, I laid a bit of skin on the Holy Father.

Best thing to pack in your luggage?
A means of getting home.

Best way to relax about a performance?
Try not to think about how much I stunk.

Best way to celebrate?
With plenty of friends, alcohol and dancing at a place I don't have to clean up afterwards.

Best way to deal with difficult languages?
Stay in Australia.

Best song to sing in the shower?
They Might Be Giansts, Dr Worm.

Best weekend childhood memories?
Poking dead stuff with sticks.

"There are four extra letters in the title," he quips of the imaginatively titled show that premieres on Monday at 9.30pm.

"Other than that, it is a bit more of a progression into concentrating more on being a Tonight Show, but the same elements will be there."

The 26-year-old host will be joined by his Rove co-stars Corinne Grant, Peter Helliar and David Callan in the hour-long show that will combine interviews, studio guests, sketches, music and the odd "mad-cap caper".

We'll be aiming to cause as much trouble as we can," says McManus, who was approached by Ten after Nine declined to resign Rove after its initial 10-episode run.

"I'm not sure of the reasons for Nine wanting us to go," McManus says via phone from Sydney. "The day I can read the mind of a television executive is the day I'll never have to worry about my job again.

"Ten obviously discovered I was unemployed and expressed interest in wanting me to come and play here, and I'm loving it. It is such a happy group of people. It is a really supportive place and has a really happy vibe."

Since signing with Ten in May, the Perth-born comedian has been kept busy appearing in Good News Week debates and hosting The Gap during the Olympics while preparing for the premiere of Rove live.

Despite his experience with the format last year, McManus says he will be pretty nervous when the show kicks off tomorrow night.

"It certainly is not any easierhaving been at Nine last year. Because there were a lot of people who did not watch last year and only know me from what they heard about it, it is almost as if the expectation is a little higher this time around. Last time people were saying, "Who's this guy and what is this show", and they had no idea what to expect. But this time around we've already proven what we can do and we have to improve on that."

The show will be recorded live in a Port Melbourne studio and McManus and the team will be relying on viewer and audience participation to generate material and keep the jokes flowing.

"It will be as live as it can be, so if a joke stinks, it stinks simultaneously the whole country over," he says.

"The audience and viewer participation is important because that generates material for us. We are aiming to utilise our audience a little more than we did last year and we will still have all those elements of crossing live to places, chatting to people in the street and getting people to send in funny objects and news clippings they might have found.

"The sketches are obviously written and I was going to say rehearsed, but that would be lying. With regard to the show, there is structure to it but that is not scripted at all. That's part of what makes it work, being loose enough for us to have some fun."

McManus stared his career as a stand-up comedian in Perth, moving to Melbourne in 1993. His television career started with a guest role in the ABC series Something Hot Before Bed and it was not long before he landed his first hosting gig on the Channel 31 show The Loft. After four series, Nine came calling and McManus was being hailed as commercial TV's next big star.

McManus has always been a fan of the Tonight Show format and has spent many nights watching such performers as David Letterman. But while he would like to emulate their success, McManus has tried not to copy their presentation style.

"I don't model myself on anyone because people can always tell when you are trying to imitate another performer," he says. "I watch other people and enjoy what they do, and I try to utilise that in my performance.

"Because of that, I watch as many presenters as I can from Parkinson to Letterman and even Bert Newton. Just because he is on in the morning does not mean the elements of his show are not what you'd have in a Tonight Show timeslot. Infomercials are the only thing that is different."

So, can we expect to see infomercials in Rove Live?

"Well, just on the quie, we are having talks to Big Kev..."

Of all the comics taken for a test run by Channel Nine last year, McManus was the one able to go the distance. He was also part of the team that took good News Week around for a final victory lap. Thus, it would appear that these people who were once the funniest television personalities are happily accepting Rove as their rightful heir and successor.

When Andrew Denton was on the show, you could practically see the torch change hands. It was as though the former were anointing the latter.

"Is that a fact?" rove asks when I put the theory to him.

"Was he 'anointing'? It happened when Rove asked Denton if he'd consider hosting the Logies ceremony again. Denton thought that twice was quite sufficient, but suggested that rove might well want a go instead. It was very much 'anointing'.

