211 TPE wrap up

Episode Summary

Episode 211 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is the post-TPE edition, recorded right after Mike Szczepankiewicz and Mike Palmer returned from the 2022 Tobacco Plus Expo in Las Vegas. The first half is pure travel comedy — red-eye flight accessories, an in-flight snack encounter, a record-setting salmon sushi run at Sakana Sushi, and the sprawling multi-room Omelette House breakfast that fueled a 12-hour show day — before the guys get into the trade show itself.

On the TPE recap, the hosts replay their guest spot on Will Cooper's Perdomo Cigar Studios livestream field report and compare TPE's laid-back atmosphere to the PCA trade show, including the ongoing debate over media and influencers taking up booth time. They talk about the access TPE gives you to top-tier industry people — chatting with Steve Saka, spending time with Erik Espinosa (and his very strong feelings about raisin bagels), meeting Tony Gomez, Jeff Groover, Charlie Minato of Halfwheel, David Garofalo, and Eric from Black Star Line Cigars. Sports celebrity sightings at the show are a highlight, with Ed Reed hanging in the Plasencia booth, Ike Taylor, and Darren Waller — leading to a genuinely sweet story about getting Waller to FaceTime the host's football-obsessed son. As a brand owner, Mike also shares the thrill of a retailer spotting his Powstanie shirt and raving about the cigar without knowing he was talking to the maker, plus a running argument about whether trade show deals should exist at all.

The news segment covers the Powstanie SPC 20 (Surrounded by Champions) — a 5.5x46 corona gorda barber pole with Ecuadorian Habano and Brazilian Mata Fina wrappers over Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at Fabrica de Tabacos NicaSueño, $18 MSRP, limited to 250 boxes of 20 — and the CAO Arcana Firewalker, with its pilón-buried-in-volcanic-soil aging process, Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper, 6.5x56 toro gordo, $11.99, 5,000 boxes. They close with a very Florida story about iguanas falling from trees in a cold snap, and name Sarah Luther Listener of the Week.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Travel Kit and Vegas Food Tour
   Red-eye flight accessories, a marathon salmon sushi session at Sakana Sushi, and the maze-like Omelette House breakfast that carried them through the show day.
2. 02
   Guest Spot on Will Cooper's TPE Field Report
   The hosts replay their appearance on Will Cooper's Perdomo Cigar Studios livestream giving a media field report from the show floor.
3. 03
   TPE 2022 vs. PCA: Vibe and Media Access
   Why TPE felt more relaxed than PCA, day one versus day two traffic, and the recurring debate about media and influencers on the show floor.
4. 04
   Industry Access and Who They Ran Into
   Chatting with Steve Saka, Erik Espinosa, Tony Gomez, Jeff Groover, Charlie Minato, David Garofalo and Black Star Line's team.
5. 05
   Celebrities at the Show: Ed Reed and Darren Waller
   Hanging with Ed Reed in the Plasencia booth and a FaceTime with Darren Waller that made one host's son's day.
6. 06
   Show Deals and the Retailer Perspective
   A debate over whether trade shows should offer pricing deals at all, plus the payoff of meeting retailers who already love your cigars.
7. 07
   Cigar News: Powstanie SPC 20 and CAO Arcana Firewalker
   Full details on the barber-pole SPC 20 release and CAO's volcanic-soil-buried pilón fermentation for the Arcana Firewalker.
8. 08
   Florida Cold Snap and Listener of the Week
   Frozen iguanas falling from trees, canceled outdoor Masses, and Sarah Luther named Listener of the Week.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 211, Cigar Hustler Podcast. Yeah. The post TPE edition. Post TPE.

Post as in after. As we've lived it. Well, you know, terribly exciting. It's so exciting.

It was terribly exciting. It was a good time. It was. You too can become part of our podcast family and invest in our show.

Put your products in front of thousands, Michael. It's getting going now. Thousands, really going now. Thousands of listeners and viewers.

Every episode, we're heard on 13 different podcast providers all around the world. Remember, let's say you have your ad read in this spot right here, right here, right here. I don't want to do this anymore. com.

com. This is probably the thing I say the most in my life now. You probably wake up in the middle of the night, YouTube, YouTube can be part of it. Please remember, remember, please, please remember, remember, please to rate, comment, and subscribe to whichever one of our providers you use.

And if you hit the bell, you get notifications every time we put up a video. I mean, if you follow us on, like, Podbean or Spotify or... We're on all those. Or all those other ones, go to YouTube and do that one, too, for me.

Please, just come on. Just go to YouTube. I want to see the YouTube. He's got a thing about YouTube.

Oh, this is up so dumb. I got a thing about the YouTube. We're going to do the LBD. We're doing the LBD Cigar now, the Little Big Delicious.

Oh, the Little Big Delicious. A Little Big Degg. I thought it was like my altar enemy. From Room 101.

From BDP. We got to have Abe call in next week or something. Oh, to promote the thing? Yeah.

I'm sure we can set that up. Yeah, let's have him call. We'll give Abe a call. Yeah.

Yeah. Have him plug his event. We will be at the Great Smoke. We will be at the Great Smoke.

And apparently now we are not coming alone. We are not. We are bringing the bang. We're bringing the bang.

Yes, we're officially chauffeurs. We are the Uber driver. I don't know how I'm going to SBD this thing, whatever you call it. Do we not have anything that size?

I have no fucking idea. What that is. I don't know. Yeah.

Oh, can we call him during the Patreon and talk to him about it? Maybe. We'll see. Oh, let's see.

Try to do a little something extra for those, those fellas. Okay, let's talk about your, uh, your, your accessories for the airplane ride. Okay, is that where you want to go? All right, let's start there.

Unless you, well, do you want to tell your, your story first? No, no, no. About the man? No, several, several.

Several. Uh, I will tell you this, that, um, you know, I didn't pack my CPAP because I haven't been able to breathe through my nose. Right. So, uh, I wanted to make sure that I was comfortable when I was traveling.

Well, the eye massage thing sort of took me by surprise to tell you the truth. The fact that you said, "Oh, have you ever tried it? " It didn't let me try it. I had to use it.

It went back in your bag. It did. You used it more for the ride home than the ride there. No.

Yeah, yeah, the ride there, you didn't use it much because you quickly switched to the black one, the black comfort eye massage. All right, so here's, it runs for about 15 minutes. Oh. Okay, and then it turns off.

Oh, okay. Is it a charge thing? Yeah, it's got three, usually, it lasts about three goes before we need to recharge. All right.

So, the first time I had used it, I was still awake, so then I switched out of it, and used, and went to the standard... Standard black, sleepy mask. Yeah, yeah. Right.

The second time on the way home, I was dead to the world. Oh yeah, you had the, let's see, you had the mask on, the ring of the mask, because you had to wear a mask on a plane. You had the hoodie, because I'm guessing you were cold. No, it wasn't so much that I was cold, it's just, what am I gonna do with it?

