Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 253 PrankMaster

Episode Summary

Episode 253 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with a full-blown prank: Mike Palmer takes a live call from Matt Tie of the "How About That Cigar" podcast, who pretends to be genuinely furious over a cease-and-desist joke the hosts made on a previous show. Palmer gets visibly heated and defensive before the bit is revealed — Matt had coordinated the whole thing with Michael Szczepankiewicz weeks earlier. The fallout leads to a longer riff on the hosts' history of elaborate long-con pranks, threats of revenge, and the show's "burn cigars, not bridges" tagline.

From there the guys cover lighter ground: Orlando car shows, Christmas decorations going up on November 1 (and the eight-foot tree sold as a ten-footer), Florida flooding and local politics in Deltona, Tom Brady's late-game heroics for the Buccaneers, and a skeptical take on No Shave November — including the hosts' own fundraising effort for testicular cancer awareness.

The industry news block digs into several real stories: Tatuaje's Limited Cappa Especial hitting select retailers, Oscar Valladares moving Bosphorus production away from Tabacalera Pichardo (now Tabacalera Luciano) to Tabacalera La Alianza, E.P. Carrillo's factory — with a wrapper change from Ecuadorian Sumatra to Ecuadorian Habano 2000 that the hosts argue makes it a different cigar entirely. They also cover Macanudo discontinuing the entire Grand Bold family (five blends, 22 SKUs) effective January 2023, and Luciano Cigars launching U.S. distribution with a new team including Tiago Splitter, Ed Trevino and the addition of Adel Cigar Company, following the end of the Ace Prime/Crowned Heads relationship with Skip Martin.

The cigar centerpiece is the Espinosa Lozano 10th Anniversary — a limited 6x52 Toro with a Brazilian Oscuro Alto wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler including Palo de Oro, $13 per cigar in 30-count boxes, limited to 300 boxes (9,000 cigars), described by Hector Alfonso as full-flavored but not full-strength. The episode closes with a South Florida shop-crawl recap: Casey's shop in Port St. Lucie, Gary at Aficionados, Daniel and Joaquin at Smoke on the Water, and a visit with Abe of Smoke Inn.

In This Episode

1. 01
   A Rack Above Sponsor Read
   The hosts open with an over-the-top live read for A Rack Above overhead garage storage.
2. 02
   The Cease-and-Desist Prank Call
   Matt Tie calls in pretending to be furious about a cease-and-desist joke, and Mike Palmer completely falls for it.
3. 03
   Prank Wars and Revenge
   The guys revisit years-long running gags, glitter bombs, and who owes whom payback.
4. 04
   Holidays, Florida Flooding and Football
   Christmas trees put up November 1, Deltona flood politics, and Tom Brady's game-winning drive for the Bucs.
5. 05
   No Shave November Skepticism
   A debate over whether growing a beard actually helps anyone, plus the hosts' testicular cancer fundraiser.
6. 06
   Industry News: Tatuaje and the Bosphorus Factory Move
   Tatuaje Limited Cappa Especial ships, and Oscar Valladares shifts Bosphorus production to E.P. Carrillo's Tabacalera La Alianza with a blend change.
7. 07
   Macanudo Grand Bold Discontinued and Luciano Distribution News
   Macanudo axes 22 Grand Bold SKUs while Luciano Cigars launches U.S. distribution and adds Adel Cigar Company.
8. 08
   Espinosa Lozano 10th Anniversary and Florida Shop Crawl
   Details on the limited Lozano 10th Anniversary release, then recaps of visits to Smoke Inn, Aficionados, and Smoke on the Water.

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 253 of the Cigar Hustlers podcast with your host, Michael Steponkevich, and as producer/engineer/show content maker, Mike BDP Palmer. Now you switched us. There we go. Welcome to the show.

I don't know. I feel like it needs some fine tuning. Thank you for tuning. Oh, that was perfect.

Step in the right direction. You did a great job. Thank you. The holidays are upon us.

Where are your decorations? In the attic? Why, attics are dirty. They get extremely hot and are simply not good for your cherished holiday ornaments.

And trips in the attic can be dangerous, Michael. Stop this traditional madness. Eliminate the trips to your attic and the emergency room with A Rack Above. A Rack Above is a huge, freestanding overhead garage storage system that creates a four-foot mezzanine across the entire, yes, that's correct, Michael, the entire width of your garage.

A Rack Above creates massive, unobstructive overhead storage, allowing you to see and reach your belongings without the risk of falling off a ladder. A Rack Above is constructed of lightweight structural aluminum, is easy to assemble, will not rust, and will fit in your garage today, As well as your next garage of tomorrow. Fantastic. Oh, did I mention you need assembles in less than an hour?

Does it? You did not. With only a wrench! With one wrench?

Just one, that's right, you heard me right, only a wrench. Oh my. This year, buy yourself and the wife a gift for a lifetime, ARACABOVE Portable Overhead Storage. com, all one word.

Oh my. Okay. Sounds good. I'll do that.

Okay. You do that. Very excited. Yes.

Very, very exciting. All right. So what'd you do? Hello, Michael.

Hello, Michael. How are you? It's nice to see you again. What did I do?

Did you go to the Bucs game Sunday? I did not go to the Bucs game. Oh, I didn't go to the Bucs game. I went to the Bougie Car Show.

What Bougie Car Show? There's a car show for... Is that here or over there? Yeah, in Orlando.

Was that the one Adam Pruitt was at? Pruitt was at? Festivities of... Not the cars and cigars from our...

Nah, yeah, I wouldn't go to that one. Oh, well, you're probably not allowed. Yeah. Probably not allowed to go to that one.

Not allowed to go to that one. Yeah, yeah. That's true. Sorry, I got a person we have to call later.

I just want to let them know. Oh, okay. It's for the show. I'm not messing around on my phone.

We have a situation, but I don't want to get into it just yet. We're going to tap into this. We'll talk about the other stuff first. First and foremost What do we got going for the Patreon The Lozona 10 Lozona 10th anniversary Not the Espinosa 10th anniversary But the Lozona 10th anniversary Now we just reviewed the knuckle sandwich The yellow knuckle sandwich The chef special Yes the chef special I ain't gonna tell you The new video Patreon We got a lot of good feedback It was the feedback from our patrons, Dave.

Yeah. They liked the video. So how'd that work? There's just people that had already paid that amount, they got the video, or did some people upgrade, or what?

I haven't checked to see if anybody upgraded. Oh, okay. But yeah, you have to... We got people watching our video.

We have several levels in our Patreon. We have a $5, a $10, a $15, a $25, and a $50, I believe. Mm-hmm. Yes, Phil, were you going to say something, Phil?

No, no, nothing from Phil. Nothing from Phil. Nothing from Phil. Just like last week.

Right, right. 5, you don't really get anything but stickers. So 10, you get the audio. Uh-oh.

Do we need to take that now? He's calling. Oh. Yeah.

I guess we're going to have to go through this now. We'll take it now. So, you know, here's the thing. Yes.

Okay, let's get him on. Hold on. Well, who is he? Hold on.

Matt, hold on. Matt. Can you hear me? Hey, man, how you doing?

Hey, hold on one second. You're on air right now, but I need to explain a little bit to, Palmer as to what's going on. I don't want you to I didn't want I know you're eager to call but just give me one second. Let me just be quiet for two seconds.

Alright? Alright. You have finally fucking pissed someone off. Oh, who did I piss off?

Our friend here, Matt Ty. How about that cigar? Oh, what did I do this week? Or last week I guess it was.

You want to talk, Matt? It's up to you. I don't want to you know, he Yeah, I mean, I just want to clear the air. I mean, you know, I'm fine taking some shots here and there, but, you know, we're just trying to do a little, you know, have our little podcast and our little web show and, you know, do the best we can with what we have.

But, you know, we're not going to be slandered. You know, I'm just not going to have it. You know, we're, we've got a, we've got a small piece of the pie and we're just trying to, you know, do the best we can with what we have, like I said, and we just don't want to, don't want to have people out there, you know, throwing, you know, mad accusations out there and slander us. And I just wanted to call and just clear the air.

Is this the old cease and desist thing? Yep. Okay. Well, that was Michael's joke.

Yeah. I just jumped on it. It was my joke? That was your joke.

You're the one that, yeah, you're the one that said, oh, they're copying us. That's just like ours. It was you. We can play the show back.

I talked to Matt. He wasn't mad at me. He was upset with you. Well, sure.

