Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 327 PCA Trade Show: Highs and Lows

Episode Summary

Episode 327 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a post-mortem on the 2024 PCA Trade Show in Las Vegas, recorded back home in Deltona, Florida with Mike Szczepankewicz, Mike "BDP" Palmer and engineer Phil. After the usual banter about Easter, a running gag about whose podcast it actually is, and half the crew coming home sick from the show, the guys get into what PCA was really like from the exhibitor side of the booth.

The meat of the episode is Palmer's critique of PCA booth placement: the biggest brands — Rocky Patel, Plasencia, Arturo Fuente, J.C. Newman, Foundation, Gurkha — cluster in the middle of the hall where the crowd stays, leaving smaller and boutique companies stranded on the perimeter. Mikey counters that the points-based system rewards marketing spend, and argues that retailers who really want to build a brand will find you anyway — they signed seven or eight new accounts, including Bobby Duncan of Cigar District and a new Houston shop, Cigars For You. That leads into a candid conversation about the three-way responsibility between brand, rep and retailer (Pete Johnson's "3-3-3" idea), the difference between retailers who invest in a line and those who only want cigars that sell themselves, and the validation of landing two cigars on Halfwheel's Top 25.

There are genuine highs too: Brooks from Halfwheel praising Mikey's Connecticut blend and arranging extra coverage, and Michael Herklots stopping to compliment his authenticity and work ethic — moments that cut through the anxiety, exhaustion and away-from-family lows of working a trade show. Along the way they recap photo ops with Luciano Meirelles and David Garofalo, interviews still stuck on an SD card (Guy Fieri, Steve Saka, Justin Andrews), Matt Booth's no-show interviews and the El Septimo Hellraiser lighter giveaway that came out of it, Espinosa's house, Skip Martin, Ceniza Fina's upcoming vitolas including a box press, Nick Melillo, and the crew's night-by-night Vegas itinerary.

They close with logistics gripes — the Las Vegas Convention Center versus the old Sands/Palazzo setup, the underwhelming $5 Tesla Loop, Resorts World's smoking-friendly center bar, and a lackluster Media House rental — plus listener and retailer of the week shoutouts to Bobby Duncan of Cigar District and Bull Weevil Cigars in Enterprise, Alabama, and a preview of the upcoming move to New Orleans, where their booth will sit between Padrón and Drew Estate.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Post-PCA Recovery and Show Housekeeping
   The crew recaps Easter, everyone getting sick at PCA, a 17-hour airport layover, and YouTube shutting off comments on cigar channels forcing a new Instagram giveaway process.
2. 02
   Booth Placement Politics at PCA
   Palmer argues PCA should spread the big brands to the corners so traffic flows past boutiques, while Mikey explains the points/marketing-spend system that rewards the biggest spenders.
3. 03
   New Retailers and What Makes a Real Partner
   Seven or eight new accounts signed, including Cigar District's Bobby Duncan and Cigars For You in Houston, plus a frank take on retailers who buy but never sell.
4. 04
   Brand, Rep and Retailer Responsibility
   A breakdown of the 3-3-3 concept Pete Johnson discussed — marketing, rep contact and retail education all have to work in unison.
5. 05
   Highs of the Show: Halfwheel and Herklots
   Brooks from Halfwheel praising the Connecticut blend and Michael Herklots complimenting Mikey's authenticity were the emotional high points of a grueling week.
6. 06
   Interviews, Photos and Matt Booth's No-Shows
   Recaps of the Guy Fieri, Steve Saka and Justin Andrews interviews still unedited, photos with Luciano Meirelles and David Garofalo, and the El Septimo Hellraiser lighter Matt Booth handed over.
7. 07
   Las Vegas Logistics and the Media House
   Complaints about the Las Vegas Convention Center versus the Sands/Palazzo, the underwhelming Tesla Loop, Resorts World's smoking-friendly layout and a lackluster Media House.
8. 08
   Giveaways, Shoutouts and Looking to New Orleans
   Listener of the week Bobby Duncan, retailer of the week Bull Weevil Cigars, and a preview of next year's booth between Padrón and Drew Estate.

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

"Everybody stand by. Industry is in the house. So I've been and who I am, all the ways I've grown. Blood in the sweat, tears in with me, and my and stone.

Here he is, the controversial, but legendary, BDV. Yeah, I'm dead. It's my destiny. Make way for the king.

Another Mike and Mike production. In 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Episode 327. Recorded live at the Mike & Mike Production Studios in Deltona, Florida.

This is Mike Szczepankewicz Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the show where one guy shares his passion for cigars, business, and life. P. Palmer, as Mikey talks about the latest cigar news, reviews, tips, and interviews some of the most influential people in the cigar industry. And me, I'm his engineer, and sounds like Phil, just go ahead.

Oh, this show is going to be bananas right here. Bananas. One, one. Thank you.

Welcome to Mike Szczefankewicz's Cigar Hustler Podcast, a show brought to you commercial free because he says so, but a massive shout out to his amazing patrons on Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, he's able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions on all things cigars and personalities. And he's in the cigar world, your backing makes it possible for him to keep it real for his listeners. Cheers to you.

com and search Cigar Hustlers Podcast. I don't understand. What did I do? You're real good.

Okay, go to two. You're always good about us and we when you talk about cigars, but this trip, it was your podcast. I have a podcast. My podcast.

I knew this was going to happen. He was talking about it during the show. I was like, whoa. Every time you talked about the show, all the, the media, the media house especially was your podcast.

I have a podcast, my podcast, this, when I do my podcast. Oh my God. From now on, I'm just gonna call it Mike Palmer's Cereal House's podcast. Don't call it mine, it's ours.

No, it's Mike Palmer's. We all work together. It's Mike and Mike production, not Mike production. Mike Palmer's podcast.

No, no, it's not Mike. Yeah, it's not Mike. If you say it's Mike's podcast, then he won't get as mad. There you go.

Exactly. Nobody will know, but this show... Oh, this show is gonna be bananas right here. It's gonna be bananas.

Bananas. I found the Never To Be Heard Patreon episode today. And you instantly went to the sound. Filed in a weird place.

I don't know why it was there. But I have the audio, not the video. Documented under your OnlyFans files. Yes, my OnlyFans files.

Your foot fetish files. Foot fetish OnlyFans files. So we're back in the PCA. What'd you do this weekend?

It was Easter. It was Easter. Yes. I did survive Easter.

Did you guys go to Mass? It's Mass with you. No, we didn't go to Mass. You didn't go to Mass?

No. That's big with you people. I'm very sorry. I figured you would go.

I don't know. You can go to two. Yeah. Going back and forth.

I got a thank you from my production team. Ah. Put the green screen. Yes.

We're back and forth. Really? You didn't go? No, I didn't go.

Oh. No. We went. Did you?

Yeah. I said a prayer for you. Thank you. Adrian really enjoys going.

If you could pray a little harder and a little bit faster for me, that'd be fantastic. I need a little more here. You need a little more? A little low.

Running low. I'll see what I can do. Thank you very much. By the way, I cannot go Friday.

You can't go Friday? No. It's a little too close. It's too close.

Yeah, to being gone the last Friday. Ah, I got it. And we have Jeff and Becky coming in again, apparently. Ah, okay.

Hey, so we're giving this away. We're giving away, but we're not sure how to do it. I'm not sure how to do it at this point, no. Okay, it just happened today, apparently.

YouTube has closed commenting on cigar shows. Now all of ours are not done, and it seems like it's more prevalent if you go on your phone than if you go on the laptop. Interesting. John McTavish discovered it, and he turned theirs back on, and then it got turned back off.

So we don't know if this is another... But there's a button for it? There is an on and off, yeah. You can turn comments on and off, because if you do a show you don't want people to talk about, you can turn commenting off.

No comment for you. Right, no commenting. But, yeah, so I don't know if that'll work or not. Okay, so here's what you do.