Am I gonna put it in my bag? Like, where am I gonna carry, like, I like to kind of encase and just go away. Yes, I mean, you could even see you. Yes, that's what I'm aiming for.

That's exactly what I'm aiming for. I just want you to know the same thing happens at the gym. I encase the majority of the work. The massaging eye thing, the face mask, the head pillow that connects to the airplane chair.

Yes, so you can lean and not. And then the hood up, though, you could not see anything. The other guests were having a ball when I'm just in front of your face and poking at you. Yeah, I'm sure they were, but I could say that I put my mask down and I cheated against FAA regulations because no one could see.

You had your nose exposed, yes, yes. Lovely. Right. On the way back, it was pitch black on that flight on the way, because it was the red eye, it was all night long.

So whoever was doing the drinks, it was an Asian lady by the accent, you know, she said, would you, would you like the drink? So I got the drink, I got, I think I got a soda. But then she said, would the snack, you like the snack too? So I got the snacks.

Then she gives me this, this long, dark chocolate wafer cookie thing. And it was some like cartoon packaging. We couldn't see because it was black, but she was, and she goes, you're the only one to get one. We only have one on plane.

Wow. I was like, oh, well, limited edition. It was delicious too. It was the best thing I had to eat all weekend.

It wears, really? Yeah, it was good. It was about the size of a candy bar. How could that have been the best thing that you had the entire time?

The cookies were not even attached, but they were five little dark chocolate wafer cookie things. And it was amazing. He's like, I know who I'm going to give these to. Oh, I know who I give these to.

I give to him. I'm going to give these to Mr. Palmer. To the white hair man.

We like white hair in China. So that was the best tasting food, not the best eating experience. Okay. All right.

So yeah. So what do you want to, so, okay. So I'm, I'm multiple accessories when I travel. Well, your bag has to be all full of flying accessories.

It pretty much was. The noise-canceling headphones, the regular headphones, the ear pods, the eye mask, the vibrating ear mask, the sunglasses. I mean, I don't know what else. You had two masks, but you lost a mask.

I did lose a mask somewhere. Yes. Oh, I washed mine. It's all clean now.

Oh, the yellow's gone? The yellow's gone. Except where my nose would be. Yeah.

So I'm guessing that's never coming off. But then Adrian goes, "That's what you breathe in at that shop all day long. " There's no way. Like, "I don't know.

D. King Palmer, you're not a fucking doctor. Hey, don't swear at my wife! You're not a doctor.

Thank you. Yes. God damn it. So, when you travel, Mikey, food is the main thing that you always-- I like that you have all of this built up.

I have notes, I have notes. This is fantastic. Yes, you have notes, you have notes. So a standard visit for us when we go to Vegas is the sushi place.

Sakana Sushi. Sakana Sushi, where you go, oh, look at who come in. It's all Asians, apparently. All their interaction with serving people were Asians.

And Jack Tarani was trying to shit on my sushi pack. Oh, he's back again. We need more salmon. Jack Tarani was like, oh, you can eat sushi is bullshit.

I'm like, dude, don't even fucking, I don't go to your job, knock the dicks out of your mouth, pal. Stay the fuck out of my lane. He doesn't know, but he's going to give his opinion about it. Right.

It's a lovely little place. It's fucking amazing. And it's packed. I mean, it's always packed.

Yes. And I crushed an entire school of salmon. And I don't know what it is. The water there is amazing.

I don't know what it is. It just meant I was so thirsty. It's just because we're dying. It is dying of thirst when you get there.

But Mikey has the second record for as many sushis as you can, or whatever they're considering, as many salmons you can consider in one city. Consume. The record is 95. I'm sure that somebody eats more than me.

Your previous record was 30, but at 30, I goaded you into more, because like, that's just what you ate less. No, I was at 40, and then you gave me a hard time. Right. Yeah, so you're stopping now?

I still have some on my plate. Yeah. I didn't have 40. I was ordering two at a time.

You're ordering 12 or 10 or whatever. I was getting 10 a pull. Right. Yeah.

So we had 50. Yeah, plus the roll. Plus a roll. So 55 pieces of sushi.

Only thing, don't get the egg rolls there. They're not really egg rolls. They're spring rolls, but they call them egg rolls. It's a lot.

They're only this big. They're this big. That's about how big it was. But they're hot as hell, I don't know what the fuck they cooked them things in.

I like that we haven't even gotten into the TPE, we're just talking about the food. Talking about the food, well the food's the main portion of everything. Okay. And then for breakfast, what did we find for breakfast?

Oh, yes. We found the breakfast place to end all breakfast places. But we misordered because we had never been there before. Yeah, we over-ordered.

Over-ordered a lot of food. Over-ordered a little bit. But we went to the omelette house. The omelette house.

Now this is in some little dive strip center we found on the bad side of town. Somebody said it was in the bad side of town. That was Lou Liga. But the fact of the matter is, like, I don't know.

I mean, like, it's Vegas. There's a lot of bad parts of town. That's true. You know what I mean?

You know what I mean? So as you walk into this. Like, the bad part of town in Vegas just doesn't strike me as a bad part of town. You know what I mean?

What we would consider a bad part of town. Yeah, I'm like, this isn't even remotely. This means there's no casino. Like, you know.

Okay, so if you go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. Yes. There's this barbecue place called Conan's Barbecue, and I'm going to tell you right now, the fucking barbecue... I asked Boots if you took him there when you guys went to the game, yeah, he said no.

No, we didn't have that kind of time. You didn't get the fried chicken and the Kool-Aid. No, we just did Waffle House. Yeah, you did Waffle House.

It was more of a breakfast thing. Ah, so Conan's Barbecue is amazing, okay, and I'm going to tell you right now, it's not, it's far worse than where we were at for Omelette House, okay? Okay. Far worse.

And I still felt comfortable there. Oh, at Conan? Oh, yeah, 100%. Well, you're a large man.

You feel comfortable in most places. That doesn't mean shit to fucking three people with guns. They don't care how big you are. It doesn't matter.

But you feel comfortable. I mean, I felt fine there. Well, maybe they have like a no-gun rule at the Conan barbecue. Sir, no guns here.

No guns. Gentlemen, there'll be no guns if you want the fried chicken and the Kool-Aid. The iced tea at Conan's barbecue gives you diabetes. Oh, I'm sure it is.

As soon as you drink it, it's amazing. It's like the birthday cake bang. Yeah, it's 100%. It's amazing.

You're just spitting. I got a little piece. Spitting on my lawn. Driving me nuts.

I got rid of it. I took care of that for you. So anyway, the Omelette House, when you walk in, you have to walk into the strip center, and you walk in, and there's signs up. 45 minutes.

20 minutes. Yeah, it's like a ride. Yeah, it's like the thing at Disney World. It's like a theme park.

