A comedy credit called Murder at the Strip sounds like the beginning of a crime story. In Anna Manis’s professional résumé, it appears under Comedy & Improv, with Manis playing a character named Debbie at New York’s Comic Strip Live in 2016.
The production is one of several stage credits in a career that has taken her through New York comedy clubs and, more recently, a headlining tour across three states. Her experience also includes improvisation, theatrical acting, and private comedy performances, giving her live-entertainment work a history that extends beyond the television programs associated with her name.
Manis is now based in Nashville, but New York remains a prominent part of her performing background. The city’s comedy rooms, theater companies, and improvisational scene feature repeatedly in her professional record.
New York Had Plenty of Rooms for Comedy
Manis’s official résumé identifies Comic Strip Live, Broadway Comedy Club, QED, Flappers Comedy Club, and Dillons on Broadway among her professional credits.
These venues belong to different parts of the stand-up world. Comic Strip Live has been a fixture of New York comedy since 1975, while Broadway Comedy Club has hosted established performers and developing comedians through its Manhattan shows.
QED, located in Astoria, Queens, has a different identity. The venue is known for intimate comedy performances, classes, and community-oriented entertainment, offering a smaller-scale setting than many traditional Manhattan clubs.
Dillons on Broadway features in an especially interesting account from Manis’s earlier career. Her 2025 professional media kit describes her performing weekly at the venue with Amy Schumer, who would later become an internationally recognized stand-up comedian and actress.
The media kit does not identify the particular dates or billing arrangements, but it places regular live comedy performances among Manis’s early New York experiences.
Her professional history also includes work at the Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational theater and training institution founded by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh.
UCB became an influential part of New York comedy through its emphasis on long-form improvisation and the development of original material. Its training program focuses on ensemble performance, spontaneous scene work, and the ability to recognize and develop unusual comedic premises.
Manis’s Backstage profile lists completion of the full Upright Citizens Brigade program. Her résumé also identifies Endangered Improv and other comedy-related work alongside her theater and television credits.
Those experiences placed her in several different performance environments. A traditional stand-up set, an improvised scene, and a comedy production involving named characters each require their own approach to entertaining an audience.
A Character Named Debbie at Comic Strip Live
The 2016 production Murder at the Strip appears in Manis’s Backstage credits with Chris DePierro and Mark Riccadonna associated with the project. Manis is listed as Debbie, with Comic Strip Live identified as the venue.
The credit is distinctive because it identifies a character rather than simply listing an appearance as a comedian. It belongs to the part of her career involving theatrical comedy and performance with other artists.
Riccadonna also appears in another earlier Manis credit. Her Backstage profile lists a 2015 action-comedy project in which both performers were involved, with Manis identified as a comedian and improviser.
Their professional association extends beyond those credits. Riccadonna later appeared as a guest on Stand Up & Laugh Chats, the interview series Manis hosted with musicians and comedians.
That March 2023 podcast episode runs approximately forty-six minutes, providing another public connection between two performers whose earlier work included live comedy.
Manis’s involvement in character-based comedy fits alongside her theatrical background. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and has acting credits in productions including Four Dogs and a Bone and Corn.
Her Backstage résumé identifies a lead role in a 2005 production of Four Dogs and a Bone and a supporting role in Corn at Baltimore’s Single Carrot Theatre in 2016.
Those theatrical credits sit beside her comedy work rather than replacing it. Performing a character within a production calls for sustained attention to relationships, dialogue, and dramatic circumstances, while stand-up ordinarily places the performer’s own comedic material at the center.
Murder at the Strip occupies an interesting position between those disciplines. Its documented credits establish Manis’s involvement in a named comedy production with a character role and recognizable collaborators.
Bites and Bubbles Takes the Comedy on Tour
In 2024, Manis added a different kind of performance credit to her résumé: the Bites and Bubbles Tour.
Her Backstage profile lists the engagement under Comedy & Improv and identifies her as the headlining comedian. The tour is associated with California, New York, and Florida, extending the geographic range of her documented comedy work.
Touring introduces different circumstances from performing at a familiar club. Audiences change, venues have their own atmospheres, and the relationship between performer and room must be established again at each appearance.
A comedian who headlines a show also occupies a different position from someone performing a short supporting set. The featured act carries a substantial share of the evening’s entertainment, with the audience arriving to spend time with that performer’s material.
The Bites and Bubbles credit identifies Manis in that headlining role. Her public promotional image for the show places her name prominently alongside the tour title, with the bold, comic-book-style presentation suggesting an energetic entertainment identity.
The tour adds a later chapter to her New York comedy history. Rather than appearing solely in local club credits from earlier years, Manis’s professional record includes a named touring engagement across several states.
Her comedy work has also continued alongside television production. She is credited as host of Stand Up and Laugh with Anna Manis, a series developed around stand-up performances and holiday-themed comedy.
The touring credit, however, belongs to a different side of her career. A headlining comedian must sustain the experience of a live audience without relying on the structure of a recorded television program.
Manis’s public performance listings bring those different forms of comedy into one professional portfolio.
Private Audiences Have Their Own Stories
Not every comedy appearance takes place in a traditional club or theater. Manis also advertises stand-up performances for private events through Entertainers Worldwide, where several attendees have described their experiences.
One review, submitted under the name Natalie, recounts a private stand-up appearance in Nashville. The reviewer describes laughing with friends throughout the evening and enjoying the atmosphere Manis created.
Another reviewer, Sandy, describes attending a taping of Stand Up and Laugh with Anna Manis and recalls having an enjoyable time.
The two accounts concern different entertainment settings. One involves a private gathering, while the other relates to a comedy production with an audience attending a recording.
Private performances bring comedians into rooms where the audience may already know one another. A group of friends celebrating an occasion can have a different dynamic from a club audience assembled primarily to watch professional comedy.
The setting can influence how a performer approaches the room. Familiarity among audience members may create shared reactions, while the occasion itself can affect the atmosphere before the performance begins.
The Entertainers Worldwide reviews are individual testimonials rather than independently measured performance results. They nevertheless offer specific accounts of people encountering Manis’s comedy outside the professional credits listed on her résumé.
Her booking profile also identifies her as an adult stand-up comedian and comedy singer, with an inquiry option for live appearances. The comedian described in those listings has experience in public venues, touring, and private entertainment rather than one narrowly defined performance setting.
The Comedy Work Continues Beyond the Clubs
Manis’s career now encompasses television hosting, producing, music, and leadership of The Muses Studio in Nashville. Those professional activities have expanded her public identity, but her stand-up and improvisational background remains part of the work she presents to potential collaborators.
Her official website continues to identify comedy among her core disciplines, while her performance profile offers live entertainment services. The professional credits provide recognizable points of reference, from Comic Strip Live and Dillons on Broadway to the Bites and Bubbles Tour.
There is a lively contrast between those settings. A Manhattan comedy club, an ensemble comedy production, a multistate tour, and a private performance each provide a different occasion for the person behind the microphone.
Anna Manis has worked across those environments while developing other parts of her entertainment career. For anyone interested in her live comedy, the stage credits offer plenty to explore, including a character named Debbie, years of New York comedy experience, and a tour that took her well beyond the city where much of her performing history began.
