Episode 41 Nick Melillo Foundation Cigars

Episode Summary

Episode 41 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is part one of a two-part sit-down with Nick Melillo, founder of Foundation Cigar Company, recorded in the shop's office in the middle of a store renovation. Before the interview, the Mikes recap recent road work: a multi-vendor "Memphis Smoke" event hosted by Jeff and Lynn at Tinderbox in Memphis (plus a speeding ticket on the drive back), and the Tampa Cigar Bash held at the Pippin Distribution facility, where the hosts disliked the new format of handing attendees a pre-filled bag of cigars at check-in instead of letting them walk the tables and meet the brand reps.

That leads into the core of the conversation: the real economics and etiquette of multi-vendor events from a brand owner's perspective. Melillo explains that three years into Foundation, big multi-brand bashes aren't the best fit — the brand is still building its identity, cigars are on back-order, and requests for 800–1,000 sticks are hard to justify. He'd rather spend the same travel budget on a dedicated Foundation event where he can actually talk to smokers one-on-one, arguing that a single meaningful interaction converts a consumer far better than an anonymous stick buried in a swag bag. The group praises retailers who treat the event as a customer experience and keep refining it (Tinderbox, Serious Cigars in Houston, Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival) and knocks the ones who dictate attendance while focusing only on their own bottom line.

The back half turns personal and philosophical. Melillo walks through box breathing (five in, five hold, five out) and shares that roughly 15 years ago, before he moved to Nicaragua, he lived in a Buddhist community outside Bordeaux, France founded by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh — who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ties that practice of presence directly to cigar smoking: the cigar is what pulls you into the present moment, which is why he believes cigar smokers tend to live well. The episode closes with what everyone's smoking — the original El Güegüense, a Neanderthal HS, an SBC-exclusive, and Melillo's event-only "Metal" cigar, a special stick he makes for customers who buy boxes at his personal appearances and that isn't sold at retail. Part two follows the next week.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Shop Reno and Show Open
   The Mikes record from a boxed-in office mid-renovation, joined by David from Cigar Hustler on a third mic.
2. 02
   Memphis Smoke Recap
   A rundown of Jeff and Lynn's multi-vendor event in Memphis, the regulars who make that store, and a rough drive back to Nashville.
3. 03
   Tampa Cigar Bash Format Gripes
   Handing attendees a full bag of cigars at check-in killed the table-to-table interaction that makes these events work for brands and consumers.
4. 04
   Nick Melillo on Multi-Vendor Events
   Three years into Foundation, Melillo explains why big multi-brand bashes don't fit a brand still building its identity.
5. 05
   Single-Brand Events vs. Swag Bags
   Why Melillo would rather spend travel dollars on a dedicated Foundation night where he can actually talk blends with smokers.
6. 06
   Retailers Who Get It Right
   Praise for Tinderbox, Serious Cigars in Houston, and the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival for organization and hospitality.
7. 07
   Box Breathing and Life with Thich Nhat Hanh
   Melillo on living in a Buddhist community outside Bordeaux before moving to Nicaragua, and how presence connects to cigar smoking.
8. 08
   What We're Smoking
   The original El Güegüense, Neanderthal HS, an SBC exclusive, and Melillo's event-only Metal cigar.

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

Every day I'm hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry, with your host, Mike and Mike. Hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling.

Every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm. Live. Now we're in. Now it's on.

And now nobody talks. You need a light? Oh, we're live already? We are.

I thought there was like an intro or something. It's already played. We do that afterwards. It's already played.

Dude, that's cool. We just mix it in. We. Got a mouse in your pocket over there?

That's kind of hurtful. What's the name of this podcast Ian? I was talking about the one, two, three thing. We just mix that in.

No, no, we do that. One, two, three. We don't mix that in. It's kinda dangerous to be an MC.

Once it happens. Well, all the bullshit in the music's already happened. They shot Tupac and Biggie. And then we just do it.

Too much violence in hip-hop. You wanna do it right now? No, I don't. What David the one, two, three is in?

You wanna do it? I'll set my hat and keep on making it. One, two, three. Hi, I'm Mike.