10 minutes. Five minutes. And then you still go down, around the corner, down the hall, turn left, down another hall. Yeah.

And then you get into room one. You got to speak to a man named Hank. Yes, you get room one, and then when you go into room one, you walk through and they sat us in room two. Now there's also room three, room four, room five, and maybe a room six.

I'm not exactly sure. Yeah. Every time you turned another corner on the way out, there was another room. But when we got to this room, there was no one.

Nobody. We were the first ones there. There was nobody, because it's the middle of the week. Yeah, it was Thursday morning.

Yeah. Yeah, Thursday morning. So she takes us all the way down, all past all of these empty tables. 75 empty tables.

And she goes, here you go, guys, you can sit here. So I said, wait a second, what fucking, what made you decide to put - How is this the table? How did we get to this table? Like, just out of curiosity, we passed, she's like, do you want to sit somewhere else?

I'm like, no, no, no, I'm fine. No, no, it's fine, we're fine here. I'm just curious about the process. How exactly did you determine - For the server, baby.

And that's what she pretty much said. That's what she said. I'm like, okay. Very lovely black woman who said it's to the table.

And then we ordered and you saw the photo. The omelets were huge. They were gigantic. Now, mine said only comes in large, which I assumed maybe three eggs.

There's definitely more than three eggs. I think it was seven eggs. It's probably, yeah. I got corned beef hash, but it was not corned beef hash.

It was just corned beef. Yeah. There was not much hashing of this corned beef. Large bites.

Yeah. And then we got the potato chips. I eat potato chips with all my breakfasts now. They're out of potatoes, so the homemade potato chips is all they had.

And then it came with toast. " Yeah, what the hell? Yeah, what the hell? I need bacon.

Oh, didn't need a bacon. Nope. I got a side of pancakes. " And he holds up his hands like this.

Like a silver dollar. Yeah, normal-sized pancakes, sir. That was not a normal-sized pancake. Okay, I'll take two.

I'll take two then. Just need a little carb at the end of my meat. Yeah, I need to bulk up, you know, because, well, they were huge. But like, I have learned, by design, that for one, I worked out that morning.

Yes. And so it's good to, I'm a big believer in nutrient timing, I want to have the biggest meal possible post-workout, as well as when it comes to these type of events, you want to have a big breakfast. That way you don't have to worry about lunch or any of that other shit. Like you could ride through this, you could ride through a 12 hour process and not be hungry.

You're just good. You know, you handle everything you got to handle. Right. And that's what, that's what my, your plan.

Yeah, my outlook was. And that worked out very well. You got hungry. I needed a snack or something.

It wasn't, it was just a The smallest thing was a bag of potato chips, I didn't want a bag of potato chips, so I'm not going to do it, so I got a hot dog, and I thought it'd be nice and give you a hot dog as well. Which is very thoughtful. Now you did not want your hot dog. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I had a hard time giving that hot dog away. Luckily, Tony Gomez from Espinosa was feeling that needed a little something too. Need a little hot dog. So he ate the hot dog, so it did not go to waste, it was just a lovely regular hot dog.

But since we're now, I guess since we're addressing all the food, are you going to roll to the tapas next? Well, that would be dinner, yes. The seven bites we got for dinner. The seven bites.

You know. I knew what tapas was, but I had never been to a tapas restaurant. Yeah. And the food was good.

The food was good. It was delicious. It was delicious. The company was very nice, too.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what her name was next to me. I have no idea. Me neither.

But I couldn't hear her. She kept trying to talk, and I go, I'm sorry, what? Oh. And then back, and then, but I could hear Groover across the table.

No problem at all. Well, because Jeff Groover announces himself. Yes, it's true. Well, for me, you know, I think that I just like us going out to dinner.

Oh, just us? Yeah. Well, it's a little more low-key, we can sort of hit back and forth on the day, what happened, what was good, what was bad, you know? Right.

Like, eh, it was good, it was fun with Terrence and shit. Terrence, the people from Executive, Cindy from Island Girl, Jeff Groover, who's lovely... Jenny. Jenny, no, girlfriend, girlfriend, right?

Not fiancé, girlfriend? I don't know, probably girlfriend. I think girlfriend, yes. The young lady who was with Terrence, we don't know exactly who she was, her name was like Maria or something.

She works for them or something? We have no idea. We have no idea. I don't know.

She's very sweet, very lovely young lady. You get the details. But I don't know, like, you know, I had a good time crushing the souls of an entire school of salmon with you. Yes.

That was enjoyable. Well, you know, we can talk or we can not talk. We can talk or we can not talk. It's not a forced thing.

We could sit there in silence or we could make fun of you with all the fish. You know, the other, which I enjoy. And the other difference too, though, is the control factor of like, dinner is at eight. Right.

And I'm like, are you hungry? Let's go eat. You know what I mean? Like, I don't, you know, let's circle back.

You know, I prefer a little bit. Yeah, not hungry yet? Okay, I'll check back in 15 minutes. Right, I want to go my own way.

Right. Yeah. I think next time we decline all fucking. We decline all the, yeah.

Done. No more advertising for free meals. What are you guys doing for dinner? We have plans.

With who? The guy over there. None of your business. None of your business.

If you want to join us, I'll call you 10 minutes before we arrive. Right. You could show up. Mm-hmm.

Okay, the light's still red. I really hate the Wi-Fi up here. I cannot wait till I get downstairs. I hear rumbling at the door.

I have to quickly start the camera because I know it's going to disconnect, but as long as that little red light. As long as it's rolling. As long as it stays on. Okay, so now that we've discussed the food of the TPE, you want to get into the deets of the whole event?

Uh, we have something else we need to do first. Is that why there's something going on in the door? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's nothing out there, nothing out there, no, no, no. Okay.

Nothing out there. Son of a bitch. We have a, uh, a special, uh, special guest. Okay.

Are you ready? Yeah. All right. Turn this back up.

Good evening, everybody. How's everybody doing today? This is Will Cooper. I'm coming at you from the Perdomo Cigar Studios here in Indian Trail, North Carolina.

And I'm really excited tonight. I am not at the Tobacco Plus Expo this year. But, you know, I've been very fortunate to have some really good friends in the media. And I've asked a few of them to come on and give us a field report from what's going on.

And, you know, it's very hard to get folks from the media, folks, you know, because the media folks are truly very busy here. And as we're going to get into this TPE trade show for 2022, it certainly is a, it's certainly been busy and I think it's a very positive kickoff for the industry in 2022. So without further ado, I'm going to welcome in with Mike and Mike from A Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Hey Coop, thank you very much.

We appreciate you including us with all these other people you did the live shows with. It was very nice of you. Mike, say hello to Mr. Coop.

Hello, Mr. Koop. So, yeah, we're at the TPE, we're back now, so this is actually a little late, but that's okay. You're a very busy man, we understand.

