Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 342 Cigars to Beach

Episode Summary

Episode 342 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a re-recorded show (the original take was lost to an audio failure) with Mike "The King" Szczefankewicz, Mike "BDP" Palmer and engineer Phil. The hosts open with life catch-up: Palmer's family lake trip, a bout of what he suspects was "summer COVID," his regret at leaving his cigars at home for the whole vacation, his son Jax's buckle-fractured radius from a basketball game, Fourth of July fireworks and burgers, and the ongoing saga of the Hustler Mafia group chat purge. Phil's Fun Facts returns with the origin of the phrase "a shot of whiskey," submitted by listener John Jurgalette.

The centerpiece is the news that John Carney, longtime VP of Sales at La Flor Dominicana, has left the company after roughly a decade and a half. When Carney doesn't pick up, the hosts call Jack Toraño of Espinosa, who says he texted Carney his best wishes and got no reply (the number was the old LFD phone), and teases bigger industry news he can only share on the Patreon feed. Carney then calls back and gives a straight answer: the split was mutual, with no negativity on either side — the company was moving one direction and he was moving another. He details what's next: Shoulders of Giants, a leadership think tank, free newsletter and AI-driven marketing/business development agency he built with his father, and the revival of Snack Shack, his dad's 1972 burger-and-fries concept, launching Sunday brunches with the Forward Slash distillery in Winter Park. He also mentions his Bull's Breath bourbon collaboration with Tony Gomez and a trip to Boca Raton for Evan Darnell's Red Meat Lovers Club fundraiser at New York Prime.

Industry news also covers the Trinidad Edición Limitada 2024 selling for $200 per cigar in the UK, the Habanos World Days Trinidad 55th anniversary event in London and its multi-million-dollar humidor auction, California tobacco taxes decreasing while Colorado's increase, a discussion of shipping cigars into restricted states, and Sanjay Patel teaming with Eladio Diaz on a new Dominican-forward line called Charisma. The show closes with Listener of the Week (Father John Richards) and Shop of the Week, Lake Country Cigars in Wisconsin, where Mike will appear at a multi-vendor event on August 19.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Botched Recording & Vacation Recap
   The hosts explain the re-record, Palmer's lake vacation, his "summer COVID" symptoms, and his regret at not bringing cigars along.
2. 02
   Jax's Basketball Injury
   Palmer walks through his son's buckle fracture of the radius after a hard foul on a layup, and the on-call doctor friends who helped.
3. 03
   Phil's Fun Facts
   The origin of "a shot of whiskey" from Old West cowhands trading .45 cartridges for drinks, submitted by listener John Jurgalette.
4. 04
   John Carney Departs La Flor Dominicana
   The news report on Carney leaving LFD after joining in 2011 and serving as VP of Sales since 2013.
5. 05
   Jack Toraño Calls In
   The Espinosa sales veteran shares his reaction to Carney's exit, the text that never got answered, and hints at bigger industry gossip.
6. 06
   John Carney Interview: Mutual Departure
   Carney confirms the split from LFD was mutual with no bad blood, and talks about integrity, timing, and the media splash.
7. 07
   Shoulders of Giants & Snack Shack
   Carney details his AI-integration marketing agency and leadership newsletter with his father, plus reviving the 1972 Snack Shack burger concept.
8. 08
   Cigar News Roundup
   Trinidad Edición Limitada 2024 at $200 a stick in the UK, Habanos World Days in London, California and Colorado tax changes, and Sanjay Patel's Charisma with Eladio Diaz.
9. 09
   Listener & Shop of the Week
   Father John Richards is Listener of the Week and Lake Country Cigars in Wisconsin gets Shop of the Week ahead of an August 19 multi-vendor event.

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. Here he is, the controversial, legendary, BDV. Yeah, I'm dead. It's my destiny.

It's my destiny. Make way for the king. Another Mike and Mike production in 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0. Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Episode 342, Take 3.

Recorded live at the Mike & Mike Production Studio in Deltona, Florida, this is Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the show where two guys share their passion for cigars, business, and life. Join Mike, the King Steponkiewicz, and his co-host Mike BDP Palmer as they talk about the latest cigars, news, reviews, and interview some of the most influential people in the cigar industry. And me, I'm their engineer in Soundtech, Phil. Whether you're a seasoned aficionado or new to cigars, this podcast is for you.

So sit back, relax, and line up a cigar with Cigar Hustlers Podcast. That's there this whole time? No, only when you record. Oh.

Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast. What? That would have made sense to just do it then. Well, I didn't know, we just hit it.

There's a timer there. Five years, you had no idea. Well, there was a timer on the little thing that it just stopped. I got like this hair.

Is the timer on? Yeah. Everything's running that can't possibly be running. Okay.

Except we don't have that TV on. We are prepared. All right. I need to move that over there now because we've changed, but not right now.

Welcome to Cicara Houser Podcast. The show brought to you commercial for... I can't see when you put your arm up to look for the hair. I don't know what it is.

It's like a thread or something. I get that every day. I'm like, Jesus, where is that thing? Go ahead.

Go ahead. Brought to you... Take five. Welcome to Cicara Houser Podcast.

The show brought to you... Well, you You could see it, my arm's not in front of you. You know what, Mike, you do free, but amazing shout out to our amazing patrons on Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions on all things cigars and personalities in the cigar world.

Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you. com and search "A Cigar Hustler Podcast". Do it.

So this is take two. Yes, take two. I mean, technically. Because...

Yesterday, we had an audio problem because things weren't touched, I didn't hit the right buttons, Boots didn't hit the right buttons. I was not involved, first of all. We're all taking equal fault now, Michael. It's a three-way partnership.

Now we're taking equal. Okay. I never said it was your problem. " Yeah.

That's what I said. " I mean, you saw it was green, too. Look, I didn't notice because that's not a thing that I do, but it will be something... We don't normally look for that either because this is new that we're backing it up over here.

It's something I do now, though. I'll record it. Okay. I'll hold the buttons since I do nothing here.

I said, what are you doing? I'd be happy if he emptied your ashtray still. I knew he was going to bring it up. Well, he kept going.

I'll make sure that it's empty today for you, too, buddy. Thank you. Thank you very much. I provided you with your own, uh, trash can.

Yeah. Oh, we had to move that. I can't, uh, she's at school. I have to take this.

So you guys talk about something else. Why is Palmer answering the phone while we're doing the show? Hey, honey, we're doing the podcast. We're doing the podcast again.

Again. Well, yeah, how about that ride on in here? So how was your week, Phil? I don't know off the top of my head.

Oh, my week? Oh, mine was great. Ah, bye. want me to elaborate that was it huh okay oh yeah elaborate elaborate i went to the beach yeah uh that was my highlight phil's got a whole clan of beachgoers now uh you know i did see that yeah yes it's quite quite the quite the beach thing going on there yep former employees of uh cigar Cigar Hustler.

Right, right. Current employees. And current employees of Cigar Hustler. And customers of Cigar Hustler.

