HER new career involves squeezing her body inside a two-and-a-half foot bottle, but Harrow girl Melissa Xenofontos insists she has no regrets about ditching a comfortable office job for life in the circus.

"I was born to do this," said Melissa, 24, of Roxborough Road. "If you are a performer, you're never that happy doing the normal thing."

This may be so, but how does it account for the former office worker and tanning consultant ending up in the notorious Circus of Horrors?

"It's a strange story," Melissa explained. "I went to an audition at Thorpe Park. I'm a singer and thought I'd be doing that, but when I got there they asked me if I'd mind cramming into this tiny glass bottle."

She didn't know it, but Melissa was about to win the role of Doctor Haze's evil side-kick in a travelling freak-show.

There would be singing involved. However, the job would also include bodily contortion, illusory stunts and having her throat cut. And then there was the bottle, all 18 inches of it.

"When I first climbed in, it felt a bit claustrophobic but it didn't put me off," she said.

"You go in head first through a side-door and lift the rest of your body in after. Then it's just a matter of cramming everything in."

Melissa, or Pandemonium as she is known on stage, made her circus debut in November before embarking on a gruelling five-week tour of the country.

She said: "It was tiring but nice to do a day's work and know you've pushed yourself to the limit."

The Circus of Horrors is a two-hour show featuring a host of oddballs and unusual characters.

Doctor Haze, the ringmaster of a freak-show, puts his protegees through their paces. They include: a vampire called Satanica who hangs by her hair from the ceiling; the Mongolian Laughing Boy who pushes nails through his neck; and the man with the stretchiest skin in the world, aptly known as Garry Stretch. Melissa's plays the doctor's twisted girlfriend.

"I'm the young girl who wants to join a freak show. Dr Haze isn't really interested at first but I manage to convince him.

"Lots of strange things happen along the way. The first half is set in Victorian times, while the second is in the future, in a Mad Max-type environment. It's unique, totally different to anything else I've done," said Melissa.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, The Circus of Horrors began life at the Glastonbury festival.

However, audiences for the show are varied, straddling the demographic spectrum.

Melissa said: "We get the alternative crowd and nans and granddads as well. The people you think will hate it are the ones who keep coming back."

But Melissa won't be going back to office land.

She plans to stick with the circus, who begin a seven-week nationwide tour tomorrow (Friday).

Aside from this, Melissa and her sisters Zoe, 32, and Nicki, 26, sing together in three different bands called Disco Inferno, The Grease Band and Lost In Music.

"I love singing with them," said Melissa. "They are both very talented and Zoe is a really good songwriter too,"

"We are available for pubs, clubs, weddings and bar mitzvahs."

The girls began singing together eight years ago when Melissa was just 16. However, like now, Melissa's first job was somewhat out of the ordinary.

"We went to Germany to do some work for an eccentric millionaire who wrote song lyrics and needed someone to put them to music," she said. "He wanted us to sign a contract with him but he was really strange so we said no."

l Melissa and The Circus of Horrors perform at Hayes Beck Theatre in Grange Road on January 14 and 15. (Tickets cost £10, £15 and £20 with £2 off for OAPs and children).