The funnymen must come up with their jokes of no more than 140 characters and "tweet" them through the website to their followers.

The online audience can then heckle with short postings and wait for a personal response.

Act Mark Watson, who has appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week and Radio 4, will take part in the June 8 cyber gig.

Strange

He said: "It's an experiment.

"It'll be strange because we won't be able to see the audience, so we'll be telling our jokes into the void.

"I don't think we'll be seeing comedy clubs closing but it'll be interesting to see what happens."

Funnyman Matthew Crosby, 29, who will also take part, added: "We think this is the first event of its kind and is history in the making.

"The idea is we will have some pre-prepared material of mini sketches.

"If we had all pre-prepared material we could just post the jokes on a blog but Twitter has got a live feel to it, so hopefully people will respond by throwing jokes our way."

Other comedians who will take their ten minutes on the online stage include Mitch Benn who has regular slots on Radio 4’s Now Show.

Organiser Tiernan Douieb, who is also compering the virtual gig, said of the audience: "They might respond, they might not. Just like real heckling."