Episode 112 Mike Too gets political....Video Upgrade superstar and more bills!

Episode Summary

Episode 112 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with Jason Wolbert and Mike Palmer ("Mike Too") getting mildly political — a rant about politics creeping into cigar Facebook groups after members reported photos with Trump signage in the background — before Mike launches into a long story about youth sports in Altamonte, where an opposing assistant coach encouraged seven- and eight-year-olds to "take out" his son's catcher. The hosts also recap their visit to Podfest at the Marriott World Center, where badge mix-ups, a thin swag bag and a skipped seminar schedule left them wishing they'd committed to the full event. They talk about meeting Steven Pickens and learning the show doesn't yet hit the download threshold for ad representation, plus a chance encounter with a member of Cigar Peg, the Netherlands-based cigar charity group.

The main guest segment features Brandon Vasquez of Creative Owl Agency, a digital marketing and video production shop with a heavy focus on the cigar industry. Brandon explains how he upgraded the podcast's video quality, and walks through his work: video content for Cordoba & Morales, the Big Event Smoke-In recap with Abe, Barn Smoker recaps used by Drew Estate, a piece on The American for J.C. Newman, and his prior role as director of marketing for Corona Cigar Co. He makes the case that in an industry that can't buy targeted social ads, storytelling and organic engagement are everything — citing Zee and Emil at Cordoba & Morales as the most compelling story he's helped tell, and naming Drew Newman and the J.C. Newman factory renovation as the project he'd most like to capture next. In the show's standard five questions, Brandon picks his dad as the person he'd share a cigar with, Atabey as his favorite smoke, Michael Scott as his fictional pick, and reveals that Creative Owl's name comes from his grandfather's White Owl cigars.

The news block covers legislation and coronavirus. S.3174, the Senate companion to H.R. 2339, has been introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown with 11 co-sponsors — and critically does not contain the premium cigar exemption carved out in the House version, meaning no protection from the face-to-face sales ban, flavored tobacco ban, expanded advertising restrictions and increased user fees. Florida's State Senate passed SB 810 raising the tobacco purchase age to 21 by a 34-4 vote, with escalating retailer penalties from a $500 fine up to $1,000 and a three-year sales suspension. The guys also cover WHO guidance on handling cash, panic buying, and a State Department advisory affecting cigar safari travelers in Nicaragua.

They close with listener of the week Howard Gross, a plug for their Patreon (this week's secret show reviews the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño CT and dishes on industry job changes), a sponsored hole at the Deltona Health Service Academy golf tournament, and a Room 101 meet-and-greet with Patrick Vivalo at the shop.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Politics in Cigar Facebook Groups
   Jason vents about members reporting photos over a Trump sign in the background and the general political division bleeding into cigar communities.
2. 02
   Youth Baseball Gone Wrong
   Mike recounts an opposing assistant coach telling seven- and eight-year-olds to take out his son at catcher, and the head coach who refused to check him.
3. 03
   Podfest Recap
   The hosts review their short trip to Podfest at the Marriott World Center — badge issues, a disappointing swag bag, skipped seminars and the ad-rep download threshold.
4. 04
   Cigar Peg and the Man from the Netherlands
   A chance meeting at the expo introduces the guys to CigarPeg.com, a European cigar charity group.
5. 05
   Brandon Vasquez of Creative Owl Agency
   The digital marketer behind Cordoba & Morales videos, Drew Estate Barn Smoker recaps and J.C. Newman's The American talks storytelling in a no-ads industry.
6. 06
   The Five Questions
   Brandon names his dad as his dream cigar companion, Atabey as his favorite smoke, Michael Scott as his fictional pick, and explains the White Owl origin of Creative Owl.
7. 07
   S.3174 and the Missing Premium Cigar Exemption
   A breakdown of the Senate companion to H.R. 2339, introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, which omits the premium cigar carve-out for face-to-face sales, flavor bans and advertising limits.
8. 08
   Florida SB 810 and Coronavirus News
   Florida's Senate passes Tobacco 21 with steep retailer penalties, plus WHO cash-handling guidance, panic buying and a Nicaragua travel advisory for cigar safaris.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

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

Transcript

Welcome to episode 112 of the Cigar Hustlers podcast. I'm Jason Wolbert. This week, Mike too gets political. Podfest not what we thought it was going to be.

Brandon Vasquez stops in and helps us out. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. audio welcome to cigar hustler podcast episode 112 one one two getting so much harder to say Let's just say, the next one. Wait till we get to 7,586.

Oh, I'll be dead by then. Welcome to a Cigar Housers Podcast, brought to you by Jax. Cause he'll be running it. Oh yeah, it'll be Jax and- That'll probably be his kid.

Jax and Justice in here. Right. Doing the show. Won't be one of my, maybe one of my grandchildren.

Ooh. Ooh. All right, Michael, let's get this show moving. Yes, let's get, let's get started.

All right. I like that you're drinking, we're drinking the same bangs. Uh, you know, I don't normally drink the apple. I'm not a big- I'm not a big fan, but I wanted to start different.

You're not a big fan. A little too sweet for me. You're such a baby. A little too sweet.

I love the apple. I haven't had the apple in a while, though. I always go to my Starblast. Starblast is kind of my move.

See, I like the Miami Cola. Everybody hates the Miami Cola. It doesn't get very good reviews at all on the Bang Facebook page. I like the Miami Cola as well.

Oh, well, look at you. Yes, I do. Copycat. Copycat.

Okay, anyway, I'd like to start with a little political information. Okay. I'm getting tired of the politics and the social media. Oh, here we go.

Let's see. Last week, my little Facebook club got reported by one of the members because somebody had a Trump sign in the background of their photo. Get over it, people. This is ridiculous.

The guy said nothing about Trump. He's just a supporter. Yeah, and he had a photo in the background. I mean, a poster in the background.

A couple weeks ago, somebody had a hat in the photo. I got a complaint then, too. You know what? I don't put a Bernie Sanders hat in.

I don't care. Is the person that complaining, are they a Bernie Sanders supporter? Well, they obviously are not a Trump supporter. Maybe they're like a Buttigieg or a Warren and they're just bitter that they lost their candidate.

I don't know. That would make the most sense for me. But it seems to be the first time in history that I can recall where there's such a division of the people between the candidates. Do you think so?

It seems like it. I mean, I was reading a story this morning. Some guy got beat up in a bathroom because he had a "Make America Great Again" hat on. Whatever.

That's such bullshit. And the guy who beat him up got arrested. Because he had a hat on. Now he gets in there taking a pee going, "Trump's the best.

" Also, he's in the back of the head. That guy's probably batshit crazy. I could tell you a funny story. I don't know if you want me to drop it or...

No, no. Go ahead. You want me to drop it now? Drop it.

I now know, I learned... Yes? why parents get into fights at youth baseball games. Oh, was there a fight?

Oh, no. It was close, though. I saw a photo that your sister-in-law posted of several parents cheering some young man running for a touchdown. That was at football.

Football. Totally different animal. Yes, yes. Okay, well, what happened?

Please explain. So, I was helping. I was helping coach. Yes.

Oh, that's right. You're the assistant coach. And let me tell you something. Altamont baseball is very, very fun.

So, this is not a school? No, this is through Altamont. Yeah, okay. And like the rules that they have, like some of these coaches have really taken it to the next level, And they'll do everything they possibly can to work an angle for their kids to win.

We don't have that kind of a team. Like cheating? I wouldn't say that it's-- Borderline cheating? I would say that it's within the realm of their rules.

Oh, gotcha. So they make their catcher their weakest runner. So then when their catcher gets on base, oh, he's got to go get his gear on. So then they replace him with the best runner.

Oh. You know, whatever. Look, if you've got to take it that seriously and you really need to win, then go ahead. And then go ahead.

I'm just trying to teach my kid fundamentals in game. And these kids are eight? Seven to eight years old? Seven to eight years old.

Oh my lord. Wait till high school. So one of the assistant coaches on the other team, his name's Chris, by the way. Hello, Chris.

Jerry's a big fan. He's a complete douche bag. So our catcher, again, I don't know a lot about baseball, right? Our catcher was obviously standing over the plate, I guess.

Right. And you're not supposed to do that. Not supposed to block the plate. Right.

So he's encouraging his kids on the team to take out our catcher. He's yelling. This guy is yelling, take him out. Take him out.

Sweep the leg, Johnny. Sweep the leg. Are you fucking kidding me? Against a seven and eight.

And see, these are the type of people that get their asses kicked. Right? So, and to make matters worse, so he's not the head coach, right? Right.