You can like it, you can comment. No, here's what you do. Okay. Yeah, you like and subscribe on our YouTube channel.

Episode 327. And then go to Cigar Hustlers Podcast Instagram. Oh, okay. And then just comment on the latest photo.

I'll put up the photo for the show. Yeah, and then just say done. So they gotta go two places. Yeah, you gotta go two places.

It's a lot of work. It's a little complicated. It's an autograph, back to a two please. It's an autograph by Guy Fieri.

It's an autograph by Guy Fieri and it's still sealed. It's a sealed box. It's beautiful. We're the only ones that have this.

And delicious. It's very rare. Very rare. Very rare.

We have an interview with Guy Fieri, which will be up, I don't know, whenever Mikey gives me the SD card. What? I'm working on it, dude. How hard is it to go?

I'll hand you the whole machine. I'm going to give you the... I don't know where the SD card is on the machine. Oh, so you still need me then.

- I still need you to give me the SD card. Is it a teeny tiny one? - It's a teeny tiny one. - Don't give me the SD card.

I'll lose that. - So now I have to have an adapter. - I have an adapter. - It's all in the bag.

- Oh, just give me the bag. I'll figure it out. - I'll give you the bag. - Oh, it's stuck in my thumb.

- I'll give you the bag. - Okay. - All right. I mean, I was gonna crop it and edit it out and stuff.

- Did you use the camera for your Easter video? - No. - Britney's phone? - That was all Britney, yeah.

- That was nice. I like the music. - Yeah, she did use the CapCut though. - I use it all the time.

- So yeah, we did the Easter thing. Yeah. That was nice. We had, you know, family.

So the rabbit prints, was that like cookie crumbs or something, dirt? No, it was dirt. The rabbit walks in dirt. Did you get in trouble and have to sweep afterwards?

Did I get in trouble? Normally, you're in charge of sweeping. I vacuumed it up, but I didn't get in trouble. Oh.

I don't like dirt. Well, you know, I cleaned it up. Well, dirt made sense, so I saw it on the counter and I thought, well, maybe it's like cookie crumbs. No, it was dirt.

Oh, it was nice. Yeah. That would be a lot of cookies. Yeah.

They pay no, there's no expense spared when the Stepan Kavages are decorating. You're telling me, Matt. Yeah, we went to Universal on Saturday. Oh!

Yeah, a little dabbling. Yeah? Wasn't it busy? Last day of spring break?

Weekend? It was, it was a little busy. Yeah? It wasn't too bad.

It wasn't too bad. We weren't there for an extremely long time. Day before Easter, people probably have family. You figure people would be in town or whatever, but...

Right. It wasn't too bad. We just did a couple things. Kept it light.

Just tried to get out of the house, man. Yeah, it was what we did Saturday too, but we just went to a swamp house. Yeah. You don't have kids.

Right. We liked the live music and we had lunch and sat by the water for a while. It's a nice, relaxing, zenful place. Yeah, it is.

It's a nice little place. I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things here. Right. That's the hardest part about going this goddamn...

I mean, there's a lot of hard things about PCA though, don't get me wrong. Right. But getting back into routine is difficult. Well, especially when you take the red eye back.

I'm sure. I can only imagine. Yeah, I can only imagine how hard that is. I can only imagine what you guys are going through.

Very difficult thing. 17 hours I spent at the airport. Wasn't there a movie where there was a guy that was like living at the airport? Tom Hanks.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's kind of how you look when we found you. Well, I found you two.

They got snagged in security. I'm just doing laps because I don't want to leave the terminal. So I'm doing laps, and I walk by, and they're both at two separate sides, both getting patted down because they both have done something. Right.

I saw that. Like, oh, they're there, my friend. Is Chet still dead? Chet is still dead.

Yes. He has, he has COVID. Yeah. He has an ear infection.

He has a sinus infection. And something's wrong with his teeth, his teeth are. Yes. Wow.

Man, I'm going to tell you, my ears though, when we were getting ready to land, that guy pressurized the cabin By doing all those turns and everything so hard? Yeah, I had a while for my ears to pop when I got home. Oh man, that hurt. And then, you know, then I still sound nasally that that's been a pain in the ass.

I think everybody got sick at PCA. I heard, I called, I tried to get-- Not Jack. Jack's not a pussy. He's not sick.

I tried to get Nick Malillo on the phone today. He said, oh, the whole team got sick and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, it takes just one guy. Yeah.

One guy to get sick on the trip to get everybody sick. Yeah, just takes the one dude. Just the one. It wasn't me.

It wasn't me. You were sick during the trip. I had a sunburn. I wasn't sick sick.

Yeah, I heard sinus. You said sinus. You said sinus. Yeah.

Well, I had a... Does that have something to do with the sun? No, that had to do with the dry air, and then Greg gave me the salient. It was the dry air.

My sinuses were better after a day. I don't know. I don't know about that. I don't know.

That last day, you were very sick. You missed half the day. Yeah. I missed half the day because of my legs.

And then he rallied. Right. Party. m.

Yeah. He's a party animal, right, a guy does parties all the time. A couple of drinks, can't feel the thighs, he's ready to go. Right, yeah.

And then he went to the beach as soon as he got back. Yeah. So he must have been fine. I did, I took the kids.

I think it was fine. He's a wild, he was wild, wild and out. A lot of beach, a lot of beach things. DJ life.

Yeah, all right, he DJ'd all weekend, right? DJ Boots. Yeah, DJ Boots. That's right.

He's a party, party guy. Party guy. Yeah. All about the party.

Look, we hit a nerve, he's being played. Latin night. He's now in Latin. Yeah, he's Latin.

Landon night. Landon night on Friday. Friday's his life. I'm not letting him.

Saturday night's is just DJ Boots night. Yeah. Not even, 'cause somebody co-headlined with him on Friday. Yeah, he had one of those boys.

Somebody, and then Saturday, Justin. Didn't need anybody else. That's it, you're done. You're done, you're done.

I need no one. I am DJ Boots. Big banner right across to DJ Chet. Poor Chet.

Yeah, that's one of those fucking... You probably got him sick. Never heard of him. Yeah, Chet Ho.

Never heard of him. Fuck it. Who's got all these presets on these boards? This is terrible.

Let me turn all this off. We delete, delete, delete. What's his email? Chet @gutbye.

Oh, wow. Look at this. Chet who? Oh, APS Chet.

Oh. So, you want to get into PCA a little bit? Uh, sure, because Jack wants more information. He needs more intel.

More intel. Jack needs to know. Jack needs to know things. Jack needs to know about how PCA went.

Right. How did PCA go? Um, seemed like there was a lot of people. It was a decent number, I think.

I feel like it was a good turnout. I would say it was. We got some new retailers. Oh, did you?

Yeah. How many new ones did you sign up? Uh, like seven or eight. Oh.

Yeah. And they're all fans of the show. Most of them come up and go, ah, because of the show. Well, Bobby Duncan, Cigar District, is a fan of the show.

Well, there was more than one. But I mean, I distinctly remember Bobby. Oh, yes, yes, yes. We had a brief conversation with him.

Yes, he was very happy to meet him. Yeah. It's cool because he's like, I feel like I know you because you talk about everything. He's talking about your wife and kids and stuff.

I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. I know about your kids and I'm stalking all of them. I know. Wow.

He doesn't strike me as a stalker. No, no, he's very nice. He seems like a sweet man. Very, very nice.

You'd be nice to Bobby. I like Bobby. I like Bobby. Should've taken a picture.

Should've taken a picture. Should've taken a picture. Take a picture with Bobby. Yeah.

So what else? Go ahead. You were gonna say something. You held back.

No, I didn't. No, I thought about the photos I took, but we can get into that later. We'll do that later. So the show went well.

We started the build out. We were ahead of schedule or we arrived. 'Cause we showed up 17 days in advance. 17 days in advance.

