[1] 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 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.
He appeared in theatrical performances, including Michael Stewart's Shoestring '57 and Hermione Gingold'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, which he performed on The Johnny Cash Show.
Veteran comedian Phyllis Diller 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.