And customers of Cigar Hustler. I guess it's better than, you know. Local dignitaries and political figures. Yeah.

All brought together because we all met at Cigar Hustler. That makes me so happy. It's a great meeting place. Yeah.

It's great. So, so we had a recording and it got botched. So we had to act like we've never done this before. Well, if you didn't mention that, we could have not even told anybody.

How was your trip? It was a lovely trip, except I got sick. Except I have an update for the illness. Oh, you got sick.

You have the norovirus. No, I don't think I did. You didn't have the norovirus. Thank God.

Yeah, good news, bad news. So the good news is, I don't think I had the norovirus. Now we all have gonorrhea. The bad news is, I think I had the new summer COVID.

What? That causes vomiting? Yes. Vomiting and diarrhea?

Yes, I was watching this morning. Vomiting, diarrhea, chills, fever. Now, the one symptom, we all had that we thought was strange is we had a horse our throats were affected we had a hoarse throat and i didn't throw up you didn't vomit no i didn't vomit i just had terrible diarrhea oh i thought you said you were vomiting no i think maybe no adrian and her sister vomited and i had diarrhea so they were coming out the top i was coming out the bottom ah but the new summer covid affects your throat gives you a sore throat and makes your voice hoarse now we were all talking like why are we all talking like this and they thought well we've been throwing And I was like, well, I didn't throw up. Aha.

So mine had summer COVID, which isn't as bad as the regular COVID. The death rate's way low. So we're still fucked. Yeah, you guys are still fucked, but I feel better than I didn't as a normal.

So we're still all fucking sick. No, what's the incubation for COVID? It's not 24 days or whatever. Don't tell Greg, though.

I want him to keep making plans for his funeral. Well, if he finds out it was COVID, he's gonna be worse. COVID's what almost killed him now. He can't go up and down the stairs anymore.

We go to Walmart, buy the whole natural supplement area. My wife was going, can we get a Z-Pak? I'm like, it's not even what we had. He's gonna fucking, what's that stuff called, where you put in the diffused water diffuser?

Oh, yeah, his hydrogen diffuser. Yeah, that lasted. Oh, that too. That's the other thing.

Yeah. Oh, this is good water. I'm like, I love that. I said, okay, so...

I asked him if he was still using it. He said, sometimes. Sometimes on what planet he does not on what planet is it was growing more hydrogen water like well that's what Superman drinks it's so absurd on Krypton all the waters hydrogen I can't oh some of the stuff that he does you know but other than that it was it was you know other than the two days of being dead it was yeah it was it was it was a lovely trip okay a lot of lake watching yeah so that was the one thing that it was extremely perplexing to me right is that But you went on this trip, and you didn't bring any cigars. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't take cigars.

I was trying to be nice. I'm the only cigar guy in the family, and I thought it would be polite not to be sitting around smoking cigars. I didn't know who, you know, people go, "Oh, it's so smelly," or, you know, or take me away from the crowd or something. But believe me, never happened again.

See, this is the problem with cigar smokers. We're too polite. Right. I don't think for bullshit.

Well, not everybody. Well, not to the other cigar smokers, but we're polite to other people outside of the city. There was a lot of kids there. There was a lot of family members I'd never met before.

I know when Adrian would go, "Hey, your husband was coming. " You didn't have to smoke during all of those activities and stuff. As things died down throughout the night or whatever, you want to go chill out on the patio when everybody's kind of settled in? No, when it gets dark, I go inside because of mosquitoes.

It's a lake. There's mosquitoes everywhere. Okay, there's just a lot of excuses for those who go there. I was never outside at night.

" And then, you know, slapping stuff, and... They have a spray for that. Yeah, a comb cutter? Yeah, but then you gotta take another shower, you gotta just go into bed.

Yeah, you gotta spend fucking 10 minutes in the shower. Not even. I mean, your anxiety is super crazy. Yeah, my life is...

He doesn't even want to take another shower. Dude, you're out of your fucking mind. My life is just one big anxiety attack, so, you know. The only night I have anxiety was when I did the marijuana gummy.

And that night's kind of a blur. So you took a high dose THC gummy? Well, I bit it in half. Yeah.

But then later in the night, he suggested we eat the other half, too. I was like, oh, okay. Wow. I'm drunk and high.

I'll take the other half, too. Did you wake up? Was your ass sore? No, no, no.

My wife came out. I texted her before I took the second half. Look, I'm slurring my speech. I'm about to take a second after the gummy.

You better come get me. Fucking Palmer's on the floor. Well, yeah. We know he wasn't on the patio smoking cigars.

That's right. It wasn't on the patio. It's hot in here. Is it hot in here all of a sudden?

No. Oh, it's the COVID. I'm dying again. It's probably the COVID that you have.

The summer COVID. Possibly the norovirus or whatever the fuck. COVID slash norovirus. Oh, my God.

So, Jax got hurt playing basketball. Yeah, I saw. I saw the Facebook post and immediately texted you and asked you if he was okay. Yes.

You didn't answer. Thank you very much for reaching out. You didn't answer. So I immediately went to plan B, which was reach out to your wife.

And what did she say? She told me everything. Were we at the hospital at that time? Uh, the pictures were, I don't know.

I wasn't concerned. I was right after. I wanted to know if the child was okay. Yeah.

So he was, he's, he's really good at stealing the ball during basketball. Right. And he went to go drive. He upset the other team.

Yeah. That's, you know, I don't know, man. Part of me is like, Hey, that's the game. Yeah.

You know, and part of me, I was like, man, it's kind of fucked up. But whatever. Well, when you told me the original story, it didn't sound as rough as the story I heard once I saw you. So the slap-down part makes it sound a little...

I got it on film. I'll have to look at it. So he went up for a layup after he stole the ball, and the kid kind of trucked him. What does that mean exactly, trucking, so they went up for support to go?

They're up in the air. Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Like, Jack should have learned to stop, and then kind of go up, and then take the foul.

Ah. Instead, he does it in motion. He's going for a point. So when he came down, he came down on his left wrist, and he buckle fractured his radius bone.

Hmm. Yeah. I'm a doctor now. Well.

Between all the injuries that I've had. We have several on call. Yeah. I mean, what'd you tell me?

I reached out. " I immediately Googled as soon as I was told. " Yeah. Well, fortunately for us, one of Jack's best friends, dad is also like a doctor.

Oh, nice. You know, he's like a... Is he a foot guy or something? No, he's in a...

well, this coach... well, he's not a coach, he's just a friend whose kid plays with. So he's a... he's up there.

He's like emergency surgery for ER or whatever. So he looks at it, he touches it a couple of times and, you know, asked Jack's a bunch of questions and he says... Oh, he was there at the game. Yeah, yeah.

He said, you probably want to take him in. I said, okay, so then we gave Jacks the option, like, do you want to watch the rest of the game, or do you want to go? And he's like, I want to go. It hurt.

Any tears? Maybe. I think more teary along the lines of, I can't play more basketball. Right, right, right.