You know, honestly, honestly, I don't think we could have showed up. I think that was the perfect time for us to show up. Oh, yeah? Because the next day when we got going, yeah, I don't think, how would you have arrived that day and already, like, run all the errands and stuff we did?

Yeah, what had already been done. Get the food and checked in the hotel. Yeah. Divvy up who's staying with who.

Yeah. We had determined that prior to. Well, when they didn't know it though. Yeah.

I don't know. Did you guys bring home the air mattress, or did you leave it there? I think Chet left it. He's probably done with it by that point.

Yeah. Poor Chet sleeping on the air mattress. Poor Chet. Didn't trade with him for a night or anything?

Like, "Hey, your back might hurt. " Chet couldn't even sleep. He kept going in and out of the room. He was running up and down the hallway at one point.

That's probably how he got sick, because he didn't sleep at all, probably. Yeah, he definitely ran down. And then ran down. You should just let him sleep in your bed with you.

I tried that in the beginning. Didn't like to cuddle? Nope. Hmm.

I told him, I was like, bro, you can have half the bed, like, that way you can get some sleep. He's like, no, I'll just do the air matches. I'm like, okay, I'm telling you, you can have half the bed. I asked him if he was okay.

He's never gonna say no. He's one of those guys. I would've got him a room. He's just that guy, he's not gonna say no.

I would've got him a room. Oh, well, the next year, I was very uncomfortable. You can get your own room. Why do I have to get my own?

You're going to get one for him. He's handling the sales. I was handling everything else. You were?

Yes. Very intricate part of the operation. I was going to get sensitive if you say something. Did you have a problem staying in the room with me?

No, no, it's fine. Was there any issues? No, honestly. No.

Why were there issues? No. I don't know. Oh, there's an issue.

There was one, but we worked out the nighttime music chit chat thing that was going on. Ah, yeah. I like the meditation music. Well, the music is fine.

The first night there was talking. I thought you were mumbling in your sleep over there. I got rid of the positive affirmations. What the hell is he talking about all night?

I got rid of the positive affirmations. Like instead of the night terror, now he mumbles? You got nervous? Yeah, I didn't know what was going on.

Yeah. I enjoy it. I like the music, the music was nice. The harpy...

It's a lot better than Greg's gagging, coughing, and snoring. Well, I heard the same thing from you. Yeah, I heard the rhinoceros there. One night from it, Greg was ridiculous.

But he wasn't sick. He wasn't sick. It was almost like Greg was gagging in his sleep. Well, maybe Jet was up off the floor.

I booked my flight to Nicaragua. Oh, you did, finally. Did you get your passport all worked out? Yep.

Oh, good for you. Squared away. Good for you. We're gonna try to do a show from there.

Are we? I thought that's why we decided. Okay. That's what you said.

Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of great ideas. I'm just living through life. Is that not one of them? Yeah, that's great.

We don't have a Phil's Fun Fact unless you can make one up. Oh. As you're putting on the mask over there. Our Phil's Fun Fact team sort of fell short this week.

Ahem. Oh. They quit? Apparently.

They're done. Apparently it was just the three weeks. That's why there's a big X over on the paper. Oh.

You do not understand that's what that meant. How about the fact, okay, let's get into PCA here. Okay. How about the fact that Luciano has no idea who you are and he takes a picture of you?

Yes, he has no idea who I am and he took a picture of you. That was absolutely amazing. He was walking back around by our booth, probably coming back to the bathroom, I'm guessing, but he was going the long way through, and I saw him and went, "Oh, Mr. " Of course.

Of course. It is a great honor for me. Boots, take a picture. So, Boots took a picture and...

Yeah, Jack didn't get the joke. No, Jack was upset. No, you heard his feelings. Yeah, he was upset.

But I also got a photo with David Garofalo, my new best friend. He's not my friend. Yeah. But he knew who you were.

He knew who I was. That's right. " He goes, "So you're one and I'm two. " See, you guys are buddies now.

Yeah, now we're buddies. You guys are besties. That's a great number two show. It's a great number two show.

Great number two show. He's a very nice man. He got the chance. Very nice.

That was funny. He was out there making friends. Sure. Yeah.

What'd you get a picture with? What else? You didn't take pictures, did you? Oh, a lot of people.

I have watched some of your interviews, they were quite well. Yeah. But a lot of them aren't up yet. Really?

Smoking tobacco. Yeah. And I'm in that one. Are you?

Yes. Matt asked me to photobomb, so I walked across the back, stopped, lit a cigar, and then kept walking. Nice. Matt asked me to, so I did.

And then Cigar Phil, or Cigar Pete, or something like that, I forget, I apologize, it was a good interview. Bob the Cigar Guy? No, it wasn't Bob. No?

Just that one, it's the only one I saw. Oh, okay. So maybe they're like us, maybe one guy's hoarding the footage and everybody can't get it done. That could be it.

Somebody's just holding all the intel. Somebody's holding all the data. Yeah. How about that cigar only has their first one up?

Because I was looking for that one. They did Sin, the lady with all the giant boots and the piercings and things. Dissident? Yeah, that one.

That one. Yeah. That's cool. Coop's put up all his photos, but he didn't take a photo of you.

Coop? Can't take a photo, no. We got an interview with Guy Fieri. We did.

It went really good. We don't have that yet either. Fuck, man. God damn, bro.

How was it look? Have you viewed it or anything? Yeah, I did. And that was good?

Sound quality, everything? Yeah. That sound quality went fine. Because it was not loud.

The, um, Justin Andrews one? Well, there was some big announcement right in the middle of the interview. Yeah, that one won't see the light of day. Oh, well, going to file with Pedro.

That was a terrible one. Ooh, we could dub in. I haven't listened. Let's dub in.

Yeah, that would be great. Take a small piece of it and you be you and I'll be Justin Andrews. We'll dub in something. Okay.

That'd be funny. It wasn't Because we'd like to fuck with him. Sure. Then what were you going to say?

And then we have the soccer interview. Didn't that one went well? I think. I didn't listen to that one.

Are you going to look at that one? You didn't notice your hand in front of his face? I haven't. Like he talked with his hands and the angle I was at every time he put his hand up it was right in front of his face between me and the camera.

Wow. It was funny. Well, he was in story mode. Right, oh no, that's just the way he talks, you know, he's very animated with his hands, but because of the angle I was forcing it, because Mikey was on a couch and he was on a chair, his hand kept going in front of Saka's face.

Duque is already looking for the interview. Is he? Yes. I love Duque.

He's a very nice man. He's a good dude. I like him too. I have to tag him at the minute it goes up.

He's a very nice man. I have a problem with the booth locations. I like to talk about the booth locations. Okay, let's get into some of your PCA quorms.

They had, all the big guys were more down the middle. Yeah. So everybody was running, so that's where the crowd stayed. Right.

Why don't they sort of divide up and make the big guys and like, you know, divide them up so the crowd moves through the smaller company? That's the way that they have the systems built. So it's a point to your system. So the more points you spend, the more ad space you buy, the more marketing dollars you invest, The priority space goes to you.

Okay. But why can't they assign space? I mean, what difference does it make if Plasencia is in the back corner or smack in the middle? You're going to go there if you want to see Plasencia.

Yeah, everybody's going to go see Plasencia. Well, and with Gurkha, if they're going to bring in Mike Tyson, put him in the back. They got to walk through everybody to get to that. You got to remember that this is an ego driven industry, brother.

But why can't PCA make- Just say, "Hey, milk goes in the back. Everybody's buying milk, motherfucker. " you know and help out you know you're right because the middle was always grow the industry the rocky patel the placentia the arturo fuente the jc newman the even foundation which isn't a big company but they were in the front front and center yeah right gerka all these guys with the big things do do like four corners bump bump leave the p the bca guys over there on the side nobody goes there anyway who cares about that the boutique cigar association you know wasn't a huge You know what? You're not wrong.