So, what did you want to know, Koop? Las Vegas, it has become the cigar capital of the world twice a year, not to take anything away from Tampa, but there's two times our industry gets together in Las Vegas. This year, Tobacco Plus Expo is back at its normal late January time, and it's been two years since I've been to that particular show, and, you know, I've been following everyone's coverage over the past week, and it's been interesting coverage because there's just so many different angles, but let's get right into this trade show, so I'm not gonna, I mean, obviously, the obvious is this trade show is looking like it's a big success. I mean, I think you don't need to be, I mean, unless you're under a rock, everything we're seeing, we're seeing, I thought it was a little slow at first, right?

But then I was, I was told that people were on the floor with media time on the first day. So it looked, that's why it looks slow, but then obviously it really picked up and it's been, it's been a big success. You guys, I know this is your first one that you've had. How is, let me just ask the question is, compare the vibe at TP 2022 day one versus PCA last year.

Well, thank you, Coop. This was my first TP, but Michael has been to several others, I believe. I did one two years ago. He did one two.

Oh, it might have been the last time Coop was there also. Like, representing. Right. We didn't go in under media.

We had a retailer pass. Yes, we did. There was some hang up with the media thing. We qualified last year when we didn't go for media, but this year there was something.

You needed a website or something. I think it was a website or something, yeah, so we didn't qualify. But day one, Michael, did you say day one was much busier than day two, as far as people in the booths, it looked like? Day one was definitely busier than day two, 100%.

But we did run into all the media people. We did. We ran into developing palettes, we spoke to them, how about those cigars? How about that cigar?

We ran into them everywhere, talked to them several times. I saw Eric Gutterzum-zum-zum, too. Oh, yeah, I did see him. Very briefly.

Yeah, he was walking around like crazy all the time. Ooh, and we did talk to David Garofalo. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. We did end up talking to David Garofalo.

We introduced ourselves. Hey, David, how are you? Hey, big fans, David. And he's like, hey, how are you guys doing?

How are things? And he's like, he's talking to us. And I'm thinking to myself, this guy had no fucking idea who he's talking to. He had no idea who we were.

But we had a lot of fun doing that. We just giggling away. He must try and figure out who the fuck are those guys. Oh, what the hell was that?

We're like, that's Cigar Hustler, their podcast, we're number one podcast. Number one. Uh-huh. The Smokin', Smokin' Tobacco, Tobacco Smokin'...

I didn't see them. I saw them twice. They were there. But we didn't talk to them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were there also. Yeah. That was obviously set up, but we weren't included in his live stuff. Right.

So I thought we would do one, so maybe next time he would see how well we could do. Oh, this is like an interview. Like an audition? Audition, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, so like an audition. So maybe next time, he would, you know, maybe tap us to do the same thing. I mean, we didn't do, we were asked a couple times to do interviews for different people. We don't do interviews at the trade shows.

It just doesn't work with how our format of our show goes. No, yeah, yeah. There are so many other people doing that, you know? Okay, now at the, we're done with Mr.

Coop now. Thank you, Mr. Coop. We enjoyed being on your show.

Thank you very much. Thank you. If I remember correctly, at the PCA last year, the big thing was all these people coming in, Or was it just the influencers coming in and interrupting? Influencers.

Just influencers. There was a big, big to-do about influencers. Okay, then I, then my comment, I was gonna say, eh, there's no bearing whatsoever. But I, I think that there's always an argument for media and they say that media takes up too much space and time.

Right. Yeah, yeah, so you can go with that. But they still were doing it at this show too. I think it's more PCA than it is TPE.

Yeah, TPE seems a little more laid back. Yeah. A little more relaxed. Yeah, they'll just take the attention where they can get it.

Right. You know, mixed fence. Right. Yeah.

Um, uh, they did have scheduled. I didn't see anybody who just walked up. I saw some other shows, which I was not familiar with the people, guys with cameras and names on their shirts. And I didn't know who any of them were.

So, I mean, it's not like they're the number two cigar show to watch in 2022. Who's number one? Cigar Hustler, a podcast, a podcast. Yeah.

Apparently he didn't know who we were. So he must just listen to the show. He doesn't watch the YouTube. I'm guessing.

Yeah. He didn't identify our voices right away. Right. So, well, it's quite obvious.

We didn't talk. Who's number one? Cigar Hustler, the podcast. Right, that one.

We should've taken it. We should've got the photo. Should've got the photo. We should've got the photo.

He had that. He had a handler. He seemed a bit rushy. He had a handler with him.

Yeah. How were you? Yeah, I think we could've got the. I think we could.

Good to see you. Good to see us. You don't even know who the fuck we are. Okay.

Now what was the number one thing from the TPE that you learned or experienced or? The number one thing. You know, the question for me, when you ask that question, it's like, what do I state on here, and what do I state on the Patreon? It's really kind of, so I'm trying to determine in my mind what I should say here, and then what I should reveal as well on the Patreon.

So, you know, the number one thing for me that I would say is that, man, I don't want to reveal too much. Well, maybe you save yours then. Because I mean, mine has a story that I won't divulge the story here, but I thought it was, it was funny, it always sticks out. Here's what's really cool about the TPE.

The number one thing for me is that you have more time to speak with everybody. Right? Yeah. As far as upper tier individuals of specific brands and stuff like that.

Like, Saka's, he's there. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, he was busy, but anytime we walked by, it was a little chit-chat thing.

Eric, he's cool to chill. Like, you know what I mean? Eric Espinosa. Oh, we spend a lot of time, as we usually do with him, we spend a lot of time.

Yeah, they're good guys. You know what I mean? We just feel comfortable with them, you know? You know, that type of thing is cool.

Like, Ed Reed, Hall of Famer, Baltimore Ravens, just kind of hanging out of the Plasencia booth. Yeah, he's just hanging out. Like, and fucking down to earth, what a good guy, you know, that was awesome, you know, Ike Taylor, is another guy making a cigar? Not so much.

Because he didn't give you a cigar. Because he told the girl to put it back. I like that. You know, I appreciate that swag, you know.

That's okay, I got one from George. His name was Howard. Howard. I got one from Howard.

Howard George. Very similar names. Howard and George. Practically the same.

Practically the same name. You know. He was very nice. I liked him.

Even though his taste of shops is a little. And then we ran into Darren Waller, too. Yes. I think, I feel you were seeking out Darren Waller once you found out he was there.

Once I heard he was on the, yeah, he was in the building. Yes. Because, and I'll tell you why. Not to the point where we're walking around with Darren Waller, Darren Waller, Darren Waller.

No, but like if, you know. But you were keeping your eyes open. Yeah, how do you miss that guy? Right, yeah.

Well, I wouldn't have, I mean, I don't know who he is, I would have thought more he was a basketball guy than a football guy. He's a tight end. Yeah, because he's not very big though. He's very tall.

Very tall. Yeah. More of a wide receiver. No, he's going to throw it up.

