Harith Iskander v. Laugh Factory, Inc., District Court, C.D. California, Feb. 12, 2019, 19-cv-01076

Harith Iskander v. Laugh Factory, Inc., District Court, C.D. California, Feb. 12, 2019, 19-cv-01076

Malaysian Comedian, Harith Iskander, sued the Laugh Factory comedy club for failing to pay him $100,000 in prize money after he won the "Funniest Person in the World Contest" in 2016. Iskander says that the club owner, Jamie Masada, only paid him $10,000 and made the rest of the prize money contingent on Iskander's completion of numerous press appearances. Masada countersued stating that Iskander used his access to the club in order to extract trade secrets and open his own club in Malaysia named "Joke Factory Comedy Club." Judge Fitzgerald decided to take the matter under submission. According to Masada's motion for summary judgment, Iskander used the comedy contest to get close to Masada and exploit that relationship to obtain Laugh Factory's trade secrets. Only after Iskander acquired those and opened his own club in August, 2018, did he claim he was owed the balance of the $100,000 prize money.

by Arya Mansour, Associate Attorney & Wil Rios, Law Clerk (Spring 2020)