Everybody's getting mad at me. And that's fine. And if you guys want to throw stuff around like that, that's fine. But look, what we put together was just a simple boilerplate kind of disclaimer.

And we made our own adjustments to it to fit what we needed. But, you know, it's been a pretty rough year for me personally. And, you know, I know our tagline is burn cigars, not bridges, but I'm, you know, if this is going to be what it is, then I'm, I'm ready to start lighting matches and burning bridges, and I'm fine starting with you guys. So I just wanted to, I'm just not having it.

You can just throw me under the bus, you won't, Michael, but that was your thing. That was my thing. Yeah. And if he's upset, I'm sorry you're upset, but it's a joke.

So that's the way it goes. These is, I feel this is set up to tell you the truth. Why? Because you always try to do stuff like this.

Why would it be a set up? Matt's got a better sense of humor than this. Yeah, he does, but... I have a fine sense of humor, but it's been a rough year, man, and I just don't have...

My fuse is getting shorter than it used to be, and I just don't have time for this. Trust me, I know the rough year. My father died at the beginning of the year, so I mean, I understand the rough year. And now my mother's half crazy, and I had to take care of her one day a week.

But it hasn't been mentioned in two weeks, so it would have been funnier two weeks ago when we started it, if this is a made-up thing. He's not made up. Sorry, I haven't said anything about it in two weeks. He's not made up.

I didn't get to it last week. I apologized. I apologized. Like I said, I haven't said anything in weeks about it.

And I told them that I had-- There's a new cycle going on, and there's probably somebody else I've pissed off. There's a new cycle. Wait a second. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

What? Who have you fucking pissed off? This is like the biggest one. Oh, well.

Well, you tried a couple years ago saying I pissed off-- Nick Rogerio? Yeah, Nick Rogerio. I couldn't think of Nick's name. Yeah, but that was a joke.

I know it was. This isn't a joke. And I said I was sorry to Matt, and I haven't said anything about the thing in two weeks, something else has moved on. Okay, so, but like, you haven't honestly pissed anybody off in the industry yet.

Like, this is the first one. And I said I was sorry. I mean, we say shit all the time. Sure we do.

And I apologize to Matt, and if that's not good enough, I'm sorry, I don't know what else to tell you. You just... We've moved on from that, we're gonna piss off somebody else this week, I have other stories. You're very fired up today.

I'm not fired up. I mean, this guy, he's like, he's not even... Yet I've apologized. He's not even coming out hardcore on you.

I've apologized. I've apologized, what else are you going to do? What else are you going to do? Would you like to be on the show every week, Matt?

You could say something bad about me, if you don't. Well, I mean... I mean, it's a silly podcast. The fact is...

Is it silly? Yes. I don't think it's so silly. He makes money, we don't, so, you know, his is a business.

He's a successful podcast. His is a successful podcast. He has sponsorship things. We just did a rack above, which is a good thing, which is a good thing.

This is an excellent concept. You know, we don't have Drew's State or Corona behind it. Can we let Matt, can you let Matt talk? Sure, Matt, go ahead.

Matt? Uh oh, hold on. What is that? You just disconnected.

Uh oh. Now you're just talking to your phone. Hold on, hold on. Want me to hit the button again?

Can you hear me? You guys still hearing me? There it is. Oh, there you are.

Now you're back. That was weird. Go ahead, buddy. Well, I mean, the fact is, I don't know if you know this, my day job, I work for a law firm, so I know plenty of lawyers that would be happy to, you know, get in my corner and help me out if I need to do something about this.

And I'd really rather not take it that far. But if that's going to be what it's got to be, then she'll be it. Since I've already apologized, and I said we're not going to do anything with it again because that's already cycled through our show, you can do whatever you want. Look, dude, you know, listen, I'll talk for Mike because obviously he's a little bit upset, but I know that I'm very sorry about it.

We were just kidding around. I said I was sorry already. Yeah, but you seem kind of like... Everybody knows I kid around.

You think Jonathan Drew does not mad at me if he ever heard the show? But you're so chipped, like, did something happen? Because it's silly for him to be this mad about it. It's a stupid little podcast.

He's just hurt his feelings. And I've said I was sorry. Okay. Well, I don't know what to tell you.

It is what it is, I guess. All right, brother. Well, hey, we're sorry, dude. We didn't mean to cross a line.

But I wanted to get you at least on the show and kind of have things kind of ironed out, so. Yeah, I got one other question for Palmer. Sure, go ahead. See, I told you.

He's got a better sense of humor in this. Mike tries to set this up with the wrong people. He was so angry, Matt. He was so angry.

No, because I knew it was a joke. He's not gonna get worked up over that. You're like, well, if I get my dad died, my mom's crazy. Well, he was gonna add her up here.

I mean, holy moly. I've said worse things about Garrett than I have to him, and Garrett's not wrong. Wow. Well, we respect that.

We respect that. Oh, brother. That was good stuff. I mean, if you could get somebody that I don't know to call in and say they were mad, then maybe I would believe it.

No, you totally fell for this. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. I set up in the beginning.

You said, I feel like it might be a trap. I said, this is set up. But you were still so angry. You picked the wrong people.

No, it worked. They're mad at me. Phil, did it work? Yes.

Oh, man. That was amazing. Matt, you did a great job. You did do a good job.

But as soon as I heard it was Matt, I thought it was Booth at first, and I couldn't figure out what was going on. And then was mad about that, I mean. You totally had him convinced. You should get Coop to do it?

Because I don't know Coop that well, and I would have more believed it. You definitely believe this, you were pissed. No, I didn't. I was pissed because you're trying to pull it off of me again.

It worked out pretty well, I'm not gonna lie. I had a nice face shot. Oh, dude, yeah, we're, we're, we don't, we're not, we love you guys, we're not even slightly upset about anything. And for fuck's sake, we wrote their season to sis, what else do you expect?

Right, I mean, I don't like to stand out in court, it's pretty similar. It's not like it's making you make any money on it, what are you gonna do, how, you know, there's no, what are you gonna pursue? Right, what am I gonna take? I started to hold up my pan, I'm like, what, he wants this?

He wants this? Still no pots. Oh, man. Amazing.

We can't even afford pots on this show. I cannot wait to see this so I can see the facial expressions. Oh, I'll take you in it, don't worry. It'll be the clip.

It'll be the clip for sure. Amazing. I can't. Oh, I can't wait.

Absolutely stellar. I just gotta tell you though, revenge comes very slowly. He'll forget. No, he's getting on.

Oh, no, no, no, no. He never forgets. He never forgets. Be careful starting your car.

Be careful starting. It's kind of far away, Mike. It's gonna be quite a commute. I have air points still from China days.

I get to fly. You have air points? I have airline points. Not a problem.

So angry. Charge it to the company here. You just said we don't have any money. How are we going to have a pair of your airfare?

We have a credit card. Yeah, exactly. We know what it's like to have zero budget. Yeah.

You still got big sponsors. He's at least got a deal, but he talks it up, at least, you know? I mean, that's what it takes. Yeah, but the ad revenue is always spent by mid-July.

It's gone in mid-July. And it's gone. Carry the one and zero. And carry the one and zero.

It's gone. Yeah, yeah, the show, I'm sure, crushes it. Gonna go on Abe's new show. Oh, yeah.

Right, he doesn't have guests on anymore. He's looking for content. So you're gonna show up? Oh, you're going over there as a co-host?

I'm gonna go over there, right. I'm gonna co-host. There you go. There you go.

That's a three-hour drive still. Coop doesn't, Coop's on his show every week. You gotta zoom in. And he doesn't, yeah, zoom, he must zoom or something.

Oh, what's, well, he said what he used. All right, it's just me and you, Phil. I feel like, you know. Coop's gonna be in Minnesota in December.

We're going to do a live show with Coop in studio in December. Oh, nice. That's going to be a good time. That sounds like a good time.

Make sure that you guys use a, say, a good cease and desist before you get kind of things going. Is he going to have the Indiana Jones outfit on that he's sporting lately? I hope so. Oh, so do I.

I'm telling you, I can't hold myself back much longer. I didn't even know it was him. Is he rocking the satchel too? Has he got the satchel?

Probably. He's got a vest and a cowboy hat and a goatee. That's nice. It's nice.

I don't know how any of us can be expected to control ourselves with that walking around. It's just, yeah, it's just an amazing, it's just a being, you know, very powerful. It's too much. I mean, the, the, the, it's, yeah, it's just too much.