Oh, he just grabs it on top of him. Yeah, everybody else fucked. Yeah. So, yeah, I was definitely- And he was like 12.

I know. So young. Oh my God, man, I feel so old talking to this guy. Yeah.

So, I was- Sir, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Oh, I'm sorry, he's looking down. Yes, sir.

So, what was cool about, the reason why he was on my radar is because, you know, my son's all about football. Right. You know, and I have to explain to my son who Ed Reed is and then he'll get excited. Right.

You know what, I didn't have to explain that to him, I thought I would have to explain who Ed Reed was, but he knew exactly who the fuck he was. Really? Oh, that's very good. Yeah, so that was pretty impressive.

Ed's an older gentleman. Right, well, I mean, Jack's is eight, right? Right, that's what I mean. Ed might not have been playing.

Ed Reed is slightly before his time. Right. Yeah. But he knows, he damn well knows who Darren Waller is, right?

Well, they're almost the same age. So, what was cool is, you know, I finally saw the guy, and like, I don't, I'm not a big fan of, hey, let me get a picture. Right. But I knew that if I got a picture with this guy, my son would flip the fuck out.

He would be excited. So I'm like, hey, you know, hey, do you mind if I take a picture and send it to my boy, yada yada. He's like, sure, no problem. So I take the picture.

Right. Gave him a couple cigars, whatever, said, hey, thanks very much. Oh, I don't, because I didn't take the photo, so. Yeah.

If somebody's going to spend their time with me, even if it's for a few seconds or whatever, you know, if they're a celebrity, I'd just like to show some appreciation, like, hey man, here's some sticks, you know, he's a cigar guy, which is cool. Maybe he likes them, maybe he gets a picture or smoking them enough for a football game. I personally don't give a shit either way, I just think that, you know. Yeah, but it would be nice though.

Whatever. I mean, you're not asking him to, I understand that. It doesn't really affect me. But you wouldn't be excited if after a big win, you see him sitting back and lighting up a war bear?

Of course I would. That's what I mean. So, but, so I send the picture to my son. and we go and leave yes and as we're leaving my son facetimes me right so he's like i can't believe you got to meet darren waller i'm super jealous blah blah and we're in the car right and i see darren waller walking like he's across the fence over a fence walking to barbed wire topped fence yeah right just kind of walking in an area where nobody else is right so i'm like hold on one So I drive up, I park my car, and I'm like, Darren, sorry man, can you just say hi to my son?

Can you just say hi to my son real quick? He's like, sure, no problem. So, you know, Jax is... Did he, did Jax ask, why is Mr.

Waller in prison? No, no. The chain link didn't show up in the shot? No, because yeah, we were above it.

Well, first of all, he walks up to the fence, his head is above it. Yeah, without question. So, you know, obviously Jax didn't say much. Mr.

Waller, would you say hello? He's just kind of in shock and awe, like, hi. Hello, you there, Waller. So, you know, just, I kind of guided the conversation along for a few seconds and whatever.

And I said, all right, man, thank you very much. I appreciate it. And, you know, Jax went nuts. Bouncing off the wall, going crazy.

Calling all his friends and some family group chat mode thing. Yeah, exactly. Right. Everything.

So, you know, that's really the unique dynamic of TBE. Right. At this current juncture, you know, is like the availability of like. Celebrities.

Yeah. Yeah. Cigar celebrities. Whatever they're called.

What do you call them? Cigar Celebrities? Yeah. Cigar Celebrities.

I didn't know, but Skip had a name for them. Oh, I don't know, I don't know. So, and then like other, and then, you know, people that are in the industry that have, that have became, you know, obviously celebrities from other avenues of life, so. Right, that's what I mean.

I mean, fucking Ed Reed was cool as shit, dude. He was, he was very nice. I don't think he was as recognized as Darren Waller. There's no, I'm gonna tell you right now.

Yeah? Everybody knew who the fuck Ed Reed is, without question. I didn't. Well, you're totally non-football.

I didn't know who Darren Waller was either, to be honest. I could tell you right now that if you follow football at all, or if you have for at least the past 10 years, you fucking know who Ed Reed is. You might not know who Darren Waller is. Maybe because he was just hanging out.

I mean, when we saw Darren, Darren was walking around. He had some dude with him, which I don't think was actually with him. I think he was just kind of following him around. Like stalking him?

I don't know, stalking him, but made himself his handler. Right. I'll come with you. Don't worry.

Well, he just walks with him, and Darren was so polite, he's not going to go, why are you following me? I don't know, that's kind of creepy. Like, dude, you know, like, what the fuck are you doing? Right.

So. At least he wasn't holding his hand. Mr. Weller, ready to go walk around.

Yeah. So then I also, I, you know, so then my son fucking called me when we were sitting in the Plasencia booth. I was like, you want to say hi to Ed Reed? And he goes, yeah.

Yeah. So, but Ed Reed was, you know, really cool. Like he saw, you know, both the boys are eight and six. Right.

Like they both play football. Remember, keep your hands up, keep your feet going. Learn to catch the ball. He wants to be a quarterback.

Still needs to know how to catch the ball. Cornerback or safety, yeah. Not quarterback. He wants to be at Reed is what he wants to be.

He likes shutting people down, which is really kind of fascinating. You think that as a kid, like the kid always wants to be the QB. Right. Not my son.

My son wants to shut bitches down. Gotcha. He wants to score. Yeah.

So that would be the number one thing for me, TB. Go ahead, you tell me what yours is. I just found out that Erik Espeno is a hate raisin bagel. He does not like raisin bagels.

He's not a fan of raisins. Not a fan of raisins. I don't like raisins, man. That was the number one thing for you, huh?

I thought it was hilarious. Oh my God, that was hilarious. I mean, because that's just so real. I mean, we're just sitting there shooting a shit with Erik, and all of a sudden, he's hungry, he's looking for a bagel, and all he got is raisin bagels, and he's so pissed off.

Man, I don't like raisins. I fucking hate raisins. I don't like raisins. I don't like raisins.

Tell me why you buy raisins. reasons but like you never get there are a lot of people that sell the dramatics in this industry there's always some kind of fluff right right i have never ever felt that way towards eric Espinosa no no not at a single time not at all no not anytime i've seen or seen him talk to somebody else it's like 100 authentic this is who you are you know and take kind of take it or leave it right so that doesn't surprise me that he's like i fucking hate you know what i mean but it It was hilarious. He's going through the bag. He's pulling up.

Yeah. And then he ate one because that's all that was in there. Right. But we'll explain all that on the other show.

Yes, we'll go into details. A little more deets on that. Right. The Patreon.

The Patreon. The Patreon. I have this one little excerpt from the Half Wheel. Oh, I got to talk to Charlie.

It's the first time I've spoken to Charlie. Yeah. Oh, really? Charlie Manano, yeah.