You're not wrong. I agree with some of what you're saying. Part of me says, I don't want to deal with these motherfucking retailers that aren't fucking serious anyways, though. Well, maybe.

Because a lot of them are going to be, well, you know, I sell my mainstream bullshit and like, okay, you're not going to invest and try and build a brand either. So what are you going to do? You're going to come by my fucking booth and then just take some cigars from me just to get some free cigars? Well, you're gonna have to do a little more weeding out by you, it might involve a little more work with you, but you might get more exposure.

That's probably true. " Is that what happened? Sometimes, or we meant to come by, but we got delayed somewhere else, and we just ran out of time. Yeah, I had a couple of people ask where...

I mean, so we had, you had to have looked for us to find us. Yeah, and, but look, we've had new retailers look for us. Yes, yes, you did. That's my point.

So, like, how, how fucking, so, like, I'm sorry, I'm cursing a lot today, I guess. How committed were these guys to go and actually see the brand? Well, they probably weren't, to be honest, but, I mean, if you're walking by Fuente and you go, "Oh, there's those Polish guys I wanted to stop there," or, you know, they're on your list, and after you get done with Fuente, you were there for an hour, or Padrón, because he went to go get your samples and he, you know, had three months before he came back or something. I'll go get samples.

I'll get samples. So, dude, I don't know, you know what I mean? Like, give me the real ones. " You know, I had a great conversation with the Cigars For You guy, you know, after the show, he called me when we spoke for about 20 minutes.

What is Cigars For You? I'm not familiar with. It's a new, it's a retailer. It's a new retailer.

Oh, okay. He's signed up with us. He's in Houston, Texas. Okay.

And, you know, he's excited about the brand going into the shop. " This is a guy I want to work with, you know, and I'm looking forward to learning more about him and kind of going down that route. And, you know, look, the fact of the matter is we had two cigars that hit top 25 on half wheel. Right.

Not one. Right. We fucking had two. That's huge.

Yes. And the real retailers say, hey, you had two on the top 25 at half wheel, right? Right. You're obviously doing something right.

I want to work with you, right? The other retailers that aren't that committed, that kind of screw around, maybe they don't feel that way, right? Hey, you know, and don't get me wrong, like there's so many different levels here that we can break down as far as a retailer and stuff like that. There are retailers that are excited about the cigar, still buy the cigar and don't promote the sale.

Like, hey, this isn't selling, like, okay, what are you, like I'm doing a lot on my end at this point, so what are you missing and how can I help you implement those things, right? I think that that is a major thing that exists. Oh, sure. " They just want the quick fix.

Sure, they want a cigar that's going to sell by itself. Yeah, and look, that'll happen sometimes with your SBCs and your War Bears and some of these limited small run stuff, but the reality is that if you're not educating your consumer on our core stuff and all of these other things, I don't need to give you the samples, brother, I don't need to give, you know, and not only do I need to give you samples, I don't need to open you up, I don't need the $1,500 sale, to have it all sit, so that you're like, well, your cigars don't sell, right, yeah, I guess not, they sell in a lot of other places that believe in the brand, and invest in the brand. Sure, it takes work on their end. It does, it takes work on more than one avenue, it doesn't, but I'm not a guy that's gonna say, hey, it's just up to you.

Yeah, it's both sides. Yeah, it's both sides. Because it's not just up to them. No.

It's up to me too. It's the 3-3-3 thing that Pete talked about. Right. Yeah.

Like the brand has to build and market, right? Right. You know, there has to be point of contact with the retailer and the brand. Right.

Right. And then the retailer has to educate and sell as well. Right. So you have to have those three things kind of working in unison.

Absolutely. So, you know, as much as I want to be in a better spot to some degree. Right. I don't know how much of a better spot I want, like, I don't know how much more between people I want to be.

Like, I already looked at New Orleans, and we're going to be between Padrón and Drew Estate, and we're in the middle of it. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh, that's good.

Because the way that that convention lays out, it's more horizontal. Oh, long ways instead of deep. Yeah. Oh.

So it has to be kind of spread out to some degree. Oh. That means that we're going to have loud music blasting. Yes.

What? Oh. Oh. It really wasn't that bad going by Drew Estate.

I don't know about that man, because when I was in the PCA booth, we were looking at space. Well that was right, oh, because it was right behind. Yeah. So if you're sitting right there and you're trying to do an interview.

Right by one of the openings. So it's going to be problematic. Maybe we set up an interview booth somewhere else. Maybe we tell them no music.

No music. Georgia State, no music. Jonathan, no music. Yeah, you can shut that down.

There's one person with like Maracas or something. Oh, maybe just a little clicky thing. And no speakers. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. No speakers. Yeah.

More booze. Yeah. Oh, maybe we get the overflow booze. Somebody serenading.

Oh. Gentle singing. Oh, that'd be nice. Like your nighttime music.

Yeah. Like my, yeah. Like some gentle meditation music. Positive affirmations.

And Jonathan probably liked it. Yeah. Saw him quite a bit walking around. Did you?

More than usual. Oh, I didn't see him at all. I didn't see him one time. Well, you didn't leave.

You hardly left the booth. I did hardly leave the booth. Right. I was very busy.

You were. You did a lot of interviews. I did. A lot of interviews.

All right, El Septimo came out with another lighter this year. Did they? More economically feasible. Can we talk about our lighter?

It's only... Oh, yeah, well... Oh, speaking of which... Because we didn't...

What? I want you to play all the Matt Booth interviews right from this portion on. Right? Oh, you want to put them in right here?

Yeah. At... What's the timestamp over there? 2537.

All right. So 2537. We're going to pause right now. We're going to put in the Matt Booth interview.

All right. Here they are and go. okay and now we're back now we're back did you enjoy all of those interviews that was very nice maybe we'll call matt and see see how he feels about oh and see how he feels about the interview yeah be nice because he did interviews with a lot of people yeah should we maybe schedule things and for new orleans what do you want to schedule interviews do you want to schedule interviews Well, you need to come to do the interview, that's the problem. Yeah.

You're right. But it's both of your podcasts. Yes, but it's hard, with that little camera, what am I going to hold it like this? But it's your podcast.

Will I interview people? I'll hold it. But you're a successful podcaster. Let's see if he answers.

It's not my podcast, Michael, it's yours. As you told everybody for the four days. Let's see if he answers. Is it connected to the board?

Yeah. It's not ringing. This is riveting. I know that he was in, like, Japan or some shit.

He's in Japan? Yeah, he's overseas. It's nighttime. He's sleepy, sleepy.

It just says calling. Oh, yeah, he's overseas. Oh, your Facebook calling. No, this is his regular cell.

Oh. He's not gonna answer. It's gonna be like, it's gonna cost 50 bucks if he answers. Sounds international.

Yeah, but Justin Andrew's good for it. Oh, yeah, charge it to the... Charge it to the... Charge it to the game.

Charge it to the game. Charge it to the game. Justin Andrew's looking at his expenses now. Now, what the hell is this phone call?

Oh, it's Monday afternoon, I don't know how it was. Yeah. Well, Justin Andrews explicitly said to me. Call Justin Andrews, let's try him.

Don't call me on Monday. Justin never answers. I know, he's in the optimization of Matt Bleed optimization. Yeah.

Well, now it's almost like a merging Monday meeting. Oh, he's in country. He's in the United States. I'm in North Carolina.

It's a different tone, huh? Right. This is regular. He's not going to answer.

There's no way he's in a fucking meeting. He's always in a meeting. Your call has been forwarded to voicemail. The person you're trying to reach is not available.

At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hey, this is Matt Booth. I'm stuck here in Japan.

Apparently, I've done something illegal. I need you to come bail me out. You sound like a hillbilly, Matt. Matt Booth, hillbilly.

