Cigar Hustlers Podcast Complications from Covid

Episode Summary

Episode 259 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with a phone check-in to co-host Mike Palmer, who is homebound with COVID and hasn't smoked a cigar in four days. He walks through the symptoms — appetite loss, blurred vision, a blood oxygen level dipping to 90 — while the hosts needle him about household COVID protocol and the depleted supply of free government test kits. Mike Cigar Hustler smokes the new RoMa Craft Intemperance BA XXI Contempt (5 3/4 x 46 Corona Gorda), now released in its own box after debuting in a Corona sampler, and teases a full review once Palmer is back.

The middle of the show covers recent events and industry news: the American Property Solutions Christmas party with Powstanie cigars, the Heritage Cigar Festival in Tampa (including Rick Rodriguez and the free-vs-VIP admission shift), and a 60th birthday private cut-and-light event. News items include West Tampa Tobacco Company shipping the first Attic Series release — a 6x54 Toro Gordo with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper and Condega/Estelí fillers, made at Nicaragua's factory partner, limited to 2,000 boxes of 14 at $12.99 per cigar — and Swisher naming Mike Keighley CEO in addition to president, with Jeffrey Brown promoted to EVP of sales. The hosts also break their own news: they are taking over distribution for Fosforo Cigars, the brand from Jeff Moutet of Match Cigar in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

The second half is a sit-down interview with Erik Bay, owner of Black Star Line Cigars, and Cliff, his VP of Sales, recorded around their shop event and the Heritage Cigar Festival. Erik recaps the brand's releases since his last appearance — the original Connecticut Warwick, the Criollo '98-wrapped Dark Warwick, and the San Andrés-wrapped Lalibela, including a limited Lalibela Lancero — plus a new project for NFG/Underground made at Tabacalera La Isla rather than Aganorsa, and the move to Illusione handling distribution out of Reno. He also lays out his goal of reaching a million cigars produced.

Cliff tells how he and Erik met on a Zoom call during COVID and became inseparable, shares road stories from Vegas and Dallas, and talks about 23 years in the Army before retiring into the cigar business. The conversation closes with talk of price resistance and inflation in the premium cigar market, plus upcoming Black Star Line events in the Harrisburg/Philly area on December 16th and 17th.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Palmer's COVID Check-In
   Co-host Mike Palmer phones in from home with COVID, detailing lost appetite, blurred vision, oxygen levels and four days without a cigar.
2. 02
   Smoking the Intemperance BA Contempt
   The hosts light up RoMa Craft's newly boxed Intemperance BA XXI Contempt Corona Gorda and promise a full review once Palmer is healthy.
3. 03
   Christmas Party and Heritage Cigar Festival Recap
   Rundown of the American Property Solutions Christmas party with Powstanie cigars and the Tampa Heritage Cigar Festival crowd and layout.
4. 04
   West Tampa Tobacco Company Attic Series
   News on Rick Rodriguez's first Attic Series release — blend, factory, limited 2,000-box production and $12.99 price point.
5. 05
   Swisher Leadership Changes
   Mike Keighley adds CEO to his president title at Swisher, and Jeffrey Brown is promoted to EVP of sales.
6. 06
   Fosforo Cigars Distribution Announcement
   The shop breaks the news that it will handle distribution for Jeff Moutet's Fosforo Cigars out of Match Cigar in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
7. 07
   Erik Bay on Black Star Line's Portfolio and Growth
   Warwick, Dark Warwick and Lalibela releases, a new NFG/Underground project at Tabacalera La Isla, Illusione handling distribution, and the million-cigar goal.
8. 08
   Cliff's Road Stories and Army Career
   The Black Star Line VP of Sales shares Vegas and Dallas travel stories, how he met Erik on a COVID-era Zoom call, and 23 years in the Army.

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

I got to say your thing, I got to do an intro. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode... 259. 259?

Yeah. 259. There will be no smart comments after this either. No, with, with, uh, we got Mike, we got Big Dead Palmer over here.

Oh, that is him. Well, let's get a close up. With Mike Cigar Hustler, Sheponkevich, and BDP, Big Dead Palmer. BDB.

Oh, we're gonna make him have to do his ad. He's gonna have to call in. Do you want me to put on the, yeah, yeah. I'm going to call him right now.

Let's call Mr. Palmer. So Mr. Palmer is out sick with the coronavirus.

Apparently that's still a thing. Let's check in. Let's see how he's doing. Let's give him a buzz.

I am smoking the Intemperance BA Contempt, by the way. I'm going to light that up. Yes Michael. Hello Michael, welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast sir.

How are you? I'm fine, thank you. You're fine with the Corona virus. Yes, with the Corona virus.

You have the COVID. I just want you to know that I'm about to smoke the brand new Aromacrafty Intemperance BA Contempt. Five and three quarters by 46, I bring you one sir, but you're not here. Actually you are here, you're relatively thin.

It looks like the Corona virus has taken a toll on you. Alright, who is sitting in the chair? You are. You are.

You're a little smaller than normal, but you are. Your skeletal structure is definitely less than what I thought it would be. So there's that. Before we kind of get going, can you read the intro for us as far as a rack above, please?

Well, if you would have given me any type of notice. I gave you no notice. No, no, I didn't want you to know this was happening. No, no, no.

I'm just over here running your kingdom, sir. We're just over here doing the best that we can, myself, and Phil, you know, holding things up while you take your time away. Looks like time got away from me. Yeah.

A little bit. A little bit, huh? Yeah. All right, I'm looking for you.

Hold on, hold on. Mike, this cigar's really good. Oh, it's terrible. Oh, should I have brought you one?

No, no, I'm smoking it. Oh, yeah, it's delicious, isn't it? It's amazing. He says, "Holidays are upon us!

Where are your decorations? In the attic? Why, attics are dirty. They get extremely hot and they're not good for your cherished holiday ornaments and trips to the attic can be dangerous.

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Did I mention you only assemble it in less than an hour with just only a wrench? That's right, you heard, just one wrench this year by yourself and the wife, the gift of a lifetime, a rack above portable overhead storage system. com, all one word. you know what i'm not gonna lie i think that you did that better with covid yes yes then then you ever have before i mean that was fantastic you know i've like i feel compelled to come purchase around here for the last five days yeah i really want to purchase a rack above now greg is playing checkers with me via text oh that's well that's very thoughtful of I mean, so, at least we know that he's working hard as well upstairs.

Yeah, he must be extremely busy. He must be extremely, super busy. So, I had to order a portable T1 drive, so they filled it up, cleaned it off the laptop, too, so I have another one else coming today. So you're just sitting home, kind of bored.

Obviously, you know, so it's, I mean, you had this for, you say, three days, but it's been longer than three days, no? I tested positive on Saturday. Oh, you tested, but you weren't feeling well like Thursday, right? I wasn't feeling well Thursday, and then Friday I was not feeling well, but I did not test positive.

So are you smoking anything at home or no? Oh, no, I have not smoked anything. So it's been four or five consecutive days without a cigar? What, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday?

Yeah, four days. So how is your body feeling right now? I mean, like, is it shaking? I mean, you know, you're looking thin, I'm not gonna lie.