I've seen him at other things, but it's always passing. First time I've ever had any interaction with Charlie. Nice. I thought he was going to say, stop using my stories.

Yeah. No. I almost asked him, can I get them early so I can... Copy and paste.

Copy and paste before you publish. That'd be nice. But this is from, who is the gentleman with him? What was his name again?

Patrick? Patrick. Patrick is the man. Yes, this is Patrick.

He is. I was intrigued to see the number of video cameras being toted around and interviews being done on the show floor. While we shoot videos with manufacturers, we also focus on TPE, largely from a news perspective, And one that heavily incorporates the written word and still photographs. It seemed that there were a lot of people there looking for content for the YouTube channel, social media feeds, perhaps more so than I've seen at other trade shows.

I find it interesting to see how consumers and others interact with those in the industry. And this year's TPE seemed to be a pretty good reminder that there are a decent number of people working to make the connection through their online channels, which I thought was good. Everybody was taking interviews. Everybody was being nice.

Nobody was stepping on anybody. That's true. Even we didn't interrupt anybody's interview. No, not at all.

No. You know, I did kind of poke in on my boy Eric from Black Star Line when he was doing an interview. I slid him an SPC. You slid him, yeah, under, but you didn't, you were not on the camera.

" Put it in his jacket pocket. No, I wasn't trying to interject. Slid it up into his hand. Yeah, yeah.

But you know, like, that was cool to kind of sit and BS with him a little bit, because, you know, I like what he's doing. I like his cigars. Yeah. You know, they're working hard.

They're trying to build a brand. And, you know, it's kind of fun to see that, you know, and to see it kind of done in the way that they're doing it, you know, because I think that it's very easy. I think a lot of people get caught up in the A, B, or C, pick the cigar, and it doesn't seem like that's what they're doing. They're really trying to make blends that they like, and then try and develop them from there, and really kind of approach.

Cliff told me that their biggest problem is people coming up and wanting a deal. Of course. Which was everybody's complaint, actually. Come up and go, here's the price.

Okay, that's everybody's price. What's my deal? Dude, you own one shop in Milwaukee. This is your price, too.

Well, what's kind of unique is I can argue either side of that, and I think that a lot of that should be saved for Patreon, but I will tell you this, you know, I don't really think that there's a place for deals. No, I mean, they walk in with the show deal. That should be where it ends. I don't even think there should be a show deal.

I think that, you know... Well, I don't know if the show deal is actually a price deal, or it is, since you're at the show, you can buy this. I consider that a show deal. That's one thing.

That's one thing. Right. That's a totally different answer. Which I think they should do.

I mean, you should get something for going to the trouble to be there. I don't think you should even fucking do that. You don't think it's all that either? I don't.

Then what's the incentive to go? To meet people. Yeah, but the guy with the average shop doesn't need to meet people. He does though.

He needs to know what's going on in this industry. You can read that on Half Wheel. Not really. Yeah, really.

What you read and what you experience are two totally different things. Well, certainly, yes. And the experience that we had there, I felt really good about. Well, we primarily go for the experience.

I think we're the unique individuals at the show. It's very unique. Yeah, very, very unique. I don't think it's the way most people go.

And I think that's the problem. Oh. And I think that's the problem. Oh, you said that already.

And I think that's the problem. Oh. I don't have a whole lot of news. What else do you want to talk about?

Not a lot of news because it's all TPE-heavy news. We have a very little bit of news in it. Well, a couple of things that you didn't address. Like, it was great for me to speak to retailers.

Well, we were going to have the talk before on what we were going to discuss here and what we were going to discuss on the other show. So, since we didn't have that, I just had those few things, which are just standard things. But anyway, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. you know like but like you know you're just kind of bullshitting with people and you're just kind of hanging out or whatever right and somebody looks at my shirt and i'm wearing a Powstanie shirt and he goes i love that cigar right i go you do and he's like yeah that's a that's an amazing cigar i'm like well that's my cigar and he's like get the fuck out of here really like yeah man that's my favorite shirt you know i was like you know send the guy so we email him a price list or whatever and we'll follow up later or whatever the case like that is what's really kind of that was awesome for me just to to see like i'm not gonna fucking hit every state i'm not gonna go out there and I don't believe in that.

It just doesn't make sense to me, you know? Well, you're a one or two-man operation. You can't physically do that. But even if there were more people, it's not me.

So, running into people like that, people that love your cigars, but just that you haven't made that connection yet, that was amazing for me. I wish I could do that more often, you know? So, that was really cool. That was really fucking cool.

What else was really cool? Just meeting everybody and hanging out. Bullshit. You know, there's some, there's some unique things that are going on.

There's some, there's some crazy processes that are happening at TPE and the statements that are being made from some of these people. And it's a little absurd and history is starting to repeat itself. And I won't go into too far detail on that. I will leave that for the Patreon.

Oh, good, because I'm not sure what you're talking about. Yeah. And that's kind of interesting. And, you know, it's kind of interesting.

So, if you're going to be a subscribe member, subscribe for this month, then turn it off. Then turn it off, right. You won't get hit. Actually, you'll only get it for once.

All right, you ready then? We're going to do the news? All right. We're going to wrap this up?

Yeah. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need, the Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Toon. Powstanie SBC 20 shipping next week! Oh, yeah, that is happening.

It might be 2022, but Powstanie Cigars is finally ready to ship the 2020 release of its limited, surrounded by Champions Series. Yes. Are we working on the 2024? Wait, 2020.

Oh, it'll be out in 2024. The 2022 and 24. Maybe we get lucky when we get it out in 23. 5x46 Corona Gorda, like his favorite size.

That will begin shipping next week. Like the previous SPC releases, the SPC 20 is a barber pole cigar, this time using Ecuadorian Habano as a primary wrapper with Brazilian Modafina as the accenting wrapper. Both the binder and the filler tobaccos are from Nicaragua. As well as other Powstanie cigars, it's made in Fabrica De Las Tobacco Nicosueno.

SPC 20 has an MSRP of $18. $118 price increase from last year, or two years ago? Yep. Two years, long time.

Long time. Limited to just 250 boxes of 20 cigars. It's important to... Oh, this is in your voice.

Oh, I never tried to do your voice. Let's see. Cigar, good. Good, good.

Perfect. It's important to recognize the great accomplishments that require a team to be successful, said the company in a press release. Too often we see success only as a face of a single man, surrounded by champions as a cigar It's a cigar that pays homage to the people that made Powstanie possible. The main ingredient of greatness is the rest of the team.

Chet Atwell and Mike Palmer were specifically mentioned as two people who make the brand possible. Oh, Michael, that's so sweet. Well, you made the press release, Mike. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

Mike Stepankiewicz, co-founder of Powstanie, told Half Wheel that the cigars were rolled in July of 2021. This is the third SBC release following the SBC 16, SBC 18. Stepankiewicz did not commit to whether there would be an SBC 22 release. It depends on how long Greg is sober and how much work we can get out of it.