More upset than pain. Yeah. And at that point, we had figured, he thought that if he was going to get a cast, he wasn't going to be able to go on the water slide on 4th of July. He wasn't going to be able to go on the water slide for one of his buddy's birthday.

All these things are running through his head. I'm like, I'm like, relax, dude. Fucking relax. We'll figure it out.

Right. So thankfully, they got a cast on or like a temporary cast on it. Right. And then we took them to an ortho and it was just a brace.

So we just bought a couple of extra braces, let them get wet, whatever. And then just throw them in the dryer. Boom. I don't know if you can dry them.

Just let them air dry. Oh, okay. Swap them out. You didn't call Dr.

Bob. Of course I could. Okay. Well, you didn't mention a part of the story.

I was like, I don't do anything. I don't care who tells me until I talk to Dr. Bob. Well, this is how it played out.

Doctor Assests. Right. Must go. Right.

Okay, and then I called Dr. Baldwin. Yeah, right. Hey, I know it's the weekend.

You're probably off. Where are we at? Yeah, I always start the text with, "I hate to bother you. " Oh, I'm past that at this point.

Oh, you don't even say that anymore? Yeah, no, no. " Oh, yeah, and with that, oh, then you get right through. There was something a couple of weeks ago I had to ask him about, and, you know, he answered, and he was a big help as always.

And I told them, I go, my wife has the instructions that I'm not dead until you tell them I'm dead. That's right. So if something happens, she'll call you. You have to come in and assess me.

Oh, he's got to call it? Yeah, he's got, yeah, that's what I said. I'm not dead until Dr. Baldwin says I'm dead.

He's got to call it. Right. He's the one. We're going to need Dr.

Baldwin. He said that's the deal. Yeah, they're going to tell you, I'm sorry, your husband died and you go, uh-uh. What do you mean, no?

Well, Chris didn't say he was dead. Who's Chris? That's his personal physician. You got to call him.

Nice. So I'm laying there rotting. So you better turn his buttons back on, because he's going to be mad if he's not then. Right.

Well, that's fantastic. Well, I'm glad you have that. Yes. Well, I'm sure he'd do the same for you.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure he would. Right.

Good guy. Probably not Phil. Mmm. They'd call him.

" Listen, if you're patient long, if you wait a few weeks, I mean, the Baldwin's could be on a Phil picture. That's true. At the beach. Oh, that's right.

They might be. He's calling them right now. He's accumulating all of them. All right.

Yeah. Start sucking everybody up. It's a big movement. Wow.

I like how he's in the front of the photos, too. Like he's the leader of the booth. Oh, he is. It's his phone.

He is the clear. No, no, that's not why. Yeah, he's a clear leader. Because everybody else has short arms and I had the longer ones.

He's the leader. I don't know. I think he's a leader, too, right? He's a leader.

I like that Chad only comes around on days and times that I'm not here. Oh, has he been here again? Yeah. I've seen pictures.

I've seen pictures. Pictures of him here? Yeah. Oh, I've not even seen pictures of him here.

Like, the Hustler Mafia meeting. Oh. They still have those? Yeah.

I'm not downplaying it. I just didn't know. Yeah. Every week?

Yeah. I saw the ones at the winery. That looked wonderful. He lost his mind one day.

Yeah. He went through this massive purge and just eliminated everybody who doesn't really engage. Oh, in the little chatty thing? Yeah.

I was like, what was that about? He's like, well, if you don't come to the... Why do you need to be in it? I mean, that's a great point.

Sure. That's why I dropped out. I didn't ever win. It's not even a threatening statement though.

Oh, no warning at all. Yeah, he just dropped the fucking hammer. Well, there's been talks before of you have to participate. Oh, he's going to Florida Cigar Club rules.

I think that he got mad that other people started adding other people to the group. Oh, the group was growing. Yeah. " The brick-and-mortar wineries?

Yeah. Oh. We were at Hustler when this was going on. Oh, oh, gotcha.

Hard hammer dropped. Yeah, really? Yeah. Oh.

Yeah. I gotta do $5 fillets to get them here more than once a month. Oh, even with the other specials and everything? Yeah.

Or maybe just get some roast beef and I'll just chop it up. Oh, charcuteries. Yeah, yeah. Oh, nice charcuterie.

$5 charcuterie boards. we tried that it didn't we support everybody that supports hustler yeah except for the winery that was the only one i'm waiting on my jefe reorder let's call them call them right now on the show well can't you just handle it when you're there going yeah when you can't just say hey they need this this and this i tell them all the time are they out they're they're not completely out no completely close really they're down to three They're close, but every time we go there, we pretty much sell their cigars for them, so we put everybody towards the Powstanie. Very nice. Very nice of you.

Oh, I saw them smoking La Flora, not La Flora, but La Aurora, when the last pictures I saw up in there. La Aurora? Yeah, they were there with Willie. Of course.

Oh, that's a free cigar. And then Sweeney popped into this town. Oh yeah, Sweeney. Sweeney, I know the name.

He doesn't remember Sweeney. I remember the name, though. Yeah, La Cultura. Oh, okay.

Gotcha, gotcha. Yep. So there's all that. We're 16 minutes, you want to do a Phil's Fun Fact?

Sure. Or should we give him more shit? I don't care, we can go either way. I'm good either way.

Well, 4th of July, I had a water slide. Oh, that's right, sorry. Fireworks. You did a lot of fireworks.

I did. We upped it this year. Yeah. Yeah.

Cause you know, what's funny is I usually go to Dr. Baldwin's. Okay. Before the July.

But yeah, but, um, I didn't hear from him and I didn't want to be like, Oh, what's going on? You know, we, uh, I saw my, my Facebook memory, whatever we were there for, we've done a couple of years with them, but nothing recent. Yeah, no, I think we were there last year. Oh, I think we were there almost every year at this point.

And I was like, I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what you're doing, and I didn't want to make it like... Yeah, so we're making plans. One day, should we come over?

Yeah, so is it the fourth again? We're doing it again? Right. Should I come in six?

You like the dip I brought last year? Yeah, I just want to make sure, you know what I mean? I mean, we obviously weren't here, so... Yeah, I didn't want to...

I don't think Brittany would ever make a dip. I guess she would. She does. She makes dip?

She's made dip for Boots' house before. Yeah. She's usually like extravagant. Well, it's fancy dip.

I like the... She doesn't open up, you know, A little dish of sour cream and onion, you know, and pop it out. I mean, she goes hard in the paint regardless. We had our neighbors come over and we had 75 cheeseburgers.

Yes. But you ate chicken yesterday. I figured I'd see you eating a cheeseburger. Well, then what she does is she makes sure that she evenly distributes the additional cheeseburgers.

Oh, everybody gets to go home. Because there was one year... That's perfect. You ate cheeseburgers.

You ate cheeseburgers and hot dogs for like a solid month. Yeah. One year. That's when you were telling them they were lion dogs.

Yeah, the lion dogs. The lion dogs. I think, I don't know if the hot dogs are still there, she might throw them away. Oh, don't throw them away, ring them in.