That's exactly how he's feeling. I must have lost weight, because I have not been eating anything. I have breakfast at 5:30 in the morning, I have like a bowl of Cheerios, and that's usually it for the day. Wow.

I lost my eyesight on Sunday. I couldn't see, everything was blurry. Wow. So you've had quite the exciting fucking last few days with this coronavirus, man.

That is a return to normal now, my usual blurriness. The old blurriness. But Saturday and Sunday was a little touch and go. My blood oxygen level got as low as 90 one night.

Okay. That's still not terrible. Well, they say 88 is sort of a hospital. 88 is where things get scary.

Yeah. Yeah, I was at 90. So I sat up and made myself breathe. Oh, good.

You did focus on your breathing. I heard that's very successful. It's a great approach when you need oxygen. I got back up to 92, so at least I wasn't scared.

Wow. We bought one of those finger things when we got sick. Yeah, the finger thing is the O2 level checker? Yeah.

Now, AD King Palmer, she's fine now, correct? She also had the COVID? She had COVID. She tested negative on Sunday night, so she returned to work on Monday.

We're still doing the COVID protocol here at the house. I don't touch any of her food or anything that she's going to touch. Yeah. We sleep in separate rooms.

Why? She just had it. She's fine. You're not gonna give it back to her.

She's got antibodies in her system. Yeah, I know. I told her that, but still, I don't want to take a chance of her getting COVID. I like that.

So, she's pretty much outed you at this point. Yes. So, she had the COVID. He's off the island.

So, let's review real quick. So, she had the COVID. She infected the house with the COVID. Yes.

Gave you the COVID. " In a nutshell? Yeah. Okay.

I didn't send her out for pudding last night at 8 o'clock, so. Oh. That's very nice. I can't go.

I have COVID. I can't go anywhere. I can't go anywhere. I got COVID.

Well, while you have been laying around just kind of hanging out and doing nothing, I have had a great few days, Michael. I'm not going to lie. Yes, yes. Oh, I know.

I mean, well, I thought the party was wonderful. No, another party was party. Yes. Yes, Boots had the American Property Solutions Christmas party, and it was very epic, it was very epic.

Why weren't you in any photos, Michael? Because, you know, I'm not, you know, I kind of keep that low-key. I want to make everybody else look good, and if I show up and I'm in the photos, then everybody else looks bad, so, you know, I'm trying to keep, I'm doing my best to make sure that everybody, you know, looks really good, so. I will tell you.

Hey, quick question, who draw the short straw that has to get this to me so I can edit it and upload it? I didn't upload it. It's probably going to be boots, unfortunately. I'm still riding high on the busy schedule, unfortunately.

So, today I have a Christmas special with the kiddos at school. So, I got about two hours time to kill. I mean, the work upstairs is, it's a lot. There's a lot of work upstairs.

But I said, "Hey, you know what? " It makes total sense, right, Phil? Yeah, why not? Yeah, so that's what we did.

So here we are, we're calling with you, we're reviewing and seeing how you're doing, seeing how you're feeling, and then we're just going to let you know how great of a time we've had while you've been sick. Yes. So the Christmas party was fantastic. Chet was there, he did the saran ball thing, so there's a saran wrap ball with gifts and stuff inside of it, and you have to unravel it while the other person next to you rolls the dice, and if they roll doubles, then it moves on.

So that was fantastic, the kids had a fucking blast, I mean, they had like a hot chocolate stand, they had snow, they had a bounce house, all kinds of things, I mean, it was, it was pretty cool, man, it was really good, I had a good time. And then, and then, Boots had Powstanie catered there, he had some cigar boxes of Postanias out there for everybody, you know, Phil, you went, Phil, right? i went yeah yeah yeah you had a good time yeah my picture wasn't up either but i have this super secret album yeah with all the pictures of all the people that weren't in the other ones for facebook oh that's smart yes i like that like you know i have a beautiful i actually recorded a couple of really cute videos of boots dancing with his daughter oh it's and i gotta send them to boots when i get a chance because they're like that yeah they're pretty epic man it's like this It's like, that's the little shit that you live for, right? You know?

Appreciate it. So, uh, then after that, I went to the Heritage Cigar Festival, Michael. Oh, that's right, you did go. Yeah, I saw a picture of parents Riley, the giant giraffe.

Yes. Yeah. We're actually best friends, apparently. Yeah.

So I'm not going to lie. This thing was, was fucking bitch. There, and a lot, and a lot of bigwigs in the industry. Yeah, it's gotten bigger as the years have gone by.

It's gone up and down. I've been, uh, like I said, this is the only year I didn't go. Really? Yeah, I've gone in the past.

They've charged your tickets, and then they don't charge your tickets, and then even this time, I think they charged for VIP, and then they opened it up to general admission when nobody was buying the VIP. Yeah, so they did free admission as well as VIP admission or something like that, so... IP, you get to, like, an Arturo Fuente tent and sit in a chair. Yeah, and you have access to food and stuff and, like, bathrooms on both sides or whatever.

So when I had to use the bathroom, I just borrowed somebody's necklace and went in there. Oh, thank you. Yeah. That's right.

So, you know, I took a friend of mine from the gym, he's just kind of getting into the cigar industry, and we gave him a bit of a tour and got him some cigars, so he's got some research to do, he can smoke some cigars and kind of enjoy himself. Oh, nice. Yeah. Boots was gonna go, but there's a whole thing called like an anniversary.

Oh, yeah. So, he couldn't make it, and Phil, you obviously couldn't make it. Yeah, I couldn't. Yeah.

So, there was that. But that was pretty epic, man. It was only on work release, so on the weekends you've got to go back to the prison. Yeah, that's it.

Only on work release, so yeah, that's nice. Just make sure you keep that ankle bracelet charged, okay? We don't need a beeping during the show. No problem.

And then I went to the Monday Night Football game last night. Oh. Yeah, so I saw, or I heard. Did you see this game, Michael?

No, no, no, I've been in five o'clock most nights, I don't know. Oh, that's, that's too bad, man. Because I got to tell you... You know, with the illness and everything.

Right, the whole Corona thing. It was history. Yeah, the COVID thing and being blind and stuff, yeah. This game was the saddest game of my life for about 55 fucking minutes.

I saw Mr. Baldwin's post and it got exciting there at the end. It went, okay, yeah. So we were down by, or the Bucks were down by 13 points.

going into the last five minutes of the game. And, you know, I was pretty quiet the majority of the game, not going to lie, because there's nothing to be happy about. And the Bucs get the ball back at like the 20 or something. There's like five minutes left.

And I make the comment of, all right, we got them right where we want them. And, you know, the Saints fans are all heckling and shit. I'm like, ah, you know, fucking making all their hoot at fucking comments and shit. This motherfucker goes down the field and gets a touchdown.

I'm like, oh, uh-oh, now we're only down by six. And they punt the ball to him, and they just got to stop him to have him go three and out. They go three and out. They get the ball back.

Are you good? You all right? I'm still here. Okay.

They go to two. They get the ball back, and the dog is partaking as well. He's in the corner. He's over there?