He's, you know, he's turning it on these days. He is. I don't feel he got as much done today. Yeah, it's okay.

You know, he's wavering a little bit. CAO Arcana Firewalker, Arcana, yeah, Arcana, Arcana, Arcana, Arcana Firewalker, except for early February release, the CAO Arcana Firewalker, the second to brand's Arcana series, is coming to source in early February and bringing a historic way of aging tobacco to the modern humidor. Do they find another Indian tribe somewhere? I don't know.

Let's read on. The Nicaraguan filler undergoes an aging process called Censagari? Censagari. Chinchagari?

Chinchagari. Chinchagari. Chinchagari. I don't know.

What general cigar refers to as an archaic process of primary aging used by local tobacco farmers in western Nicaragua. Okay. That doesn't, that just means it's an old way. How can you age something differently?

You can't. Exactly. What, do they turn it the other way? Oh, you know.

Instead of laying this way, it lays this way. It's all about the bullshit. That's true. Let's see.

The Massapica region where the filler is grown, the tobacco is placed in a large pile called a pilone and then buried deep in volcanic soil. Oh. It's placed in a pilone and then buried in the volcanic soil? Then buried in volcanic soil for two months.

That's amazing. Oh, that's what they do. Very unique. So is that hot?

Is that hot soil? I don't know. I mean, it's gotta get warm. The company says that those conditions allow the tobacco to ferment naturally, locking in an inherent sweet and aromatic quality.

But how does the ammonia leave if it's buried? And are they kind of gritty when you smoke it? It's covered in dirt. It's very chewy.

Very gritty in this thing. Maybe that's what you're spitting out. Nope. Nope.

Okay. Once the stage is completed, the polon goes to the factory for a second round of fermentation that lasts nine months. Oh, that's why they have a baby. Oh.

How do we get the dirt out? It's a lot of shaky. The tobacco then gets paired with Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper in a Nicaraguan binder and is rolled in a 6 1/2 by 56 Toro Gordo, Guardo Votola is made of the American Caribbean cigars in Esteli, Nicaragua with production limited to 5,000 boxes. Is that a limit really?

5,000 boxes? That seems like a lot. 5,000 boxes? Yes.

That is a lot. Yeah, but it's limited to 5,000. It's limited. Only make the 5,000.

Let's say it's limited. Foundation? I feel there could have been more, but they lost some they buried because they weren't paying attention. Maybe.

Oh, what if they have a huge map? A huge map, a lot of X's? Who left? Oh, we forgot.

Three steps from the palm tree. Two steps from the palm tree, two steps at the big rock, dig, dig here. S. 99, with the cigars scheduled to begin shipping during the week of February 1st, August 9th week.

So it's 20 count boxes. 99 a box, $5,000 boxes. How many boxes are we taking? We don't buy CAO.

We do sometimes, $5,000 times 20. Oh, that's the only story I have, now we got a floor story. 99. 2 million of sales.

Wow, I think they would have made more. I mean, they really cut it short. 2 million. Wait, that's retail, though.

Yeah. Okay. It got so cold in Florida, iguanas fell from the sky, Michael. Of course, man.

I love it when this happens. This is a great story. You shouldn't be here to begin with, you iguanas. Everybody up north sends me this story every year when this happens.

Yeah. A cold snap in Florida. You know, when this releases, it'll officially be February 1st. I really can't wait for all the February 29th jokes.

The cold snapping floor is different than any other place, because we don't like it cold here. Right. We put on heavy coats when it's 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 degrees Celsius. No blizzard conditions here in the Sunshine State, but we have our issues as well when the thermometer drops.

Yes. The National Weber Service, the grill people. Oh. The grill people said Sunday it's going to warm up nicely after the weekend because of the grills.

They all turn them on. Right, they turn them on. That makes sense. The low temperatures near freezing are quite rare in Florida, but at first glance, the citrus, strawberry, and tomato winter crops suffered no major damage.

We had frost in my house. You had frost in your house? I had frost. I had to scrape my wife's windshield with a spatula.

I used a credit card on Mika's. And she said, she goes, "I don't understand this. " No, no, no, no. Farmer spray water.

Oh, maybe it would have worked. I don't know. Farmer spray water into crops to help protect them from the cold. Not on the windshield.

No, not on the windshield, on the fruit. As for the iguanas, well, that's another matter. They're an invasive species, we don't like them. Yes.

We don't really have them up here. No, they don't come as far north. Too cold. Too cold, too cold up here.

They stop at like West Palmy, I think. They come to the trees, I love the trees in South Florida, they love the trees. When it gets cold below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, about 4 degrees Celsius, for you metric people. They go into a sort of suspended animation mode, and they fall out of the trees.

Yes. Boop. But they usually wake up when the sun warms them up, so they're fine. They don't...

No big deal. No big deal. Okay. But let's see, it got cold in Florida this weekend, the National Weather Service.

Same thing, how many alligators? Nope. They don't fall out of the trees. But when they freeze...

No, alligators don't freeze. They're reptiles. Yes, but they regulate their body heat by sitting out in the sun. But what if it's 30 degrees?

They still sit in the sun. There's still sun. They just can't move. You're very slow, then.

That's the time you want to chase them when you run zigzaggy. Oh, okay. Which they do teach in elementary school. They used to when I was a kid.

If an alligator chases you, you run zigzag. Alligators can only run fast straight. You ever heard it before? I have.

I just don't know if it's true. It's not an urban legend. They also used to teach you to get under a fucking desk when there's a nuclear bomb. Well, I mean, at that point, who cares what you do?

Duck and cover. Hit 37 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest morning in the past 12 years. Up the east coast in Vero Beach recorded low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit. It was 29 here when I woke up.

Yeah, it's cold. Very cold. Still, it's not like a whiteout. The Gasparilla Pirate Parade in Tampa, which was not held last year because of coronavirus, went off without a hitch Saturday in sunny but chilly weather.

Thousands of people did piratey things, snagged beads from the parade route, and generally ate, drank, and were merry. Yet the unceasable cold weather in Florida prompted one church on the Gulf of Mexico side of the state to rethink how it would welcome parishioners and visitors. St. Michael's, the Archangel, on Siesta Key, canceled the two scheduled Masses on Sunday because it was too cold.

Yes. I think they could have gotten it. Pete turned up. He could have reached out.

He could have reached out. The church is going through a renovation that has been holding Mass outdoors as it did on Saturday afternoon at 49 degrees, because that's acceptable for praying. 49 is okay. 49 is okay.

Anything under 49, it's like the iguanas, the people fall out of the fall. Boom. With the brisk winds making it feel even colder. It's still even colder.

Masses have been held under a tent, but Saturday's wind dislodged one of the support posts and rendered the temporary structure unsafe. Could they just put it back in the ground? Call me next time, guys. I'll tell you where to put the pole.