Yeah. Everybody's poor here, we'll all eat them. Yeah, we'll all eat them. I've gone back to them a few times.

Oh. We found, we found this cute little bar on the, on the lake. Yeah. That somebody had, some rich guy had owned it, and then he killed himself, so it sort of sat for a couple years, this is the story I was told.

Yeah. And a new guy had opened it, so, and he had done, it looked really nice, it was a nice, you know, simple little bar, but his food menu, everything was hot dogs. perfect nice so like he had uh you know four or five different kinds of hot dogs with the toppings and stuff and then he had hot dog nachos oh my god sounds delicious it sounds terrible maybe they cut up hot dog there's some type of appetizer that would normally have something else in it hot dogs in it that's cool yeah it was kind of neat something different yeah was there beans and weenies on this restaurant no because then there's beans that's fucked up but you could get two hot dogs and a beer for 16 on the lunch special feels all about the whole He likes the weenies. Phil wants the weenies with the beans.

Right. You know? Right. I'm sure there's like a pack of hot dogs in the back in a microwave.

How'd you get the beans on top of a Frank? So, yeah. All right. Well, let's go.

Let's go on to Phil's Fun Facts and we're going to call somebody. Yes. Oh, he had it ready. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast feature, Phil's Fun Facts.

Hello, people. all right a shot of whiskey in the old west a 45 cartridge for a six gun cost 12 cents so did a glass of whiskey if a cow hand was low on cash he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink this became known as a shot of whiskey did you write this No. I don't write them anymore. Oh.

That's not from our regular suppliers. Really? Oh, I thought for sure that was from them. No, they sent one too, but it had to do with tattoos.

But this other gentleman have sent a couple and I haven't used them, so I felt obligated. Oh, who's the guy? Jean Jurgalette. Oh.

Sure, he sent me two of them. We haven't used them. I don't know where he is. He's still in Ocala.

He's in hiding. Hello, John. I don't remember where the thing is. Hold on, give me a minute here.

I didn't have that one ready. For the news? Are you gonna read it? No, it's for the Cigar Hustler Podcast.

There's a thing at Phil's Fun Facts. Phil's Fun Facts brought to you by Cigar Hustler Podcast Patreon. Cigar Hustler Patreon, where the true news and info come out every week in easily digestible 30-ish minute episodes. For just $15 a month, you get full video access to everything the cigar industry doesn't want us to talk about.

com and search a Cigar Hustler Podcast. This week's Phil Fun Fact brought to you by John Jurgalette. Do it. There you go.

So please, yes, subscribe to the Patreon. Yeah, you guys are missing out if you're not on me. We need stuff. We need stuff.

Going financially broke at this point. Going? We can't afford paper, so everything now is electronic. We can't buy paper anymore.

Yeah, we're making cutbacks. Making cutbacks. No more paper. No.

Soon we won't even drink anything on the show. You know, there'll be no more ghosts, no more water. you got to bring all that from home yeah all right let's go on the news i thought we're doing a phone call you said next well hit the news start with that and then okay from the four corners of the world all the cigar industry news you could possibly need the cigar hustler podcast report with mike too john carney departs la florida minicana john carney the longtime vp sales of la florida minicana is no longer at the company he joined the company 2011 as sales representative And in 2013, just two years later, was promoted to VP of Sales, a role that he's held since earlier this, until earlier this week. He updated his social media to reflect that it was no longer at LFD Cigars, and instead was focusing on Shoulder of Giants, an AI business development company that he started with his father.

"I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family and focusing on my personal ventures," said Carney in his statement to Cigars Podcast. LFD Dominicana, or LFD Cigar, sorry, said it would be issuing a formal statement soon. And now, on the phone... Let's see.

Well, it's gonna... You know how this works. Oh, yeah, you gotta call, and then hang up, and then count to ten, and then call back, let it ring three times. That's exactly right.

Ring-a-ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling. I'm not connected to the roadcaster. Oh, wait, wait, wait. It's good.

There you go. Now it's blue. That one has to be blue. The other one has to be red.

If it's green, we're all fucked. Except over there, everything has to be red. Oh, there you go. There's the secret one.

Yeah. That's so weird. Now everybody knows it's not a secret. Well, nobody has his number.

Will he answer? He's got to find the headset. He's scrambling right now. Did you pre-text him?

I did. Did he answer? He did. He threw his espresso in the air and everything.

He got all nervous. Well, he's driving now back up to Cigars on the Ave. Your call has been forwarded to Voicenail. The person you're trying to reach is not available.

Gave him plenty of time. Please record... He's on the phone with Justin Sanders. He did update his phone so it no longer says the number.

Like 407... Oh, the message. Well, nobody has the number. Well, John Carney, let's see if he calls back, but apparently he doesn't give a shit.

Let's call Jack and talk to him about John. Hey, what do you think happened? What do you know about John Carney leaving? Oh, yeah, maybe he knows where he's going.

Okay, so I will tell you this. Maybe there's gossip about Jack, maybe there's gossip. So we interviewed him on the original episode. Yesterday, yes, we did.

And then we called him on the Patreon and asked... Much better questions. Some more in-depth questions. " Or wait, no, what'd he say?

" What was that question? Yeah. Yeah, which was fantastic. Yeah, it was.

It was hilarious. We enjoyed it. We're sorry you're not going to be able to partake in that. But tell you what, I'll ask you a question.

Well, I'll ask you a question, and you say you didn't hear me. Yeah. Okay. So, can you tell us why exactly it is you left LFD?

We heard there might have been problems with management. I'm sorry. I didn't get that. There were some communication errors in my headphones.

Okay, Boots, now you left. Okay, marry, bleep, kill. You can say fuck on this show, it's okay. Oh, so now your display isn't there.

Because I changed the buttons. Gotcha. Oh, no. A lot of things.

It's so complicated. So many buttons over here. And this one has to be blue, and that one has to be red. Right.

And if it's green, it's no good. Over there, if it's white, it's no good. It needs to be red. We need three reds over there.

Yes, three reds. I was like, three? What's the third one? That's for the camera.

Scramble. Scramble, there's a third red! All right, well... And this has to be on over here, too.

Those two lights. Well, hopefully, Carney will call us back. If not, we'll just... I think we...

Well, it was in the show earlier. Why don't you just call Jack and ask him why John Carney left LAB? Yeah, seriously, let's ask Jack if he heard any gossip. I'm just curious.

He doesn't know we talked to him because he hadn't heard the Patreon yet. Right. All right, Jack. Why did...

Jack, we can't get him on the phone. What's the real shit? What happened? What's the poop?

Nobody answers for us anymore, Jack. One ring? Yeah! One ring!

Jack is automatic. Jack Smooth Taranio. What's up, buddy? How you doing, brother?

Good, man. this is the regular podcast just so you know we're redoing it today because apparently we had some audio difficulties entirely my fault perfect it sounded like you were on a helicopter again yeah no we didn't have any audio whatsoever apparently there's a Palmer's back from vacation he's back from vacation they can't run this without me somebody's gotta fuck up the buttons I had either COVID or the norovirus, I'm not sure which one to be determined. Brother, I got four friends that went to Napa, these two couples, they all came back with COVID. My rep in Texas, Brandon Luna, also known as fake Arnold, his whole family had COVID.

