Charlie Manna
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Charlie Manna (October 6, 1920 - November 9, 1971) was a New York City resident, a once-aspiring opera singer, turned standup comedian in the 1960s and into the early 1970s, when he died at a relatively young age from cancer. He often appeared on variety shows of the era, such as the The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show.
He would use minimal props in different ways to get a laugh. He might take a hankerchief and snap it like a towel in a locker room, while singing, "Standin' on the Corner, Watchin' all the Girls Go By", or he might fold it over his head in the shape of an ice pack, and sing "The Party's Over". Or he would use a simple play on words: "Here's a lawyer studying his briefs", and then bend over in a posture suggesting he was examining his own underwear.
Manna was especially good at short one-man plays, telling a comedic story in which he performed all of the characters, using various accents and voices. He was well known for a routine in which an astronaut balks at being launched until someone finds his box of crayons (containing "a red, a yellow, two greens and a black").
Veteran comedian Phyllis Diller credited Manna with helping improve her own approach to standup comedy when she was starting in the business. [1]
