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.