But the head coach obviously is a complete slapdick as well because after it was brought up to the other coach, hey man don't talk to don't don't tell the kids to run through don't encourage kids to hurt kids don't encourage violence like being in the catcher spot is the most dangerous spot right yeah right don't encourage kids to hurt other kids in a in a fucking game right right eight year olds no less yeah seven well seven seven okay well it's not like there's a scholarship on the line here right yeah yeah we're not we're not going right into the mlb next week like it's not happening so instead of the head coach telling the other coach hey you're way out of line man you need to go sit He's like, "Go, get out of here. " Chris, come on! " And then, meanwhile, they're over in the dugout going, "Nice job. Good job.

" Way to take him out, okay? Here, what I want you to do is, I want you to bring these brass knuckles in. When you're running from third to home, you clock that motherfucker. You duck him out.

I mean, like, what? So, kind of appalled. I was very angry. I mean, it wasn't even my I mean, he's my kid a catcher, but I have a problem with any parent encouraging...

Well, if he's gonna do that, he might, you know, if he steps off base, kick him. Like, how fucked is that? Right. So, yeah, yeah.

Welcome to children's sports, Michael. You know what, I've never had an issue at flag football. I've never had... Well, flag football is a sport made not to be violent.

It's a violent sport that they have unviolented it? Made it less violent? Unviolented it? Well, baseball is not a violent sport at all.

No, I understand. No, it's not. It's not. So, I mean, it's the same whether they're 8 or 18.

I would say flag football is still more of a violent sport. But they don't tackle, though, right? Well, these kids still run into each other. I mean...

There are no pads, though, right? Yeah, but it happens, you know what I mean? Like, there's, you know, when you're going at full velocity, I mean... Some kid gets in the way, you're gonna...

My son took out his best friend. I mean, you know, that was like the first play. Are they on the same team? Yeah, they're on the same play.

That was, you know, a defensive play. Defensive play, they're both going after the same guy, and boom, they run into each other. You know what I mean? Like, that happens, right?

Or like the quarterback. Tell Jackson to go be the catcher when they come through. Hit him, Jackson. Quarterback gets mulled over, whatever.

But Altamont baseball is out of control. Out of control. I will not do it again. Sick justice on the kid that runs through.

So then the head coach is trying to butter up to me, you know, like... Your head coach or the other head coach? " Because you're screaming? Well, no, I wasn't...

I ain't that guy. I see you getting a little wound up. I'm not going to lose my cool, I'll just go kick the guy's ass. If that's what I mean.

Yeah, so I, so, you know, so the head coach was upset because we took the lead, which is weird for us, we're not comfortable with that, so he changed the pitching mechanics, like he had it reviewed and checked and checked and changed. Oh, it's a machine pitch. Yeah, he had it changed so much so that his boys could eventually hit, and like to a point where it sucked up 15-20 minutes. It's Friday night, or Saturday night, it's fucking cold, like, I don't care, I don't care that much.

I want the game over. Right, like, let's just have them swing at whatever is coming, it doesn't, it's all over the place, it doesn't matter, it's a machine, right? Right. So he's like, oh, you know, if you guys want to change the machine or whatever, you know, I'm really, no, he sped it up, I'm really sorry about that, like, I don't care about, look, the machine's a machine.

I go, and I said flat out, I go, your boy's out of line and you need to check him, and he just walked away. " Okay. So. So, yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I think I should file a complaint. Like, I don't want this guy- With the league?

Yeah. Is there a managing body of- That guy shouldn't be at the games. The assistant coach? Yeah.

File a complaint. I wonder if they even have a process for that. I'm sure that they do. " And then Chris is back next week.

I don't- Well, here's the thing. He has to play us again. You should go watch every game he coaches. Just stand there behind him with your arms crossed, flexing.

You know, you're a very large, bulbous man. You can tell he's just, you know. Are you bigger than him? That's a silly question.

He's taller than me, but he's fat. Ah, there you go. He drinks a lot of those Coors Lights. Probably during the game.

Give me a Bullish Light. Got a big chaw on his side of his mouth? You need to take him out, boy. Take that son of a bitch out.

Run through him. So, yeah. You sports, baby. You sports.

So, uh, I commend you have a long and, uh, violent, probably career, Mike. Well, I mean, you know, I'm coaching my kids, my son's football team, but like, it's a totally different tempo. First of all, we're not keeping score. Nobody keeps score.

Oh, how do you know who wins? Oh, the kids know. It doesn't matter. Like, they're giving away trophies for participation.

No, there's no, there's no trophies or not. What relevance does the score have? I mean, I'm like, I'm trying to teach the kids, Don't run – if you're a quarterback, don't run past the line of scrimmage. Right.

Right. You know what I mean? The fundamentals. Yeah.

The simple – like there's no need for scoring at that age. Did they throw passes at that age? Oh, yeah. Did they really?

We were throwing passes. Nobody caught it. Nobody caught it. But we worked on it.

Did they go to the people? You know, and then – Just say, bink. No. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They had potential to be caught. But what happens is – Can you videotape some of this so we can use it on the show?

I'm coaching. It's hard for me to videotape it. You have a wife. You could videotape some of this, please.

We could use it for outtakes, and I'll put the Benny Hill music to it and speed it up. So one of Jax's best friends is super fast. So when we're lagging behind, it's like fourth and 20 or whatever. I'm like, his name's Levi.

I'm like, give the ball to Levi so we can get another fresh set of downs. Because I want to make sure that everybody touches the football. Right. You know what I mean?

Very nice. So you've got to rotate everybody in. It's hard. You try and at least get them to touch the ball once.

You have seven or eight kids. Realistically, you might get two or maybe three drives. It's an hour long. Right.

So, you know, I want to make sure that – Is somebody playing baseball now too that I hear? Jax is playing baseball. So he's playing baseball? Yeah.

Oh, baseball you were just talking about. I'm sorry. Hi. How are you?

Yeah, hi. Welcome to the show. It's time to see the doctor, Michael. It's time to see the doctor.

Youth baseball was the most fun that I had with my son. Really? It's the worst for me. No, because at the beginning, he was so bad.

So we would go before the games in practice, and we would practice an hour before anything else started. Right. So by the end of the season, he was catching fly balls. He was a stud.

Well, he wasn't a stud, but when he got his first hit, the coach and I both cried. Aw. I mean, it was such a moment, yeah. And then the coach gave him the game ball.

Nice. Yeah. So Jax had his first hit, not his last game, the game before that, and he got a triple. Nothing like it.

So here's the messed up part. Wait, did I tell this story? No, I don't think so. Okay, so I was, I guess there's like a dugout mom, so I was dugout mom.

Oh. Yeah, I guess that's a thing. There was nobody else to do it. No, no, there is.

Actually, I go through my phone room once in a while and I still see dugout mom from when Connor played and I just... " Oh, it's scary, man. It's scary, man. I'll sit down.

I'll sit down right here. You know, so when I was doing it, you know, kids needed something, so I missed a hit. Oh, you missed his hit. So he runs, and I'm watching him run.

I mean, he runs all the way to third base, which is amazing. Right. And you could just see how elated he was. And Brittany actually went left, too, because the baby was going nuts.

Right. So it was a bummer for us. But then he got another hit at the last game. He got a double.

Oh, there you go. Did he get hit not long ago, too? We never told that story. Oh, did I not tell that story?

No, no, you saved it for the show, and then it never happened. Oh, yeah, he got beamed. He, like, the-- Baseball. We're talking baseball again.

Yeah, second day of practice, um, a couple of, a couple of these kids, they can throw some heat, right? Right. Like, they've been, obviously, well-versed in the game. Coached, right.

So, uh, one of his other friends, uh, threw the ball to him, and it hit the top of his mitt, and then, boom, right on his-- Oh, wow. Right on his head. At least he was somewhat deflected. And he didn't know how to react, so he wanted to cry, but he didn't want to cry in front of everybody.

So then I started walking him to go get him ice, and he's like, am I going to be able to play on the playground later? And I was like, you can play on the playground as long as you get your ass back out there and practice. He turned right around and just hauled ass right back. Wiping the tears away.

All right, come on, let's go. Let's go, guys. So, yeah, the team that – the Atlanta Braves is the team that obviously takes baseball very seriously, and they'll probably win all of it. And they're the one that has significant small penis issues as well as – Oh.

Look, you can't tell – you can't educate your kids on taking out kids in a sport. No. What the fuck is wrong with you? I didn't do it on your name.

It's terrible. Don't you know what I mean? It's horrible. And the kid was the first baseman in the outfield.

He didn't want to go out over there. He didn't want to be by the other coaches. What? Like, he was mortified at the guy yelling that he should be taken out.

No, our catcher is the first baseman, right? Our catcher is also the first baseman? Yeah, so he rotates in as first baseman. Oh, gotcha, okay, I'm fine.

I'm like, how do you play both places? " Ah, 'cause the coach is yelling. 'Cause the coach is telling everybody to fucking hurt the other kids. Oh, got him.