And I'm Mike, too. And this is Cigar Hustlers Podcast. hi nighttime edition the evening edition the evening so well before we get into a little bit of the interview there's a there's a lot of going on a lot of going on a lot of going on in this room right now yes yeah well we can talk about the catastrophe of the room that we're in this podcast almost did not happen almost yeah almost uh we're doing a little reno of the shop the uh the left side of the store to make it he needs a cutter he's trying not to say cutter on the air they're doing sign language they're back and forth david's already created a problem to be a little more We had a uniform with the other portion of the shop, and unfortunately, the majority of the stuff got dumped into the office, so it's a bit of a mess. It's like a maze to get in here.

And you went out of your way, and you cleared out the spot. Broke a sweat, broke a sweat. Don't let him move a chair, because these piles might fall at any moment. So that we could make this happen.

The sacrifices you make for this... We might be buried under things on the table, and boxes behind us, and hoping nobody has to go to the bathroom, because it's full of empty boxes. Yes. So, I was obviously in Memphis.

Yes. How was Memphis? Memphis was awesome until the end, and then it sucked. Aww.

So, the store was fantastic. Lynn and Jeff had a multi-vendor event called the Memphis Smoke, which was pretty fantastic. They got a lot of cool people that go to that store. Quick shout-out to Sean Payne, off the top of my head, so if I forget anybody, I apologize.

I apologize. He apologized over. My boy Sean Payne is very cool. Sean Payne.

His buddy Andy. Andy. Very nice. Very nice, Andy.

Andrew and Clint. A couple of good dudes. Different than Andy? Andrew and Andy?

Totally different. Totally different guys. Totally different guys. There's a cool cat there named Panda.

Panda? Yeah. Aw. Chinese Connect.

I'm going to name Panda. Dude had some... Aw. Party foul.

Party foul. He told everybody else to turn their phones off, and then he didn't. Oh, man. I'm crying.

Was it your brother? You really calling from outside? No, actually, it's my boy. Panda?

It's my boy, Southern Gunner, from Texas. Hugh? Yeah, it's Hugh. Good job.

See, I knew we kept you around for a reason. So yeah, so the event went really well. I forgot to mention one cool guy. Who is it?

His name is Prez. A different one? I feel like he is the only Prez. i don't think so i don't think so he's a really cool guy dude well of course but i think he's a cheap copy no he what is he present enough say that to him what's he present enough he's a pretty big guy what's he what's he i'm never going to mention you know i didn't get into the details but i know that you know he's a pretty giving good guy looks out for everybody else around him you know pretty legit what the hell's going on our next one um but at the very end so i went down to nashville and then i drove back to make a long story short yeah and i ended up i ended up in a in a bad location so i was trying to uh get out of there quick escape i was very tired uh i wasn't watching my speed uh oh and i got a blue lights in the in the rearview mirror i got an atrocious ticket oh an atrocious ticket was the cop understanding no he was not how much it doesn't When they don't have a price.

What? Oh, it's that bad. When they don't have a price. You had to be going faster than that then.

60 in a 40? Yeah, it was like 64 in a 40 is what it's marked. I don't feel like I wasn't going that fast. We'll never argue with them because that makes it worse.

No, I wasn't. But I said, hey, look, man, I was in a sketchy area. I was like, dude, I'm sorry. I'm a white guy.

This is not a white part of town. I don't know where I am. You know, I'm a little nervous. I'm a little tired.

I just want to get to my hotel. And the guy's like, all right, hang tight. Goes, gets, writes my ticket, comes back and says, okay, listen, you have to go down this road straight. Do not make any lefts or any rights into any of these streets.

You're going to end up in a really bad part of town. When the street ends, you make a left. And he still gave you a ticket. At least he gave you directions.

He just gave you the ticket and go, good luck. I was like, well, thanks for acknowledging the fact that I was right to be concerned of my current location. Here's a ticket. Please come back for court in 30 days.

Ah, whatever. So, that was... You gotta make your quotas on them every month, you know? Oh, they, they, uh...

You selling cigars? He's gotta sell, you know. He's, he's protecting the innocents. Did he ask if you knew how fast you were going?