Okay. So, they get the ball back, they go three and out, and they go down the field again, and then they score to take the lead, but then that goes back from a penalty, and he had to do it again from 15 yards, and he fucking did it again anyway, so they won the fucking game, I lost my voice within those five minutes, I mean, just fucking going, we went nuts, we erupted, you know, I'm yelling all types of obscenities to people around me that I probably shouldn't have done, but, you know. I'm excited. After 55 minutes of hearing their bullshit, it was funny to see Saints fans kind of leave with tail between their legs, because every time I go to this game, Michael, every year, we always fucking lose.

We always lose. And all the way back to the car, all I hear is, "Who dat? Who dat? " So that didn't happen.

It didn't happen today. Yeah, what's wrong with Rowdy? Was he okay? He's barking at the delivery truck.

Oh. Oh, it's a wellness package. He's doing his job. Wellness Package.

It's a Wellness Package? It's a Wellness Package? It's a Wellness Package. Is it a Blood Transfusion?

Is that what just came in, Michael? New eyes. He was blind. Oh, new eyes.

Did you get new eyes in the mail? Is that what happened, Michael? Seeing eye dog. A seeing eye dog?

Okay. And you get the white cane and everything. I already got the dog. Very nice.

I like that. So is there anything else you got going on, Michael? When do you think we'll see you again, my friend? As soon as I test negative.

I have two more tests left. I have one to take today, and then if this is positive, then I have one to take tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow, certainly. I'll be cleared by tomorrow.

Is there a certain time in which you take the test? Do you like it in the evenings or something? No, usually in the afternoon. Are these those government sticks?

He's got the government sticks. Is that what they are? Yeah. Do we feel that they're accurate?

Let me ask you that. Well, accurate enough to tell me I had it. Yeah. Is there a line already on it when you open the back end?

Is there anything that says in your pocket? No, no. Does it come with some form of check or something from work or something? I've already tried to order more because we have depleted our stock here with this last COVID run.

Oh, you really know. But the Congress does not authorize funding for these free tests anymore. Yeah, I don't blame them. I don't understand why you're a Floridian and you're testing, we've already come to this conclusion that Florida is not for the weak, we have biblical fucking storms, we have dinosaurs roaming in our fucking lakes, and we have never had COVID here, with you're the one person in the state of Florida that has ever had the coronavirus apparently, because you and your wife, because you've both tested, but we don't test it.

I don't care. I mean, I could kill Greg if I got him in. I could kill Greg. He was already dead.

Yeah, he was sick for a while, too. I bet you he had it. He just didn't test. That's what he told me Friday.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that I got to be honest, I feel like my mother, the bop, she might be patient zero because she came up with a bit of a head cold, played it down like it was nothing. We sent it from the cruise.

Yeah, that's probably true. Dirty Bahamas. The dirty Bahamas. Oh, but my wife bought me some nasal spray yesterday, Michael.

Uh-oh. You know, you can't take that. He's gonna get high. I'm not supposed to, but we've come to that.

Oh, you're at that level. I'm at that level here. So you're gonna turn into Pookie from New Jack City is what you're telling me. Right.

A nasal spray, yeah. So did you hit the nasal spray already? Oh, yeah. I hit it yesterday, as soon as you brought it home.

Oh, you didn't even give her a chance to unwrap it. Well, no. I made her say the words. She had to say, "Mike, it's okay.

" Oh. Oh, my God. Do you have any news that you want to talk about, Michael? Do I have any what?

Any news? News? Yeah. No, like I said, completely unprepared, Michael.

You have nothing? You would have told me, I could certainly have been ready. Do you want me to cover some of the news for you? Sure, go ahead.

We're going to do about 13 more minutes here, so I'll pick a couple things. Some people that have contacted us, obviously, you know. And then what we'll do is we will add the, we did an interview with Eric Bay of Black Star Line Cigars, so that'll come on the second half of this. Someone's going to have to bring me this one.

Yeah, yeah, we can do that, no problem. So, West Tampa Tobacco Company ships first Attic Series release, Michael. Oh, I didn't know. Yeah, after 24 years working with General Cigar Company, including 13 years as the blender and brand ambassador for the CAO brand, Rick Rodriguez, who was at Heritage Cigar Festival, by the way, has accumulated his share of stories and adventures in the cigar business.

Now he's telling some of those stories by way of the West Tampa Tobacco Company, I want to say cigar for some reason, Attic Series, which has just begun shipping to stores. The first cigar in the series, Michael, which is referred to as The Attic, is a 6x54 Toro Gordo that uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper with a binder grown in Nicaragua's Condega region. While the filler comes from Condega and Esteli, it is billed as a medium to full-bodied cigar, and is produced by the Garmin Dia Cigar Company factory in Nicaragua, which also makes the company white and black lines, companies by white and black lines. The company is producing 2,000 boxes of 14 cigars, and they will only be sold to retailers five boxes at a time.

99 a cigar. The packaging features an image of an old Chiveta. It's funny because I actually pronounced the words. You did.

I would never get Chiveta. Can you spell it? Can I spell it? C-V-E-T-A.

Oh, nice. Yeah, that's right. Oh, I just said Chiveta. Sounds like Chiveta.

Against a lone chair in an attic. Which is a Which is a nod to Rodriguez's grandfather, who made cigars both in Cuba and Tampa, Florida. The packaging for the Attic Series is said to feature a number of Easter eggs as well, while the footband contains a QR code for the consumer to scan and learn more about the cigar and its story. The West Tampa Tobacco Company has indicated that the second cigar in the Attic Series will be coming out in March of April 2023.

March of April? march or april okay sorry i got excited at the end i was looking for you i'm doing my best i'm not the news reader sir phil you know i'm just uh i'm just is what it is so any thoughts on that one michael uh no are you excited about the attic uh no you're not excited about the okay wow there's That's not a lot of good news here. Hmm. Neil.

Can contest win? What's that? Neil. Oh, yeah, very slow.

Ooh, there's only five stories. Very slow news week. Go ahead, what else? Yes, go ahead.

Take it away, Michael. Save me from the news. I don't want to get it a third time. Swisher announced that Neil Keighley now holds the position of CEO in addition to his previous role as president.

Mike Keeley was named president last September, replacing John J. Miller, who had served in the dual president and CEO role. Miller himself followed a similar path from the president of Swisher to the dual role after the retirement of Peter Giglioni in 2018. Miller was first named president and then became president and CEO in 2020.

In addition, Jeffrey Brown has been promoted to EVP of Swisher sales. Previously, Brown was the general manager of E-Alternative Solutions, which is described as a sister company to Swisher. That's very interesting. That's the only other interesting bit of news there is.

That's it? That's all you have? Neil Keighley? Lambert Cigars.

We don't care. We don't smoke Lambert Cigars. Alec Gaby, Double Robusto. The distribution?

What's that? Didn't Poshik add to the distribution? We have, but we haven't announced it yet. But if you want, we'll go ahead and we'll release a story right now for you, sir.