Yeah. All right, Matt, well, we're going to let you go, buddy. Thank you so much for partaking in this. Right on.

Call in Garrett next week when your show's on. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, thank you guys.

Have a good show and we'll talk again. How about that cigar, everybody? Check them out. All right, thanks, man.

See ya. Later. Wow. You're not good at this.

I felt pretty good about that. This is how Phil slides right in. I felt pretty good about that, Phil. I'm telling you, I put this on his camera.

He was pissed. Oh, I was getting mad, sure, but I mean, it was so stupid. He was fucking pissed. He was fucking pissed.

I almost cut him off. I was just gonna hit the button and go, fuck everything. I know, you're gonna fire off at Matt. You were legitimately mad.

He was so triggered. It's okay, though. Oh, I was getting mad, sure. It's all right, Mike, it's okay.

You don't have to really calm me down. The bad thing is, though, is Palmer is a very vengeful person. Hey, you know what? What do you want me to do?

Matt was upset. No, now I owe you two. You owe me two? That's fine.

You know, I just want you to know that... I wonder if Brittany's busy next week. You know, there was a bang joke that went on for over a fucking year. Oh, it was two.

Two and a half. Oh, he found out? Because he wanted to call the guy. I had to give it up.

He goes, "We should call them. " Yeah, what's going on with them? Okay, we can't call them. Alright.

And there was something else that you did that was fucking terrible, too. And these are legitimate. Terrible? And I'm gonna tell you right.

That was not terrible? Yeah, it was. No, it wasn't. You were like, oh.

You know, you were like the only person in the world that was not in on that. Yeah. How sad is that? Your wife knew.

And I was super excited about it. For God's sake, your wife knew. And I was like, oh, this is great. You know, Skip didn't know, though.

Skip thought it was funny, too, at the end. Yeah, that's fucked up. He was like, you guys are. So I don't even want to hear.

I don't want to hear it. Okay. You still get a pass. All right.

Cause I was, no, it was two years. Okay. All right. Believe me, you don't want to have this back and forth shit.

You know what I mean? Matt reached out to me and said, Hey, you know, I want to talk about like an attorney or whatever. Just kind of joking with Mike. I'm like, how about we do something better?

How about you just say that you're really upset? And you know, like we'll kind of go with that. And he asked me about it like two weeks ago. Oh, and I fucking forgot.

And this morning I was like, Oh shit. I forgot to talk to Matt. So I texted, I was like, dude, I'm a horrible person. See, two weeks ago, it would have been better because it had just happened.

I know. Yeah. It was still good, though. You were still angry.

Yeah, I was getting angry. It was stupid. Because I made a joke. And so the problem is that if he lobs it back to me, then this will get out of hand.

Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. It'll be like Greg when Greg thought I did the glitter bomb.

He was going to burn my car. Burn his car. I instinctively went to his car as well, just now, as far as a vengeful retail. What's with the car?

I don't know. I told Greg, I'd have you arrested. " Wow. I don't know what Greg's capable of.

That's it, because he doesn't have a sense of humor, so he always just goes to the extreme. We've seen the jokes. Yeah. They're not good.

They're not good. Well, thank you very much for my arm, Mike thing. You're welcome. You're welcome.

This is lovely. We'll see how it looks on camera. My wife has said that, you know, when I, with the box, I hunch over a little bit. Ah, I got you.

Trying to have good posture. Should we put it on payroll? Phil got a camera, 'cause she thought Phil should have a camera. You got the arm.

Yeah. No comments on me, Ms. Brittany? What camera's on, Phil?

Was yours on? You're perfect, Mike. You called me out, so I put it on myself, and I waved. He had it on him the whole time.

You're perfect, Mike, so. There's gotta be some kind of input. She's my counsel. That's my counsel.

What do you want from me? I would like a change, too, please. Mix something up a little bit. Right.

How about a different shirt? I've been wearing black dimensions. We're doing black shirts. Yeah.

Mine's special. Oh, I just have a black. He's the outwork everybody. Oh.

I don't have one of those. He's not that. He's the outwork everybody. I was looking at Palmer.

It was a little slow. It was a little slow. Thanks, Phil. All right.

Well, he said he doesn't have one. I thought we fixed that. No, no, I still don't have one. I did the festivities with the car thing.

That was pretty cool. I smoked a couple cigars and shit. So it was an outdoor thing? Where was it at?

The Ritz. Oh, down on I Drive? Yeah. I was down that way Saturday.

Were you? Yeah, my friend Jeff and Becky were in town again. I don't know if they're timeshare away with us. Oh, that's the only time we'll go to the Ritz, I guess.

You could if you wanted to. Then just Greg gets one too. Oh, two. Oh, two.

Yeah. No, I'm visiting accounts in Orlando. You're right, visiting accounts in Orlando. What's this Poshik charge in Orlando?

It was 20 minutes away. Yeah, no, no, I wanted to be close. Stay late, and I had to get there early the next day. There was only one shop over there.

That's the one I went to. That was the one. I feel like I had a busy weekend. Oh, you know what I did?

What? I mulched. That was exciting. I also put up my Christmas tree.

Oh, I might put up three. Good for your wife. No ornaments. Good for her.

No ornaments. We're just doing trees with lights. Good for her. Yeah.

Well, we had the one tree we got from the scavenger hunt we did when we cleaned out the house. we did when we cleaned out the house. Very nice tree. Oh, from the dead guy's house.

Dead guy tree. It's a very nice tree. It's a very nice tree, but it says that it's a 10-foot tree. It's only eight.

Those rat bastards. Rat bastard. So we had to move it because it wasn't tall enough for the spaceship. This is only eight foot.

This is only eight. Measure this. It's only eight. It's clearly eight.

Not a solid 10. Right. How do you measure it? Take measure.

Like, do you measure it from the base of the tree and you go in an angle? I went from the floor and I went straight up. Straight up. Well, that looks about 8.

It doesn't work. For some reason, I think that they measure it like at a... Oh, it's still down to 10. Well, the pieces were bundled and wrapped and then Velcroed, and each bundle had a number on it.

So it went 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, top. So it was missing a section somewhere in the middle. I imagine the tree probably comes in an 8 and a 10. It's just in the wrong box or something.

But Mr. Callahan would have been screwed if he had ever opened the box. Very disappointed. Very disappointed.

We also put up like an inflatable gate thing, candy cane thing. Oh. When I got some new lights, I'm gonna do that. Probably.

But we got like a storm coming or some shit. Yeah, I just saw it today. Is it Thursday? Thursday, yeah.

Oh. I mean, it's no big deal to us, but it's a big deal to the fucking everybody over here. Oh, yeah. It's already still kind of flooded.

You didn't start working in anybody's houses over there, did you feel? He did. Stun Island, yeah. Yeah.

Uh-oh. He did. He's the Sweet Peas. I have to get, I wasn't going to say her name on the air.

You might have to redo that. I'm sorry. I mean, she's going through it. I mean, Keanu's going through it, too.

He's out there. That's right. It looked like the water was higher on that strip to your house, too. I gave him a ride today because he's getting his truck hitch put in.

Oh, his fifth. Yeah, that water was higher on the sides of that causeway there. Yeah, so, like, well, Sweet Pea was telling me that it only goes down, like, I think it's about 3/4 of an inch every day, so like if more rain gets added to it, I mean, you can just see the math equation there. Oh, yeah.

There's two houses apparently in my neighborhood where the backyards are flooded from those lakes. Really? And the city is not helping, apparently. Love that.

Right. That's good stuff. Right around election season. Seems like a- Right.

Doesn't seem like it's your problem. Well, the rumor is because the neighborhood supports not the current city council person. Oh. But the new one.

How shitty. Yeah, so the rumor is she's blocking the work. Oh, I heard about this. Yeah.

Yeah, because they mentioned Commissioner McCool has been a big help. Yes. But apparently the- How hard is it to just be a good person? Right.

Hey, your shit's flooded. Right. Hey, there was nothing you could do about it. We need a pump to take some water out of the lake.

Hey, you know what? Yeah, no, you don't like me. I'll get the water, Deltona water out here, and we'll pump it out. Right, no.

Not a problem. No, you don't like me. Not coming. The first thing that I saw, though, and I didn't talk about this at the show, on any of the shows yet, but Phil and I, we're driving in his truck, and there's this old guy, and he has these beautiful pavers, you know, like this whole driveway, these little brick things, and you know, in Deltona, they have these kind of bends, and the water collects right here, right?