" type of a scenario, I feel. It was one o'clock? Uh, yeah, it was about one o'clock. I'm surprised he didn't give you like a DUI test or something like that.

Yeah, give me a field sorority test. I would have taken, I would have passed flying colors. No, I know, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that's what I would be looking for at 1am. How many people were in the street at 1am?

Probably me and just the drug dealers. You and the drug dealers? Yeah, just the drug dealers. Drug dealers, the pimps and the hoes?

And the cops. Oh my. That was pretty much it. So, I think he knew when he pulled me over, when he saw me, he's like, this guy does not belong here.

Was the rental car out of state plates? No, it was a temp tag. Brand new car. My new car.

Even worse. Stolen car. Had leather, though. That's all I'm saying.

Love that leather. Love that leather. There are people trying last week's tips, by the way. Did you see that?

Yes. Yes. It's fantastic. Everybody's doing hashtag pack of wipes.

Oh, yeah, because you thought that was cute. I thought it was funny. You know, you take my advice and you just shit all over it, Michael. That's my job.

Yeah, okay. That's my job here. This is going to end in a fight session podcast. Oh, good.

It's nice and late. Everybody's tired. They're irritable. No, not right now.

Oh, not now. Some other time. Oh, we'll save that for episode 52. The one-year anniversary.

We've got to Facebook Live that one, though. The boxing match. Oh, yeah. We've got to start doing videos.

Where'd my lighter go? Yeah, let's do a video right now. Oh, this place is a fucking disaster. No, probably not a good idea.

Um, so we have two guests. Wait, I had something going on over the weekend. Oh. I had the Tampa Cigar Bash.

I don't think he cares. Ooh. Yeah, he doesn't care. He doesn't care.

He doesn't care. I didn't like the way they did it this year. Okay, why is that? This year, when you checked in, they handed you your bag full of cigars.

So at that point, I was finished. So you like going around to the tables? I like going around and talking to people. I like that a lot better, too.

Because now I just walked around and was looking to go, "Okay, I know that guy, go say hello. " Yeah, I mean, as far as being from, you know, a brand owner and whatnot, I don't like that. No, because you don't get any interaction with the public. Nothing.

Nothing. No. And you don't appreciate it as much. No, the only people that had crowds were the guys giving away stuff.

Like Taranio giving away four different signs. Yeah, Jack. Jack, yeah. That's usually how it happens, right?

Yep. People flock to the free goods. The tent that Rosales was in with Robert Holt and Belmore or something, there was nobody in that tent hardly ever. Because they weren't giving anything away.

Right. No free stuff, so. No free stuff for you. No free stuff for you.

I didn't have a guy come up to me though, tapped me on the shoulder, turned around, shook my hand, he goes, "I follow you on Instagram. I saw you at the barn burner, but I didn't want to disturb you. " Aww. I thought that was nice.

You're a legend. Yeah, I thought that was nice. My first fan. Did you sign his chest?

No. Forehead. Good. Yeah.

That way you can see it in the mirror. Good. Signed it backwards. What was the guy's name?

He didn't ever say. I don't know. Then he scurried off. He was just this real quick little nice handshake and follow you and then scurried away.

You might actually have your first stalker. Ooh, I have a stalker. Did you tell him about the podcast? No.

Did you say, well, you can hear my voice every week? He probably does anyway. Okay. Probably stalks you first.

I don't think so. You probably had me confused with you. You probably thought I was at the other mic on the podcast. I don't think so.

No? Oh. Okay, now you can introduce our guest. That was it.

There wasn't a lot going on. Where was that held? Okay, so... It's over at the Pippin Center, Pippin Distribution over in Tampa.

And who organizes that? Well, it used to be Tampa Humano, and now it's what, Monte Cristo or something. Oh, okay, cool. All right, well, I want to talk a little bit more about multi-founders, but we do need to get the introduction out of the way.

Okay, get the introduction out of the way. So, first of all, we have the legendary Lock Nick Monster, Mr. Nick Malillo. It's adding to my list of aliases or alter personalities.

I am going to press hardcore for that thing to happen. Fascinating. You know, I've got a new contest for you guys this week. The Lock Nick Monster?