Summer COVID, it's going around. I told him, I said, buddy, just, you know, put a little light up your ass and drink a Take a little Clorox and you'll be good. Just in time for elections. Yeah.

So we have a question for you because we can't get John Carney on the phone today. Yeah. We did a nice interview with him yesterday, but there's no audio of it, so. So it just looks like we're just sitting here.

Yeah. Wow. So we thought, who's going to answer the phone? Jack.

Jack will answer the phone. Jack always answers. So why did John Carney leave LFD? What'd you hear?

Yeah, so what do you think? I don't know. sent him a very nice text message wishing him the best and that i was sorry to hear the news did he answer and i got steven hernandez calling me oh three-way call him in so uh no you guys you get it's not bored it's it's there's craziness going on right now do do do do do do do do this just in what is it that's that's for that's for not the regular show i mean we're doing the we're doing the patreon uh this is the patreon it can be whatever you want it to be yeah yeah you guys uh you guys you know you always call me for for fun news and i got i got something fucking going on that's hilarious Hang on the callback, Michael, hang on the callback. Oh my God.

We can add it in. We can add it in. Okay, we'll be right back. Thank you for listening to episode 342 of the Cigarser Podcast.

See, that's why he's so political about, you know, so nonchalant with the whole LFT, Karney, because that was last week. Right, yeah, it's old, it's old now. I wish him the best, and I don't know. Go back to Karney, I told him, he never even responded to me.

He responded to Hector, he didn't even respond to me. So fuck that guy. Did you use the right phone? Yeah, they took his phone away.

He has a new number. Yeah, he has a new number. That's real. Yeah, that was the LFD phone.

I don't think Hector would have his new phone. I don't know, but I will crop reference there. He might have had the new number. Yeah, you might want to verify that.

I might want to verify it. Okay. Yeah. That does make a little sense.

That might track. And then you have to call and hang up and you have to count to 10 and then call again. You had to call again. Yeah, you had to call him twice.

I don't know. Did anything else come out? Did he leave, or did they leave him? You know, when I asked that question, he got broken up.

He said he didn't... " So... So, I don't know. Either way, I mean, I wish Cardi the best.

How much do you wish him the best? Like, as far as replacing you at Espinosa the best, or, like, slightly...? I have no worry about that. That I know.

That I know. Yeah, I have no worry about that, but, you know, listen, I would hate for him to replace a buddy of mine at a company, but I consider John Carney a buddy, so I would, part of he would be happy for him. All right, so let me ask you, I'm just gonna ask you this one question. Okay.

If he replaced Justin Andrews at STG, would you be okay with that? Yes. I don't think Carney... No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Not that he wouldn't do it. Not the qualifications or any of those things. But would you be okay with it? I just hung up with Justin.

So, no, I wouldn't be okay with it. Oh, you're such a sweet man. I had to fill in Justin on the news of the day, which you guys are fucking missing. Oh, my God.

We have to. Let's end this show now and get on the Patreon. The show's over, Michael. This is ridiculous.

This is so angry. I'm going to call you back when this is done. Thank you. Bye.

Bye. All right, this is the end of the show. All right, we're at 30 minutes. Okay, here's the news.

There's a $200 cigar. John Carney left. Sanji Patel, the ladios. Now start over.

Go back, please. Come on. I want to know what Jack does. Let's relax.

This guy has a lot of anxiety. You think you can relax? You already hit the news button, right? Yeah.

I don't know. Should I hit it again? No, that's fine. I hit it twice this week.

Oh, no. From the four corners of the world. Did you red light today? All the cigar industry do you definitely need.

The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report. He's got summer norovirus. Yeah. I was sitting there this morning going, I am pooped in three days.

This is weird. It's because it all came out in one. That's why, as my wife said, she goes, well, you shit for three days straight. What do you want?

There's nothing in the system. Right. A lot of gas, though. Yeah.

Oh, very nice. Very weird. And you're scared because you're like. Could this be?

Well, for three days, there was no trust. trusting of Trinidad Edition Limitada 2024 goes on sale for $200 per cigar in the UK. $200? $200.

In late June, Trinidad focused Habano's World Days, a multi-day event that is held in selected countries each year. Not this one. Took place in London. You want to talk about Too Late to the Boat?

S. dollars. Mm-hmm. For the Cuban health system, including the humidor auction, was the Trinidad 55th Anniversary Fundamore's Vintage 10 Humidor made by Esti DuPont, which contains 55 Trinidad Fundamore cigars.

53 million went to the Cuban health care system? Yes. The Fidells. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, to the Fidells. They went to the Fidells. Not the Castro's.

Not the Castro's. If your first name was Fidell. You get free healthcare now in Cuba. Yeah, free healthcare in Cuba.

That's just how they're doing it this year. Are they allowed to be named Fidell in Cuba? It's probably the number one name of the male child in Cuba. It's actually required.

Right, right. It's mandatory. If you have more than one child, one of them has to be named Fidell. If it's a boy, Fidell.

If it's a girl, Fidellia. Fidellia. Fidellia. Yeah.

The event also marked debut of the Some Weird Cigar that sells. It's a 6 and an 8th by 49 Toro Extra that it made for Cohiba, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Six and an 8th? Six and an 8th, that's what it says.

It's like a Wonka size. Six and an 8th. The cigars carry a gold and black secondary band that says Edición Limitada, and the year they are released, in addition to being a unique Vitola, the brand Habanos SA says that Edición Limitada cigars You can see cars use tobacco from the Voluta Abagia region in Pino del Rio. Hello, I am Hiroshi Rabona, and I'm from Pino del Rio.

Thank you very much. You know, to go off the color of that band real quick. Yes, black and gold, like Rocky. Like before the Pustania band, I didn't see a lot of black and gold.

Everybody likes purple. We're just trendsetters. I like the black and gold. Buckman, Magnum, F-I-N-I, Finite, Ramon, Alonzo, Absolutas, and Trinidad Caballeros.

It's unclear when they will shift to the market. I don't know what the fuck just happened. I can't even correct him. I don't remember this from the first five takes.

We didn't go that far. I don't know where to begin as far as correcting that. He started to spell something, but I don't think he finished. Finite blur.

Yeah, I just gave up on the word. Milorganite. All right, California tobacco tags decreased today. Hey.

How much? It's okay, because the Colorado cigar tags increased today. Oh. So now it's a wash, though, if you live in both of those states.

" Raise the tags. Hey, they're not buying the tags. Hey, what's going on? Why aren't we selling any cigars?

Well, because everybody's just shipping things in from the United States Postal Service at this point. Well, we need to regulate that. Well, in order to regulate that, sir, you're going to have to get a warrant for every single transaction. Yeah, you've got to search the mail.

