The Black Hoody

Mike Christidis lost $1 million on his first festival at 20. A decade later, Untitled Group is on track for more than $200 million in revenue. Mike co-founded Untitled Group, the Melbourne independent behind Beyond The Valley and the largest electronic headline tour in Australian history. He sat down with Luke Girgis to explain how an independent promoter keeps growing while festivals around the w...

After more than two decades in comedy, Joe DeRosa spent three years making “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.” Netflix, Hulu and HBO passed. He released it himself on a new YouTube channel with almost no audience, took it through the comedy podcast circuit and watched the views climb. Eight months later, Netflix called back and licensed the same special it had rejected. Joe tells Luke Girgis wha...

Luke Girgis sits down with Emilio Savone to unpack what it really takes to build a lasting career in comedy. Most comedians think they’re treating their career like a business. Emilio thinks many of them don’t realise where they’re falling short. Emilio has spent years running New York comedy clubs and managing comics. In this conversation, he explains why followers are a weak substitute for email...

Kevin Kusatsu managed Diplo for twenty years without a contract. This is the playbook. Kusatsu co-founded TMWRK and took Diplo from a support act in 2006 to the most streamed song in Spotify history. In this episode he opens the books. We cover: - Why he never signed a management contract with any client, ever - The Tony Hawk thesis: hold a space no one is occupying - Why Diplo never signed himsel...

Luke Girgis interviews Emilio Savone, owner of New York Comedy Club, on The Black Hoody Podcast to break down what's really happening inside the business of comedy in 2026.Luke Girgis is the publisher of The Black Hoody, a publication for music and comedy industry executives, managers and agents and the host of The Black Hoody Podcast. Emilio Savone is the owner of New York Comedy Club (five l...

Estee Adoram has been the booker of the Comedy Cellar for more than 40 years. Luke Girgis and Estee Adoram discuss how the Cellar grew from one show a night in a basement nobody wanted to visit into the most iconic comedy club in the world. They cover the recommendation system that controls who gets an audition, why Estee has never formally "passed" a comic, the distinction between real...

Warner Bailey built a 100,000 person community by making fun of the most powerful people in Hollywood while sitting at a desk ten metres away from them. In this episode of The Black Hoody podcast, host Luke Girgis sits down with the founder of Assistants vs Agents to talk about the broken economics of entry level entertainment jobs, how a meme page became a media company now repped by UTA, and whe...

Noam Dworman owns the Comedy Cellar, the iconic New York comedy club that turns away 20,000 fans per week. Today, the greatest comedians in the world like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Louis CK, and Bill Burr pop in at the cellar regularly to test new material and refine their craft before taking it to the world. In this episode, Noam pulls back the curtain on his comedy empire and reveals: How he b...

Barry Katz discovered and managed Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr and Louis CK before anyone knew their names. In this episode, we discuss how he spots talent before it breaks, the negotiation strategies that built comedy empires, and the brutal realities of artist management (including how to survive getting fired). This is episode two of The Black Hoody Podcast with Luke Girgis, interviews with entert...

Emilio Savone joins me today. The owner of 5 NYC comedy clubs, a ticketing platform, a record company and management firm reveals how he built a vertically integrated empire. He explains: ▫️ Why comedy clubs make 20% profit margins while restaurants struggle at 3-5% ▫️ The custom ticketing platform that increased his sales by 3,000% tickets overnight ▫️ How he built multiple revenue streams from e...