Comedians’ fury as management leaves them out of pocket and in the lurch

Dozens of prominent Australian comedians say they have been left out of pocket after Junkyard Artist Management went into liquidation on Monday, and many say they are owed serious money.

Junkyard is billed as an “artist-first management and touring” company, whose clients include heavy-hitters such as Sam Campbell, who recently won the world’s top comedy award at the Edinburgh Festival, and Aaron Chen, who performed 10 shows at Melbourne’s Palais, billed as Australia’s largest seated theatre, during this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Comedians (from left) Scout Boxall, Aaron Chen and Sam Campbell are clients of Junkyard Artist Management.Credit: Simon Schluter, Paul Jeffers

But last Friday, Junkyard’s website went dark, taking the profiles of Campbell, Chen and about 20 other performers with it. The company’s social media accounts were deleted too as Junkyard entered voluntary liquidation, leaving many of the comedians wondering when, or if, they would be paid.

Junkyard’s owner and sole director, Craig Ivanoff, began calling his roster on Thursday last week to inform them the company was about to be wound up.

Scout Boxall was one of the artists to get the call from Ivanoff.

Junkyard Artists director Craig Ivanoff.

“I raised concerns with Craig earlier in the year about some of the stuff that was happening,” Boxall said. “He’d just say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got this, I’ve got this.’ And then he didn’t have it.”

Some of the comedians are fuming. In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Lewis Garnham said: “I’m not going to get the money from ticket sales for so many shows that I did this year. The whole of Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, that’s all gone.”

Fellow comic Andrew Hamilton wrote that Junkyard’s insolvency meant he would not receive the money earned during his 24-show national tour in August. However, he took a conciliatory line.

“I am not going to be too hard on my former management,” he wrote on Instagram. “They spread themselves too thin trying to support their people, and stuffed up the numbers.”

Not all of Ivanoff’s clients were so forgiving. Greg Larsen signed on with the company just a month ago: “Since Junkyard went insolvent, a lot of artists have been talking to each other, and realising that he owed more of his artists money than we thought.

“The artists haven’t been paid, and crew and other staff haven’t been paid.”

The timing is especially poor for comedians: Fringe World in Perth, which traditionally marks the start of the festival touring season, is just two months away.

The Junkyard artists are now scrambling to find new management and producers, and to create publicity campaigns in time for their festival shows, in which they would typically expect to make the bulk of their yearly income.

Greg Larsen signed with Junkyard just a month ago.

Though many of the comedians spoke to this masthead about their frustration and concerns that they might never receive the money owed to them – in some cases, amounts totalling tens of thousands of dollars – few wanted to go on the record to attack their former management. In some cases that was due to legal concerns, in others a fear that it would jeopardise their efforts to recoup losses, in yet others the sense that the whole affair would affect their reputation in an already precarious industry.

For some, it was simply a matter of returning the loyalty they felt they had themselves been shown.

Junkyard was known in the comedy scene for its generous support of up-and-comers. This year the company paid for almost a dozen Australian comics to perform seasons at the Edinburgh Festival, covering their travel costs, venue hire, accommodation and marketing. Junkyard also flew comedians to New York and Los Angeles to perform in Australian showcases.

But Junkyard’s “artist first” style meant Ivanoff rarely put things in writing – one source says that deals were “all done on a handshake and a phone call” – which makes proving lost incomes that much harder.

Junkyard’s business structure meant fees for a gig went directly to the company, which would then pay the artist involved.

Now that Ivanoff’s various companies have gone into liquidation, artists have had to contact the liquidator and register as creditors in the hope that they might be able to recover some of their lost earnings.

It wasn’t just live comedy. In 2020 Ivanoff set up West Side Sports, a company handling film and TV projects. Last year it received $200,000 to create a pilot as part of Screen Australia and the ABC’s Fresh Blood initiative. West Side Sports went into liquidation the same day as Junkyard.

Another company established in 2018 to manage the Gold Coast Laughs festival, of which Ivanoff was a co-director, was deregistered in August this year.

The fate of the outstanding debts for Junkyard’s roster is now in the hands of the liquidator, who is waiting on access to the company’s files before trying to identify and secure any assets.

When approached by this masthead, Ivanoff said: “I don’t have any comment.”

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