Yeah, you can't just randomly open packages. Do you think they try to make rule changes for that? So that you can go through the mail? No, you can't.

Well, you can't go through the mail now without a search warrant. Hey, we're going to go through the mail? Yeah, California's not allowed to do that without warrants. No, but I mean, like, do you think maybe they make it illegal for cigars to be shipped to California?

I'm sure that it's considered illegal. Yeah, they already do that now. Oh, is it? That's why we ship pencils from Cigar Hustler to Canada.

Just like it's illegal to do drugs, but you know, it has to be caught doing drugs, right? Oh. You know what I mean? Like, and if you're a drug dealer, you need a warrant to go into the, seize the house.

Well, so you're going to get a warrant for every single mail package that comes in? Well, usually I see like the, when people mail cigars, they have like a sticker, like Willie's cigars or something. It doesn't matter what it says. You could put Willie's drugs on the box if you wanted to.

Yeah, you could say, yeah. Cocaine. They still can't look. Is that a probable cause?

No. No. You don't get a probable cause to open up a package. Oh, okay.

I didn't know. It's not like you're going to have some police officers just hanging out at the post office. Maybe if the Fadels take over the system, maybe then they can. They'll just fucking rip them shits open.

They don't need nobody's permission. No, that's customs. Yeah, they only do it when it comes into the country. That's customs not giving a fuck about what comes in.

No, we thought maybe drugs, so we destroyed some of your shit. Yeah, we drilled a hole in the side of the glass case. If you'd like to file a complaint, there's the line over there, and then if you see that small fire of paper burning next to that person, that's where all those things go. Those are the suggestion boxes.

Right, yeah, this is where your form goes, right in there. Sanji Patel and Eladio Diaz team up for a new Charisma line cigar. Orgasmo, Charisma. Charisma, no, Orgasmo's a different group of people.

I think that's Eladio. That was Eladio, yeah. Was it Eladio? Yeah, Eladio did orgasm.

, and the SP, you know, he calls one company Muga, the other one's SP-104, 1-0-1-4. That's probably his address. That way if, uh, yeah. Most of his box, SP-1-0-1-4.

Yeah, there's a new line disputing today and that he developed with Eladio Diaz is called Charisma and features a blend dominated by Dominican tobacco that Phil does not like. Patricia loves Dominican Tobacco. The rapper is Dominican. John Carney knew.

You're late. Hang up and he's got to call back now. Okay, he's got to call back. Were you pooping?

No, no, I got my phone on Do Not Disturb. I was working on some stuff on my computer. Do Not Disturb because that Autobots thing really... Do you have the headset?

You have the headset on? Well, you know what? No, I don't. Oh.

Do you guys want to do the... Do you guys want to talk like we did yesterday? Yeah. Oh, well, we're talking, we're recording right now, but we were just calling to say hi, we just missed you.

You can make us a daily thing now. So, am I supposed to pretend like we didn't talk yesterday? Yeah, yeah, yes. Yeah, actually, and later we're gonna go to Cigars on the Ave, are you gonna meet us?

Yeah. No, I'm, I actually, I am going there right now. Do you, yeah, yeah, we thought you worked today, so we were gonna come by. It's got a lot of downtime.

No, I'm going by for a minute. So I'm driving down to Boca today because Evan Darnell is a good friend of mine, the Red Meat Lovers Club, and he's got a big dinner and fundraiser he's doing tonight at New York Prime in Boca. So I'm driving down to Boca today to go and do that. And I've been involved with him with some events in the past, so I'm going to start doing some stuff with him, I think, eventually, I don't know, especially whether it's participating and helping just raise funds or, you know, bringing people to the events, but, you know, we've had a great relationship and friendship over the years, so I'm going down there to see what's happening.

Well, then do me a favor. We did a Red Meat Lovers event here. Well, we did a Silver Mason. No, but we called it that because we did the steak dinner.

And I had a little interaction with him. He was very nice. He just asked us not to use the name because I guess it's not part of the cigars. Right.

It's his organization. Yeah. So we took it down. I mean, I changed everything for him, and he sent me a nice little message and said thank you.

He said he was going to send me something as a thank you. Well, he never sent it. Oh, so now we're sending the hitman. Yeah, so if John's going to be there and he knows it that way, look, Homer said you were very nice to him.

You sent him a nice letter and everything, but he never got the gift. He doesn't know if you misshipped it or went to the wrong address or something. He's a great guy, so he's going to probably send you up something really nice. I'm also providing my services tomorrow with a courier service, so when I drive back up tomorrow, I'm bringing some stuff up, so I will mention it to him that Farmer did his thing, but the challenge is going to happen, he's probably going to give you something, and it's probably going to be some event-exclusive cigars, so I can't guarantee that they won't get consumed on the three-hour drive back, no.

So you're not going down there as some potato concierge or anything like that? No, no, no, no. It's that side dish shack, Mike, it's that shack. Oh, got it, got it.

So when you're driving down, just a confirmation, are you going to use the LFD card for gas and tolls, or has that been shut down already? It's still active. Did you have to put that in the mail? They might have forgot the LFD speed pass.

All the stories I could tell if I wasn't on the record. And also, we spoke to Jack today, and apparently he sent you a nice text message wishing you luck and everything, but he doesn't know if it went to the LFD phone. He said he never got back to him. You never got back to him.

But you did answer him. Yeah, so Jack has that number, so it has the old number, so I will send him a text message. He's very hurt. Yeah, we explained that to him, but he said Hector got an answer, so he was very upset.

So just to be clear, this is the regular show, this isn't Patreon, the Patreon one worked. All right, great. All right, just letting you know. Okay.

Well, it's funny you mentioned, so Hector, Hector messaged me on social media. Ah, okay. So he messaged me on social media. Jack, I don't know if Hector has my number.

Honestly, social media is the best way to get ahold of me, just because I've had four numbers in the last like seven years. So it's, unless you're on iMessage with me, you know, it doesn't, it may or may not go through. And, you know, a lot of the manufacturing friends that I had, had that number, which is kind of interesting. So, you know, I probably should reach out to some of those people just to send them some messages and let them know that I, you know, that I do have a new number.

Some of them are just my friends, you know, some of them are just friends, too. Right, right. I will say... The offer's so good to scroll it here on the screen, if you want.

Yeah, the Espinosa people... Yeah, put it on the screen. Put it on the screen. The Espinosa team was the most...

They went out of their way to all get a hold of me, which was really nice, um, and they, you know, they sent a lot of nice messages, Eric himself, um, was, was great, so I, uh, you know, I think I said yes yesterday on the Patreon, right? Yes, you did, yeah. Did I say no? All right, thank God.

If I said no, I didn't want him to be like, man, we were so nice to this guy, he scratched us, I didn't talk to Patreon, yeah, yeah. I mean, I just think that if Jack and Hector are being nice to you, they're just looking for the juice, bro, let's be honest. You know, they want to know what's going on. " What happened?

Right. You know? You know, you mentioned something about the company credit card. So, I don't know if this is something that people think about.

I thought about it in my head. " Right? Test it. Test it, see?

