Just for Laughs owes cash to comedians, firms: courtroom paperwork

Documents made public by an insolvency trustee present Montreal comedy competition Just for Laughs and affiliated firms owe tens of millions of {dollars} in unpaid money owed past what was included in a courtroom submitting final week.

Groupe Juste pour rire inc., the mother or father firm of the competition and several other different comedy-related companies, introduced earlier this month that it’s bancrupt and searching for creditor safety.

Documents launched this week by insolvency trustee PwC, previously referred to as PricewaterhouseCoopers, present a further $5 million in unpaid money owed owed by the competition and different affiliated companies.

That cash is along with the $22.5 million owed by one of many firms within the group, disclosed in paperwork filed on the Montreal courthouse final week.

Included within the $5 million of newly disclosed money owed is $3.4 million owed by the comedy competition, whose collectors embody lodges, venues and manufacturing firms.

As effectively, Just for Laughs and one other affiliated competition, ZooFest, owe greater than $78,000 to a Montreal comfort retailer.

Among the collectors named within the paperwork just lately made public are:

• More than 4 dozen tv stations, in addition to radio stations and newspapers throughout Canada, that are owed greater than $100,000.
• Comedian Mike Ward is owed $301; singer Ginette Reno is owed $2,000.
• Big Yellow Taxi Productions, which has produced Australian Just for Laughs tv applications shot in Montreal and Australia, is owed greater than $200,000.
• Convenience retailer Depanneur L’distinctive is owed $78,355.
• Comedy Gives Back, a non-profit that helps comedians in want, is owed $8,886.
• The largest creditor named within the new set of paperwork is Cartier Communication Marketing Inc., a Montreal promoting firm, which is owed $720,347.
• Other collectors embody Australian comic Jim Jefferies and Montreal’s ambulance service, Urgences-santé.