He thinks it's a personal thing. I was over there. Had I known that was the case, I was like, "You come and you stand right here. No, you say whatever you want to that coach.

Fuck you! That's from a seven-year-old. I'll kick your ass. Every time you get the ball, the wind is nuts.

Yeah, he can say whatever he wants. You have a problem with that? Yeah. No.

Yeah, you can take the field, fatty. Let's go. Fatty. Oh, look at you.

So violent. You know, it obviously upset me because here we are a few days later and I'm still- Still wound up. I'm still brewing about it. Still wound up.

I just don't condone kids hurting. Yeah, a parent, you know, what am I saying? A parent helping, condoning a kid. Condoning a kid, hurting another kid.

Hurting another kid, yeah. Yeah, the only thing I ever coached was soccer when Connor was five. Soccer's easy. Everybody just runs this way.

Well, that's just it. " "No, no, no, no! " "Not your goal! " But, yeah, football's fun.

One kid had a great run. He was running so fast. He was running-- Is that the photo? No, that was the other team.

Oh, man. That was their one big play. And man, they just, I mean that, but like that was cool, you know, even if it was against us, like, you know, that was so encouraging for the kids. It's still good that the kid did it, right.

" So he starts running, and then he cuts like at an angle, so he keeps running. He runs all the way out, out of bounds, and just kind of keeps going, "Stop! " Yeah, so football is way better than baseball. Oh, that was more action.

Baseball is a lot of sit and wait, yeah, yeah, all right, well, this past Friday, we also went to Podfest, down at the Marriott World Center, very nice venue, at least, it was nice, they had my ID ready, but not yours, so I walk up and I'm in the M through whatever section, because it's my last name, and they gave me mine right away, it's hanging right here, by the way. They gave you a badge, they gave you a sticker. I got a badge, I got a sticker, I got a lanyard, they said go get the swag bag, which we were going to go through the swag bag, but there is nothing in there worth showing anything. Yeah, it's just paperwork.

Just paper, magazines, and things. But Michael, yours was not... Mine was not ready. It was not ready.

" When did you get the text, Michael? A day later. Not only was it a day later, it was almost at the end of that day, it was like 6 o'clock. " Tell you whatever you want.

So next year, we just wear two strings around our neck and go. Hey, I'm here with the lanyard. Here's where we messed up. Yeah.

We didn't do any of the seminars. Yeah, the ones that were that day, I don't think, but I did, I got emails all weekend long. Some of the other stuff on Saturday and Sunday seems like something we might have been able to take advantage of. Do you have access to those seminars now, because they were recorded?

Only if you buy the VidFest. You have to buy that. You have to buy that too, yeah. Podbean didn't include that?

No, no, we just have the creator's pass. Okay. Well, I think next time what we've got to do is we've got to commit to the whole thing and just go to all the seminars. Go to whatever seminars you're thinking you have to do.

Because even if some of the stuff is mundane and we know the majority of it, you might pick up on one or two little things. That's true, you might pick up on something. Well, I think because when we looked down that hall and the first seminar that was going on was Podcasting 101, which starts you from you have a podcast idea. Yeah, we should totally be a 202 by now.

At least, maybe AP classes, maybe a 205, something. I thought it just went to like 303. I'm not sure, I just figured it might be a little higher. Your wife is in the educational system, I feel like you should know this.

Why, it has something to do with education? Yeah, 202, 101, 303, yeah. Why can't there be a 254? Niner, is there a niner?

There might be a niner involved. But PodFest exposes a community of people who are interested and passionate about sharing their voice in meetings with the world through the powerful medium of audio and video. They were proud to unite as many people as possible to learn and get inspired and grow even better. There were more people there than I thought were gonna be there.

Yeah, a lot of people flew in. Yeah, according to the photos, 'cause they were sharing photos all over the place. Ooh. Is something you need to take care of there, Mike?

No, no, I'm just playing with them. I'm playing with the watch. Playing with the watch. That was good.

We talked to a couple people. Who did we talk to? We talked to... We talked to advertised guest, Mr.

Steven Pickens. Steven Pickens. But then we found out we don't have enough downloads yet. We're not qualified.

We're not qualified yet to receive ads. We're like in the weird section. We're like in the... Yeah.

We haven't just gotten started. But we're not big enough. But we have a lot of people, but it's not enough people. Right.

Yeah. What, they wanted 2,500? Yeah. We're at like a thousand.

Instant downloads, yeah. Yeah. Between all the different mediums we use. Yeah, so like I wouldn't, you know, I don't know how that plays out.

And, you know, to be honest, I don't know exactly what advertising they would want to do, like, you know, I don't want to hear "Famous Smoke Shop" or, you know what I mean? Well, yeah, I don't know how they would have done either, because I don't think those people advertise with that company, because there's not a lot of cigar stuff, so it might have been... " That's why I always think "Famous Smoke Shop," which is smart, but like, I don't want anything cigar, like, you can't, here's the deal with this. You can't do anything cigar-ly.

Right, we have been approached by a couple of different cigar things, and we're just like, "No, no, we can't. Nope. " Right. So.

Beholden to no one. That's, we should make that a shirt. Except you, YouTube. Cigar Hustler Podcast, Beholden to no one.

Except you, YouTube, and Podbean. Our YouTube subscribers are up to 185. Woo! But it's weird, we're still only getting like 20 to 30 downloads per episode.

Yeah, it's okay. So, no. But I did check, we're still number one on Podbean. Well, you just fixed the video.

Yes, so the video quality, Mr. Brandon Vasquez, who was supposed to be on today, we don't know what happened to him. I hope it's okay. I hope everything's fine.

Brandon, we'll schedule you on another day, unless he shows up here. Well, it's too late now. We're already started. Yeah, we're already in it.

We're at 20 minutes in, 21 minutes in. Do you want to take a break and then come back and do some news? We've got to slide one other thing in. Hold on, let's see what we've got here.

We've got eight minutes. Oh, we can plug the Patreon for this week, Michael, if you'd like, want to squeeze it in our way till the end. Go ahead. com, if you'd like to join, that's where we have special shows.

You didn't talk about Cigar Peg. Oh, that's right, the man from the Netherlands. Yeah. Oh, well, let's talk about him then.

Okay. A gentleman came up to us as we were walking down the middle of the expo. Uh-huh. They called it an expo center.

It's more of an expo room. Yeah. Maybe an expo closet. It wasn't that low.

It wasn't a closet. " I just love this guy. Do it again. " It usually goes Chinese.

It usually goes Chinese. Yeah, it's all Chinese. Are you afraid of the coronavirus? Yes.

That's why you're not going Chinese? No. No. " Okay.

We said, "Yes. " Yeah. com is a, how do you say, Netherlanders? I don't know.

Say Europeans. They're Highlanders. Highlanders. There can be only one.

Go ahead. Tell them. Tell the people. They're a charity organization, apparently, to smoke cigars, according to the broken English that I can understand from the man.

On their website, you pay $150, and you get to join and sit around and smoke cigars with these other gentlemen, and then they use the money for charities of some sort. Hey, that sounds interesting. I don't know how we could take advantage of that, since we're not in the Netherlands. There's nothing we can do about it.

Nothing we can do, but there was a nice website, plenty of photos everywhere. I mean, that was, you know, I was kind of taken aback. I was kind of like, hey, ooh. He must have seen the name on our shirts or something, I'm guessing.

" I'm like, thanks. Okay. Would you like one? Like, you can get one on the Patreon.

You can get one on the Patreon. Uh, so that was Cigar Peg. Yeah. Anything else?

They had some live podcasts going on. That would have been neat if we could get on that list to do a live podcast from the show. Oh. That's what was up there on that stage.

Aha. Weren't you, uh, you were worried about your parking, too? Oh, that's right. We, uh, we just sorta just parked.

We found a string of cars parked up against the curb and we just thought- We went in front of them. We went to the second to last spot before the yellow started, and we just parked there. It looked like there was yellow there and it just kind of faded away. I thought there was a hydrant, but it was just an electrical pole.

And Mr. Palmer was nervous about getting his car. I was afraid we were going to get towed. I was like, "You'll be fine.

You'll be fine. " Right. Just in case. You got all your belongings out of the car.

Not all of them, just my valuables. But the car did not move. It didn't move. Yeah, it didn't move.

But we were only there 25 minutes, so we-- Was it only-- I felt like it was a little longer than that. It was less than an hour. Yeah. It was less than an hour.

And it took us an hour to get there. And then traffic on the way back to get here, it was 45 minutes to get here from over there. Yes. Yeah.

No, it wasn't because of that. No? No. Well, there was a fire on I-4, but it was way further down, closer to Daytona.

Oh. Mile Marker 22, just up here past the shop, actually. Mm-hmm. All right.

So, now we will take a break. There you go. And then we'll be right back. Look at that.