Thank you, sir. I think that now is the time, as they literally just arrived today, we are going to be handling the distribution of Phosphoro cigars. Phosphoro is, I believe it's Spanish for match, and it is my dear friend Jeff Moutet's cigar. So he was trying to handle those things all by himself, and then we had a good conversation, And I think that it's always best that we get together and play to both of our strengths.

So I'm going to be handling the distribution for Phosphoro. His store is called Match Cigar in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and we'll have him on the show and we'll talk about it a little bit more as this week kind of progresses, and I think we should probably have him on next week if he's available. So, I'm very excited to do it, you know, it's cool because he's down there, he's down in San Juan del Sur, He can drive up to Esteli and kind of work on these projects and stuff and really have a good time with it, and that's really important when you start to make your own cigar. So I really think that he made a fantastic cigar.

I know that a lot of our listeners have already smoked a cigar and think that it's really, really good. So it's just like a no-brainer. I'm very excited that this is going down. Very excited.

Yeah. So we've reviewed it on the Patreon. What's that? Do you have time for one more news story?

Yeah, yeah, we got about six minutes, so hit me. I'm still positive for COVID. You just did the test? I did the test at the beginning of the phone call.

Oh, really? Yeah, I was hoping it would be negative. Well, we miss you here, Michael. It's not the same.

There's no fun, there's no entertainment and any of that stuff. I'm going to hold off on the Patreon. Hopefully, you'll be back Thursday. Yeah.

If you're back Thursday, what we're going to do is we're going to review the Intemperance BA Contempt, which, again, is the new cigar from Roma Craft, the Corona Gorda. It was available, I think, originally in the Corona samplers, but now it is officially in its own box. So, good stuff. Very exciting.

A lot of good stuff is happening right now. I mean, the HPC La Rosa just got delivered. We've got to put that on the site. Yeah, that's a, that's a good cigar, that's something I'm excited about.

Nice. Damn. Yeah. How, uh, how was the, uh, you didn't talk about any of your events or anything that you went to?

Uh, which ones? Other than the Christmas party, you had the Black Star Line event. That, yes. And then you also had...

Well, we did the Howard G one last week. We covered Howard G in, go ahead. No, yeah, yeah, but, but we had on Friday, we had the Black Star Line, And then you also had the other two on the weekend, are the ones. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Man, it has been very busy. Thank God for Phil. I mean, he's just, he's on top of things, you know? But yeah, we had Eric, Eric Bay of Black Starline Cigars, obviously in the building.

Yes. We love Cliff, by the way. Cliff is always rolling with him. He's fucking hilarious, dude.

He's a good guy. I hope I didn't get Cliff. We had quite the embrace. No, he seemed okay.

I saw him, we saw him at Heritage Cigar Festival, so they seemed all right. On Sunday, three to five days of vacation period, though. Yeah, he seemed okay, dude. I mean, you've been around me the whole time, too.

So... Right. And we're cool. We're good.

So... Well, Friday, I didn't stay away from everybody when I was working Friday. You kept your distance? Yeah.

You should have wore a mask. Really fucked with everybody. Yeah, like Phil. I trimmed my beard.

I got bored yesterday. Oh, no. Oh, well, it's December now. So you can do that sort of thing.

But you need... So the Santa Claus is not happening. I was looking like a homeless man down on the wharf, now I just look like the guy that needs a bigger boat. Yeah, I don't get the no-shave November thing, it just makes no sense.

It makes no sense. Well, I'm gonna look at homeless for November. I'm like, okay. Oh, newsflash.

Boots won a glass at the Black Star Line event. Oh, did you? Boots did. Oh, I mean, oh, did he?

Boots did. Yes. Wow. That's what I said when he told me.

Look at that. Fucking boots, man. Boots wins everything. It's crazy.

Yeah, the event went really well, man. You know, here's the thing. When it comes to having an event at a shop with a retailer, you know, it's really important to make sure that you have somebody there that represents the brand very well and puts in the effort to every single person that kind of walks into the humidor. And between Cliff, Erik, and Brad, who is a guy that we just met, who's also fucking really cool, you know, they did a great job of really kind of focusing on that, and introducing the brand to a bunch of new consumers, so it worked out really well, you know, they were in town, I wanted to make sure that, you know, we had them in, we have some other plans, some other, some other good events in the pipeline, Skip, by the way, but, you know, it was giving me a hard time about something.

But it's going to happen. It's going to happen. We got more. And you know, I wanted to give that person the right respect that they deserve and the right focus that they deserve.

So, and then I did a private party event for an individual. Oh, yes. Yeah. Which was, uh, what was the private party?

No, it was the 60th birthday party. Nice. And you were the stripper? I was the stripper.

Yeah. Yeah, a bunch of grown men, you know, yeah, no, so I was, I was invited to do a cut in lights and really have, have a few cigar options for the whole party and a lot of people partook. It went very well and it was kind of cool to kind of listen to, to all the years of friendship that all of these guys have had. Like they were part of, a lot of them were together in like a frat or whatever.

Oh, nice. I think I, I think at UCF. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Local. I think they said ATO or something was the frat. Oh, yeah. A lot of them got up and spoke on the mic, wished they got a happy birthday, and talked about some stories and stuff.

It was cool to see that camaraderie in a long period of time for some of the trips, you know? So it was like a good speech, not a roast? I think it was a little bit of both. It was a little bit of both, you know?

Did you wear the sport coat? Of course I wore the sport coat. And the boots. And the boots.

And the boots. And the boots and the sport coat. Who has the big birthday coming up? You or BDP?

Not me. Not me. My wife just had one. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. We should do a roast one time. The only guy I know who's having a birthday coming up is Chris Baldwin. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. Oh, that. Oh, you know. Greg had his.

Yeah. It was in November. She had done a roast. So yeah, so that's, uh, that's what we got going on, Michael?

We could roast Greg at the Christmas thing. We could. We could roast Greg at the Christmas thing. Well, we're gonna wrap this up, Michael.

I will, uh, thank you so much for coming on the show. Again, get a, you know... I appreciate you coming on my show. Yeah, you know, we're just, you know, we are doing our best, like I said, here to, to keep things running.

You know, we're a bit of a skeleton crew. But, you know, we, um, we're doing what we can, sir. We're doing our very best. And I feel like we're making it happen.

What do you think, Fer? Yeah, I think so. We missed a week. Okay.

Oh, you have a listener of the week? Oh, go ahead. No, no, I said we never miss a week. Oh, we never miss a week.

Yeah, that's true. And here we end. Oh, I need to apologize to Mr. Coop.

Oh, yeah? When he announced the guest for his 204 show or something like that, I said the guests on the 200 show were bigger, and he got a little offended. He didn't like the jokes. Oh, you hurt his feelings.

I hurt his feelings. And it was his birthday the other day. If he wasn't for the gentleman I'm having on now, you guys wouldn't even have news stories. Right.

So I apologized and I said, "Oh wait, you misunderstood me, sir. " Certainly Santa Claus and the giant gorilla outweigh Mr. Hathaway. Oh, Charlie.

Yeah. " So then he was fine. Okay. Yeah.

And it was his birthday, by the way, this week. Yes. I wished him a happy birthday. Me too.