Yeah, I did not do that. I didn't swipe it for nothing. I just immediately took it and threw it away. No, man.

You're a man of integrity, dude. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, he's driving to Boca, stopping at a gas station. Now, if it were me, I'd buy a fuckin' boat.

Yeah. What is this $80,000, I'm like, I have no idea. Do you know right now in Florida, there's no taxes on fun stuff? Oh yeah?

The governor's made it for the entire month of July. Fun stuff cleared. Boats, concert tickets, vacations, yeah, anything fun spent money on in the state of Florida, no sales tax. Wow.

That's really how it should be, to be honest with you. Cigars, does that count? Those are fun. We should send a letter.

Yeah. We really ought to send a letter because it is recreational. And here's the thing. Not only is it recreational, and I don't know if recreational is probably the best term to use, but it's expendable income.

Right. So it would be something that's not, so fun would essentially be anything that's not necessary, right? Right. Well, what is necessary?

I mean, if hookers is on a list, cigars has to be there. They take credit cards? They swipey. Is that a copy?

It's scary, you know that. Yeah, it's scary, you know that. Yeah, it's scary, you know that. Haven't you heard the song "Tip Drill"?

Can I get points? Do you get points, honey? Yeah. Yeah, they have a loyalty.

Is there double points? Is there double points? Double point Tuesday. Double points on Tuesday.

I have a feeling that since we're redoing this now, I have a feeling that these weren't the questions that were asked yesterday. No, no. That's the one you didn't hear. So, you know what, I'm gonna ask, so let me ask the same question that I asked you.

I asked you yesterday, was it, did you get fired, did you quit, or was it a mutual departure between the two parties? Sorry, can't hear you. It was a mutual, it was a mutual departure, it was, as I said, I think I mentioned this on the Patreon a little bit, or when we were talking yesterday, where it was, it was something that was obvious, it was time to move on, they were moving in one direction, I was moving in another, not negative direction, I was just, you know, just the focus and the direction was time to, time to move on and it said the next steps that they were taking I wasn't going to be part of that so it was, it was time for me to take the next steps for me, my personal ventures and whatever else is out there and so yeah, it was mutual, it was, there was nothing, there was no negativity in regard to the company, you know, and the brand on my end and on their end and what I'm, you know, what I had planned on doing. You know, so it was a good situation overall, especially for me.

Yesterday's answer was funny. It was. But too bad no one will ever hear it. No one will ever know.

No one will ever hear that. You know, it's too bad. It's too bad that I didn't know that it wasn't actually a recording. I mean, I could have just been really no-hold-barred off the record and non-political and just said like, "Hey, by the way, if you want to hear everything, You can come back and listen to the one that has no recording.

Right. Zero audio. I could have said that in. Well, we just said that in, yeah.

So, do you want to plug what you're doing right now, as far as Shoulders of Giants and Snack Shack? Sure. So, ultimately, what's happening here, and I said it was kind of unique, not kind of, kind of unique is not a thing. It was unique in the way that I wanted to handle it when kind of the media side of this came out to play.

It obviously had a big splash in the media by departure and part of it was probably the timing, you know, it was unexpected and then, you know, it was the decade and a half I spent there. So, it was a unique opportunity to provide some information of kind of what's next. And this isn't the end-all be-all, you know, other opportunities may arise and whenever you have a business, sometimes there's failures. But there's things I've been working on.

So what Shoals the Giants is a leadership think tank and free newsletter, essentially, that my dad has been doing over the last decade with his experience in leadership in the restaurant business and the restaurant industry nationwide and worldwide. So he started this free newsletter, and so I kind of built it for him for fun at first. " And it was kind of just for fun to learn some things, and as I got into it deeper, I started learning AI integrations, I started working on some advanced social media things, and my goal was to kind of expand that in my position with LFD at the time, and see where that goes, and it was kind of a test, and it was just a hobby. " It's kind of a freelance type situation, but it's really not, you know, I'm building an agency, really, now it's one person, but as it grows and I have goals as I set a certain amount of clients where we'll add, you know, other workers and other people will come on.

So we'll be managing social media marketing, website design, graphic design, business development. So really a full suite of things and the more modern aspect of it and the future-driven side is the artificial intelligence integration where we could build really comprehensive chatbots, AI integrations for businesses to automate parts of their sales processes, managing their teams, all sorts of things. So Shoulders of Giants is that. That's the consulting and the agency that's going to manage those things.

And it's really a one-stop shop for someone that has a business idea and just needs to get it figured out, or their form, or existing businesses that may need services from us. So we'll be working on that in the next few weeks. That'll be fully launched next week in regards to the service aspect of it. The newsletter comes out once a month, and people can join that for free.

It's a nice insightful thing that my dad does and then the Snack Shack kind of grew as of last week so the Snack Shack was a business my dad started in the early 70s, 1972 so technically this is our 52nd year so I did a bourbon with Tony Gomez called Bull's Breath and we released that bourbon several months back, we still have it, it's going, we're moving it slowly. " I've got a catering light down here in Florida through my father-in-law. And I was like, why don't I bring the Snack Shack back? I go, this would be a great thing to do.

So I sent them over a menu. We have a secret family onion, recipe, hand-cut french fries, dry-aged burgers. So I sent them over the menu and Michael replied, he's like, dude, this is great. He goes, I'd love something like this.

And we started communicating that we're going to start doing Sunday brunches. So the 21st is our target date. So we're looking to do... You know, maybe two days a week, I don't want to be in the restaurant business full-time, but we got a cool concept that we're gonna do with that, but we're working around some ideas of how we can do alcohol-infused milkshakes as well, but it'll be a simple menu, real high-quality goods, local-type stuff, and burgers and fries elevated.

I mean, you just combined two of Phil's favorite things right there. My favorite, actually, is a alcoholic hot chocolate. There you go. And he can make it hot.

Yeah, it's no problem. Perfect. And what about a Shoulders of Giants podcast? Are you going to do anything like that?

So we have some ideas with that. I'm going to see where the business grows in terms of clients. I have a quite vast contact list, obviously. And I'm gonna be working with people on there to see what we can do, and I want to see kind of what my client base is first, and where we grow with that, 'cause right at first, it's gonna be a lot of time on my end, 'cause I'm the one doing all of it, until I can bring somebody else on board, which really doesn't, if it takes off to an extent, it doesn't take a lot to bring somebody on board to assist with that, you know, they can kind of bring on their own clients too.

Well, if you really want to fuck it up, just give us a call. We're happy to have it. We are the number one, uh, podcast. We are the number one cigar podcast, even though we're fucking monkey-fucking our way every step, every goddamn episode.

People like the chaos. They love it. Hey, 20. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So we'll see, and you know, I'm sure there'll be a handful of clients from the cigar business that have some non-cigar related, but to answer your question, yeah, we're talking, we have a membership service that, um... It's gonna mature a little bit, we don't actively have members in it because I've not pushed it and I'm kind of trying to wait to see what that is, but there's two tiers of that and in that tier is some podcasts and some leadership things that we're looking at doing so once I get the ball rolling with this I would like to maybe do some leadership Q&A's with my father where we maybe did like a monthly Q&A type setup where we do a YouTube video or podcast setup where people can come on and ask questions and we interview on a certain topic each month. But yeah, that's something that's in the works. It's not something I'm going to go crazy on quite yet.