Happy to help, Mike. Don't touch your microphone. Just crinkle it. I didn't touch it.

He touched it. I did not touch it. The video will show you that I didn't touch it. I think you tickled it with your bottom.

I didn't touch it. I didn't tickle it with my bottom. You have to tickle it with your lip. I did not tickle it with my lip.

All right, we'll be right back. Bye. Goodbye. Hey, it's Mike too.

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We took another break, went to the commercial. What we'll do is we made a mistake and Brandy was scheduled to be on today and evidently he was out in the lounge, lounging and we didn't know he had showed up. And we thought that you blew us off, so sorry about that. I was hiding, I was just, you know.

Stuck in a JW, you know how that can manipulate your time. Yes. So our video quality is now better because of you. Yes.

Yeah, I'd say it's a little better. That's better. You're the video guy. And the really sad part is he just went.

He's hit. Otherwise. Hey, look. And the sound's better, too.

Did that affect the sound, too? Does it auto-adjust the sound now for us, too? I don't think so. I think it's all running through your brain.

It was super crisp. Oh, it was super crisp last week. Yeah. I can't take all the credit.

I just... No, you do. Oh, no. It's you.

It's all you, Brandon. So, why don't you tell our listeners and viewers a little bit about yourself and what your name is and stuff. So, my name is Brandon. I do digital marketing.

I've worked in the industry for a little while now. Yeah. I own a cool agency. We're called Creative Owl, and we do digital marketing.

And one of our big focuses is actually in the cigar industry, creating content for manufacturers, for retailers, and pretty much anyone looking to tell their story. Right. If anybody has seen the Cordoba & Morales videos lately, he does all those. Also, the smoke-in video from the big event smoke-in, he just did that, that was premiered last week, that was actually very good, did a good job there.

I can see what you say, we had a brief discussion when he was adjusting the thing there, and the only, it's the sound, because when Abe is talking on the microphone to the crowd, you're right, that's, I mean, there was no way for your camera to pick that up. Yeah. So, I mean, you could tell it wasn't. You're talking about it from the smoke-in.

Yeah, from the smoke-in, yeah. Yeah, you could tell at that point there was just nothing he could do because all the other stuff, the interviews and all the other stuff that Abe talked, it was just crisp and clear and right on, but he was more, Abe was more concerned, I'm sure, at that point with the crowd and the camera, so he was talking into a microphone so everybody could hear him. Okay. So, like, who else have you worked with now that Mike is pretty much giving out your fucking resume?

Just the recent stuff, so people will get an idea. We could let Brandon talk, Mike. You know, he complained earlier, I wasn't talking enough. I didn't complain I'm talking too much.

Make up your mind, Michael. There's only so much I can do or not do. Do you ever see Lethal Weapon? I'll just shut down.

Do you ever see Lethal Weapon, the original? Yes. When they started talking to the little boy, and then the other kid says, "Don't tell him your name, Tyrese," or something like that. " That's you.

Oh, there you go. You're that guy. All right, Tyrese, don't say a word. Yeah.

Six. So, anyways, Brandon, who else have you worked with? So, I was a director of marketing for a pretty well-known cigar retailer, Corona, for a little while. Okay.

And managed their marketing team and kind of did video production for them. Right. The stuff that I've created, you know, Drew Estates used, you know, the video content that I've created for like the Bar & Smoker recaps and stuff like that. See, I didn't mention that.

Exactly. I've seen that too. Just, you know, a little bit, a little bit here, a little bit there, nothing, nothing too crazy. Abe, so you did like the two big guys in Florida for sure.

Yeah. And then you do Cordoba & Morales. Anybody else? C.

Newman. Yeah. The video they use, one of the videos they use I created, so. So you're getting slid into a whole bunch of what's going on, huh?

Yeah, you know, the, the cool thing about when, when I worked with Corona is that it kind of gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people in the industry. The crazy thing is everyone has a story. That's kind of what it's all about. It's all about finding what the story is because you can sell products all day long, but if you don't have an interesting story to tell, people aren't going to be interested.

Well, you can't sell products all day long if you don't have a story. Exactly. Pretty much. Hey, take out my cigar.

Okay, what is it? All right, fuck you. This one's got a story. Oh my god, a story?

It's true. It's so true. It's the only thing you have. In this industry, when you're pushing a product and you can't buy ads on Facebook, you can't target individuals, the only thing you can do is hope that you resonate with the audience you already have and hope that by their interest and their engagement, liking your stuff, sharing, commenting, their friends will see it and you'll get that organic kind of push from that.

It's kind of networking. Exactly. Right, people connecting through connecting. Exactly.

Okay, so who's the best person you work for, so far? Everyone's great for different reasons. Get the fuck out of here. You gotta say, look, you gotta give us, you know.

So diplomatic. That's fine, you can say that everyone's great, but you can say, you know what, working with so-and-so. This show here, Michael, doing the, what he helped me do is the best experience of his life. Working with so-and-so was really cool, or something like that, you know.

Okay, I think the, I'd say the one that really resonated with me was Zee and Emil in Cordoba & Morales because they have such a cool story, you know, Zee, you know, was a political prisoner and basically came here to play golf and decided out of, you know, interest and from his grandmother that he was going to blend his own cigar and it was just going to be something he'd smoke personally and share with friends and maybe sell a couple here and there. And that was something that it was a cool story to see unfold, to see where they're at now from where they started. So just because of his story, it was the best person. I mean, did you ever hear about his Santa Claus tie?

I was gonna ask you, did you see the Santa Claus tie? No, he has no idea. No idea. Did you ever get a meal not to laugh?

I mean, all the time. So if you go back to episode one of the Cigar Huskers podcast, which was the absolutely atrocious worst podcast we've ever done, it was with seeing a meal. It sounds like we're all talking like this, and like, it's just terrible. It's really bad.

It's just me and Emil laughing. We got some pretty good, there's a decent story that we got out of it. We had a one twice. Did we?

Yeah. I don't remember, there's so many at this point. Episode 112. The second one, half the show, Z didn't even know we had started recording.

Oh! Recording? Oh my god. Yep, and we're gonna air that.

Thank you, and we're done. That sounds about right. Has there ever been – okay, so the best one has been Zina and Meele just because of the story. But has there ever been, without saying any names, like a strange request for you to film or anything like that?

Like, hey, I'm going to go give it to my wife. I really would like it. I need you to come over later to the house. Bring some lube.

Be discreet. Just be discreet. I've been fortunate with my requests that I've gotten. But, you know, you always hear stories.

There's some interesting characters in the industry. Come on. You've had to have had at least one. So you're like, I don't know if I can do that, or like, eh, or be like, you know what, I'll get back to you.

I'm like, fuck, I'm going to block this guy's number. It's, it's, it's, delete, delete, delete, block. Right. It's never been that bad.

Yeah. It's never been that bad. Everyone's usually pretty normal, but it's, you know, everyone's, everyone's a character, I feel like. Come on.

I feel like somebody's like, dude, I want you to, like, I'm gonna bring my dog over. And you're gonna take some. There's gonna be some peanut butter. You're gonna take, I need you to take some really good angles from me.

Okay, fine. This one time, just one time. I signed an NDA. That's fine.

You don't have to say any names. No names. Just give us the meat and potatoes of the story. Yeah, just the good stuff.

No peanut butter. Not yet. Not yet. But he is willing, apparently, so, you know.

If the price is right. If the price is right. Yeah. If the price is right.

As long as it doesn't get on the camera equipment. It always boils down to the bottom dollar. It is. You know, I'll do that for you, but what's it going to take?

20 bucks is 20 bucks. Yeah, wow. Oh, hey. Way to set the bar.

Yeah. Really high. Throw an extra 20 in there. 20 bucks per minute.

Yeah. 20 bucks per minute. Oh, well, yeah. I need two minutes.

Here's $40. Here's $20. There you are. Here's $60.

I want just a little cuddle. Is there anybody that, like, you know, I mean, I have, we have our goals and kind of aspirations and who we want on, well, at least Mike does as far as who he wants to interview on the podcast. He's a big time. He doesn't, he doesn't care.

And kind of where I want to see where we're kind of taking our new production company. And we're kind of moving forward. Is there anybody in particular that you want to work with? Are you like, man, working with this dude would be really badass?

C. Newman, they're doing that big renovation at their factory, and they're, you know, I'd love to be a part of that. That would be something really awesome to kind of capture unfolding, and that's something that I'd really enjoy to do. I heard they found like a hidden stairwell or some shit.

Yeah, they found a lot of crazy stuff there. That's pretty cool. I think they have stuff from like the Prohibition time that they found, like a, I think back in the day, you would, um, you know, they'd have a, like a hidden safe or something that they'd lock the money in, and to, to, I guess, combat robbers and stuff like that, and they found all types of crazy stuff. Underground Railroad.

