The agency representing some of Australia’s leading comedians has gone under, leading some clients to complain they are owed substantial sums.
Liquidators for the talent management company Junkyard Artist Management and the production company West Street Sports were appointed on Monday. Junkyard managed some of the country’s top comedians, including the 2022 Edinburgh Comedy Festival winner Sam Campbell and Fisk actor Aaron Chen.
Its founder and director, Craig Ivanoff, appears to have gone to ground.
“My [management company] went bankrupt out of absolutely nowhere,” standup comedian Lewis Garnham posted on Instagram.
“He hasn’t even spoken to me yet.”
In September, a project by Ivanoff’s West Street Sports was one of three recipients of a $400,000 Fresh Blood grant, jointly funded by Screen Australia and the ABC. The grant was to develop a pilot for a new comedy-drama, titled Going Under, being written by two Australian comedians with Ivanoff slated to co-produce.
A spokesperson for the ABC said the broadcaster was “aware of the situation” and was “in conversations with the relevant parties”.
A Screen Australia statement said it too was aware that the Fresh Blood recipient’s company had been placed under external administration.
“We are in discussions with the affected parties to determine next steps, in accordance with our internal processes,” the statement said.
On Monday, Andrew Spring, a partner with the Sydney insolvency specialists Jirsch Sutherland Insolvency Solutions, was appointed as liquidator to both companies.
“It’s still early days in the investigation into the reasons for the company’s failure and the true creditors’ position,” Spring said in a statement in relation to West Street Sports. He said it was yet to be determined how many creditors the company had and how much those creditors were owed.
“[We] are waiting to get access to the company’s files/records and for the director to provide the creditors’ list. One of the liquidator’s key focuses is on identifying and securing any assets.”
Spring said he did not “have transparency regarding the Fresh Blood grants and the progress of the pilot”, but hoped to have clearer insights next week.
By law, the liquidator must notify creditors within 10 business days of a company going into receivership.
Ivanoff was contacted for comment.
The stand-up comedian Andrew Hamilton, known for his show Jokes About the Time I Went to Prison, posted on social media that he had been hit “pretty hard” by Junkyard’s collapse.
“I lost all the money from my national tour,” Hamilton posted on Instagram, advertising a new fundraising show titled Jokes About the Time I lost My Money above crossed-out dates of the 12-city tour of Australia he undertook in August.
“At the risk of going against popular sentiment, I am not going to be too hard on my former management. They spread themselves too thin trying to support their people, and stuffed up the numbers. Never attribute to malice what can be reasonably attributed to stupidity.”