So I sent him a text. Yeah. The last text I sent to him was "Happy Birthday" two years ago. Yeah.

So he doesn't even respond to my texts. so i was like maybe he doesn't even have the number saved in his phone or something or maybe i'm just texting the wrong person but i'm like hey happy birthday and i'm like oh it looks like i missed 2021 but then again he's missed all three years of my birthday so oh yeah yeah i never did right all right well michael yeah thank you so much for your time sir i'm glad that you're on And I'm glad that you're feeling better. I know that it takes a little bit of time. What about, uh, we're doing a listener of the week?

Dude, I don't have, I don't have a listener of the week unless you have a listener of the week, sir. I think, uh, I think we should do Pedro. Pedro? Yep.

Has he not been a listener of the week in a while? Nope. Ever? No.

I love Pedro. Listen, hold on, where's the bell? Let me see, let me see if I can do this. Hold on.

Oh. The gong. The gong. Listener of the week, Pedro.

Yes. Do you have a shop of the week? Michael? Me?

No. I haven't left my house in five days. I haven't left my house. I'll give you a shop of the week.

Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to do this. My shop is Romatron.

He's tagging me on Instagram. The shop of the week is going to be... Tinderbox, Mishawaka. Nice.

I think they go under a new name now, but yes, he's actually the first company to purchase. Mishawaka. Oh. Yeah.

Foxborough. Foxborough? I thought you said Foxborough. No.

No, he's dead. Oh, man, apparently it's affecting your ears as well. This is worse than we thought. I can't hear it.

Alright, Michael. Well, I appreciate these gentlemen giving me something to do for the last 30 minutes over here. Yeah, you know, we do what we can. I would have happily brought you anything that you needed, sir.

What? Greg's gonna think I died, I haven't done the checker move in 30 minutes. He might be concerned, yeah. Hey, you gotta keep him busy, so make sure you do that.

I will. I'll answer. Alright, guys. Boots...

No problem. His name is Phil. Phil, Phil, give it the food, I meant. Yeah.

All right. Phil can't go away, because his bracelet will go off. Exactly. All right, this is episode 259 of CigarLessers Podcast.

See you guys later. All right. That's it. All right.

We are here. Man, it's kind of loud. I'm not gonna lie. Turn me down a little bit.

If you can, please. For the love of God. It's loud. Sound, man.

Turn me up. Hello. Hello. All right.

We got a special interview today. Why don't you guys go ahead and introduce yourselves, who you are and where you're from. What's happening, everybody? I'm Eric Bay, the owner of Black Star Line Cigars.

Not Ray. Chicago. - Not Ray. - No, yeah, not Ray.

Not Eric Ray. That's my alter ego. - Your alias? - Yeah.

- Okay. All right. And who the fuck are you? - Well, I'm his, I'mma say I'm his right hand man.

I'm Cliff. I'm the VP of Sales of Black Star Line Cigars. - That's mine. - Yes, that's your water.

- You were, wait, you have like an actual, a fucking name now? What do you do? What are you? - Oh, my title now?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh, I'm the VP of Sales, man. - Oh, your VP? - Yeah.

- Did he just, did he give that to himself, or? - No, he earned it. - He earned it? - He earned it.

- Okay. - Yeah. - So you, so you bust ass? - A little bit, a little bit?

- In more than one way. - In more than one way? - Just not me. - All right, first of all, Michael, our dear friend, Mr.

Palmer, he's not feeling well, so he's hiding, but he knows exactly, I think you know what I'm gonna say here. You don't know what I'm gonna say? These two motherfuckers are here, and neither one of them have their own fucking cutter and lighter. - Yeah.

- Well, Mark Cotterna is in the car, so I ain't feel like going to the car. - Dude, it doesn't matter. You are the vice president of an established company. Cliff, bro.

What are you doing? You gotta have this, like, these are the tools of the trade. That's like being a porn star and not bringing your dick. You know what I'm saying?

- That happens sometimes. - He keeps a strap on with him, bro. - Oh, you keep it? Okay.

All right, so you got that on backup. All right. Well, listen, man, it's been a little while since you've been on the show. Right.

Uh, what's been going on? Let's, let's start there. I mean, you know, was it, like, how long ago? Maybe two years, Mike?

I mean, we were upstairs. Yeah, a year and a half, maybe. Yeah, yeah, it's gotta, it's gotta be close, close to two years. So, you know, I mean, your company's obviously grown.

Yeah. You're having some, uh, you're, you're, you're kind of developing, you're in more, um, more retail shops, a little bit more well-known. Yep. What do you got going on?

Talk to us real quick. - Well, the last time I was on, I think we were smoking Warwish, the Connecticut Warwish, that's the OG, so since then I've released Dark Warwish, which is a follow-up to the original Warwish, so the difference is, it's a Crowhole 99 wrapper, it's the same blend. - You're so serious right now, dude, so it's okay, it's not your, you know, this isn't how 'bout that cigar, bro, you know what I mean, you know, so, you know, coupe a wash, but it's not, you know, you're good, you're good, just chill, it's gonna be, Eric, we're friends. I know, bro.

I know. We're friends, right? Yeah, so, you know, the Dark World Witch is the followable version to the original. Okay.

So, I had the light-skinned version, then I had the dark-skinned version. All right. So, then after that, I dropped Lolli Bella. Right.

San Andreas Rapper. I'm a fan of that one. Oh, yeah. That's one of my favorites.

That's a great blend. Yeah. So, yeah, that was the last release that I had was Lolli Bella. Okay.

So, and I did a limited edition of Lolli Bella as a Lanceto. Right. I think I have that upstairs. Like, I never opened up a bundle, and I found it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you smoke it? Yeah, I've smoked it. It's damn good.

But then, you know, as I was, you know, because I'm a fucking retard, and I'm trying to put myself together, I'm grabbing things, and I was moving stuff around, 'cause you were coming in, and I saw this little bundle all the way in the back, and I'm like, son of a bitch, that's a Lalivella. That's a Lalivella Lancero. So I was debating to put it on the table or not, but I did. Oh, that's your last one?

I think so. I think so. So, if you got more, we might need some more. We'll see.

Nah, I don't. That's it. Yeah, they're gone. Look, man.

It's gone a long time ago. I'm a big believer in if you got it, sell it and share it, you know. I think that as a retailer, a lot of retailers make that mistake. They will hold on to things and kind of cherish them.

I mean, if you go to, I'm not saying names or anything, but if you just stop by Caribbean and Miami and you start to open up Allen's cabinets, he's got some shit. That is just fucking buried. Yeah. It's buried.

See, look, I fucked with Cliff and he's been quiet now ever since. He hasn't had a damn word. Oh, no. You guys, you guys in the conversation right now.

I don't need to jump in. Okay. Well, I'm gonna pull you in. I'm gonna pull you in.

So, how'd you get into sales with, uh, Mr. Bay here? All right, so... It's Mr.

Ray. I met... Mr. Ray.

I wanted to make sure I didn't fuck that up. I met Eric a year before the, uh, just before COVID started. So I met Eric a year before I actually met him in person. Okay.