I've got to get the business up and running and generating some revenue. And once it does that, then we can start looking at other things if it's viable or not. But yes, there is some goals to have some video content. I think we've got a lot of great content that we could produce with it.

So that's an area of focus. All right. All right, brother. Well, we'll let you go on that note.

Joe, thank you so much for calling us back again. Oh shit, bad news, Mike, I didn't record again. It's been recording. We appreciate you, man.

I hope you have a safe trip down to South Florida, and we'll touch base as soon as you get back. We'll hang out, we'll have a couple cigars or whatever. Three, maybe. Hey, we're gonna have to start going to the gym soon, too.

Yeah, you know, it's been in the back of my head to mention that on the podcast to you, but, you know, like, you have threatened this for years at this point. And then, like, you were really leaning, like, what are your days? And I gave that to you, and then you kind of dead-eared me after that. I was like, I can't force you, John.

I can't force you, buddy. You need a commitment on cigars on the app first. So if you want, you know, you know where to find me. I'm here.

I'm here. You know my, I know your days. I know everything now. It's up to me.

I have to make this decision. That's it. If you want a date, let's date. If not, it's okay.

Well, thank you guys. We'll be in touch. I will see you soon. And, um, and I appreciate it.

Appreciate everything. All right, brother. Thanks, man. Thanks, John.

All right, but if you will. Later. He hung up slower this time. Yeah, Mikey.

Well, I think the other thing was the, the last time on the Patreon too, I think that he had, uh, Don Patel was kind of in the area. Like, yeah, he said he'd walked in. He was ready to talk to us. So he was ready to go.

Ready to wrap it up. Now he's just sitting in the car. Yeah. All right.

What else in the news? Cigars International is opening some in St. Louis. Yeah, nobody cares.

Yeah, we're about out of time anyway. So and White Panda, Domino's, Shipping a Cigar, nobody really cares, but he only made 300 boxes or whatever it was. Nobody cares. Nobody cares.

Nobody cares. But he's Luciano's driver and intern at one time, and now he's the brand ambassador, which I don't know if that's a promotion or not. It sounds expensive. Yeah, it does.

It does. It sounds expensive. Brand ambassador sounds like he pays and nobody pays him now. Yeah.

And how are you a brand ambassador of your own line? Hmm. Good point. Well, you kind of were, I guess.

Maybe he's a brand ambassador for Luciano Cigars. He's not owner. You know, he'd be brand owner. I mean, Skip doesn't call himself the brand ambassador.

Yeah, but Skip owns his company. I am the brand ambassador. Well, I'm the brand ambassador of Powstanie. Well, I guess to a point you are.

Yeah. Maybe Phil's a brand ambassador. I think he thinks he is. He's a brand ambassador of the Beech.

Beech ambassador? Beech and DJing. DJing ambassador? DJ Ambassador.

Yeah. DJ Beach Ambassador. That's a yob. It could be.

Okay. A lot of yobs. All right. Do you have a Listener of the Week?

I do. Oh, you do? Yes. Listener of the Week?

Our newest Patreon Listener of the Week. Father John Richards. John Richards. I think technically he is a pastor, I believe.

I think he is, too. I think he is, too. I mean, he went to school for it. Everybody can be.

I mean, but he like, legit went to school for it. So did Palmer? Sure. He made a couple clicks.

That's cool. I raised my hand and said the thing. Do you? Yes.

Do you? Yes. Good. You're married.

You want to touch kids? Well, you guys don't really ask that question. So it's fine. Yes.

No. I don't know what that just happened there, but yes. I don't know either. All right.

And Shop of the Week. Yes. Lake Country Cigars. Well, you're not going in July.

You're going in August. I'm going August 19th. It's not July. I messed that up.

Is it an event? Yeah, it's a multi-vendor event. Oh, that's right. You said that.

Yeah. So if you want to hang out, I will be in Wisconsin, August 19th. Is it cold yet there in Wisconsin? Not in August.

In August? I don't know. It's Wisconsin. " Met the Indians?

No, not everywhere. In Australia right now, it's wintertime. Have you ever met the Indians? I don't know.

He's a racist too. In Australia, it's winter? It's winter? Their seasons are opposite of ours.

Wow. Yeah, it's cold. It's cold there right now. See, there's a globe we all live on, it's world thing.

And it's round. It's actually round. It's not flying. So our summer means we're closer to the sun right now.

Yeah, but how cold is it in Australia? In what we consider the 50s in most of Australia? Well, if you had listened to the Cigar Jukebox podcast. Oh, you guys played the bass?

With Dave Burr. Yes, where we played the bass guitar for an hour. He was cold outside. He's in Australia.

Yeah. Yeah. No, he lives in Puerto Rico, Miami. He lives in Puerto Rico, Miami.

Right next to the Fidells. Yeah, right next to all the Fidells. Oh, nice. All of them.

Yeah. You get your Quaaludes hit? Are we calling Jack? After the show.

I'll mess that up. What are you trying to do? Quaaludes. I thought.

You'd just seen how long? No, I want to see Quaaludes. Oh. Press the Quaalude button, Palmer.

Well, he went off the buttons. The FBI is searching our YouTube right now because we said it three times. You can't find it. I got quaaludes, I got acid, and I got cocaine.

That should be the green button on all three screens. I mean, just cocaine, cocaine, cocaine. Oh, I can do that. That way you never get lost for it.

I got quaaludes, I got acid, and I got cocaine. I never get tired of that. It makes me happy. All right.

You know what happens if you take all those? He gonna shit when he realizes it's shit. He gonna shit when he realizes it's shit. Sounds like your vacation.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Pretty much. All right.

That's why I don't go on vacation. Yeah. All right. Anybody got anything else?

Nope. All right. It's been episode 342 Cigars or Podcast. Thanks for listening.

We appreciate you. Bye. Bye! Is this thing on?

Wow! Do you want me to hit this button? Yeah, hit that button. Should I hit this one?

Uh, yeah, hit it over there, too. Don't put, no, call Jack! A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners, and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guests. Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike & Mike Productions or the podcast providers, and opinions between talk show hosts may differ.

It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings. We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczefankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

Show Notes

In this episode of The Cigar Hustlers Podcast, we dive into some major changes and exciting updates! We start with an exclusive phone interview with John Carney, discussing his recent departure from LFD Cigars and what’s next for him. Palmer shares the wild story of how he caught Noro Covid while at the Lake of the Ozarks. Phil reveals his new role as the Beach DJ Master, and we get the scoop on The King’s oldest son fracturing his radius. Plus, Jack Torano joins us with the latest industry news. Tune in for an episode packed with insights, laughs, and the latest cigar buzz!