No, no, no. Hashtag Lock Nick Monster. Oh, yeah. Hashtag Lock Nick Monster.

But then whoever draws the best photo. Whoever comes with the best design for Lock Neck Monster wins the prize. Okay, we can do that. Hashtag Lock Neck Monster.

You guys have a week, and I'm going to give you some special cigars. I'm going to steal some Menelix. He doesn't even know what's going to happen. No, I'll contribute Menelix to that cause.

Yes? Excellent. Excellent. I'll drop some SBCs and some other magical stuff in there, and we'll see who the best winner is.

So hashtag Lock Neck Monster. Spell that right, don't screw it up. I don't know how to spell it. I don't know how to spell it either.

I think it's L-O-C-H, N-I-C-K, monster. All one word. Yeah, perfect. I like it.

Wouldn't you want to change it to rhyme? Well, I guess it rhymes already. So you've just introduced a hominid, reptilian mutant to the show. Thanks for having me.

I did never actually say... I did say Nick Malillo. I don't think you ever said it. I did say, 'cause I know 'cause I have to do his last name like that.

Malillo. Yes. That's pretty good. I've been practicing that all day.

Malillo, not Malillo? No, it's Malillo. It's three different ways. In Spanish, it's Melillo.

They call me Malillo. But he's Italian. In Nicaragua. Italian is Melillo.

English, it's Malillo. The other two had a nice little flair to it. Yeah. Most intelligent and intelligent.

And I'm English. I don't know, I'm not English, that's a lie. Were they all English? Maybe.

But wait, we haven't introduced you. Yes, introduced a mystery voice. Very excited. Very excited to be here.

I'm excited. He can be like our guy on Price is Right that calls people out. Come on down! You're the next contestant.

You're the next contestant. So, we have Mr. David Rub-a-dub-a-dow. Rub-a-dub-a-dow.

That sounded weird. Close enough. I know, I don't... The employee.

Oh, applause. The employee. The number two of Cigar Hustler is joining us this evening. He's had a few beers, he's feeling confident, so now he's got a mic in front of him.

" So here we are. I just want to hear what this sounds like through the headphones. It's probably me. It's probably me.

They're not even plugged in. I just like to wear them. Getting back to the multimeter thing, here's something that I've kind of picked up on, because I've been through a few of them. And I'm sure that you have too as well, Mike.

I'd love to hear your opinion of this. You've definitely been to more than I have. Multi-vendors, here and there, I actually have been, I want to hear what your opinion is on it because I definitely have an opinion on them. Right.

So, I think that, you know, a lot is asked from a brand owner or a manufacturer to do these things, right? And that's perfectly fine, that's perfectly acceptable, but I think that it requires a little more hospitality on the retailer's end to kind of make it fun for everybody, right? Yeah. I was at that event last year, it was amazing.

I mean, those guys are amazing. It was an amazing event. And I'm not talking solely on the Tinderbox experience, I'm just talking about now that I've witnessed a handful of these at this point. Right.

You know, I can tell you that the requirements, like, I mean, Stogish Houston, you don't have to pick up anything. The boxes are done, everything's set up, everything's kind of utilized. It's kind of like a train almost where you roll through. Right.

Well, that's what Tampa used to be, but you got the cigars when you went through. Right. So, like, I think that that's kind of, that's important, too. Like, taking the bag out of the equation and not giving the stick.

Is a Texas thing run by the same group? Is that Monte Cristo out there, too? Because I was told that's why they did this one this way. No, that's Jorge.

Yeah, that's serious cigars. Okay. That one is probably the most to work, serious cigars. Yeah.

Because you've got to really dig in on the back and kind of get your stuff and set it all up, you know? So, I don't know, I just think that there's got to be a way to really kind of engage and magnify the hospitality level So that it's fun for all brand owners and manufacturers as well, because like I look around some of these and some of them are fucking, some of the guys are just like, my life sucks. They're just sitting there on their phone and they're hot and they're miserable. I'm in this position as far as foundation.

I'm three years, you know, now into it. From what I've seen and experienced, at this point in our company's brand, I feel like multi-vendors are something that's not quite for us at this point in time. Right. Because we're still building the brand identity, and people are still learning about us.