That Rove is where he is and is only 26 may be impressive, but McManus himself acknowledges that he had an early start, even if he couldn't quite accept it at the time. Growing up in Western Australia, friends and relatives of the adolescent Rove would insist that he "should be a comedian". Robe however, was "definitely afraid" of even the thought of "Having to get up on stage and try to be funny in front of a group of strangers."

However he didn't mind acting.

"If someone else had written the lines and they weren't funny," he explains "You could always just go 'blame the playwright, don't blame me" By the time he'd left school, Rove himself was writing the lines with his mates.

When they had trouble getting other people to perform their material, they decided, "stuff it, we'll just do it ourselves!" and got themselves onto the local community radio station. Before long, Rove built up the confidence to be funny on stage in front of strangers as he began to work the "not very big" but "certainly healthy and thriving" Perth stand up scene.

"It was a great place to start because it was so small," Rove says. "You were doing a gig every three weeks, as opposed to every three months in Melbourne or Sydney."

Soon getting to a point where he felt he couldn't go any further", Rove decided to move to Melbourne. He likens his arrivals to the Melbourne scene to a fireworks display' that 'exploded very quickly'. As the new kid in town, McManus was usually lumped with the equally unfamiliar comics, but the difference between them, was that whereas the others had never performed before, Rove had two years experience and two years of material to his advantage. Therefore he was noticed from the start.

Despite this, however, it wasn't long before he found himself in the same boat as his peers. "I soon hit a brick wall; I was fighting for gigs at all the regular comedy clubs like every body else"

Rove recalls that period of his life and career as "enjoyable times" but admits he was certainly not living comfortably. "I soon saw how far a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter can actually stretch." He says.

The lesson this experience taught him: "Never get too complacent; you're never one hundred percent safe"- as he was reminded again last year, he says, when his season at Channel Nine came to an end. The point at which Rove was well and truly thrust into our comedic consciousness was when he was one of a bunch of "up and comers" profiled in a special comedy edition of Juice a little while back. Also present and accounted for were Merrick and Rosso, Peter Helliar and Adam Spencer, who we all knew from triple J, as well as the familiar Wil Anderson and the somewhat less so 9at that stage0 Corrine Grant. But this Rove McManus guy who was featured had many a Non-Melbournian scratching his noggin. Rove agrees at that stage of his ascendancy, he was "behind most of the others" Although he'd been on Good News Week, like Wil and Corrine, he was not quite "in the regular loop" yet

However successful annual appearances at the Melbourne Comedy festival had brought him to the forefront of that town's comedy scene and a hosting gig on community television station 31's The Loft Live kept him there. Live community television was the perfect proving ground for the prime time personality-to-be. When important guests were not turning up late (one time a guest was so late it ended up being a brief two minute interview at the end of the show) or failing to arrive altogether (on our very first show the guest had just forgotten to turn up) there was always the possibility of equipment malfunction to keep Rove on his toes: "Our audio box blew up. Noone at home could hear us so we had to go off air."

Such strong grounding in live television coupled with the stand up experience made McManus a natural for primetime commercial television. It showcases, not just his ability to host so well, to be able to work with such a good team and to make it look so easy, but also in the way he appeals to so wide a demographic. McManus himself likens the job to a bus driver, who is trusted by all of the passengers.

"The essence of it is that i'm having fun, and they can't help but have fun themselves because i don't look like I'm uncomfortable. I absolutely love it."

Rove reckons that, if two years ago, you'd asked him where he wanted to be in five or ten years time, his answer would literally be what he is actually doing now.

"So I've been very blessed in that I've been given a lot and achieved it in a relatively short amount of time" he says I reckon there's more to it than that. When shows like Hey hey it's Saturday and Good News week had to call it a day, they left a gaping hole that Rove himself claims he's only "paved over slightly" or "put a couple of leaves or sticks across." To make it look fixed.

Now's the time Rove McManus. If visitations of the three wise kings of Comedy is not enough and you need some sort of John the Baptist figure as well, then Graham Kennedy must be that man. When he finally returns from the wilderness to give McManus his blessing then we'll know for sure that Rove is the chosen one, sent to save our miserable television-watching lives from eternal damnation...

Now he’s going back to where it all began-stand up comedy-with Rove live coming to the Metro Theatre.

Despite his meteoric rise to fame, McManus is very much aware of pitfalls in showbiz.