This fuckin' old man, he had a pump going, and he was draining his out and dumping him in his fuckin' neighbor's house. Oh, nice. Not giving a shit, it was amazing. Oh, very nice.

It was absolutely amazing. Very nice. Can we talk about Tom Brady? I'm excited about Tom Brady.

Tom Brady and his divorce? Oh, that's done, it's over. Is the divorce already done? Yeah.

Wow, that was fast. Yeah, they had their shit together. Oh, apparently. Already there, it's been going on longer than we knew.

Cut dry, in and out, done. He had a solid W. Solid W. And he walked up to the press conference, and he said, so he had a game winning drive at the end of the game, and they won because of it, so he gets up and he goes, that was fucking awesome, and I was like, yes it was Tom, that was fucking awesome, I'm like, yes it was, but then you could watch it on YouTube, if you want the full fucking, 100% fucking, all the fucking, nothing but the fucking, yeah, that was amazing, well now that he's back to winning, maybe he's dating.

Maybe it was her. Ooh. Maybe the stress of a bad marriage. Who knows?

I'm not here to speculate. It's all we do. Are you doing the No Shave November thing? Our show, I stopped shaving two months ago anyway, but our show is, the other show is, yeah.

But you trim that at all? I do the neck and the cheeks. But that, so that's not no shave. Well, it's no, I trim.

That's kinda, that's kinda. I have to, 'cause it'll itch too much here, I can't handle that. And if it goes this, it's gonna be like up on my face, it's just terrible. I don't know where I've felt about this in the past, but this whole thing just sounds ridiculous to me.

The No Shave November? Yeah. Oh yeah, it's just something we're doing. It's completely obnoxious.

Yeah, we are trying to raise money for the Testicular Cancer Association. So you're legitimately raising money? Oh, we have a page, or whatever it's called, with the No Shave people, where people can go make donations, and we plug it on the show every week. GoFundMe.

Okay, well that's, I mean that's different, at least you're doing something. Oh, yeah. We're not fucking shaved to talk about it? Right, no, no, no.

Hey, I'm trying to bring awareness to prostate. We're a man show. Well, the prostate wasn't an option. It was testicles was the only man thing you can do.

The rest of it was child diabetes, adult diabetes, kids left behind. I mean, it was a bunch of different things. But can't you like, if you really want to, if you're passionate about these things, couldn't you just fucking bring it up and talk about it? Hey, this is a thing for me.

I don't have it. I'm not shaving, but yeah. You're kind of not shaving. Yeah, kind of not shaving.

It seems silly. I'm not cutting my hair either. I haven't cut my hair either. But you're going for like this...

I've never had long hair or thick hair, and I've got no reason not to at the moment. This is a thing. What the hell, I'll just do it. We have a beard guy coming on the last day of the month on our show to tell you how to take care of it.

The bearded oil guy, yeah. So we've tied it all into a mystic beard, so we've tied it into a whole month-long thing. own thing. Okay.

Well, I mean, sure. Yeah. So you're growing out your beard. Right.

My wife hates it. You're not really doing the no shave thing because you're shaving. Well, yeah. I'm cleaning up the edges.

Yeah. Right. So it's like a what is it? Grow beard November.

Grow beard November for you? Grow beard November. Go long November? Sure.

Go long November. Are you doing the no shave shit? Absolutely not. Okay.

I got a nice mustache though. You do have a nice... Yeah. I like how that grew in quite...

It grew in quickly for you. Yeah, it did. It's a nice look. Go ahead.

There you go. All right. Now get off your camera. Get out of there.

All right. Only a little bit. Only a little bit of film. Get out of there.

Get out of there. All right. Should we get on moving here? We're at 30 minutes.

Anything else? You're not doing no shade November, Mikey? For testicular cancer? No, man.

You know what's funny is I was kind of trim already today, but I usually like to trim, like, the first of the week. I like to have my A game. Like, you know, like, I have to have a solid Monday. Oh, yeah.

I have to every day. Yeah, I don't have to do that. Oh. So, so, you know, and I'm looking at my fucking beard or whatever, and I'm like, oh, it's No Shave November.

I'm like, what the fuck am I talking about? Like, what is wrong with me? I don't know. It's just a thing.

Like, why am I, like, I saw Jimmy Fallon. He looks fucking homeless. Oh, is he growing one? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm just like, give me a fucking break. You know, it's just like, why do we have to, why is it always gonna be a fucking thing? It's a participation thing. There's so many things at this point.

It's fucking obnoxious. It's not the last month, wasn't it, in October? Well, I guess it's breast cancer. Yeah.

Breast cancer. Well, it didn't seem to be as big a breast cancer thing this year as normal. Yeah, because you didn't watch any fucking baseball game. Oh, were they all pink in baseball?

Yeah, they all hold signs up, and they stand for cancer, something, I don't fucking know. Oh. And I'm like, Jesus, this is insane. You're a little hoarse.

Did you yell at the practices we did or something? It was a serious game for the Bucs, man. Oh, you gotta accept, but you didn't know. So you're yelling at home.

Oh, yeah, man. Oh. Yeah, because this poor guy, I'm watching this guy throw the ball, he's hitting the fucking players on the numbers, and no one's catching anything. That's true.

Nobody's catching a fucking thing. It wasn't his fault, alright? I don't know what the fuck's going on with Cizzo. Yeah, it wasn't Brady.

The guy was doing his job. He's got no fucking offensive line. He's still getting it done. You asshats are all dropping the ball, right?

I mean, fuck. It's all their fault. It was just discouraging. And then all of a sudden, it's like, he starts, they punted, and you got 33 seconds to go down the field.

It was like 33 seconds. You got 33 seconds to go down the field. Who the fuck do you want as your quarterback? There is no one else but Tom Brady.

That's your fucking guy. And guess what? Son of a bitch at 45 fucking delivered. It's amazing.

It's fucking amazing. He ran himself? No. Threw the ball.

Oh, he threw the ball. Yeah. He threw to Kate Otten, the new tight end, came out of nowhere, up the middle, insane. Two quick passes to the outside, they both went out of bounds, they made the catch and go out of bounds, Mike Evans had a pass interference call in the end zone, so they started at the one, and they threw another one to Kate on on the outside, fucking ran it in.

Yeah. It was awesome. It was fucking awesome. So yeah, I yelled a little bit.

I was very excited. Very excited. I was very, very passionate. Extremely passionate.

What about the pills? I already called, well that's gonna be, I'll talk about that on your sports show, but I called that shit from the cheap seats. Did I not? Yeah, I just didn't know.

The Jets were gonna beat the Bills. Yes. And now, fuckin' Josh Allen's got an elbow issue. Yes.

Mid-season. The end is near. I wouldn't say it's the end, but you know what? What's fascinating about the NFL, and this is why I really like the sport, is it's a copycat league.

Right? So, Buffalo had a hard game last week. They still won. But who'd they play?

'Cause I said this. I said this whole thing. me too whoever the fuck they played they you know oh Green Bay the second half of the Green Bay game it was amazing because all of a sudden Josh Allen couldn't move the ball at all I'm like okay well guess what when you fucking when that happens the other teams look at it and say alright what the fuck did Green Bay do and the Jets implemented it and he didn't did he have a passing touchdown I don't think no no I don't think so and Sauce Gardner had an interception Yeah, the gardener. The gardener.

Yeah, he wasn't gardening. He was playing football. He was playing football. So, yeah.

So, the Jets implemented it, and they fucking won. It was Brady's gardener, too, I heard. Yeah? Ooh.

Nice. Was he banging Giselle? No, no. He did the play that you just mentioned really well.

Even the gardener is the goat. The gardener is the goat. Yeah. I mean, when you're the best, you want to work with the best.

The gardener, right. Makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. What about Palmer's Liga?

He talked about it. We went and hung out with our friends, Jeff and Becky. Yeah. And then Sunday, we put up Christmas trees.

Three of them. One of them's eight foot, not 10. Right. And one of them's 12 foot, and one of them is, she bought a little one for the bedroom.

I think it is five feet. Yeah. You're not dressing up the dogs or anything? No.

Yeah. No, not yet. It's too early. No, all the dogs have hoodies that say security on them.

It's nice to see. It's a red hoodie that says security. I will tell you this, though. It is very nice to see Mr.

Palmer kind of settle back down. Yes. - After his momentary lapse of anger that he had earlier in this podcast. - Hey, I got a lot of feedback on our video.