And so, when I came home, I went back to Chicago. We went to Chicago, hanging out with him, and the first day we met, we hung out for 12 hours. Okay. And ever since then, we've been brothers, you know, and then, uh...

How did you find him, like, what did you find him, like, fucking... No, we was on a little sketchy... com or some shit? No, we was on a sketchy Zoom call that night.

It was Christian Mingle. It was Christian Mingle. That's Christian Mingle. That's a good one.

We was on a sketchy... " Swiped it. Yo, from Chicago, I'm from Chicago. Fuck it, let's kick it.

Right. And that's how it went down. You like cigars, I like cigars. And that's how you, so how did, but how did it, how did he make that link up?

Was it from Facebook or some shit or what? No. Just a Zoom call? You were doing a Zoom thing?

Yeah, I was being interviewed on some Zoom. Oh, okay. You know, doing COVID, all the Zooms are going real tough. That was the thing.

So yeah, I was being interviewed and then he, you know, he, we talked a little bit on the Zoom, so he shot me his number and I put it in my phone and then I forgot it was even fucking in there. No shit. And he hit me up when he came to Chicago and I looked cause I didn't know his last name. right and then so i put cliff zoom so it would remind me right so when i saw the number come through i was like okay i remember yeah and then he was like man what you on so i was like i'm getting ready to go to a lounge drop off some product right he's like dude you mind if i roll and i was like okay come on let's go yeah i think the first time i had you on my phone it was under eric cool guy hat i'm being serious i'm being like you know i was kind of disappointed you didn't bring any today so yeah i know bro i know i get it's hard and carrying that thing on the plane You know what I mean?

It's kind of weird because people don't know him unless he has his hat on. Yeah. I'm like, who the fuck's this guy? Yeah.

That's crazy. I'm Eric Gray right now. Right? Eric Gray.

That's his alias. All right. So you meet up with this guy and you fucked up and you found yourself in the job. That's what happened.

Yeah. Because actually we was just hanging out as friends and we, I started going on, going on trips with him. You became the guy. Hey, why don't you come with me?

No, no, no. What happens is, okay, this is, this is like quintessential in the industry, right? So, you know, as a sales rep, You know, I mean, he's an owner, but he's also his own rep, right? Like, you go on the road, it's fucking boring as shit, right?

You want to bring somebody with you to kind of enjoy yourself and have a good time and all those, that sort of thing. He had a team. He had a team. You had a team.

He had a team. He unsigned them all. Oh, oh, look. I was just the cool guy that was there.

Oh, shit. But, how it came about with me with the title was, we was at Sean Williams' house. Okay. And Sean was like, "Wait a minute.

" I said, dude, I don't work for Eric, man, I'm Eric's boy, man, he was like, no, he ain't, dog, he my VP of sales, right, I was like, okay, he gave it to me, I'm gonna hold on to it, okay, so, but Sean doesn't work, he's not part of Black Starlight, doesn't qualify, that's his mentor, man, so he just, so, so he got to, you got the okay from that, yeah, and that worked out, mm-hmm, so what's the salary like for honorary VP of sales, man, for the things What's he do for us, or for the trips and all that, and what he pays me, I don't trip because I'm retired. Okay, all right. I'm retired, he retired. Well, I figured it was zero.

I was just, I was just wanting to break your walls and see what you would say. Yeah, that was, you did kick it. You kicked them hard. So you got it, so all right, so how many times, how many trips have you been on?

Shit. Okay, good. All right, good. So now...

We're two cities a month, at least. Sometimes three. Bro. And then we do two to three events each city.

Bro, you got kids at home, man. Yeah, I know, but she don't eat books, she don't eat cigars, so I have to go make this money. Okay. With me?

Yeah. Fuck them kids. Fuck them kids. Alright, so I wanna hear a story.

Oh, about kids? No, no, no. I wanna hear a story about your road. I would ask Erik, but he's gonna play it down.

I feel like you're gonna give it to me real. So you gotta tell me one of the best stories you've had on the road. Brad's back there laughing his ass off. I wanna hear a story about you on the road that was fucking...

And like, damn, super, like this is not, like I said, this is, we, we burn bridges on this show, you know what I mean? The matches that we have upstairs say, may the bridges I burn light the way, it's totally opposite of how about that cigar, you know? We have no information whatsoever, we just wing these things. Well, I'm gonna get this one out.

Okay. So we was drunk, we was at, what was the name of the new spot we go to in Vegas? Love the way the story's starting. Vegas?

Yeah, the little club inside of the Venetian? Oh, the Dorsey. Now, don't get him in trouble now. So, we're at Dorsey, we're kicking it, we're having fun, and one of our guys, he drinks with us, but he don't drink like us.

Okay. He drinks with us, so everything he does, he put ice in everything he drinks. " i thought my guy was going to kill him man really i thought he was going to kill him every dude that had ice in their cup just immediately looked at him like they was going to beat the bricks home now mind you just before that i offered him a drink that we was drinking he was like man that's too strong for me right and after that know what i told him put some ice in it who's the now okay all right so that's one of the better stories that's one of the better stories Brad, is that the best story? Nope.

Oh, there's tons of them. Like Sheldon in Dallas when he was driving? Oh, so. Okay, here we go.

We're driving. We're 45 minutes out from the Airbnb. Right. We get five minutes from the Airbnb.

We're doing 60 miles an hour. Sheldon slams on brakes. Now, mind you, we're approaching the intersection, and there's a gas station on the corner. So, you know, gas stations are always well lit.

Right. Right. So, I'm in the front, Sheldon's driving, they're in the back. So he slams on the brakes, so I'm looking for a fire truck, ambulance, something, nothing.

" I was like, "I bit up, we've been drinking, and we drove 45 minutes from the lounge, and we're right here, bro. " - They make one right turn, we're at the Airbnb. - Okay. And you find yourselves fuckin' four by four off-roading this shit?

- Yeah. - How the hell, so what happened? How did you get there? - No, he was just, I don't know what the fuck was wrong.

The road wasn't gone, it was, it wasn't a T, it wasn't a T. - Did you guys micro-dose or some shit? - No, baby, he did, no. - So the road was there?

- No, it was there, there, it was there. - But he thought the road was gone? - Yes. - That motherfucker fell asleep.

There's no fucking way. Yeah, 'cause when I say, if I was driving back one night, and he was supposed to be my assistant driver, he's supposed to be in the front seat with me, he wouldn't sleep on me, and now I'm in the car by myself. Yeah, and that's, yeah, drunk out my ass. Oh, that's no good.

Yeah. Palmer's done that shit to me. He did that shit to me in Philly. He'll never do it again.

Well, Philly ain't nowhere. You should never fall asleep driving in Philly. The roads are too tight. Yeah, so, well, so he's in the passenger seat, and, you know, he decides to take one.