"I’m just appreciating what I’ve got at the moment," he says. "I never guessed I’d be doing what I’m doing now. But I don’t get swept up in it. If ital. come crashing down tomorrow, then okay, I have done 10 weeks last year and 10 weeks this year of hosting my own tonight show. That’s 20 more weeks than some people do in their whole careers."

It’s hard to imagine McManus as a shy kid. Growing up in Perth, he dreamed of becoming a cartoonist.

He admits he was "a bit of a clown", but it was only while studying for a fine arts degree that his natural talent for comedy emerged.

McManus and a few friends started writing for a university revue and then tried community radio, which flopped. "So I started doing stand up” he says "It was going so well that when I finished my course, I reassessed my options and decided to give comedy a try."

He left Perth for Melbourne in 1995 and says his persistence has paid off.

"It's just a matter of believing in yourself. If someone knocks you, you getup and have faith in your ability.

"Sometimes its just not your time... it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad performer."

Working on Ten’s Rove live with comedians Dave Callan, Corinne Grant and Peter Helliar- who also appear in the stage show- has been a buzz. So far, he has had yarns with Sting, Sinead O’Connor and old hands Bert Newton and Daryl Somers.

His stage gig will be similar to the TV show with "a few sketches and silly behavior. "

While he doesn’t have a personal style- "I’ll do fart jokes if they work" - McManus is conscious of current affairs.

"It’s a bit of a buzz phase but essentially I base my humor in observational comedy. I was reading a newspaper and it was gold, gold, gold. A woman is leaving her money to a chimpanzee and some department of natural science has lost a swarm of locusts!"

Why are you obsessed with toys and what do you have?
I don’t know. I’m trying to curb it.It has been getting a bit our of control. I don’t know why I do it. I just like to collecteverything from statues to figurines, remote control devices, things that talk, stuffed animals. Its very sad for a 26-year-old man to be obsessed with them. I had toys as a kid and as I grew up and moved out of home the obsession grew- you move into your own house and realise you can fill not only one room, but an entire house with them.

What is your favourite toy in your collection?
My talking Buzz Lightyear is certainly one of my favourites.

What started you getting up on stage and making people laugh?
Nothing did originally. I used to act in high school and I got into performing that way, and I enjoy doing comedy more than dramatic roles because you get instant feedback from the audience. You know how things are going because when you tell a joke it either works straight away or it doesn’t. I fell into stand up. People would just say ‘wow you should do it’

Do any of your good friends expect you to be entertaining 24 hours a day?
Some do. I recently had a very strange comment from someone, who, aftermeeting me for the first time, said that iwas very polite. I must come across as very abrupt on television. Besides that, there is often a situation where if I’m up-beat people become critical and think you’re trying, and it’s a case of “save it for the camera, funny boy”. Stand-up seems to be the only occupation in the world where you have to prove yourself.

Has the fame gone to your head at any stage?
No, I don’t understand it. It’s a just matter that people recognise me now, but I am no different. That is why I sometimes find it quitestrange because people will come up and say “Hi Rove, good to see you”, as if they know me and it turns out I’ve never met them.

Are you into fitness or do you have to force yourself to exercise?
I am into fitness. I try to run everyday, but there are days where I think sleeping is a little more important. I run everyday and I go to the gym twice a week.

What is your diet like and what do you generally eat?
I try to eat really healthily. I don’t like a lot of fatty foods, no fish and chips, and I don’t like Chinese. I like Thai food and seafood. I’d much prefer to make a pizza at home than get takeaway.

What is bound to freak you out more than anything?
Cockroaches and rats. I can handle heights, hecklers, certainly most things, but I get creeped out by rats. I just find cockroaches disgusting. If it has made itself known to me, it must die.

What are some of your favourite things in life?
Professional wrestling, relaxing when I get the chance and hippos. They are the number one killers in Africa. That’s why they amaze me. I’m forever telling Belinda these amazing facts.

How did you woo your girlfriend, Belinda Emmett?
We met at the Fox studios opening and I was talking to a group of actors, one of which was Belinda. Then, in the six weeks it took to get on the Titanic ride, we shared a private joke that no one else got and I though “oh, hello”. We swapped phone numbers, and I called first, but I was just trying to be a little coy. I didn’t want to seem too eager.