- Which video? - That you posted of us going down to Miami. - Oh! - The All I Want for Christmas.

- Right. - By Mariah. - Oh! Listen, you can break my balls all you want about Christmas music, about Christmas things being up, but look, as a fucking parent, I'm gonna tell you right now, Q4 is a fucking mess.

It's a disaster. - Right. As a retailer, it's a disaster. Oh, sure.

And even on wholesale, you want to pursue sales before the fucking eclipse of frozen tundra and nobody wants to buy anything. Right, yeah. So, there's a lot of shit going on, right? You want to prepare for all these things.

You want to make sure everybody's fucking good. There's a lot going on. So, what do I do November 1? I turn it on for Christmas.

I don't give a shit. I want to have a good fucking time. I didn't mind the music at all. Well, yeah, but, you know, people are like, I know that Yogurlite was like, what the fuck?

Or he did something about elves and something. If, you know, every time you put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving and elf dies. Oh, I saw that. It's like, look, I want to enjoy it.

Right. I got a small window to enjoy it because when I get down this road. Right. Gets to the end.

On Q4, you can fucking forget it. It's done. Right. You know, super busy isn't even a fucking term for me.

It's, you know, it's just, you're just gone. Thank God there isn't any, well, there's still basketball, but thank God football isn't going on right now for my kids, because you throw that on top of everything else, fucking forget it. How many days a week is basketball? It's on the weekends.

There's one practice day on the week. I think it's Wednesday, which is no big deal. Right. And then the basketball games, I think, are like Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Oh, one of the three days. Yeah, it's just one. It's with the school, so it's not as serious, and it's a quick game, it's about 40 minutes. Oh, it's not bad.

But if I was coaching two teams, pre-K, or pre-KK, one, two, plus Jax was doing his fourth, fifth grade league, or third, fourth league, so that's, you know, three different things going on, on top of everything else, forget it, I would never, I wouldn't even get to hear Mariah Carey this year, and I wanted to hear it, goddammit. You didn't play her at practice? I guess, yeah. I'm gonna slide that in.

When they're stretching or something, you know, or cooling down at the end of the practice. I feel like they're more chipmunk song type of individuals. You rotate her in, they're not going to know. You know?

Yes. Play it in the car on the way home. Yeah. But, you know, we didn't hit all of them.

We didn't hit the So This Is Christmas song. Yeah. Which is a big deal. All those are free, aren't they?

Anybody can play them? When we get added to the show? I don't know. I don't know if those are no domains or none.

I don't know how that works. Let's not test that. I'll find out. Well, I can do a little research and find out.

Only when he gets mad is YouTube. They just take it down. Oh no, that would be our second violation. Right.

They were one away from never being on YouTube again. Right, so let's not do that. Let's not test that water. All right.

Maybe we can find somebody who's written a Christmas song that nobody's ever heard of before. Yeah. All right. All right, you ready to go?

Yep. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need. The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Tu. Tatuaje Limited Kappa Especial arrives in select retailers.

Are we getting that? No. I don't do business with Tatuaje. I thought we got those.

A hundred years ago, we did business with Tatuaje. Oh, I'll just skip the story. We have yet to do business with it. I haven't done business with Tatuaje probably five years.

Is that long? I thought we used to get the Kappa Especial. Yeah, the seventh Kappa was really good. That was one of the ones that I brought in, the black, the Corona Gorda black.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. The seventh, especially, you know. And that was five years ago? Some of the browns, the 10th year anniversary stuff that they had, yeah, yeah, it feels like five years ago.

The mystery of how long we've known each other, Facebook made that apparent this weekend. Eight years. Eight years. Eight, long, fucking, long years.

Feels like 20. That's what I wrote. Yeah, but I thought you meant that in a good way. No.

In a bad way. No, I meant that in a bad way. I was trying to figure out mathematically how much longer it would have taken me if I killed you the first time I met you, would I have made parole at this point at eight years, could I have made it like a crime of passion or something? Because you didn't know me the first time you met me.

I came in and you gave me five stickers. Yeah, you look like a guy who wanted stickers. Well, that's why we came. The Cigar Club had just got started, me and one other guy had come here to say hello and get stickers.

And that was it. It was Love at First Sight. It was Love at First Sight of it, yes, yes. Ossinger Moves...

You're like a dad and a best friend wrapped into one. I don't know, it's just amazing. It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah.

Ossinger Moves production of Bosphorus to Tablicalera La Alansia. Who did what now? Ossinger. Ossinger Moves production.

Yeah. Away from Pichardo. Oh. To Tablicalera La Alansia.

Okay. Sounds like a solid... P. Corilio.

Brizzly Cigars have been made at Tabla Calera Pichardo in Nicaragua, which is no longer called that. Now it is Tabla Calera Luciano. Now it's called Nica Sueno Dreamer. Yes, Luciano, my friend, Skip, Tabla Calera Pichardo.

The blend is changing a bit as part of the move is Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. A fucking bit. Yeah, you jumped a country. I mean, for fuck's sake, it's going to change a bit.

Let's see. The Sumatra wrapper is being replaced with an Ecuadorian Habano 2000 leaf. That's a big fucking bit. There will be two binder leads, one from Ecuador and the other from Nicaragua, and the fillers all still come from Nicaragua.

Ernesto Perez-Carrilio is one of the most talented cigar makers in industry's history. He is, that's true. " Well, I have questions, but okay. " That's true.

" And now Pichardo and I are breaking up. " So all the prices are the same. Can we fucking review here, though? I mean, you know what?

I feel like we're beating a dead horse, but there's always some new information about this shit. And it's baffling to me. It really is. You can't.

I think we have. Oh, yes, we have a Luciano story. Fucking just abandon the blend. Just let it go.

Start something else. Yeah, I mean, you're just moving in. You moved it to another country. You changed blend.

Like, I fucking. Call it something out. This already says. This has disaster written all the fuck over it.

You know what I mean? Right. And I'm not trying to shit on anybody because I could fucking care less. They're gonna get mixed in the boxes.

It makes no fucking sense. Right. Well, you know, we felt that we were gonna move it in a million... Fuck, what?

If I stopped making my product out of Nicosueno, and I moved it into a... Which would be silly, 'cause we own the factory. Yeah, because it's practically ours at this point, we just made that comment. If I brought it to another place...

That announcement. Even with the same fucking blend, identical blend... Still gonna be different. The cigar's gonna fucking be different.

Right. You're going to take this cigar, and you're going to move to the Dominican Republic, you're going to change components, and you're going to call it the same fucking thing? We like the name. We have a lot of bands.

We have a lot of bands. We have a lot of bands to use. The problem is the bands. And some of the boxes, we have the boxes and the bands.

We don't want to change them, they're very expensive. So hey, maybe Ozigen calls us in two weeks from your phone. Maybe, maybe. I'm just going to say Tell me somebody new this week Yeah I'm just going to say Hey I'm really sorry I'm really sorry I'm really sorry I don't fucking care Palmerism You like my pan It's very small I'm going to say It was your idea Sure All the stuff I said That was all Palmer's And that's what you said It was your idea I was just backing you up You were the one That made the original show Look at you You were just ready I'm just saying You were just ready to cut ties I'm apologizing for the both of us And shit Oh I'm like hey Alright You know I'm willing to go down with the shit Like fuck it You threw me under the bus by putting him on the air You think I'd cut and run In real life You think I'd fucking cut and run That was another reason I thought it was fake Because you wouldn't have put me on the spot Unless it was for the show You would have told him to fuck off If he called you and he's mad You'd go fuck off If it was real If somebody called an idiot I'd be like, he's my fucking idiot.

Right, he's my idiot, you shut up. Go fuck yourself. But you still believed it, you believed it. Oh!

Yes you did! I said at the beginning, I thought it was made up. I got the footage. I could, so do I.

The anger. I was like, oh shit, he's angry, it's working. You can't cut it out. It's working.

Don't you cut it out. I don't want to cut anything out that I do. Cut the whole thing. It'll be a very short show next week.

I, I, hmm. Right. In other news, thank you. I'll fill over there at his little table.

Just sitting there. Just sitting there. Just sitting there and not talking. Not doing anything.

I'm going to have to slow motion and still pause and then fill up an hour. McAuliffe Cigars has announced that it will discontinue the entire family of its Grand Bold cigars next year. Effective January 2023, the Grand Bold lines will be discontinued. There are five different blends: Lajero, Matafina, Nicaragua, Sumatra, and a total of 22 SKUs, effective by the decision.