All right. Hillbilly, Matt Booth. Hey, it's Jonathan Drew. Hey, it's me.

It's me. We saw them spend a lot of time in the crutch booth. Rumors started. Oh.

Justin Anders. Yeah, there was no, everybody said there was like three acquisitions or whatever and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's no acquisitions. Oh, no.

And by the way, all the rumbling there was talking about, about Titan Day Bronze, they're just handling distribution for them. Oh, I don't know what that means. You found that out. Yeah.

Oh, what are you talking about? I mean, if you read the article, but I guess I didn't read the article, and you know. Oh, you know, I was a little underwhelmed by the half-wheel coverage of the show. They came in kind of late.

Well, Charlie did. No, he had family obligations, which okay, that's fine, but so far, not a lot has come out as far as video goes. Really? Man, they did the one-day, two-day, three-day recap.

You know, I gotta tell you, man, there were a couple things that were really, that really helped me, which were really kind of... Look, it's a process for me, going out there and stuff, and you know, being away from the wife and kids, and just like the anxiety and the depression, you go through all these highs and lows when you're out on this fucking thing. Right. And you work your ass off the whole time.

So, well, not the whole time, but you know, a lot. For the majority of the time. Yeah. It's very stressful.

It really is. I still love doing it. Right. But there were two things that happened to me.

" Oh, nice. And I'm like, thanks so much, bro. And he's like, you know, it goes to show how much better you've gotten over time. I go, I gotta be honest, I blended it 10 years ago.

And he's like, you did? I'm like, yeah, but you know, you are right. Between me blending the first blend, which I love, I'm smoking it now, and that Connecticut, I had definitely learned things about blends, right? So, you know, so thanks, man.

I really appreciate that. And I'm, you know, and he's like, you're really working your ass off. And I'm like, thanks, dude. You know, it's my podcast.

He's like, I'm very successful. Right. I said, yeah, man, I'm really, you know, I would give it everything I got. And then a little bit more.

Right. So, you know, Mike, so the more medium, more exposure I can do. And like, thank you for all the coverage. And I, I'm really grateful for that.

And he's like, you know, let me get somebody else here over here too. So we can do another interview. Let me get, let me see if I can bring. Oh yeah, he sent somebody.

Yeah. That's right. Which was fucking awesome for me. I'm like, man, that is, that was a great feeling.

Right. When somebody else recognizes all of your hard work. Right. And then they try and help you, you know, for no other reason of, hey, let me just try and help you.

Did you do an interview with Brian, like a camera interview? No, with Brooks? I mean, Brooks. No, he was just, I don't know, he just popped by.

Because Brian came by later and took photos. Yeah. No, I didn't. They just popped by.

Oh, just to say hi. So, so there was that. And then the other thing that was really, I was feeling kind of fucking like, oh. And we stopped, Cigar Den, Nick, had decided that we were going to be storage for his backpack.

Oh, yeah. And he had just left it there at Mungus' backpack. And at the end of the night, it was still there. " Right.

" Oh, sorry. " The second gala. The yada yada, yeah. Yeah, the Nick's giving a speech thing.

" So, I'm like, sure, whatever. So we put the backpack down, and we was going to bring it to him, and Michael Herklots was there. Right. And he was giving out his cigars or whatever.

Right. " Oh, wow. Yeah. He didn't say that to everybody?

No. That's nice. Yeah. I just, I mean, because he was, Chet called the mic and he acted like he knew Chet too, but I didn't see him talking to you.

No, he stepped aside to come talk to him. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Oh, Michael Herklots, hi, fan of the show.

Fan of his show. That's nice. He's got the jet. Oh yeah, he's got a jet.

He does have a jet. Lifetime goals right there. Yeah. So, you know, so I reached out to him and, you know, I now have his phone number, too.

Oh. Look at that. I bet you he answers. Oh, the white party.

I would give him more of a heads up, though. We're not at that level. I don't know what we'd ask him. We're not at that level of abuse.

That's the level of abuse, you know? So, you still have keys to the townhouse? You still go over there? You still go over there and hang out maybe on the upper floors?

Do they let you in? If I walked up and said I was your friend, can I get in? I know Mike Erklots. I know Mike Erklots.

Here's his phone number. That was cool. The one thing I did want to do is I wanted to do an interview with Skip and that never happened. No, we could never.

Let's call him right now. Why? So we can get ridiculed? He's home sitting with the monkeys.

Alright, I'm gonna Facebook call him. Let's see if he answers. And we'll do our quick little... Is he behind time, or forward?

It's the same one. That's our third call tonight. Yeah, but so far nobody's answered. Nobody fucking answers.

All right, call Lightweight Heavy. He must still be sleeping. No, call Jason. Jason?

Oh, Jason. Oh, yeah. He's supposed to pick up. We have Jason's phone number now.

Oh, does he? I do. I have Jason's phone number now. Do you think he answers?

He better fucking answer. Well, after whatever. So, as soon as we pull up to Jason, I'm instantly breaking his balls. Oh, you know what the worst thing was?

You called him Danny. Oh, yeah. That was the worst thing. Yeah, yeah.

But you know what, man, he went, he took it pretty well. He did, he did. He did, he was, uh, he was very, he was very nice and, uh, he let us beat the shit out of him. He took the abuse.

He took the abuse. He accepted it and he took out of it. Yeah. So that was good.

It was so funny before you met him. So he was sitting downstairs with me and I was like, oh, who are you? He's like, oh, I'm Jason. I'm like, are you the new guy?

He's like, yeah. I was like, oh, you're in a lot of trouble. And he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, you remember that one day when everybody kept getting fucked up.

I don't know if you have any phone calls because you didn't answer and you were supposed to. " I'm like, "No, no, no. " I'm like, "It doesn't matter. " The real question is, who do you want to deal with more?

Well, to be honest, us, I would deal with us more. Yeah, you probably wouldn't deal with us. Well, I had to make him feel it. Yeah.

Make that motherfucker feel it. I told him, as soon as you come down, I was like, he's gonna fucking give it to you, he's like, nah, he'll be good. As soon as you came down, you're like, oh, is this the fucking guy that they made? Is this the motherfucker that blew us off?

I think he said blew me off. That blew me off? Yeah, probably. I probably said blew me off.

Because it's all about me. I only care about me. It was for four days. It's so odd because you're normally so good about that.

I only care about me. So good about that. I'm having some mental issues, Michael. What the fuck do you want from me?

I'm struggling. Nothing, Michael. Nothing. No, it's all yours.

Nothing. So I went to the media. Well, what did we do every day? We'll see.

We only really went somewhere one night, didn't we? Oh, no. We had the Hawaiian dinner, which was amazing. We crushed the sushi.

Oh, yeah. That was the first night. Adrian, for some reason, Adrian asked yesterday, did you guys go for your traditional sushi? I go, well, first night.

First night we did that. We crushed the sushi. $26 worth of sushi that could probably cost $75, $80. Yeah.

Enough to make me nauseous. Yes. And then what did we do? We went.

night no we had the omerta i went to the america house yeah america house that was really cool i tried making uh crab potato salad over the weekend yeah it's good didn't work out no i don't know because i bought the southern she might have done the new york i gotta i gotta play with it and get it she probably made it from scratch i'm sure she did but i'm not going to she probably had real crab too i bought the krab crab oh yeah the imitation stuff i like that stuff apparently not No, no, no, I like it by itself. No, it was good, but it wasn't as good as hers. Yeah. It probably never will be.

And then what else did we do? We went to dinner with Skip. Dinner with Skip with the giant table. 75,000 people.

From Game of Thrones table. Yeah, the Game of Thrones table. Game of Thrones table. Yeah.

And then the media house. And then we did the media house. That's only four nights. Well, there was one night they went to Eight Lounge.

Yeah. Did we go out to eat? There was another night you guys were tired. No, one night we ate at that egg place in the hotel after.