Was it like, was it like the Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone State? Did they just find a fucking can of Coke? A bottle, one bottle. Oh, one bottle of the other.

Thank you very much, everybody. It's labeled Coca-Cola, the real thing, so it's from the 70s. So JC knew, but yeah, so, but you've kind of worked with them already. Yeah, so that was the cool thing about Corona is that it opened up a lot of doors to kind of work with them.

Yeah, as you say, Corona was the American too, so we made that connect there, but that could have opened the door for you though. Oh yeah, and I talked to, I talked to their marketing team periodically and we were going to have a project pretty soon, but it kind of fell through. So, you never know though. I mean, you know, the stars will, the stars will, I'm sure.

Right. Anybody, one particular person, like somebody that you're like, "Oh, that guy's badass. Like, that guy's cool, or there's nobody like that in the industry? I think there's a ton of great people, honestly.

Jesus Christ, man. You're not running for fucking office, okay? Just say the one guy. I mean, you know what?

I want to work with this dude. I'm going to get you broken. I will break you, Brandon. Drew Newman.

I think there's a cool story there, because with Drew Newman, you know, he's, you know, the next generation, and he's becoming more and more active in the company kind of just as a voice. And I think kind of, you know, he's got an interesting background because he was a lawyer, and you know, I think he was focused on that full-time and kind of just started in the cigar industry, and I think that would be a really cool story to kind of tell and to see how that would unravel, and that's really what honestly makes me happy, it's just getting to see these things that, you know, everyone has a story. You started Cigar Hustler, what kind of like, what people don't know, all the things that happen to kind of lead to this point, where you have this great store and you've got these great cigars and you've got great customers and you know, that's... I don't know about that.

Solve a little bit. I like a poor black man in the city and come up hard. Wow. Mike really took an angle on that one.

Jesus. No comment. Okay, so you want to ask them the questions? Oh, we'll do the questions.

I have them right here. All right, don't let them see it. Don't see the questions. Okay, we have five questions we ask everybody who's on the show.

Same five questions. Did you review the questions? You know, I shut off. Oh, you didn't?

Okay. Name one person, living or dead, you would like to share a cigar with. Wait, I'll answer that for you. You know what?

I love everybody. Not one special cigar either. I like all the cigars. Living or dead that I'd like to share a cigar with.

Wow. That's actually a pretty hard one. Nobody pops in your head? Okay.

Whose name jumped right in as soon as you heard it? Right. Drew Newman. Man, that's a tough one, actually.

That's a really tough one. Just to say it. Just to say it. Just to say it.

Whatever name jumped in first thing. Yeah. Oscar the Grouch. Okay.

We get it. Could be Oscar the Grouch. Okay. We get it.

And Uncle Bob is no longer with us. Honestly, this is going to sound cheesy, but probably my dad. Yeah, that's all right. That's a good answer.

The only reason why is because my dad, he hasn't smoked in so long. Yeah. And he used to smoke cigarettes, like a lot of people. And by the time I started getting into cigars, he was long gone smoking anything.

So I think it would be cool to share a cigar with my dad. Okay, that's awesome. That's good. That is a great answer.

Yes, very good. Good job. We're finally getting into some information here. What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me? You know, I'd say... It's love everybody. Yeah, love everybody.

Don't talk bad about anybody that might hire you later in life. Honestly, I think just to be yourself. I think a lot of people get held up in this kind of misconception of trying to appease everyone. Show's over here, Michael.

Michael, show's over here. I got it. Thanks. Thanks.

And your eyes are up here. Okay, stop looking at the questions. Oh, man. What's your favorite cigar?

My favorite cigar? That would be the Julius Caesar. Or the Corona House Blend. Or the FSG.

You know, honestly, I think- They're all great. Cordoba & Morales. See, you had no idea that this is what it was gonna be. Like, see, you might love everybody, however we We rip everybody apart.

I should have studied. I should have studied, actually. I don't know if I want to do this. You're the Patreon.

I feel like I'm in high school again. This is how I was in high school. Oh, he's being bullied. He said we're bullied.

No, no. I was just bad in school. I didn't study, and I got bad grades. There's no right or wrong answer.

That's okay. That's why we tell you. We'll talk shit about you in the next episode, though. Hey, you still got the high school diploma, man.

They don't keep the grades on there. That's true. Unless you dropped out. It looks like everything worked out for you, so good for you.

I won't comment on the dropout part. My mom's watching. Okay. I think she'd know.

Well, now she can go back to your dad and be like, yo, you need to smoke a fucking cigar with your son. Apparently, that's his life goal. Just the one. Let me think.

So, favorite cigar, just hands down? Yes. Favorite cigar. Best one you ever smoked.

The one you like to smoke all the time. This is a favorite. You have to smoke it all the time. You walked in a human order full of every cigar ever made in the world, and which one do you pick?

Because maybe you don't have access to that cigar. Maybe you just smoked it one time, like, damn, that was the best cigar. I think my favorite one to go back to on a basis as a treat is like one of the Atabeys. I really like the Atabeys.

I like those with coffee and I just think it's a great cigar. It's not too strong. It's just doesn't matter what time of the day either. You know, it could be a first early morning cigar.

It could be an evening cigar and you feel good when you smoke one of those. Okay. What do those retail for? They're like somewhere between 25 and 30.

Yeah, they're up there. So the production company is doing really well for Brandon. Hey, he's smoking them with his coffee in the morning. Hey, I'm lighting this up.

C. Newman. " You know, if I could just fit this in, you know, if I don't have to finish it and throw it out, it's fine. Well, I don't have to smoke with Dad, so he doesn't get one, too.

Yeah, oh, that's a double whammy. Double Atabase. That's a $50 sit-down right there, pal. I think I'd give my dad something different.

Yeah? Why not? It's a good cigar, right? It's light.

House blend bottle cigar for that. 99. Some people love rum flavored cigars. Hey, those cherry ones?

One of our best sellers. We can't keep that cherry one here. You kidding me? We see a meal every week.

Just about. There's a guy out in North Dakota or something, buys those things by the jar phone. Last time I was here, I think I saw her. Oh, yeah.

She's always here. Exactly. More cigars. It's more of a louder one.

All right, okay, number four, what fictitional character would you like to share a cigar with? Oh, fictitional character. From a movie, a book, a comic book. You don't have to worry, these people can't be offended.

You can pick anybody. You have to pick one, though. You can't be all the Marvel characters. I would say, do you guys like The Office?

Like what? The Office, the show The Office. I have seen The Office. Yeah, a little bit.

I'd probably say Michael Scott, then. Really? When is he in the show? I'm not that familiar.

He's the boss. Oh, okay. So that's his character's name. Gotcha.

All right. Yeah, he's like this, he's like this, like, he's hilarious. Steven Carell. Yeah.

Yeah, okay. All right, just so I know what we're talking about. But the fictional version. Yeah, yeah, the fictional version.

The role that he plays. Yes. Michael. Because it's fictional.

Fictional, yes. I'm following. Thank you, Michael. Only because I think he wouldn't take it too seriously.

Yeah. He's not like a, like in the show, he's pretty much a bumbling moron. Right. And in the show, in one episode, he smokes a cigar in a hospital, and it was like a big joke, so I think that would kind of be nice.

So I heard they were bringing that show back. Is that true or no? I think I've heard something, too, a remake of some sort. Quiet rumblings about it.

I've only seen it, I think they were talking about getting rid of it from like Netflix. Oh, maybe Netflix is picking it up. They're famous for doing that. They're getting rid of it.

well they were going to get they had the rights to it i guess to show it for a while and then they brought it back i guess they were going to get rid of it and they kept it i don't know if they're going to bring it back though interesting all right plug them all right here's the fifth and final question how to get a hold of you yeah here's your chance to give your plug yeah name be your company again your website your email address phone numbers bank account numbers whatever What do you want to give us? Blood type. Blood type. The easiest way to get a hold of me is my website.

com. Owl as the bird, right? Owl as the bird. That's a funny story how the name came.

That might be another episode. What? Tell us now. Tell us.

Come on, we've got a couple of minutes here. So, basically, my mom, she, her dad, when she was a kid, wasn't a wealthy guy or anything, he just, you know, he did what he could, worked many jobs, and every once in a while, he'd come home, and, actually, close enough, he'd come home with a white owl cigar, that was his treat, for a good day, and, I mean, it was back in, like, the 60s, so. I was afraid they were eating owls for dinner. Not anytime soon.

Right. They're going the opposite direction. Opposite direction. $25.

$25. $25. I mean, unless the owls are good in the Vasquez family. Unless owls are delicacy.

It's very rare. And danger. I hear they taste pretty good. The Harry Potter owl.

Tastes like chicken. So he'd bring home a white owl. Yeah, and he'd smoke a white owl cigar, and he'd get my mom had five siblings, so he'd bring each one of them a candy, and he'd have a white owl cigar. And so ever since then, my mom's been obsessed with owls.