I read this wrong originally when I pulled the story. I thought they were lowering the price. That's a big difference. Right, big difference.

So I thought, oh, what a great story. Everybody else is going up. They're going down. We're going to come down on our prices.

They're coming down. Which makes sense, because earlier they were like, we're no longer selling to people. We're only selling to shops that are brick and mortar or something like that. Yeah.

Not the other way around? No. Selling direct to consumer? No, I think they stopped selling direct to consumer, only selling brick and mortar.

Oh. Or maybe they're not selling brick and mortar. I don't remember. But something they did that was unusual.

Huh. The investments we made in our factory in tobacco inventory are producing McAuliffe cigars. People love them. People don't love the one they stop making.

No, they couldn't get to the leaves anymore. Maybe they could contact Ossinger, maybe he's got some extras sitting around somewhere. Call Luciano, he has plenty of leaves. Someone's gonna strike us down at PCA.

The McAuliffe Bold, it's probably a hit, there's gonna be a hit out on us, we're gonna have to lob and weave as we're going through the thing. Palmer, somebody wants to meet with you. Uh, no. No, not going.

I'm not going in any dark place by myself. Anywhere. Half Wheel wants to have you in their little room. Uh-uh, no, no, no.

I went in the Half Wheel room. We had shirts safe for you, everybody likes you. Yeah, I'm over here just not saying anything. Super innocent.

Luciano Cigars launches US Distribution, announces a new team member, and adds Adel Cigar Company to the distribution portfolio. Is he just trying to be in the news every week at this point? Every week he is, yes. Luciano Cigars has officially launched its US distribution operation today, as well as announcing the addition of several new team members, his dream team, by the way.

The dream team, yeah. And it will be distributing Adel Cigars, which he announced last week, but he's just throwing that in again, just get that in again. It was the latest development in a chain of events that began when Ace Prime announced in September that it would be ending its distribution agreement with Crown Heads and undergoing a rebranding to Luciano Cigars. The relationship between Crown Heads and Ace Prime Luciano Cigars came to an end on Monday.

His friend Skip, now Luciano Cigars will distribute a number of lines that were previously part of the Ace Prime. There's no reason why I said it. I just like to say it. Luciano, The Dreamer, Fiat Lux, Mass Agnius, Maria Lucia, Pichardo Clasico, Pichardo Reserva Familiar, The Sergeant, MXS, Andrian González, company noted that both Pichardo lines will be beginning to rebrand soon, and that the Sergeant will be adding new Vitolas, the private, the lieutenant.

Probably. Yeah. It's only rebranding, but a new heir in our company is at Luciano, President and CEO of Luciano Cigars, owner of the of Luciano Factory, maker of automobiles, and the inventor of the light bulb. We are expanding our farming, tobacco, processing, manufacturing.

Allegedly. Allegedly, yes. I'm humbled and grateful to have an incredible dream team and a friend like Skip Martin. And a place to distribute across the USA with in-house reps and broker partnerships.

Luciano Cigars will be launching a new line, ooh, online portal by the end of 2022 that will allow retailers to provide their retail partners with a way to schedule events, talk Talk to their sales representatives and place orders directly to the company's system. It's called a phone. Is this gonna be one or...? Just the one number.

Just the one phone number you can call now. Beyond distributing its own portfolio, Luciano Cigars also announces now distributing... Where are you talking about that? Trying to get who the new members are.

Independently. Oh, being co-founder... In addition, Rebecca Mariales has been announced as the company's new marketing officer. Isn't that his last name?

Luciano Omerialis? I guess that would make sense. Yes, it's a member of his family. And his new cigar coming out, called Nepotism, will be available.

What? I would hire my wife, too, once I'm just making jokes. As announced, the company's new marketing efforts will be overseeing the company's national and international marketing efforts, while Kristen, D-O-U-N-O-U-L-I-S, Dunoulis, joins the company as his distribution manager, The team members joined Ed Trevino, who was named the company's director of sales in late September. He's just repeating the information every week, isn't he?

Yeah, yeah. It's smart. It's brilliant. "As an athlete, I've always known the dedication, hard work, and talent is a recipe for success," said Tiago Splitter, co-founder and VP of Luciano Cigars, also the inventor of the automobile, and he thought of the lightbulb first.

Let's go first. What we experience today is just a consequence of these three exponential elements and the fact that we're just making shit up as we go along. Luciano Cigars. That's so.

It doesn't say that. No, no. It doesn't say that. Get in line.

Don't upset anybody. S. Warehouse located in West Palm. We should have went and saw him.

He's in West Palm. Damn. Damn it. Espinosa Ships, Lizona, 10 year anniversary.

Oh, we're smoking that for the show. Yes. Look at that. And you already had that printed.

Yeah, they just announced it this week. Oh. Hmm. That was fast.

Espinosa begins shipping the Luzona 10-year anniversary, a limited edition cigar created in celebration of the factory that makes a good portion of Espinosa's portfolio. 52 Toro that uses a Brazilian Oscuro Alto wrapper, which is the higher priming of the type of leaf that is used Espinosa's Orangeline. The binder and filler are both Nicaraguan and the filler including Palo de Oro tobacco, a flavorful but hard-to-grow varietal Hector Alfonso, Director of Operation Vestibles of Premium Cigars, calls Lozona 10-year anniversary a very full-flavored, but one that is not full-strength. Oh.

So, they made it for Jack, can't smoke. Full in flavor. But not strength. Jack can't smoke strong cigars.

Really? Big man, can't do the cigars though. Everything about the cigar is a tribute from the cigar blend to the box design and the brand, said Alfonso, who called the cigars throwbacks to win the company. He first started out and I was in charge.

Pricing is set at $13 per cigar, and cigars come packed in 30 count boxes at retail for $390. Production is limited to just 300 boxes, making for a total run of 9,000 cigars. Espinosa Premium Cigars, Lizona Cigar Factory launched just weeks apart and have had a working relationship since their respective openings. Oh, he doesn't own it?

Who, Hector? No, Espinosa owned Lizona? This just said they opened at the same time they got a good working relationship. Oh, I guess so.

Maybe. Maybe. We just assumed. The Lozonia 10-year anniversary was unveiled at the 2022 PCA Convention Trade Show in July.

While most of the company's new products from the trade show have not shipped to stores, the newest installment of the company's Las Provincia, Las 6 Provincia line, is still awaiting its release. Alfonso told Cigar Houser Podcast that the Las 6 Provincia CMW is looking like it will ship later this month, but a specific date has not yet been set. All right. Now we have a Florida story.

Do you want to Florida music? I mean, you did the Florida music. That's okay. It was just a bit for the one show.

And now it's done? No, you can still do it. I have it here. I'm so confused.

It's very loud. I didn't do the intro again, though. I'll just read the story while the music is going on. Naples woman's arrested after biting a deputy during a traffic stop.

A Naples woman bit off more than she could chew after being confronted by deputies following a traffic stop. Julia Frank, 23, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer According to the Collier County Sheriff's Office, Franklin was spotted around midnight on Thursday morning, driving 71 miles per hour through a 50 mile per hour zone on Immokalee Road near Twin Eagles Boulevard. After slamming on her brakes while passing a CCSO deputy patrol car, deputies performed a traffic stop. CCSO said deputies discovered the driver's license was suspended and Franklin also had an outstanding warrant for a writ of bodily attachment for contempt.

As deputies ordered her to get out of the vehicle, Franklin resisted and attempted to escape. Franklin bit a deputy on the ring finger during the struggle. Franklin's bite broke the deputy's skin, and the finger even started bleeding. The report said she has been held over.

Matt Ties says he loves you. Yes. And he's sorry for the ball busting. That's okay.

Don't worry. Nothing here. That's not going to stop him. He's a nice guy.

Come on. Don't be nice to Matt. Don't hurt him. Don't hurt Michael.

Don't hurt Michael. All right, Michael, we got a shop of the week. Do we have a shop of the week? We went and saw a couple.

Pick one of the ones we just visited, Michael. Okay. Maybe Gary. That's the one I was thinking.

Aficionado. Aficionados. Oh! Gary and aficionados.

Yeah. Listener of the week in camera three. Listener of the week? Shop of the week.

Shop of the week. week. Oh, yeah, he doesn't listen. Still on three.

There was someone that reached out to me. Who do you want to know? I put it on him. He did the shop.

