Charlie Manna (October 6, 1920 – November 9, 1971) was an Italian American standup comedian, active in the 1960s. He was a New York resident, who stated that he came from the Bronx, and who had studied opera for five years before turning to comedy. He first appeared at the Green Mansions resort, in the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...

near the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

resort area A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

. He appeared on many theatrical and television

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp ...

s of the era, including ''

Sunday Night at the London Palladium ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name ''Sunday ...

'', ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...

'', ''

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...

'', ''

The Steve Allen Show ''The Steve Allen Show'' was an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC,

'',

Jackie Gleason John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was know ...

's ''

Stage Show A theatrical production is any work of theatre, such as a staged play, musical, comedy or drama produced from a written book or script. Theatrical productions also extend to other performance designations such as Dramatic and Nondramatic theatre, a ...

'', the '' Jack Paar Show'', Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and ''

The Garry Moore Show ''The Garry Moore Show'' is the name for several separate American variety series on the CBS television network in the 1950s and 1960s. Hosted by experienced radio performer Garry Moore, the series helped launch the careers of many comedic talent ...

''. He performed at local venues like the Radio City Music Hall, the Bon Soir supper club, the Blue Angel, the Copacabana and Montreal's

El Morocco El Morocco (sometimes nicknamed Elmo or Elmer) was a 20th-century Manhattan nightclub frequented by the rich and famous from the 1930s until the decline of café society in the late 1950s. It was famous for its blue zebra-stripe motif (designed ...

. He appeared in theatrical performances, including Michael Stewart's '' Shoestring '57'' and

Hermione Gingold Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold (; 9 December 189724 May 1987) was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric character. Her signature drawling, deep voice was a result of nodules on her vocal cords she developed in the 1920s and e ...

's '' Sticks and Stones''. He was well known for conceptual humor, based on incongruity, such as the routine in which an astronaut balks at being launched until someone finds his box of crayons, containing "a green, an orange and two blacks"; as well as using his musical training in a routine, such as ''Alcatraz - the Musical'', and ''La Bonanza'', a parody of an opera based on a popular

TV Western Television westerns are a subgenre of the Western, a genre of film, fiction, drama, television programming, etc., in which stories are set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West, Western Canada and Mexico during ...

, which he performed on ''

The Johnny Cash Show ''The Johnny Cash Show'' is an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969, to March 31, 1971, on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. ...

''. Veteran comedian

Phyllis Diller Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and ...

credited Manna with helping improve her standup routine when she was starting in the business, "It was at New York's Bon Soir nightclub during the early sixties that the comic Charlie Manna gave me the greatest advice about how to get on: quickly tell five of your hottest jokes and then run with them. Get the audience laughing for real, don't make it a phony deal." Manna was quoted as saying, "There are two varieties of comedy: funny and not funny." He recorded two comedy albums in performance at clubs. The first was ''Manna Live!!''; the second was ''Manna Overboard!!'', ( Decca Records, 1961), produced by Michael Ross, written by Ross and Bruce Howard, recorded at the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...

, New York.''"Manna Overboard!!"'', Charlie Manna, Decca Records DL 4159, 1961 (album cover notes) He died in 1971 from cancer at age 51.

References

External links

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Obituary
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. November 22, 1971. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manna, Charlie 1920 births 1971 deaths American stand-up comedians Jubilee Records artists Decca Records artists American people of Italian descent Deaths from cancer 20th-century American comedians Comedians from New York (state) American male comedians