Oh yeah, we kept it easy. Like at midnight or something. Yeah, let's just fucking eat here. Let's get this over with.

So, I mean, we don't hang out and party till all hours of the morning. No. Some people have priorities. We called it every night at midnight.

One night I think I went down at 11. One night I went in before you. No. Yeah, did you?

One night. Just one night. Oh, you Irish exited on me. Yes.

I'm like, you son of a bitch. That was at the Crystal Bar. At the local bar, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I go, where's Palmer? Yeah, Chet had bought us a bucket of beer. I had one beer. Chet said he Irish exited you.

All right, cool. Then I'm leaving. Yeah, Irish goodbye. Once I realized you were gone.

There was a lot of people there. It was going to take me 30 minutes to say goodbye to everybody. Yeah. So I just Irish goodbye.

You could have just texted, hey, I'm leaving. I'm like, perfect. No, then it's not an Irish goodbye. He just let me know, so I could leave too.

Well, you obviously weren't paying attention, but you didn't notice I was going. I was hanging out with Sam. Right, yeah. I didn't remember you being there.

I was trying to tell Adrian what we did every night. I didn't remember you being there that night. But you were, you're right. Yeah, we were talking about it.

You were there sitting with Sam. Yeah. Ceniza Fina. Coming out with two more Vitolas, he said.

One, for sure, I heard about the box press, which should be exciting. It's good. Yeah, they're doing a great job, man. They're working really hard.

They are. Yeah. And they're such nice people. They really are.

They are. I like you when they show up. Anything excite you about the show? I mean, I probably got out second to most from the booth.

I would go and do laps or trips to the bathroom and do a lap. Who was first? Over there. That guy?

Yeah. Party guy? Yeah, the party guy. Party all the time?

Party guy. I had to go see his Peoples. Yeah. Peoples.

No, not really. I mean, I didn't get a whole lot of cigars from people. I did get a McAuliffe Blue, and I smoked over the weekend, which I was surprised I liked, because I don't like any of their stuff normally. Really?

So, I don't know what it was about it, but it wasn't bad. It was good. The new knuckle sandwich is good. Oh, yeah, yeah, the new knuckle sandwich.

Oh, we went, that's it, we went to the Espinosa house one night. Yeah, and then I heard Phil ask Jack where you were staying. Right, yeah, later in the week. Yeah, so hey, where are you staying?

He has Tyler too, apparently. And Jack said, are you fucking serious? It wasn't Jack, it was Tyler asked. He said, where are you staying?

Is that where he's staying? Yeah. But I asked him that because I was going to ask him if he took the Tesla loop. He wouldn't need to.

Which apparently that was supposed to be free with your PCA pass. Oh, really? But it wasn't. It was $5.

Yeah, it was $5. Oh, you didn't get the ticket that day. You said it was closed. Yeah, I went down there like, "Wow, this is awesome.

There's nobody here. " It was closed. And there was only like six cars. So it wasn't that fast.

Oh, really? Yeah. I read Half Wheels article on it this morning. Look man, was it those ones with the little wingy things on them?

Listen, listen, listen, as technologically advanced as it sounds, at the end of the day, it's a glorified fucking subway. It was a tiny little tunnel. You know, there's no... And there's not like two tunnels, there's in and out, it's the same tunnel.

Yeah. So they have to time the cars. Yeah. So at the end, there's a split.

You go this way, and then you come back and go through. Right. Maybe that's why there's only so many cars. There's, you know, and I heard that some of the drivers are complete asses.

Right. Yeah. I'm not surprised. They live in the underworld.

Right. You know what I mean? In the tunnel. Like, what do you, just because it's an electric vehicle doesn't mean shit.

It's not a nice tunnel. It looks like it's unfinished. Really? I saw the video.

Yeah. Oh. Part of it, it's like the aluminum foil insulation's up as you go by. Really?

Yeah. Hmm. Oh, did you guys time that? Hmm.

Interesting. I gotta tell you, though, I hate the Las Vegas Convention Center. I don't like it either. It's dumpy as fuck.

It is, and they couldn't clean up the section from the door to the convention. Yeah, they just don't give a shit. They don't care. I mean, the old lady at the front door is super nice.

The one lady was super nice. Until you make her mad, I heard her going off on somebody. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Well, don't fuck around. Right. You know what I mean? Isn't this the same convention center the year before, Palazzo?

No. That's a different one. The Sands Convention Center is attached to the Palazzo, so you just gotta walk downstairs. Is that where it was last year?

Yeah. The year before, it was there again, right? Probably. I think so.

I mean, here's the shitty part. Like, you stay at the Resorts World, which is considered the PCA yada yada. Right. And it's close to the Convention Center.

The traffic lights are fucking stupid as hell. Oh, it still takes forever, right. So, yeah, it's a 15-20 minute drive. Right, right, for like three miles, if even that.

And it's super frustrating. Yeah. It's super frustrating. I'd much rather-- And there was construction, and some of the roads were closed.

And listen, look, to be honest, I was down a leg. Right. So I had my scooter, which is frustrating, too. So I'm sure that that added to it.

But, fuck, man, you know, jeez, let's just, give me back to Sands, put us back in the Palazzo. Why did they, why did they switch it? It's probably less, Sands probably wants nothing to do with the cigar industry, is what I would think. The amount of complaints I'm sure that they get with every, oh my god.

Right, yeah, people smoking in the casino, and there's always somebody smoking on the walk back and forth. Yeah, it's just, sometimes it was, oh. Wasn't smoking a lot in every casino? " Yeah, but realistically, you know, as crazy as it sounds, the Resorts World Hotel, the way that it's designed, you know, we all took over that center bar, and it didn't look extremely overwhelming.

No, huh? Like, you were almost, you weren't, you weren't in the hotel section where people had to get through to you, through you to get to their hotels. Right, right. That's the difference.

Yeah. Yeah. People had to walk by to get to the rooms at the other place. Right.

That is right. It almost seemed like their downstairs, yeah, their downstairs casino area was bigger. It did seem bigger. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Like, even like the ceiling was higher. Less mashed together. Yeah. Yeah.

And you could smoke anywhere down there. Yeah. Nobody gave us a hard time at all. He just couldn't smoke in the restaurants.

Right. Yeah. I like that they had that vegan place that nobody sat at, Nate. Yeah, there was hardly anybody in there.

I wanna know who wrote that one. Yeah, you know what we're gonna do? All vegan restaurants. Somebody complained or something.

They gotta have the option. Yeah, so that fucking three people could sit there? Right. There was a vegan place?

Yeah, that one that was on the corner. How much you wanna bet that shit's gone within like a year? Unless vegan takes a big uptick. Oh, take.

Unless all of a sudden everybody goes vegan. Everybody's getting a shot, bro. You don't need to eat vegan food anymore. Everybody goes vegan.

Everybody goes vegan. I doubt it. You get the impossible food. The impossible food.

The impossible burger. The impossible burger. It tastes like estrogen. " I leaned over and I go, "It's plant food, lady.

" You want nothing to do with it. Take the chemically-based fucking... Short off. Uh, El Septimo had another lighter this year.

Oh, you talked about that. I thought I started about that. First, it was $10 million, then $5 million, and this one is $1,500, so it's still, you know, affordable. Oh, it's still ridiculous.

It's a value price. And we did obtain this. Ah, that's right. Tell that story.

Go ahead, tell the story. So, we stole this. No, no. It was a gift.

So, of all the interviews that you just saw of Matt Booth, obviously, he didn't do fucking any of them. And so, he's just kind of a sea of disappointment, unfortunately. So, we went to go see him a couple times, and he was always super busy. I don't really give a fuck.

I'm just like, whatever, dude. You know, if you don't have fucking time, whatever. And he goes, here, take this. So we have this Hellraiser.

