Joseph Manno, President

At first take, Joseph Manno may seem like a wacky, off-the-wall, comedian. But spend a little time listening to his background and you’ll uncover his steadfast will to reach impressionable children and the inspirational tale he commits to spreading around the country.

Manno began his career in the entertainment industry in 1983, appearing in motion pictures such as The Calendar Girl Murders, For the Love of the Soldier, The Aviator, Night Screams, Doing Time and Perfect. He has also made numerous television appearances on shows including Trapper John, M.D. and Cagney and Lacy. 

Early in his career, Manno realized many of the characters he portrayed had a negative impact on children. Consequently, he decided to dedicate his talents to steering young children onto the right paths in life. He made a pact with himself to stay away from corrupt material and to only be involved with positive projects.

In 1989, Manno created a stage show for children entitled, “A Fighting Chance.” This live performance encourages children to take the right roads in life by staying away from drugs, gangs and violence. The show has received endorsements from teachers across America, two of Florida's governors, including Jeb Bush, the mayor of Orlando, and former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, Manno and a partner began touring some of Los Angeles’ biggest comedy clubs performing a stand-up act entitled, “A Tribute to Martin and Lewis.” The team performed a clean Martin and Lewis-style routine in famous clubs such as The Comedy Store, The Improv, L.A. Cabaret, Matty's on Melrose and many more. These performances led to an award in 1994 from America’s Funniest People.

 “A Fighting Chance” expanded in 2002, creating a live arena show for children and a book series and magazine were also created. Since then, the show has been performed at live events for more than 250,000 public school children across the nation. In 2004, Manno created, wrote and starred in a local CBS After-School Special, “All in one,” and won an Emmy.

A Fighting Chance was released as a comedic children’s novel and became a popular reading tool for public schools. There are currently more than 80,000 copies in circulation and the book is now in its fourth series. RTC Entertainment hands out free copies of the book to all children that attend the live performances.

Manno aims to make each show individualized for the audience and entertaining for all ages. Groups aged 5 to 95 appreciate his unique style of comedy. He delivers his messages and leaves each person knowing they can make a difference in their life and in the lives of others.

Reaching The Children (RTC) Entertainment, Inc. is a Not-for-profit 501(c) 3 entertainment company for families, co-founded in 1997 by Joseph Manno and Anthony DeRosa.

Anthony DeRosa, Vice President

Anthony DeRosa is an award-winning film, television, stage and live entertainment producer. Throughout his eighteen-year career behind the camera in the mainstream entertainment industry, DeRosa has had the opportunity to work with companies such as Nickelodeon, Universal Studios, Walt Disney, RSA Films, Propaganda Films, and other independent production houses/companies and producers.

His accomplishments in film include work on such projects as The Walking Dead and Problem Child 2. His television experience includes production work on South Beach, Fortune Hunter, Thunder In Paradise, Swamp Thing, MTV; and several Nickelodeon shows including Guts, Global Guts, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, All That, and Clarisa Explains It All.

DeRosa has worked on national and international commercial projects for companies including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, DuPont, Ford, Toyota, Visa, American Express, Mattel and Wyndham Hotels.

After first-hand involvement in the entertainment industry and witnessing the powerful persuasion it had over young people, DeRosa became disillusioned with many of the decision-makers and the choices they made concerning children's programming. In 1997, he decided to invest his talents into developing more positive programming and partnered with Manno to create RTC Entertainment Inc.

Since the company’s inception, DeRosa has remained steadfast to advancing the goals and messages of RTC. As Vice President he oversees all company operations, securing venues for live performances, and Executive Producer for all television/ film production.

Candice Coleman, Director of Marketing/Media

Big shocker!! Candice Coleman is from WILDwood, Missouri! After all, she's driven Trident nuclear submarines, she's flown with the Blue Angels, gator wrestled, and piloted a blimp during her 18 year tenure as an award-winning talk show host, award-winning reporter for the Disney Parks News bureau, as well as an award-winning features reporter for CBS... where she says, she had the pleasure of meeting and covering Joe Manno and RTC Entertainment for years!

Which is why — it was really no big shocker, as the spokeswoman for an incredible 30 charities over her career, not to mention her love for children, that she decided to join forces with Joe Manno, Anthony DeRosa, and RTC Entertainment. A big kid herself, Candice believes in "Manno Mania" and giving every child "A Fighting Chance"--Joe's mission of encouraging every child to take the right roads in life by staying away from drugs, gangs, violence, bad influences, and above all, bad influencers.

As the Director of Marketing and Media for RTC Entertainment, Candice is proud to spearhead RTC's new "One Million Kids in One Thousand Days--LIVE!" campaign. While she lives for her six-year-old son Logan, she loves looking VERY forward to making Joe Manno and RTC Entertainment a household name... after all, it's for our kids!

RTC Entertainment's Board of Adivisors