It's like a little fucking siesta, so I start driving, and I slam on the brakes, I go, ah, he fucking jumps up and he's going like this, like, ah, I was like, I told you not to fall asleep, bro, told you, so, you know, but you know what, in retrospect, now that I look back, I've gotten him maybe three times in my life, and he has continued to fuck with me moving forward, I mean, he just recently screwed with me with the Cigar Dojo, I don't know if you saw that shit. Well, you know, real friends stab you in the front. yeah exactly i know and i'm bleeding like i'm gonna tell you right now dude it's uh it's pretty bad it's pretty bad so what do you got so okay so how what are you making now what's going on like we know this is an industry of what's fucking new right so like so you've been a year and a half in since the last time we spoke i feel like you definitely um gained a lot of knowledge in the You're in the industry, right? Some people are who you think they are.

Some people are definitely not, right? True, true. And, you know, so what are you doing? Tell me what you're doing, man.

Well, we are distributed by Illusioni. Right, that's new. Yeah, so that's new. They, so all my inventory now is in Reno at their warehouse.

So that helps me out tremendously because I was doing all the distribution myself and it was wearing me out. Well, I mean, you're hitting two cities a month, you said, right? Yep, at least. at least and then you got to ship stuff yeah yeah so that was that was breaking me and then the orders were getting bigger from agonorsa and i was to the point like if i put this big ass order in my basement where i've been keeping this stuff i'm not gonna be married too much longer so this is my wife marriage is important yeah yeah because my wife my wife was like i don't want the basement just full of fucking cigars yeah no shit you know so so i met brian mottola when he was still with And he introduced me to Howard, and that's how the relationship spawned there.

Now as far as cigars, I just put in production a cigar for NFG, for Underground. Okay, I love Don Wiggins. Yeah, Don's a good dude. He's a co-leader.

He is a co-leader. It's not through Aganorsa though, it's through Tabacaleo La Isla. Okay, something different. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, spreading your wings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. Working with some different leaves that Aganorsa doesn't have.

Okay. They didn't want to try to source it into Agonorsa because, you know, that just keeps driving the price of course, you know, and that's always, you know, it's, it's so funny because this game, everybody thinks it's, you know, you make a cigar for 12 bucks or retails for $12 and it's really easy to do. It's not, it's actually very, very difficult to make something that's good quality at a good competitive price point. You know, it's, it's hard.

It's fucking really hard. So, you know, these are inflationary times. Inflationary times. Yeah.

This is so true. And I think that I honestly think that you're going to see some of that kind of corrected. You know what I mean? S.

where it's like, okay, we're good, you know, and that's got to back up. And if that backs up, that means that you got to cut pairs, you know, your rollers. And if you're cutting your rollers and people aren't producing as much, then the prices have to come down. At least you would think.

I agree. I'm not an economist, but that would fucking... But then, again, America is not a country. Yeah.

What are we? It's a corporation. It's a corporation. So if it shows down, it's all about demand.

Yeah. It might drive the prices up. Who knows? Maybe.

Maybe. Who knows? I don't know. I mean, I feel like you got some resistance at some specific price points right now.

No, no. You don't think so? Mm-mm. We just gonna still pay...

People still gonna buy the $100 over sex. What the fuck did you do before you retired? Let me ask you that. I didn't ask that question.

I'm a retired Army. Army? Yes. Like a lifer?

Yes. How long did you? So how long? 23.

23 years. 23 years. Holy shit. What'd you do in the Army?

I started off as an infantry. Then I went to fill our trailer. And then after that, I did logistics afterwards. Holy shit.

Because I got tired of spending 200 days of the year out in the field. I was paying for a house that I wasn't living in. Yeah. Married?

That was Meredith. Yeah, but you were in the military, so like that whole thing. Yeah, that's kind of tough. It was.

Yeah. That's why I used to say now, fuck those kids. Every time I came home, they wanted money! Right, that, that, yeah, I mean, that's a thing.

That's a thing. Damn, it's an army. Shit, bro. Yeah, it's the only branch out there.

It's everybody else, everybody else in the service. Damn. S. Army and everybody else in the service.

Ouch. I see why he beat everybody else. Right. I mean, but you know what's really funny is as soon as I say, hey, Eric's coming, you know, Palmer's like, is Cliff coming too?

That is my man. Listen, when I met you guys, it was Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. That's it. That's it.

This is Bruce Banner before he gets mad, and then it's you. Yeah, there you go. Because you're the angry guy, and I love him. I know.

It's passionate, Cliff. It's passionate. I'm not angry. Well, you know, Mike with the beard, he kind of looks like a little Ewok.

You know, like you just want to hug him, but yeah. So, you know, he met, well, we went on like this little Christmas tour in Universal, and like Santa Claus got excited to see him, and the Grinch got excited, he's like, man, you know, you look like, you know, you got, you're stronger than me, you got the pectorals and stuff like that. I was like, damn, he got all types of cred. You know, it was, it was, it was pretty funny.

But he's, he's doing this no shave November thing. And I mean, they could parlay into a job. Now it's in December. get you a little red hat fucking reindeer with some leggings some leggings some pony shoes yeah cowboy boots yeah all right so how many cigars you think you want to produce well like what's your goal where are you at on that i know i know we talked about it before but i want to put it on film i mean ultimately i'd like to get to a million yeah so a million sticks yeah i think growing that's a good attainable goal i think that it's you know it's it's a nice number to You have to see on a piece of paper.

And it's not really as astronomical as everybody thinks. So, I think that you can definitely do it. We can keep working hard as hell to get there. He's a blender, so he does great blends.

Yeah, and there's three different avenues in this business, right? You've got to be able to make a good cigar, you've got to be able to handle the sales of that cigar, and then you've got to market that cigar, right? So, I feel like Cliff's going to be, he should be head of the marketing department. I don't know if he should be VP of sales, though.

No. I let him do the marketing, and I just share it. Yeah. He's good at that.

Yeah. A lot of the posts, I make them, I do everything from the owner to the janitor. But you let the hat go, man. You let the fucking hat go.

Oh, it's still around. The hat was the thing, you know? It's still around. I feel like that should be your carry-on item when you get on the plane, you know?

Yeah. Like this trip, we were just bringing so much stuff. Like this is actually one of the first times I actually had to pay to check something. Really?

Because we had some, and I was like, I can't carry everything. That's why I tell you to ship it all down here. Yeah. I know what that's like, that's a pain in the ass.

Yeah. All right, now you got, are you going to Tampa Heritage? Yeah, yeah, so we do the event here at your lounge tonight, and then tomorrow we drive up to Tampa and do Heritage Fest, and then going back to Ball Freeze, Chicago. Right, so I've heard a couple things about Heritage Fest, you know, as you think I would know more because I'm in the industry, but I guess I don't, it sounds like, you know, Nick Malillo is going to be there, it sounds like there's a lot of, you know, heavy hitters that are going to this thing.

That's going to be there. What is the Heritage Fest? It's just a big cigar fest that they have in the park. It's like a giant hearf?

Yeah. Yeah. Is anybody selling cigars? Oh, yeah.

Yes. Who's selling cigars? Like you guys? Black Star Line, yeah.

That makes sense then. Yeah. So like all the brands there will be, it's kind of like a multi-vendor. Right.

Right, right. Exactly. Is there a bounce house? They need to have one.

They should definitely be a bounce house. I'm going to put Cliff in there. Sure, why not? I bounce around.