Hellraiser cube. Cigar lighter. And then he went and took one off somebody else's table. Yeah, he said, here, take this.

I said, okay. So this is. Would you like this? This is now.

We should, but we should put like peas on here or something. Some kind of decals or something. Get rid of the. No, get rid of the M's.

Yeah. That way, you know. We can wrap it in paper. If you move it around the right way, you do unlock the gates of hell.

That's right. So, we're looking forward to that. Unfortunately, we're already in hell, so... It's the gate to get out, maybe.

Oh, fuck. Quick, quick, spin it. Make it move. So we have that, but let's not shortchange here.

It's a giveaway. From Jack. We're going to try to do more giveaways now. Are we?

That's what you said. I think it's a great idea. Now we can't comment below. Oh, I'm trying.

Yeah, but now you use the Instagram. They're always after, it's like... They're always coming. Oh, he's coming.

Is there a way that you can look at the subscriber list? On YouTube? Yeah. Sure.

I would imagine. I guess. Maybe. Randomly pick.

Your rando pickle? I don't know. If you have any ideas as to how we can give shit away, just please reach out to Palmer and let us know because it's his podcast. com.

It is now because all the people aren't here anymore. So now it's back. Oh, my God. At the end of the day.

You're the one that keeps bringing it up. I'd already let it go after the jokey in the beginning. At the end of the day. Yes.

it as my podcast it's not that i was oh it's not that i'm trying to shit on you but say oh and you have a podcast i would go that's right we have you know no you would say i have a podcast no i was just thinking about delivering the best content and giving it 100 when i'm fucking exhausted and i'm tired and all of these things i just want to live no i am calm no you're not you're very upset you don't want to see me not calm you're not gonna do well tonight on how about that cigar i'm gonna do fucking awesome on how about that cigar and then what do you have wednesday it's not how about I don't know which one it is. You're on all of them. It's the Canadian one. You're on all of them.

Yeah, it's the Canadian one. Is it a Canadian time? Is it a different time? No.

Oh. Is Fishstick Loomis going to be on there? Fishstick Loomis will be on there. Is he busy at baseball again?

Fishstick Loomis will be on there. Oh, that's nice. Oh, wow. Media House.

Yes, we're at the Media House. What'd you think of the Media House? A little lackluster compared to past years. Yeah?

Oh, you're talking about the rent, the space that they got it? Yes. Yeah, well, because apparently Aaron is the guy. Aaron, yeah, he couldn't still pick the house for them?

Aaron, you need to pick the house. Do not let Coop pick the house. It was in a bad neighborhood. Yeah.

There was no windows on that house at all. Well, there was windows, there were just bars. Oh, is that it? Bars on the windows.

Apparently, they all got very nervous when we tried to move the fire pit. Yeah. What are you saying? Coop picked the house?

Coop picked the house. Coop picked the house. Yeah. I didn't know I was supposed to pack heat.

Right. " Dude, it's Vegas, man. It's Vegas. Everything gets stole over there.

Yeah, but they have, like, nice uplining... Nobody takes cash. Yeah. Everywhere tried to buy something, sorry, we don't take cash.

We went to a Starbucks where they didn't let people inside. Yeah, that's true, too. I mean, come on, dude. Right.

Oh, you don't let people inside? Yeah, no. The hotel didn't take cash. It's rough.

After what happened the last two months, yeah, no more. - Too many deaths, too many employees getting killed. It's like, what are you doing for 15 bucks an hour? Do you hear him coughing and even on all this other shit, but he's not sick.

- He's not sick. - Yeah, no, it's just like sunburn. - Sunburn, thumb burn on his thighs. - Yeah.

- Yeah, special lotion we had to go find. - It's all that DJing. - It is, all that DJ. - Yeah.

- All that DJ work. All the dancing, probably thighs rub together. - Yeah. - Probably what it is.

- I like when he shuts down. - Back to your podcast. Back to your podcast, Michael. Back to my podcast.

So the media, all the complaints from the media guys were we couldn't get in in time. Couldn't get in, couldn't get in, they wouldn't let us in, we couldn't get in early, they wouldn't let me in early. Yeah. Couldn't let me in, I can't get in early, they didn't let me in early.

So what was the deal? They were supposed to be able to get in early? There was one day that they had an email that said they could get in early. Well, the whole plan was they were supposed to be able to get in an hour early.

Every day? Yeah. I thought it was just the one day. No.

Because I checked with our friend, Antoine. Antoine. Antoine. Yeah.

He said Saturday, you're supposed to get in an hour. Oh, it was a Saturday. Saturday. I'd originally thought they got in early every day too.

Every day, yeah. Because when we found that out, it's when Greg got me another pass. Right. Because I couldn't get in on set-up day either.

Ah. So, me and my cohort over there, Mr. Thigh, would have been sitting in a hotel room watching TV. Oh.

And he would have been rubbing lotion on his thigh, making me terribly uncomfortable. So Greg got his I didn't know that. Yeah, exhibitor passes. Oh.

So I never even picked up my media pass. Interesting. There was no reason to at that point because I would have been sitting outside most of the time with McTavish, apparently. That would have been hilarious.

That would have been. Hey, we can't get in. Hello. Hello.

Michael, come get me. Come get us, please. Would you have ran? Would I have ran?

Ran for what? Yeah, they would have been like, no, you stay here. And he would have kept going. He would have been like, no.

I'm fucking not staying here. Just text him. No, I would've gone back to the hotel once again. You gotta catch me.

You gotta catch me. I'm very faced. Just text Antoine. Oh, yeah.

Hey, you know what? He would've said, "I'm sorry. " I can't get in early either. I don't know what to tell you.

" Oh, yeah. Apparently, that's a thing. That's the magic word. That's the magic word.

I'm with the board. I'm with the board. No, no. Don't ignore this badge.

I'm with the board. I'm with the board. And I'm on my way to Modor. We're very sorry, Mr.

Palmer. I'm on this quest for the ring. I have the ring. I have the ring.

So I thought the media house went well, though. There was good conversations. Yeah, yeah. They're a bunch of nice guys and everything.

That's one of the things that I really kind of look forward to. Yeah? Yeah. And they look forward to it.

How come every time we go, Jay Davis is there? He was there last time we went, too. He hangs out there every day? Yeah, he's the media guy.

He loves hanging out with the media guys. Oh. Barely. Guys involved.

They should have him on their podcast. I don't know why. oh is he on tonight with you oh yeah on developing palettes yeah oh him abe and me oh abe's on too yeah oh we did see abe i'm not gonna get a word in between the two of them yeah yeah oh no wait and socca and socca yeah there's seven of you on yeah i need to get some images either socca j davis i think so abe i think it's all seven you just gotta start holding up signs i'm not I gotta talk. Start holding up signs.

Yeah. Help me. Right. I would like to talk.

I would like to speak. Brittany needs to get poster board. Raise my hand. Yeah, you need a sign, but the answer, yes, no.

Can I talk? You need yes and no signs. I should make a can I talk sign. I have something to say.

Can I talk? I have something to say. Is it my turn? I too would like to talk.

Chet and I did that that time when we had that Zoom call with that factory rep that time. I can't remember. That was a long time ago. Because Chet and I were in here because we had to divide everybody up.

And Chet and I were holding up signs in here because we couldn't get it. Yeah, between all those guys, those fuckers can talk. I didn't know it was that many. It's a panel.

It's going to be a man. Oh, I hate the panel. It's a panel. Let me see.

Let me tell you what's going on here. I have McTavish's phone number. You want to call him? Developing Pilates.

Developing... Aaron Loves, let's see. Oh. Uh, recap show.

Let's see. Yeah. They didn't have candy this time either. At the media house.

Yeah. Blue Smoke Dallas. They had croutons. Coop saved me some croutons.

Croutons. He likes to snack on croutons. I've been known to also snack. It says Pete Johnson too.