Oh, that's nice. That's cool. So she has, you know, for Christmas, you know, I get her owl necklace or something. She just, anything owl related, she'll usually love.

Right. And so I consider my mom like a good luck charm, kind of, sort of, and she's my mom. But he's not smoking a cigar with her. I bet you she's like, "Oh, fuck, Christmas is coming.

" More owls. Bet you I'm getting another owl gift from Brandon. Yelling at his father. If you hadn't smoked those damn White Owl cigars, why couldn't it be the candy?

You brought everybody candy. Seriously. I'd rather have the Snicker bar. It's too bad you didn't bring home recess every day.

Exactly, right? The first cigar I actually smoked was with my mom. Yeah? Oh, look at that.

What was it? A White Owl. I can't tell you what it was. I have no clue.

No kidding. It was a – It was only seven. Yeah, it wasn't anything special. Right.

Of course it was special. It was special with her. You're absolutely right. But it was actually the first cigar I'd ever smoked, too.

Yeah. So I had a friend that was starting a cigar thing, and he – Bad hunt? No. No one cool.

About the same age. Oh, well, that's okay. He's not cool. He's older.

He's an older guy. Yeah. Older guy. And he gifted me a cigar to try, and so I don't know what to do, and so I smoked with my mom.

I was like 18. Nice. Did you turn green? Did you get sick or anything?

Not that time. Oh. I've gotten sick. I've learned my lesson.

I've gotten queasy but never sick. Rookie. I mean, you had to commit. How am I a rookie?

Right out of the gate. You had to commit. I smoked a Kuba Kuba and then a Casamagna back-to-back. I died.

That was like day one, me learning to smoke. " I couldn't get my head up. Just a child. Just a child, Michael.

I didn't smoke with my mom. It's, yeah. Does your mom smoke cigars? No.

I don't know, maybe something a little thin and fruity or something? No. How's your mom doing? She's doing great.

We should call your mom one day on the show. Oh, please. Oh, that would be fun. Does your mom listen?

Is she a listener? No. Are you going to make her answer all the questions? Uh, no.

No. I am so going to call your mom one week. You go right ahead. And then once you're done playing it, you'll be like, we can't use this.

We can't use this content. She's absolutely batshit crazy. That would be a great joke. Oh man, no it wouldn't, we would lose.

What we'll do, we'll call her, we'll talk bad about Greg, and just have her defend him. Oh yeah, that's true. Greg's a golden boy. Greg's the favorite.

Greg is his favorite. What's your mother's name? Let's give a shout out to your mom. My mom's name is Maria.

Maria. Maria, oh, get Maria gone. Maria gone. Maria gone.

Maria who loves the owls. Everybody send Maria an owl. Owl stickers, magnets, whatever you got. Well, hey dude, thank you so much for coming on.

Yeah, again, we're sorry we didn't know you. We definitely messed that up, we're pretty good at screwing shit up, but we own it. We made a career out of it, Tony, you know. Yeah.

Hey, at least the video worked all the way through this time. Hey, we appreciate your patience. I think you forgot to hit record, though. No, it's recording.

Don't point it to Tony. That's so funny. It's recording. If not, I can just pull it from that.

I've had to do that before, trust me. I know all the ways to fix shit. Some of the shit I haven't heard about, obviously, so. All right, so we'll be right back.

We're gonna take another break. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, Brandon. We appreciate it very much.

All right. Bye. com backslash the CigarHustlersPodcast. Get your show swag and become a true hustler.

Okay, and we're back! Hey, we have some news, Michael. Stan is not a lie. He is the new cameraman.

That is Stan right there. Stan, shake the cameras on me. You know, I think you should move the camera angles every once in a while. We should put it over there.

Why? I don't know. Let's keep mixing it up. You want one episode just on you, one episode just on me, one episode that cuts tops our heads off.

You really should have two more cameras, so then you can splice in. Oh, sure. It's not hard enough. Zoom.

Zoom. Zoom. This already takes up three days of my week. Let's add another day for video editing.

It's worth it, Mike. Let's be honest. It's so worth it. You love it.

All right. A new bill has been put in just yesterday. But it's just a bill. It's just a bill.

I'm just a bill. R. S. House and Representatives.

Ooh. We talked about that last episode. Okay, yeah. It has now been referred to the Senate where a companion bill, S.

3174, has been introduced to the Chamber of Congress. The Chamber. Chamber of Commerce. Congress.

I won't say Chamber of Commerce, but it's the Congress. The Chamber of Converse. While most of the same key provisions of the S3174 are the same as the HR2339, they sound like coronavirus things, the one big difference is that the Senate bill that's currently formed does not contain an exemption for premium cigars, so this is an amendment to the original bill. The bill was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown, I'm guessing that's a woman, sounds like a Democrat from Ohio, and has 11 co-sponsors.

I love that. Dun, dun, dun. Out of how many? I don't know.

How many? I don't know. I don't know either. I don't know what's going on.

We don't fact check. Yep. Key provisions of the bill affecting premium cigars are, and this is as reported on our friend Mr. Cigar Coop, a ban on sales of tobacco and vape products that are not face-to-face in parentheses.

This would include online catalog and phone sales under the exemption products defined as premium cigars would be exempt. This does not have an exemption. Can I text? No.

Flavored Tobacco Ban, Banning Products that Contain a Natural or Artificial Flavor Other Than Tobacco. Can I WhatsApp sales? I guess. Extended Advertising Restrictions Currently Applying to Cigarettes to All Tobacco Products.

Oh my God. And an Increase in User Fees. But wait, there's more. We need more money.

And we need more money. As mentioned, the one major difference, HR 2339 and S3174, is that there is not a language for premium cigar exemption. S. Food and Drug Administration, including the ban from sales that are not face-to-face, as well as FDA's costly pre-market approval, substantial equivalency process.

Okay. Sounds serious. Sounds serious. So is it, so, so this lady's trying, or this senator, the whoever, this charade, I don't know what that.

Let's add, let's do some stuff. Let's add this to it. So take the exemption out for the $12 and more. But wait, there's more.

It's not going to pass the Senate. No, it's not going to pass. It doesn't matter. It's just so.

Well, thanks for wasting our hard-earned tax dollars for ridiculous bills. It's only a bill sitting here in Canada. House of Representatives and Senate. We have a Corona update, Michael.

Oh. Coronavirus update. The World Health Organization, the WHO, has advised people to wash their hands and stop using cash, if possible, as the paper bills may help spread the coronavirus. That way we can check everything.

You have to wash your hands and stop touching the money. The WHO, not the group, the World Health Organization, told The Telegraph on Tuesday that customers who use cash bills should consider using contactless payments instead, as coronavirus may cling to the service of paper bills for multiple days. Oh, my God. In the article, the Bank of England acknowledged that cash can carry bacteria or viruses and urges people to wash their hands regularly.

Why are we not washing our hands, period, anyway? Who doesn't wash their hands? - I don't know. - Last month, both China and Korea began disaffecting and isolating used banknotes as part of their efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

- That'll teach 'em. - Kim Jong-un's taking all the money. - Aha. - Officials use ultraviolet light or high temperatures to sterilize the bills, then seal them for 14 days before releasing the bank into circulation.

- 14 days of sealed? - So I think we should start taking all the cash here at the shop. - And seal it. - And launder the money.

- Like shove it in the washing machine? - Yes, have Greg take it home. He has a little washer. Put it in his washing.

Keep it for 14 days and then bring it back. Perfect. We'll be under. But we'll have clean money here, Michael.

It'll be great. Smell that. Smell this money. Sounds like Downey.

Oh, that's very nice. Florida Senate passed a tobacco purchasing age increase. What? Florida Senate passed a tobacco purchasing age increase.

They're jumping on the bandwagon with the federal government. The Florida State Senate has passed a bill that would increase the minimum age of purchased tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age. So, now, in Florida, you have to be 21. Oh!

Remember, there was a discussion before that the state said... Well, we haven't done anything yet. We haven't done anything yet. But SB 810...

But wait, does it have to pass the House still? It's still a bill, right? It's so confusing the way we pass laws. Yeah.

Passed by a vote of 34 to 4. So, four of them are under 18. They said, "No, no, don't take it. " Those four actually are intelligent.

So you're intelligent. It's unclear whether the state will pass a law before Federal Tobacco 21 standard goes into effect. Last year, the State Senate passed a similar bill, but it stalled in the House. Stalled, see?

Girl. When this one, too, will stalled. Yeah, a similar bill was filed in September in the Florida House, HB 151. Oh.

But this is still never, how do they get the numbers, I wonder? This one's an SB 810. I feel like there's like a bingo sheet, and there's some balls. The bill also establishes new penalties for retailers caught selling tobacco products to those under 21.

