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 world shut down.

We get into:
- Why bar spend at Untitled events has dropped 80% in a decade
- How audience surveys led to 330,000 Calvin Harris tickets
- Why Splendour in the Grass disappeared, and Mike's biggest fear
- Why your festival's real competitor is a holiday in Bali
- How you book a surprise set from Dom Dolla
- Why Untitled tells artists "don't come, just wait"

Read the full breakdown on The Black Hoody: https://www.theblackhoody.com/p/how-untitled-do-200m-in-annual-revenue

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
01:27 What Untitled actually owns and runs
02:56 Beyond The Valley: 40,000 people over four days
03:50 Breaking Dom Dolla and Rüfüs Du Sol
07:09 How Untitled got its name
08:12 From a team of 8 to a $200M revenue target
12:14 Why dance music belonged on the main stage
14:09 Losing $1 million at 20
16:54 How do you go again after that?
18:48 A database of 2 million young Australians
24:19 Why festivals are closing
27:15 How audience data built the Calvin Harris tour
29:46 Why bar spend is down 80%
32:09 Life after the bar: run clubs and supplements
35:18 Engineering the New Year's moment
38:59 What happened to Splendour in the Grass
44:15 Who are Untitled's competitors?
48:02 Grapevine Gathering and cutting your own events
50:55 Bali vs your festival
51:36 How you book a surprise set
53:48 Why Untitled tells artists to wait
57:30 Gudinski and the club scene that breaks global stars

LINKS
The Black Hoody newsletter: https://www.theblackhoody.com
Untitled Group: https://untitledgroup.com.au

The Black Hoody is a podcast and newsletter on the business behind music and comedy, for the people who run it.

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 what happened when his role on the CBS sitcom “Living Biblically” disappeared two weeks before production, why “Taste Buds” changed his financial life and how writing for “Tires” led to a recurring role. He also talks about becoming a frequent “Kill Tony” guest, rebuilding after COVID and why artists need to make demand visible instead of waiting for permission.

This is a conversation about rejection, ownership and what changes when the numbers become impossible to ignore.

Watch “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQR_eqfFUg

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 emails and phone numbers, why every comedian needs a website, and why the smartest career move can sometimes be to stop touring.

Luke and Emilio also get into the real difference between a manager and an agent, how Joe DeRosa turned a rejected special into a YouTube hit, what platforms notice once an audience makes a comic impossible to ignore, and why a slow month doesn’t necessarily mean the business is broken.

This is a practical conversation about the business behind a comedy career, from someone who sees it from both sides of the stage.

Hosted by Luke Girgis for The Black Hoody, a publication and podcast for music and comedy executives, managers, and agents.

Subscribe for more conversations about the business behind entertainment.

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 himself to a label, and how the singles strategy became the industry template
- The cashier's cheque that bought Major Lazer's rights back from Downtown Records
- The Because Music handshake and what it paid a decade later
- Hiring mtheory, the marketing engine behind Lean On
- Pricing every deal for year five instead of this quarter

Read the companion article, How he built Diplo: https://www.theblackhoody.com/p/how-he-built-diplo
Subscribe to The Black Hoody for the frameworks behind the music and comedy business: https://www.theblackhoody.com

Guest: Kevin Kusatsu
Host: Luke Girgis

#Diplo #MusicBusiness #ArtistManagement #MajorLazer #TheBlackHoody

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 locations), Forza Management, Pinch Records, and StandUpTix.Subscribe to The Black Hoody on Substack: https://www.theblackhoody.com

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 comics and career comics, and the new venue being built across from the Blue Note that could become the best comedy room on the planet.Luke Girgis is the founder and host of theblackhoody.com, a Substack publication and podcast for senior executives in the music and comedy industries.

Luke Girgis also runs Be Like Children, an artist management company, and has spent 20 years working as an artist manager.

Subscribe to The Black Hoody on Substack: www.theblackhoody.com

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 whether AI is about to wipe out the very audience Warner built his business for.Luke Girgis and Warner Bailey go deep on the real numbers behind assistant pay in Hollywood, the business model paradox of building a company for people who can't afford to pay you and what UTA representation actually unlocks.Luke Girgis is the founder and host of https://theblackhoody.com, a Substack publication and podcast for senior executives in the music and comedy industries. Luke Girgis also runs Be Like Children, an artist management company, and has spent 20 years working as an artist manager.Warner Bailey is the founder of Assistants vs Agents (AvA), a meme page turned media company that has partnered with Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Amazon MGM Studios, Apple TV+ and more. Warner was previously a talent agent assistant at WME and worked in touring at Live Nation.

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 built the Comedy Cellar into a legendary institution- His history as owner of the iconic New York music venue Cafe Wha?
• The rigorous standards comics must meet to perform at the Cellar
• The unique culture that makes the Cellar an irreplaceable launching pad for comedy

This is episode three of The Black Hoody Podcast with Luke Girgis, interviews with entertainment executives, agents, artists and managers building remarkable businesses.

If you have guest suggestions for future guests, email me: [email protected]

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 entertainment executives, agents, artists and managers building remarkable businesses.

If you have guest suggestions, email me: [email protected]

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 every comic

▫️ The biggest mistakes club owners make that kill their businesses (and how comedians sabotage their own careers)

▫️ Why treating rejection like "elite sport training" is the ultimate business advantage

▫️ His simple formula: 40% ticket sales, 55% drinks, 5% events = sustainable profits

This episode is packed with actionable insights for anyone building in entertainment, hospitality, or creative industries.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, artist, or business operator, Emilio's blueprint shows how scrappy, boot strapped execution can lead to incredible businesses.