I say the shop and hit the button. Not now. Now go back to two. Go back.

Go back. Two. Now three. Now back to three.

Now back to three. Now he's going to say the listener of the week. Oh, I have a listener of the week. Do you have a listener?

I have a listener of the week. Go ahead and I'll give it to you. Because there was, I was looking it up earlier today. Somebody had actually reached out to me and said, I love the show.

Listener of the Week, Abe Dababba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Dabba. Yes, he said he was going to listen to our show and watch it. Or he said he wanted to watch it, he didn't want to listen to it. Yeah, you think he's going to listen and watch?

I'm going to send him the link. You should send him the link. " No, I mean, he gives his opinions too, though. Sure.

He doesn't hold back. No, no. No. Well, we definitely don't hold back.

We definitely don't hold back. We don't hold back at all. Abe was cool as shit. We didn't even talk about our trip.

Uh, oh no, we did the Patreon last Friday is where we talked about it. Yeah. We've got 10 minutes. Briefly.

Yeah, man, it was a good trip, no? Yeah, it was a great trip. A lot of cigars. Phil's first trip with us.

Yeah. In Florida. In Florida. In Florida.

Yes, in Florida. Sorry, yes, Phil, in Florida. You did go to Buffalo with me. Right.

And now he's got lifelong friends because of it. I do, I do. Right, yeah, the Herf Podcast guy. He was loving that.

Down to Herf. Were you on their show recently or something? I was on their show one time, yes. No, like recently.

No, not. I thought they posted something the other day or something. No, it might have been like an answer to something I said on my show. Oh, okay.

Oh, now they come back and forth. So, we went, we saw Casey. Yes. Smoking.

Port St. Lucie? Yeah, PSL. Yeah.

PSL. PSL. Port St. Lucie.

And he's as crazy as ever. Yes, same old Casey. Gotta love that lunatic. You know, I met him in 2016 at the trade shows where I met him.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Does he remember that? Yeah, well, I don't know if he remembers where I met him, but he was still repping then.

Alec Bradley? I believe so. Mm. Yeah, you know, it was cool to see him, cool to see that shop, you know?

Yeah, it was a nice little shop. Never popped in there. it's not like i mean but our first two were not a sales call which was funny to me right because we're not we weren't whatever you know like i just wanted to see these yeah saying we're going by hanging out swinging and say hello yeah yeah you can't go to south floor i'll pop in on abe i mean uh you know so the first time i met abe and this is what i was trying to get to in our conversation but we never got to was i think it was the boynton location but it wasn't that one There's one in West Palm, which is the freestanding one you always see photos of. It wasn't a freestanding one, it was in a plaza, and it had like a little bar, like a little beer and wine bar on it, and it was like a Drew Estate event where I met Marvin for the first time.

Oh, okay, you've talked about that, but you didn't add Abe to the story. Yeah, no, and I met Abe at that time, and you know, that fucking guy was working hard then, you know? Right. That was 10 years ago or some shit.

And he also bought another one that was like classic cigars or something, and that was a freestanding full liquor spot, so, I mean, I've been to like six of these smoke-ins at this point, there was one, Pompano, there was one on Rock Island, I mean, I've been to a bunch of them at this point, has Ape been here? Uh, no, but he said he is coming to Orlando soon, and he wants to pop in and say, that's it, so, we'll see what happens, so you should, yeah, you should come in, I'm gonna make sure that my assistant has a call for me from Francois, from Francois, make up a new name, not Francois, Luciano, you gotta take a picture too, Luciano's calling with my charcuterie board, I gotta take this call, could you just step out, answer the phone, Luciano! He's got a cool little shop there, man. That is a very nice shop.

Yeah. It's well designed. Did you go in there? You didn't go in the humidor.

No, I did not. Over in the back corner, the back left corner, there was another glass, frosted glass door with a key code on the thing. Oh, yeah? For fancy, fancy cigarettes.

I mean, you couldn't even see what was in there. Oh, special stuff. It was like a Legends Lounge or something like that. I mean, it wasn't big.

You'd walk in and turn, and I think that was it, like a small walk-in closet. But it would look nice. I struggle going into a humidor because I instantly start straightening. You start straightening stuff.

You start straightening stuff. You start straightening stuff. I'm like, the fuck, this is the, you know, like, this is not. Wasn't a lot allowed to do in that one.

Well, that's good, good. I mean, I mean. Very tall ceilings in that place. You don't want to get the, you know, the bear out there yelling at you like, what the fuck?

I mean, he's right there. You know, it's not like it's, you know, Casey's place. Right. I mean, Casey was very clean, but it could have been a disaster.

And it's not like anybody would have known. Yeah, nobody would have known but Casey. Yeah. Right.

But if it was, Casey would know. Right. And that would bother Casey. Yeah, he went in Saturday morning this week to straighten the shop in the humidor.

Oh, yeah? You put that on Facebook. Hmm. Some of his posts are a little weird.

I love his dog. I want to meet his, uh, he's got a Ridgeback, a beautiful Ridgeback. Oh, yeah? I feel like...

Named Thor or something like that. He's got, he's got to be like super rich or something. I don't know what's going on with him. He must have made a lot of money before.

Yeah, he must have been really good. He must have did something really good. His house looks really nice. Yeah.

And he smokes in it. At least the pictures. I smoke, and he makes his own sushi. Oh, does he really?

Yeah. Oh, like with the rice paper and everything? Oh, like usually sashimi or whatever. Oh, that's just cutting up fish.

Yeah, but you got to get that quality, that grade. Well, you just buy fancier fish. How do you get that? Well, when you said make it, I pictured, you know, like he's got that mat that you're rolling in and, you know, flipping the knife around and everything.

Yeah, he goes to Whole Foods. You think Whole Foods has it? I don't know if I believe either one of you. He lives right there on the coast, he goes out and buys it off a boat.

Lombardy seafood, I think, might have it. When you live on the coast like that, you can go down to the docks and buy more boats when it comes out. Salmon? Well, they probably don't have salmon.

Publix has sushi great salmon. Yeah, Publix does. You need a wild Alaskan salmon. Maybe he goes to Alaska.

Maybe he knows a guy. This is probably Casey probably knows a guy. And then we went, we saw my boy Gary. Doug Gary.

And aficionados. And we learned about how the bad stuff's coming. It's the end of the world. End of the world.

You know. He's a great guy, though. He's cool. Where are we all moving?

Nepal? He's just so... Portugal. Portugal!

We're all moving to Portugal. We're all going. He's just so angry. It's just such a relief to me.

He's understated anger, though. He's not mad, but he's angry. Yeah. Right.

Like, this has happened, this has happened, these people are coming, so we're all just gonna go to Portugal. I just, you know, I just enjoy... Me and my grandchildren. He never raised his voice, he never got mad, he just, this is, A, B is happening, so we're doing C.

I'm gonna tell you this, as I have grown into this industry, it's so much more fun to just go see the people that you like to see and just not bother fucking with anybody else. I was like, I don't even want to waste my time. You know, I don't care if I'm going to see people that are buying or not, like these are the, this is the route that I'm going, I'm gonna check in with these dudes, I'm gonna check in with these dudes, you know. And that's it.

That's it. I'm not going to, I'm not showing up with a fucking briefcase and trying to sell you vacuum cleaners. Right. It's not that guy.

The fuller brush guy anymore. I'm done doing this. I mean, if I wanted to take the abuse, I could always, you know, call some accounts or whatever. You know.

Right. Hey, you're new. Throw a dart at a map. Okay, I'm calling this one.

Hello, who's this? You need to check on Mark Palmer at the new one he's at. He's not there. Oh, he just hangs out there?

Yeah. Ah. I just spoke with him. Couldn't tell from the post.

Yeah. Gotcha. But that is a, you know, that's a spot that's on my radar for sure. Right?

Absolutely. Jensen's not that far. Yeah. Maybe we'll just go stop in.

Sure. What do you guys care? You guys fucking sleep in the car. I drive.

He sleeps. I know you take photos. I don't sleep. You fucking slept.

I passed out, but I was trying to stay awake. Yeah. I had a great time at Daniel's. I passed out sitting up.

Listen. He wasn't lounging back in the state drooling at the side of my mouth like Phil there. Daniel is the man. Yes.

I love smoke on the water. It's a great shop. It's a fucking beautiful shop. And Joaquin in the humidor, that guy is fucking on point.