This is why I pulled it, I like the penalties. Like a caning? Is there caning involved? No, no.

First offense, $500 fine. Second offense, if it was in 36 months of your first offense. Within three years? Yes.

So there's so much things. Okay. Now it goes from $500 to $750. Oh.

And the bill also establishes new penalties for retailers caught selling tobacco products to those under 21. This is why I pulled it, I like the penalties. Oh, like a caning? Is there caning involved?

No, no. First offense, $500 fine. Second offense, if it was in 36 months of your first offense. Within three years?

Yes. So there's so much things. Okay. Now it goes from $500 to $750.

Oh. Oh. And a suspension of the ability to sell products for, guess how many days? 30.

Seven. Oh, seven days. A week, for a week. Third offense?

That would cripple a business. Yes. Especially here, also, we couldn't sell anything for seven days. Nothing?

You could sell no tobacco products. So, bang and chips. Beer? Beer.

Lots of beer. Lots of beer. We got deals on beer. Third offense, within 36 months of the first offense?

I'm trying to follow this. Oh, okay. So it's 36 months of the first offense, not 36 months of the second offense. Ah, so at least it's well written.

Yes. Now a minimum of $1,000 fine. $1,000. And you can't sell tobacco products for 30 days.

Quite the jump from the seven. So there's no physical violence? We're still not at that level? No, no, no.

We still have more things. Fourth offense? Fourth offense within 36 months of the first offense still. So it's that three-year window.

Please be physical violence. Make sure everything's still recording. Okay. A $1,000 fine.

Minimum. These are minimum numbers, so you could be higher. Yeah. And a suspension ability to sell tobacco products for three years.

Ooh. No tarring, feathering? No, no. If passed, the new law will go into effect on October 1st, 2020.

Everything bad happens on October 1st. Dun, dun, dun, dun. That is the date of my second divorce. That sounds like it would be a good day.

But it's also... Unless you didn't want to leave her. No, please don't go. Please don't go.

It's also my second wife's birthday. Oh. So I told her, last present I'm ever getting you, and I signed a paper. Happy birthday.

There you go. You're out of here. Happy birthday. You're done.

Here's half my shit. No. Half of my half. So here's a quarter.

Here's 25% of my stuff. Here's 25% of my stuff. It's 25% of my remaining. You want more?

Talk to one. Yeah. You guys get together and share my stuff. Okay.

Patreon this week. Patreon. We are going to review the Hoya Antano, A-N-T-A-N-O, how do you pronounce that? Oh my god, Antonio.

Antonio, thank you. This is amazing. At least I said Hoya and did say Joya. I feel like I have Jake here.

Yes. CT, stronger side of Connecticut, for decades, Hoya De Nicaragua has enjoyed reputation as a serious connoisseur stick. So this is the one that Half Wheel has just been like all up on. Yes, they've been all over the place on this.

Oh, this is such an amazing cigar. Yes. And we will also divulge some behind-the-scenes information On some recent industry changes, people's work changes, industry position changes. We have the dirt.

We have the dirt. We have the dirt, as always. We always have the dirt here. One thing you can count on from Cigar Hustlers podcast, we're dirty.

Well, I shower. We're not washing our hands either. We're not washing our hands. We're not washing our hands, and we have all the information.

I'm going to take a piss on my hands and rub them on people's faces. No? Doesn't work? Coronavirus, is that in piss?

I don't know. Who knows? They don't really know, but they just want you to not do anything. I did watch Outbreak yesterday.

It's become very popular on Netflix recently. Ooh, let's watch this. But the way it spreads in that movie, to where it goes through the whole town, some guy coughs in a movie theater. Oh, I saw that.

So you can't cruise. And then they show like a little particle. Yeah, a little particle flying everywhere. " and then it goes in her mouth.

Yeah, she's laughing. Then he walks out and dies on the popcorn stint. Oh. On the popcorn?

How'd he get on top of it? He cut through the line, I need a drink, I need a drink, and then he falls into the popcorn. Oh. Okay.

But so far they've said you should not go on cruises, you should not go on planes, don't go to public venues. Okay. But they haven't said anything about movie theaters yet. Give me a break.

Have they not watched the movie? Give me a break. Now no movies. It's just so ridiculous.

These people are treating it like Thunderdome. But now I'm an expert on infectious diseases. That's pretty amazing. And I'm proud of you that you did that.

Yes, did you see my solution to solve the whole problem? Yeah, we have to kill the spider monkeys. Kill the spider monkeys. It was that one damn spider monkey in that movie that killed all those people.

All spider monkeys must die. All spider monkeys must die. If they're named Betsy, kill them first because the Betsy's the bad one. Betsy's are bad.

Betsy's spider monkeys are bad. Not the people. Not pets. Yeah, not people Betsy.

Not all Betsy's. Just spider monkeys named Betsy. Spider monkeys named Betsy from Africa. From Africa.

From Africa. There's some over here in the zoo in Sanford that used to be. I'm sure those are okay, but... You know what?

Just to be safe? Yeah, why take the chance? Let's just eliminate them. Just get them all, you know.

All right, we have sponsored a hole in a golf outing. Can we go back to the coronavirus real quick? Sure, please. I mean, because it's absolutely ridiculous.

It is ridiculous. Like, the bleach is all gone. The bleach is gone. I don't understand why the toilet paper is all gone.

What just doesn't make sense to me is like... There was a fight broke out in a Walmart over toilet paper. So wait, so you so you don't regularly wipe your ass and like you don't regularly clean your house like I don't understand we went we we buy certain things a dollar journal just because it's cheaper cleaning supplies and right they had five what they call right tubes or whatever of the Lysol wipes my wife just scooped those up like well don't take them all so we did four we left one you're part of the problem Mike why did you buy for well we use them all the time anyway I mean My wife buys them as her regular cleaning thing. How often do you normally buy one tube?

I don't know how fast she goes to them. I don't clean. Exactly. I'll tell you right now, she ain't buying fucking four at a pole.

No, no. She buys two, I believe. Exactly. And it was the Dollar General brand, so I don't even know how good they are.

So she's just drinking the Kool-Aid. Well, we didn't stock up on anything else. Man, you know. But I hear Costco and Sam's are like Thunderdome now.

Well, it's actually the opposite now. There's nobody there? It was Barron. Oh, because there's nothing left?

No, there wasn't a lot of people there this weekend, and well, there's no samples. Oh, of course there's no samples. That's a problem. That's a problem.

No, I'm kidding. That's the buffet. Now I got an issue. Now there's no food.

You guys can take all my toilet paper, you can take all my bleach, but I don't get my complimentary almonds to try out before I leave at Costco? This is ridiculous. You know, it was very, we went to the flea market yesterday, packed to the gills. Really?

Yep. Everybody's looking for masks? No, I don't know what they were wearing. We bought a rug to go on the new floor.

I think eventually everybody's like, "Ah, fuck. " Well, they're bikers. They don't care. Right.

No bikers wearing masks. They're sucking in all the fumes from the exhaust anyway. Unless you're 70 plus years old and you have health issues, look, if you get this thing, you'll be fine. Right.

You know, my parents are in an age group, they've decided not to go out as often as they used to. Right. I mean, they didn't go out tremendously, but they were big for like Cracker Roll maybe twice a week. I mean, come on.

Mom got her hair done and that kind of stuff, but they're like, stupid. How stupid. Well, they're in their 70s. So what?

They're gonna be fine. If you call my dad and tell him you have a cold over the phone, he gets sick. Well, that's impressive. So, yeah.

I mean, I'm not mad. I'm impressed. So can we do the golf tournament? Yeah, now we can move on.

All right, we have supported the Wolves. Join us for an inaugural Deltona Health Service Academy golf tournament at Deltona High School. We have sponsored a hole. We have.

If you do the golf tournament and get a picture with our sign on the hole, we'll do something for you. Oh, we will? Yeah, we'll do something. Okay, let's do that.

March 28, 2020, Deltona Country Club. m. m. Entry deadline is March 23rd, and see, we have sponsored a hole for $100 on here.

They have prizes for putting, closest to the pin, and longest drive. So, how did this happen? Did you get guilted into this? I didn't get guilted.

I was just asked. Well, really, what they did, they wanted me to ask you, and I took the bullet. Well, we took the bullet. Well, we took the bullet.

The podcast took the bullet. The podcast took the bullet, so the shop doesn't have to take the bullet. Oh, that's nice of you. So, yes.

Well, no, it's not that the podcast took the bullet, so the shop wouldn't take the bullet. It's the podcast took the bullet, so your wife doesn't hate my brother. " No, she already didn't like him anyway, so she's kind of big dude. But it would really kind of solidify that.

