introducing

After ten years of analysing and dissecting the talent management business, Whacked is excited to announce the launch of Whacked Exclusive. “Whacked began as a management company, but we realized quickly that it was too early in the development of SA comedy to hold talent to an exclusive contract".

"It was more important to plant seeds and nurture the industry, which we did with the Comedy Underground, and the agency side of our business. Now, we have re-entered this arena. With comedy at unprecedented levels of activity, we feel there is now something to manage. With the addition of Taffia as a partner into our business, I am confident that we have the combined experiences, skill and integrity to create the best exclusive comedy talent service in the country,” says John. “When I came to Whacked, I found a business with real credibility, but chaotic, due to John’s attempt to juggle being an artist and a managing partner”, says Taffia Keight, “He has a great eye for strategy and talent, but implementation is more my field, he makes mind-maps - I like spreadsheets,” says Taffia.

“Not many people understand that an agent is not supposed to be a manager. An agent handles gigs, but a manager handles talent – our industry has always struggled with this distinction, causing grey areas and confusion - we are working to correct that by offering two distinct services - we also realise that we can’t manage too many acts at the same time, as management is far more intricate than agency work, so our agency remains open to anyone, but our management is a very limited offer.”

“Now that we have a solid agency business, with great clients and the ability to book any act in the country, I have taken John’s vision to create the best management service in the country on as a priority. We looked into the business, and we presented proposals only to the acts that we felt we could work with - we’ve been thrilled with the response, and we’re happy to announce that our client list is full for the foreseeable future.

”As of Jan 1st 2012, Whacked is proud to announce that Tumi Morake, Ndumiso Lindi, Mark Banks, Mpho Pops and John Vlismas are Whacked Exclusive clients. Taffia will head up this division. Watch this space for the official campaign launch in early February 2012.