" Oh my God, you know your shit. I don't know what that means, I have to ask somebody. If they didn't have those guys on the staff though, and Daniel wasn't, If Daniel wasn't, if it was like a different owner and stuff like that, like, I don't think it'd be the same place. No, yeah, it'd be some pretentious prick fucking, oh my God, a hundred percent.

And I'd be like, fuck this place. Did Danny open it from scratch or did he buy it? Yeah, no, he built it from the ground up. Very nice.

Yeah. It's awesome. I think I've said this before, but I'll happily say it again. The first time I met Danny, I walked in there and I was, you know, I was finding myself as a wholesaler.

I was wearing a button-up shirt or whatever, and I was like, there's a guy mopping, and he's the only person there, it was early in the morning or whatever, and I was like, I'm looking for Daniel. He's like, the guy mopping goes, I'm Daniel. I was like, we are going to get along, man. Yeah, you're my guy.

I thought you said the owner, Daniel. And he goes, no, no, that's me. Oh, I said, I'm looking for Daniel. Oh, I thought when he said Daniel, I thought then you, you answered back with, oh, the owner.

No, no, no. If he's mopping a bathroom. So what? Well, he doesn't look like he would own that type of place.

Just his demeanor. Yeah, but when he said that, I knew that he was the guy. Oh, okay. He doesn't, but that's what makes it better.

That's what absolutely adds, you know. What was he drinking? Johnny Walker. Oh, all the time.

Black. Oh, okay. That's his thing. I know that's what he drank here that time he was here.

I didn't know what he was drinking there. I'm just curious. That's his move. The guy's not fucking around.

The guy's not fucking around. The guy's not fucking around. Yeah. Very little ice.

Yeah. Yeah. And we got to hang out with my Mello. My Mello came out.

My boy. Oh yeah, who is he? Dude, he's just been a lifelong friend. You know, and his brother, who I like to call Shmooly.

Was that the other guy that was there? Yeah. Oh, they were related. They didn't look like they were brothers.

Yeah. They're brothers. Oh. Okay.

And they're so totally different. It's fucking, you know. No, I'm just talking about those people. Oh, okay.

You know. Oh, all right. There's just two different perspectives and attitudes on life, and it's just, it's awesome. They're, you know, somebody else, Billy came out to see us.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Oh, okay.

I don't remember Billy. Billy. Yeah, you remember Billy? Oh, my friend, Bill.

I don't call him Billy. I call him Bill. Sorry. I thought you were talking about somebody else.

No. Bill Preeto. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't call him Billy. Oh, I thought you called him Billy. No, no. His wife's name is Lily.

Lily and Billy. No, Lily and Bill. Billy and Lily. Lily and Bill.

He don't like Billy. You don't like Billy? He's a good guy. It's okay.

My wife introduces me as Mikey to everybody. It's so weird. Because she's the only one who calls me Mikey. Oh.

But now other people call me Mikey. Everybody calls you Mikey, I thought. You call me Mikey? You do?

I call you Michael. You call me Michael? I mean, I don't care either way. Mike's Mike, so I mean...

But I refer to you as Mikey all the time. I've had situations where people have introduced me and go, this is Mikey. And I'm like, fuck. Yeah, I guess I am.

I thought everybody calls you Mikey. Did I call you Mike? No. Oh.

It's a thing. Yeah, it's a thing. That's what everybody calls you. Yeah.

Oh. Hmm. So there it is. There we go.

How about that? So yeah. We hung out with smoke on the water the longest. Oh, yeah.

For sure. Oh, and now you're an honorary... Oh, now you have a key to the bathroom. I got a key, baby.

With the fancy bathroom. That's right. I do have a key. Yes.

Did you lose it already? I don't think so. Oh. Leave it here.

Let us hold on to it for it. Yeah, leave it here. They may have lost it already. If you don't leave it here, you're gonna lose it.

You gave it to the kids. The kids are running around, going to the bathroom, right in front of the door, in front of the bathroom. Beep, beep, beep. I gotta pee, daddy need the key.

Beep. So yeah. And then I drove home by myself. We were in the car.

You two fucks are sleeping. I wasn't out 20 minutes. You were out. I had a good reason.

But I passed out sitting up. You wouldn't even, no one would talk to me. You couldn't hear me in the backseat anyway. I think that's most four neanderthals on the window.

The window's down, the roof is open, I put my noise-counseling earpods in, 'cause of all the wind in the bag seat. I love it, it's a nice little ambiance. After we all smoked about 15 cigars already. That's a lot of cigars.

That's what happens when you're on the road. I love the fact that, you know, you guys, like, I don't need to eat. Like, I got my nuts, you know, I got the protein shake. It's all the time.

What? It's all the time. It's all the time what? You don't need to eat.

Yeah. What do you mean? Listen, what was different about your diet, other than we want to go get a steak? It didn't change your diet any.

You just, instead of the chicken, you had the 12 protein drinks. Yeah. So you ate, you just drank your food. I carried my shit with me.

Yeah. Well, if you would have made known, normally we stop for at least one meal when we're on the road. I got you the real. No, yes, you did, but you're complaining.

Yeah. If we didn't ask, you weren't going to. And Palmer's older, man. Like, no, I was going to stop him and get you guys food.

Well, see, then what's the big deal? You keep bringing up, we had to eat. The way that it was brought up to me. You know.

Well, we did it when we have time. Yeah, there was no way you were going to think about it because we only had like two more hours left and you were in deep conversation with Gary. " We need to get some food. You're hungry?

I'm hungry. We got to eat something. Why don't you just door dash something in the aficionados? Well, we were going to leave.

Well, we didn't. Well, see, you door dash something, then while it's on the way, you're like, "Okay, let's go. " Right. I love you guys.

I appreciate you guys. Just going with the flow. That was very nice. Just doing the best we can, Michael.

Just trying to keep up. Just keeping up with the baby tornado. That's right. Got to keep up with the schedule.

Nobody knows the schedule but you. Nobody knows what time we're leaving, what time we're coming in. Tasmanian devil. You just got to feel it out.

You know? I mean, who knows? We didn't complain except for we'd like food before we get to the night. We could have got locked in at Abe's for another hour.

Could have. That could have easily happened. You had semi-times for the other two. Yeah.

That could have been maybe another 30 minutes. I think, but you know what, man, depending upon how the conversation goes and how things kind of develop, and you're sitting there bullshitting, you could be there a while. Well, sure, sure you could. Well, I guess Abe came and looked for us.

Yeah, he came right after we had left. Yeah. Right. Oh, we should have taken a picture.

You guys left too soon. Yeah. It's a long conversation. It's a long distance.

It's just, but it's, I mean, what's really cool with Abe is there's just so many different things that, that are similar. Sure. Yeah. Right.

You know, with the podcast and, you know, everything else that you can legitimately talk about so many different things, aspects in this industry. So. Right. Did you watch his show this week?

No. I meant to, but we were, uh, we were done with the other thing. Yeah. I'm on strike.

I'm not. Oh, I get notification every week when it comes on. I won't watch his if he doesn't watch mine. That's it.

Oh. I went to see the new format. Oh, yeah? How was it?

I didn't watch it as I said I didn't watch it. So what'd you think? It was good. I kept waiting on the maker of the week, but it never happened.

Meet your maker? Yeah, meet your maker. Yeah. You know, I did meet your maker twice.

Did you? Yes. What'd you make? I did it for Florinata.

Oh. And then once from the Florida Cigar Club. Oh. One of those things you made.

Well, yes, but I was the handler with Florinata. I took him with me. What was his name? He's gone.

Joan. Joan. He's having a baby. Balkey.

He's having a baby. I still follow him on social media, but I don't hear from him anymore. He's just falling off. He was in some foreign country the other day with his wife.

I don't know where he is. It's a tough industry, man. He might not even live here anymore. It's a tough industry.

I don't know. Because he was, what, going to be a pilot, last I heard? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

All right. All right. Anything else? Anybody?

Phil, you got anything else? Just make sure. Go ahead, Phil. I thought we were friends.

Just make sure you catch the Patreon here in a little bit. Yeah. Alright, the video version of the Patreon. Alright.

Alright guys, we gotta go. I don't have nothing to turn off. Thank you. Thank you very much, guys.

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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 couldn't get past Hojo! I don't even have to try it.

He's not even going to try it. 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. It's going to be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.

Show Notes

Seems Mikey is still mad about the two year Bang Joke...he tries again to get BDP back with a small victory...and yes industry news and some of the famous witty banter....