Yes. If you're interested in the golf tournament, you can contact me through the podcast and I can put you in the right direction, how to register. Maybe we should have got a discount on our sponsorship, because now you're doing an ad. We might do an interview.

An interview? A call-in, not live. Unless you want them to come in, I can arrange that too. Want the lady from health services to come in to talk about this one time?

With the who? The lady who's in charge of the house, putting the thing together. With the who? No, no, no, no, she's not with the who.

But that was fun. That was funny. That was fun. That was funny.

That was fun. That was fun. We can do that when she's here. You're with the who?

Are you with the who? She'll say Delta in high school. The who? The what?

No, the who. What? All right. Sounds good.

I'm excited. All right. Moving on. Moving on.

Next. Oh, we have listener of the week, Michael. Who do you have? I have to get ready here.

I haven't heard who you have for the listener of the week. Yes, you have. I have? Yes.

Okay. All right. Listener of the week. There we go.

Mr. Howard Gross. Oh, yes. He is an avid listener of the show.

Yes. He, at one time, was a, probably still is, a well-known face in the cigar industry here in the state of Florida. Howard sent a nice text message to me after last week's show. I'm going to read it here on the air.

Yes, that's good, because I like to break this down. Yes, I know you want to. Hey, I'm out here smoking a Bertomo, catching up on Cigar Hustler Podcast, and listening to the big smoke episode, which is a great one. I'm really enjoying it.

But I've got to say, this Mike Palmer on the show is a guy I've never met in person. We never met in person. Yeah. Now, Howard and I have met on several occasions.

We've hung out before. You remind me of me and a lot of my buddies. I'm really enjoying this side of you. Definitely are a bit quick-witted and a little more funnier, which I don't know how to take that.

And I look forward to the show each week. It's really something that I get to put my mind elsewhere. And yes, I'm still working. Howard's been working forever to put his own podcast together.

It's just taken me longer since I can't seem to learn, but I'll get there eventually. So, thank you, Howard. That was very nice of you. So, he's 100% correct.

You are a totally different person out in the elements. This is Mike too. I mean, I've had this experience with you here. I mean, it took you a while to get to that level as far as being open and funny.

I mean, you're one of the funniest people I know, right? Oh, thank you very much. But, you know, even when we were at Philadelphia Cigar Company, or when we're out at different events, like you become like an introvert. Like you shut down.

Well, those are your events. I don't want to... You want to outshine me? No.

Outshine away, bro. I don't want to outshine you, but I don't want the shop owners to get mad thinking, you know, the podcast does not promote sales for cigars in the shop. You don't have to talk about the podcast, though. You can just be funny and be yourself.

Well, I had plenty of one-on-one conversations with several people in Philadelphia. Cigar Craig and your friend, whose name I can't remember. Ellis. Ellis.

There was a gentleman with the cowboy boots that sat next to me for quite a while. We had quite the conversation, too. You were still very quiet. I'm more quiet, yes, than on the show.

I mean, Howard can attest to that? Yes, the trick here is, it's just me and you. It is. I mean, there's nobody here watching, there's nobody else here.

Yeah, but they are. So I look at the camera every once in a while. Even that's become just an inanimate object that I don't even register as another person. Uh-huh.

So this is no different to me than us just sitting, I mean, we do this all day long. Right. Really, there's just no microphone. Right.

Well, all afternoon long. Wow. Aggressive. I mean, I've been here since 10:30 today, so, just getting ready for the show, and for the Patreon, and other things, and we had a production meeting today.

You're putting in the work, Mike. You're putting in the work. I'm proud of you. Thank you, Michael.

Now I'm gonna go tan. See you later. Do you have anything else, Michael, you'd like to discuss? No, I don't, at this current moment.

I really know how to bring the show, Michael. You know, I mean, the thing that I really wanted to bring up was my story of almost killing a guy at the baseball game. Oh. Uh, there are a lot of, uh, cigar safari things going on right now, and there was a...

Oh, yeah, you didn't talk about that. No, I didn't talk about that. There was a, uh, notice put out by the, not Department of Homeland Security, but by the State Department that, uh, Nicaragua for the next several days, you should not leave your home. Yeah, there was a, there was a blip.

Apparently, yeah, apparently nothing happened. Nothing happened. I didn't see any demonstrations, nothing that the people that I'm friends with that are there, all their photos were still, here I am by the pool, here I am rolling a cigar. Yeah.

None of this, you know, like Skip, here we are sitting on the patio listening to the people shooting each other. This is the one with the bricks, they're throwing the bricks, they're taking them from the face. If you're quiet, you can hear the gunfire in the distance, skip yelling grenade as he throws them into the grounds. Listen, if you shoot the protesters, then, you know, there really isn't too much of protest.

Yeah, I just wonder what the State Department, I'm sure there was some type of chatter heard on wherever they hear chatter, you know, that, hey, we're gonna come out and demonstrate this weekend because Gaddafi is in charge now. Are we now fine to continue? As far as I know, yeah, it was just a three-day. " Like, hey, you know what, nobody's flying right now because of the coronavirus, but let's really press the people that have to go to Nicaragua.

Right, something else there. Do you see, who was it, a gentleman from Kristoff, what's his name, the young... Yes, Justin. Justin, did you see a picture of him on the plane coming from...

Wait, not from... wait, Jared? Jared. Justin's Diesel.

Oh, Jared, Jared. Jared. He was on a plane from Mumbai or something like that. I mean, he was nobody else on the plane.

Only one on the plane. Only one on the plane. Hashtag no one's gonna call for me or something like that. Right.

That was pretty funny. That was funny. I imagine he had excellent service on that flight. Would you like – sir, you're going to have to buckle up.

Why? What? What? Are we going to crash?

Come on. It's just me and you. You know, we go down. You've got to have at least two parachutes on here.

I'm not going to jeopardize anybody else's life. Let me just float around. Sir, can you turn off your phone? Why?

Yeah. Again. I'm making a phone call. You can't stop me.

What's your number? I'll text you. Yeah. Hey, I'm calling right now.

Hey, can you bring me a soda? Ding. Oh, I wonder who it is. It's just the one guy.

It's just that one guy. It's going to be three. 3B. Wouldn't it be funny if he was way in the back, took a picture of the front of the plane empty.

Value. Get that value seat like we do. All the way in the back, baby. All the way in the back.

Hey, we both had our own roast. That's right. You know what? Worth it.

Totally worth it. Triple seven. All right, I guess that's it for the, oop, just stop. Everything's going.

Okay. Almost had a problem there for a minute. All right, so this is episode 112. This Friday we're doing Room 101.

From 101. Oh, it's right, big event here at the shop. It's not a big event, it's just a meet and beat with Patrick Vivalo. See, okay, let's talk about this.

Your poster's a little deceiving. I know. Was that on purpose? And I gotta tell you, the production quality is a little lacking.

Eh, I know. You should've cut the face off instead of putting his over. Or is that the gag? Well, yeah, put him over the face mask, over the hockey mask.

It just looks like it's a bad job, it doesn't... Oh. You know, if you wanted my production team to handle that for you, we... My intention was to try and make it look--I thought it looked good, but I guess not.

No. Thanks. But I looked at it, and I'm like, "Oh, man, Boo's coming. " No, he's not.

" Not that I don't love Patrick, but-- You like Matt a little more? Yes, we're special friends now. Your friends? He's my friend.

He's really good at making everybody feel special. He does. He is very good at that, yes. Yeah.

Yes. Mm-hmm. All right, come on, we got 15 minutes to make it to an hour. What do you got?

No, that's all I have. I'm not pressing this. I'm just bringing that up. Come on, talk about something else.

That's all I have for you today. It was a good podcast. It was a good show. Successfully ran.

It was a run show. For 45 minutes. 47 now. See, now we got 13 minutes.

All right. See how easy it is to stretch these things out? All right. You're leaving again.

See, I hate when he does this. He just walks out of the show. I need a song to play you out. Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast with Mike 2, Episode 1.

Oh, get your hand off the screen! Don't touch that! Alright, I guess we're gonna end it here. Alright, thanks again, Howard, for the text message.

Oh, he's leaving. Alright, bye. The talk show host or their guests. Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike and Mike Productions or the podcast providers and opinions between talk show hosts may differ.

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

m. for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Hoostoe-Raw. Yeah, we just don't have to do a single, uh, single podcast ever again.

Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing? The Hojo de Monteres.

Hojo! It's the Hojo. You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way. I couldn't get past Hojo!

I don't even have to try to end the record. We're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right. Try to keep up.

That's a sign of a good podcast. You could be like four cigars when I walked in the door. All right, end this. Squared.

Show Notes

This week Mike Too goes off on a rant!  We interview our video upgrade specialist and then get caught up on what's going on!

All this and more on this weeks episode!

Make sure to follow the show on IG @cigarhusterspodcast and please remember to always rate, review and subscribe on which ever providers you use!