Oh. I don't know if he's on there. Like 17 people on there? I'm going to be on too.

They won't even notice. They won't even notice. It's going to be amazing. They won't even notice I'm on.

Me and Phil. Phil's going to wear the rabbit mask. We're both going to be on. We'll never know.

I like Pete. Pete Johnson? Yeah. We never talk to Pete.

I know, but when I do... You know what? We should have him on the show. He's done some panels with me, though.

Oh, has he? Yeah. Oh. Does he like you?

We seem... We're friends. We're tight. Well, tonight, ask him to do the show.

Pete, can we be friends? We can be friends, Pete? I'd like you to do my show. Like, all these people, like, you know, can we be friends?

I'm just gonna say that right now. I'm like, we don't really... I'm friends with Steve, Abe, and Jay Davis, Pete. Can I be your friend?

We've talked a couple times, can we be friends, though? I'm gonna say that. You should put that on a sign. Yeah.

Pete Johnson, can we be friends? Oh, you don't care, my brand, so fuck you. Oh, yeah, man. Oh, shit.

Oh, you know, it tastes like shit. I don't know what it does. It doesn't taste like shit. Oh, my God.

His cigars are actually good. You wonder why you're looking around every corner at PZN. Yeah. I didn't look around the corner at all.

Oh, can we talk about who's no longer with Luciano? Oh, you're talking, oh, maybe that's Patreon. Is that Patreon? Apparently, I'm not the one that needs to look around the corner, you know, here you go, you're taking fucking blind shots at people, and then all of a sudden you're like, you know what, you're out of here.

We can no longer afford to have you. Apparently, we do not want to cover your expenses. You're out. We cannot have someone with your personality on the team.

I'm very sorry. Plus, you don't play basketball. You have to have retired with millions. That's right, I need you to have money, not need money.

Yes. I need money because my sweatshirt is very expensive. I've made it from the swatches of all the other sweatshirts. This is from the souls of the men that I have taken.

Wow. That's great. That's what he sounds like because I heard him speak now. Straight to hell.

Yeah, he did speak. He did speak to us. He didn't have a spacesuit though. It's so funny when you look down at my name tag.

" Okay. I have no idea who you are. I don't owe him anything. Whoa.

I don't owe him money. It's funny as hell. I don't owe him money. This is good.

He's not a collector. Not a debt collector. It's very good. I paid!

Oh, sorry. I don't owe you. All right. That's all I got.

It was a good show. I had a good time. Me too. Very tired and I got sick.

I'm sorry, Jack. I'm old. I don't know what to tell you. Boots got everybody sick.

Boots got everybody sick with a sunburn. Right. Yeah. Contagious sunburn.

Poor Chet. And Chet's dead. Poor Chet's dying. Yeah.

It takes him every morning. Are you alive? Really need him to, you know, get back on the road here. What's going on?

You know, you had a good run there, Chet. Need you to, you know, build on this momentum you have now. Yeah, now you gotta keep it going. You got this going.

Maybe you can call people with your teeth hurt. Next step. Hey. Would you?

Do the. Where is it? Where is it? Oh, God.

that's what he sounds like now he's dead all right mike we got a listener of the week uh bobby duncan bobby duncan listener of the cigar district cigar district what a nice one you know i just punched in all the orders from the show yes and what i'm gonna do is i'm going to highlight all the new retailers right so when you have the retailer of the week or whatever but this week's Yes? Retailer of the Week is Bull Weevil Cigars! Emporium, et cetera. And Enterprise, Alabama.

So we are going to be releasing the Justice. Did you see the video they did yesterday? No. It was a very nice video.

Really? I have semi-reached out to them about doing a video with them, but you guys did a good job on your own, so there's no need. Plus, it's in four days. I thought we had more time.

I thought there was more time! I thought there was more time. It's gonna be a lonely drive. You can FaceTime me.

Nah. Oh. No, fuck you, it's my podcast. Maybe you can FaceTime Pete Johnson.

Maybe. Well, you know how that goes tonight. I'll watch if I remember. Oh, it's on, is it on Central Time?

I mean, it's like, if I'm, if I'm trying to collect the Thanos rings of people. Right. You know, at this point, I'm very close to snapping the finger. Oh, you are.

Because, I mean, I have Skip. Right. He's the prize, right? Yeah, he's the thumb.

He's the golden goose. The thumb one. The big ring. You got Sokka.

Sokka, yeah. That's a big one. That's a big one. Nick.

Nick Malillo. Is he a ring? I think he qualifies. I mean, you know, he's on there.

I think Abe more a ring than Abe. Yeah, Abe's on there. Abe's a ring. Abe's on there.

So you just need one more. Abe, Six, Sokka. No, Herklot's now. Oh, Trigot, Herklot.

You got the whole hand now. I'm practically there. Oh, you need the one for the top of your hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I gotta get the fifth. Oh, there he is. Maybe that's the Pete. No, that's the sixth.

Who knows? ISP Johnson? They're like Pokemons for me at this point. Pokemons.

Gotta catch 'em all. I can't believe you got Herklots. That's kind of neat. Dude, I gotta tell you, man, it was amazing.

Yeah. It was a great feeling. Well, maybe- Surprising that you're just now telling me. Oh, maybe- I didn't- I told you that before.

No. Yes, I did. No. Yes, I did.

No, you didn't. Yes, I did. We had our little debriefs every evening, you know, when it was dark in the room, and that was never mentioned. Yes, it was.

Except the last night you told me to shut up, so I didn't know. I did? I didn't have a sleeping pillow last night. You asked me.

I was so chatty. Why are you talking so much? Why are you talking so much? I ran out of pills yesterday.

Maybe. I'm not tired. Erik Espinosa is one of them. Oh, you get two fists in rings.

That guy answers all the time. Let's call him. No, no, we don't need to call him. We ate up the hour of this gibberish and making fun of Losh and Magoo over there.

Say aloe. He was saying aloe wrong. Aloe. He was saying like a lowy, I need to get some a lowy, I need to get some a lowy, so to prove me wrong, he looked it up and had his phone say aloe and it said aloe, it said aloe, it said aloe, look, look, look, look, look, here it is, it's right here, aloe, oh, it's not a lowy, a lowy, all right, I need a lowy, what the fuck is a lowy, that plant, all right, like and subscribe on our YouTube page, and then comment on the Instagram, Cigar Houses Podcast Instagram, right, say done, John, you're like, it's going to win.

They're probably the only one that does. Maybe. I don't know. All right, we got to go.

Jon Yogerlite Cannot Win. We need your help. Like and subscribe. How hurtful.

Make him earn it at least, for God's sakes. It's not like we get stickers anymore. It's true, yeah. What have you done first lately, Jon?

He's out trailing the Down to Herb guys. Right. It's all about them. It's all about the Down to Herb guys.

That's right. I feel like we lost them. It's nice to see them, we didn't even talk about them. We didn't really see them.

I finally saw them in person. They were, you know, now they're seasoned. They know what they're doing. They don't need us anymore.

Got to go. They made Caleb do the interviews. They did. Yeah.

Did you see the one Matt Booth thing? That they did? He looked at his shoes and he said... Oh, they did F.

Mary kill the three of them. " That was the best clip. I did see that. That was it.

Go to the Down to Her page on Instagram and go look at the Matt Booth clips. There's two clips. I think the first one, it's, bar none, the funniest thing I've ever seen. Hilarious.

He probably would buck Caleb. He probably would buck Caleb. Yeah. Very small.

Yeah. Very gentle. Yeah. Soft hands.

All right, guys. Thank you. We gotta go. Bye.

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Show Notes

In this episode, we dive into the highlights and low points of the recent Premium Cigar Association trade show in Las Vegas. From exciting new releases and industry trends to disappointing developments, we cover it all. Join us as we discuss the hits, misses, and everything in between from one of the cigar industry's biggest events of the year.