You bounce around? So when you left the army, were you like broken? Did you get like leave on? Because everybody I know that goes in the military, they all come out broken.

No. No, you survived. I was an asshole then, I'm an asshole now. So I mean, I stayed the same.

Brad shaking his head, you know, he's confirming that. Here's the thing. I had a good mentor when I was in the military. Yeah.

Before I got out, he said, hey, these are the people you need to go talk to. Right. So I talked to two different strengths. I made one cry.

Nice! Yeah, dude. She was awful. She was just collecting money.

They just wasn't giving no solutions. And how did that make you feel? Me? Let's unpack that.

Well, I was going to tell you, too. " He was like, "Oh, no, man. You made her cry bad, man. " I was like that, bitch.

She couldn't call ahead? She made you go to the office? Who hurt you? Who hurt you?

Yeah, it was silly. She looked like it's Cliff. So you broke them, they didn't break you? No.

You should have been like a Navy SEAL or some shit, I don't know. Nah, I don't understand. Look, look, look, look. That shit.

Who wants to go wave in the water for no reason? I don't know. I don't know. When David Goggins did, he was pretty good at that.

I guess. That guy's fucking crazy. See, he jogs on my Instagram all the time. " I mean, he's fucking nuts.

I see me and him are both hard on health professionals 'cause my wife wanted to do marital counseling, so she found a therapist and everything, so he's doing the intake thing, it's the first time, or whatever, so I'm sitting there, it's on Zoom, so I'm sitting there like, oh man, I got like a million things I could be doing, but I was like, okay, I'll be nice, I'm gonna be a good husband and I'll do it, so he gets to asking medical questions, so he's like, hey, have either one of you ever had a surgery, so I'm like, what the fuck does that have to do with about if we're arguing or not but so he asked her first so she answered and she's like no blah blah blah so then he asked me so i was like okay i need some clarification on why this why you need to know this right so he tells me why and i forget what the reason why so i was like okay i was like yeah yeah i was like i did have a surgery it was a penis enlargement nice so he's looking like what the fuck is he's right he's like writing yeah he starts to write it and i was like i was like bro I'm just fucking with you. I'm just fucking with you. Alright, so we're going to speed up this divorce then, you know. Damn.

Yes, but the therapy sessions were very short-lived because I just, I'm silly and I wasn't serious at all. Oh, he's not taking it seriously. Then I was just like, you know what, I really have some retailers to talk to, so I'm going to go make some money. Yeah, that's it, man.

Hey, communication, sex, and finances. You lock in those three, your marriage is going to last forever. That's what they say. That's it.

That's what they say. That's what they say. Right. They say.

I mean, they say a lot of shit, I guess. They is always talking. I don't know. I feel like those three things, you get those things under lock and key.

I mean, it's not easy to contain those three. Yeah. Unless you love them too much. You love them too much?

You think you can love somebody too much and they'll leave you? Well, that's what mine said. You're full of shit. You love me too?

Like, man, she hits you with the fucking "it's not you, it's me" shit. Yeah. I was okay with it, though. Yeah.

Well, dude, I mean, you were in the military, like, you know, like... I was a whore. So, it happens. Okay.

You know, I'm starting... Man whore. Now that we're unpacking it, I'm starting to understand what's going on. It happens.

That's nice. Alright, so, look at how nervous you're making Eric right now. Oh, trust me, he ain't nervous. I'm over here thinking about bourbon.

How are we out on time, bro? Are we over 30? Okay. Is there anything else you want to add?

All right, so Eric, this is going to air after the Heritage Fest, right? Well, Eric was at the Heritage Fest, so I hope you got to see him and support Black Star Line Cigars and meet Cliff. But where else are you going to be in the upcoming month? Do you know?

You want to plug something? We will be at Harrisburg Beer and Cigars in Philly on December 16th, I think it is. There it is. And then the second one was Smoke in Maniuk.

Oh, fuckin' Patient Zero. Yeah. My boy Costa. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That motherfucker. Yeah, so we'll be there. The events are 16th and 17th of this month, so yeah. Dude.

We're gonna get a third event, but we'll figure it out. Okay. " So we start following them on the red lights and shit, like getting really really close to them and you can see that these four fucking dudes they're starting to kind of get nervous and panic and shit so they start taking their lanyards off and they think that someone's gonna fucking jump out of the car and kick their ass or something so after after a while of us tailing them like they're running through lights and we're running through lights after him and shit we pull it up and roll up the windows they're like you motherfuckers you guys are gonna get your ass kicked i was like okay yeah sure thing pal you know but yeah tpe he he was i believe I can't believe that he was the original coronavirus in the United States. Oh, shit.

Yeah, he was the guy. I feel like he went to Wuhan, he ate the bat, brought it the fuck over, without question. Dale. Costa is patient zero.

It happens. But they got a cool ass shot, man. It was nice. I'm looking forward to the event.

" 6:00 to 2:00? " Eight hours. Well, I mean, I guess it gets you fucked up enough. You know what I mean?

No? Not for you? What time you call? 'Cause I'm the driver back, so probably about 12 at the latest.

What if there's no road, though? What the fuck are you gonna do then, man? Yeah, apparently they do disappear at times. Yeah, apparently they just fucking vanish.

We'll swim back. You'll swim back? We'll swim back. thing you're in army you don't swim we do swim you swim okay i thought you said you just float i feel like of the three of you guys brad has enjoyed this podcast the most just for the record that's right yeah but i can say one thing go ahead fuck you brad brad is in the house with us oh is it brad brad two t's yeah you got to correct a motherfucker when we start doing something wrong man It's Bratst.

He's Bratst. Bratst. Bratst. Bratst.

No, you could call him Brad. Brad? Yeah, he likes that. That's fucked up.

If his name's Brad, I want to call him Brad. Just make me spell his name right. That's apostrophe. Oh, shit!

Oh, shit! He said make me spell his name with an apostrophe. So here's a quick story on that. So my name is spelled A-R-I-C.

So I went to high school with a dude that was spelled A apostrophe R-I-C, but he pronounced it Aric, and the reason why it was pronounced like that is he would come to school wearing leather fishnet vests and stuff like that. So he was, you know, on the other side. He's batting for the other side. I really feel like, you know, that could have been like an outfit that you could have capitalized on then.

You know, bro? I can't just be wearing leather vests. The fishnets and the hat. Yeah, my nipples are too big, so I can't do that.

That would have been amazing. I can't do that. You got them pierced? Yeah.

You got to. I'm a black star line. Check out this dark war witch. I am the dark war witch, bitch.

Have you had this dark war witch? You're tapping into a whole different type of consumer at that point. If they see this, if one of our friends said he's going to share it, he's going to bring them into the leather community. there you go see now we're expanding there you go BDSM well hey listen so make sure you guys check out Eric and Cliff and Brat are you going to Philly no well don't check out Brat in Philly Brat and guys thank you so much for coming on let's go upstairs we'll have a little fun a little cut and light action you know introduce the product to some people and you know have a good time do what we do alright thank you so much for coming on alright thank you Peace.

Clear.

Show Notes

Palmers is down and contagious!  But the  show and Palmer go on!!