Fix that. The mass could not be held. It's right next to the pilone under the ground. Yeah, don't hit the pilone, then there's big holes in them.

In anticipation of temperatures falling to the mid-20s shortly after sunrise in the Sarasota area. Huh. All right, now we have a listener week, Michael. We do.

I promise this young lady should be a Listener of the Week, because last week I couldn't remember her name. I'm very sorry. And then she's actually part of a Cigar Hustler podcast fan lineage. Oh.

Yes, which I will explain. Okay. But our Listener of the Week is... Sarah Luther.

Sarah. Congratulations, Sarah Luther. You are Listener of the Week. She is Ben Rowland's wife.

Ah. Yes. Yes. If your name would have been Sarah Rowland, I might have figured it out.

But I would have been able to connect. I would have been connected. We met them in Austin. We met them in Austin.

Were you there? No, I didn't. Weasel Fest. Yeah, you weren't there.

I wasn't. I didn't stay here. You did. Let my friend Chet go.

See? You fucked up. Why? He had a lovely time.

You would have had a great time. I'm sure I would have had a lovely time and I will be there this year if they hold a... I haven't heard anything of the Weasel Fest. I asked Baby Grande.

Yeah. And he said Skip is maybe talking about something considerably smaller. Okay. Because it was quite the undertaking to pull something like that off.

Okay. And the juice was not worth the squeeze. The juice was not worth the squeeze. Which, you know, that's my phrase.

You use that at the TPE. Did I say that? Yes. I did.

Yes, I was excited. It's your saying? Yes. I mean, it's from a movie.

I thought so. Yes, yes. But I used it the first time and you looked at me. Actually, I think I remember it on the show.

And you looked at me funny and I explained which movie it was from. And I'm honored now that you're- Risky Business? No. What's the show?

Oh, The Girl Next Door. Oh, I've never, I don't think I've seen that. Oh. Well, then you obviously did get it from me.

Okay. The guy, the older guys explained to the younger guy that you have to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze when he's talking about dating a porn star. Ah. I feel like it's been in other shows as well.

Nope. That's it. Okay. I Googled it once.

I don't, we don't fact check. We don't fact check anything. No, no. Uh, something else, uh, oh, uh, no, I said that, man, I said that, okay, that's all I got.

Tell you what, I got eight hours of sleep last night, whew, it was amazing. Um, okay, Saturday, we went in, uh, had to pick up dad, took him home, we started going through some of his stuff, and some of the things I found, I got very emotional. And yeah, so I was, uh, terrible mood the rest of the day, or, well, I mean, the next day, Sunday. Uh, so Adrian sort of left me alone, so I stayed in the garage, I smoked and watched TV.

I would watch TV. I'd come inside in a moment. Every time I stopped moving, I would fall asleep. Yeah.

The weirdest thing. In a garage watching TV, fall asleep. Dead. Yeah.

Come inside, sit down with her, whatever she's doing, fall asleep. When we went to bed last night, wide awake. Couldn't go to sleep. You know what's so funny?

It's the worst thing. Something very similar happened to me on Saturday. I was exhausted, but you know, like, and I took a little nap. Right.

And then, I took the boys to like one of the coaches with me, he did like a little Christmas tree burn in his land or whatever. I think it was very fast. Yeah, so we were hanging out there. All right, where are everybody at?

Well, they had a bunch. Oh, okay. So we were hanging out there for a few hours, and then we went home. Right.

And we started to watch Yellowstone. Right. And we were on episode four of season two. Okay.

We finished the season. Wow. So you're talking like from like nine o'clock on to like about four o'clock in the morning. I was wide fucking awake with no problem.

Blasted through it. Yeah. And then I died the next day. Yeah, I was dead, dead yesterday.

So, I mean, at one point she was on the couch. I came in late on the couch for a second. I woke up with a blanket over me two hours later. Yeah.

Nobody else in the room. I mean, the way that we did this, the strategic placement of Wednesday, Thursday, fly out red light, red, red light, red eye. Red eye. Yeah.

It's good as far as time efficiency. Right. But my God. Oh, it kills you for the next three days.

My God. Did we pay a price? Yeah. I'm glad I was home.

Right. Because I still got to coach the game. Right. Which is very weird because like offensively, it's like two plays, touchdown.

Right. And defensively, it's at least three plays. Right. For the stop.

And I'm the defensive coach. Right. So I'm like, God damn, I'm on this field a lot. I'm on this field a lot more than you guys.

Oh. So, but yeah, I'm glad I made it, you know. All right, that's it, episode 211, Cigar Hustler Podcast. Yes, let's review this LBD.

You have nothing to smoke. Because it's done. It's done. It's not a very big cigar.

But I have no problem giving you my two cents on this on the Patreon. All right, guys, we're going to go. Thank you very much for listening. That's our TPE coverage, Mr.

Coop, maybe next year. Who knows? Maybe you'll give us a tap. Yeah, the media coverage.

Media coverage. So, when we were sitting there with Terrence, all the live shows were back behind that fish tank that was empty. Oh, really? Because I've looked at a couple of them, obviously, one of them for that.

Now, Nicole and whatever her husband, fiancee's name is, I don't remember his name. They were in their room. Matthew Tobacco? I think it is Matt, yeah.

They were in their room because it's very echoey, so you can hear them, they're in their room. The other guys, all back behind the wall there. We should have just hopped. I know!

I saw the, how about that cigar guy's doing something. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, because it's live. Yeah, hey, we are.

We're going to pop down on either side of it and go, hey. Yeah, and then jump to another one. Hey, we're just covering it. We're just covering it in coverage, all sorts of coverage here.

We're guests, yeah. So, next year. Developing pallets, guys. We're both extra large for the shirts when you get them.

XL. XLs to XLs. Let's do this. We will wear them on the show.

As far as how about that cigar, guys? We'll wear your shirts on our show, too. Yeah, how about that cigar? Yeah, well, we'll just say that as many times as we can.

How about that cigar? You know what? We're developing our pallets, but how about that cigar? Yeah.

Exactly. All about the cross-promotion, gentlemen. Yes, sir. All right, guys.

We'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye. A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners, and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest.

Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike & Mike Productions or the podcast providers, and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings. We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczepankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, a Mike and Mike production. m. for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Husto-E-Raw.

Yeah, we just don't have to do a single, uh, single podcast ever again. Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing?

The Hojo, the... Hojo! It's the Hojo! You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way.

I gotta get past Hojo! I don't even have to try anything. He's not even gonna try. We're going to cover a lot of ground here, Mike.

All right. Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast. We'd be like four cigars when I walked in a door.

All right, end this.

Show Notes

The final episode for the TPE...Coop gives us the nod...some non industry shenanigans!  Our Honey moon suite in Vegas and we also hate Raisins!!