Right. So I would almost prefer to take those funds and do an event with the store, just a foundation event. Right. Or just to have that interaction.

Sometimes at the multi-vendors there's too much going on, you know, to really have an interaction that's meaningful. Right. You know, it's like here tonight, I've had some meaningful interaction. And to me that's, you know, it's tough to put a value on that.

You get lost at the bigger events. You get lost and if you don't have that brand identity, it's tough, like you said, it's tough to get people to come to the booth or they know the bigger companies, they know the companies that have had 20 years in building brand identities and building that up so when they go to a multi-vendor, oh, there's the such and such booth, there's, you know, this booth. And then, plus those booths and those companies have more of an ability, financially-wise, to give things away, to have bigger treats, to have people come to that. At this point, you know, to go to a multi-vendor, you know, some of them, if they request 1,000 or 800 cigars or even five, I got a back-order situation.

I can't be giving out, you know, cigars for, and then sometimes I feel like when you get into this big bag, you know, You have this big bag of cigars, and there's so much in there, it's like going into a humidor and being completely overwhelmed if you don't have guidance from, you know, tobacconists like you guys, or tobacconists to find your way, I don't know if it necessarily translates. No, it doesn't, because there's stuff in the bag, I didn't know what it was. And that's what happens, and unless these guys are, you know, you're actively looking it up, or something's intriguing you, or I think a lot of times guys will then put them in their humidor and give them out So maybe when they have friends over, they don't know what it is, yeah, you put in that little special section at the bottom. So I think I'll do them here and there, especially if, you know, I have, you know, friends in the industry and, you know, it's that I don't want to not show support for these consumers, of course.

I mean, you've developed partnerships and, you know, it's an honor to have them carry and sell your products. Yeah, absolutely. But I think that it would be most effective, you know, for me, to do, spend those, that travel money, that, I mean, you think it's your plane ticket, the car rental, the, you know, the hotels, which is, it's an investment, you're investing in, but I'd rather do it, you know, a foundation event, and, you know, spend the money that way. Well, because then the people that are coming, they're coming to see you, and then you can give away, like, a lot of money.

Well, even if they're not, you know, you get to interact with them, you have time. Right, because you're the only guy there. Yeah, but you have time in a way to interact with people where it's not just they only feel like they're getting sold or pitched or... See, that's when you go around and get the cigars, you've got that little bit of interaction.

So, you know, if I get home and I've got a Foundation cigar and let's say I'm not familiar with you, I'll still, I'll remember, go, "Oh, that was that nice guy that I talked to. " That can make a world of difference to somebody, you know, I had a guy, you know, last week, Mike, I had seen him, I had gone to Art Basel last year, last second, met this guy in the street, and we had an interaction, and he was at a store I was at, and just that little interaction, you know, made a huge difference. He ended up going and, you know, researching the brand, and the company, and the blends, and some favorite cigar now. " You know, like, that was where it really kind of got fun, you know, when you get a handful of dudes that are excited.

And like, Jeff and Lynn, I think that they do a great job of the multi-vendor event. Sure. There's a lot that goes into this. Oh my God, yeah.

You're an operational -- I'm an operational side, and that's when my mind starts thinking right away is, you know, how much goes into, you know, all this stuff. And they're constantly working on developing it and making it better, too, which is awesome. That's what it's all about, right? Yeah, they're retailers that actually care, which is, you know, sad to say, but it's few and far between, in my opinion.

Who do you think is getting screwed in these multi-vendor events? I don't think that anybody's really getting screwed. I think it's more along the lines of, you know, how can it be, how do you make it better? I'm all about, you know, I'm all about throwing something out there and then getting the proper feedback to refine it so that it's better the next time around, right?

And some of the retailers that are doing these multi-vendors do that, right? Like Jeff and Lynn, they definitely do that. Like Nick was saying, it's a lot. You can see it at the end of the day that they're exhausting, and they've worked their butts off for this whole thing.

There are some multi-vendors that don't really care. They're not looking to make it more efficient, not looking to make it better, but they have the ability to dictate and make everybody go and show up, and those kind of suck. Those aren't really as pleasant, so I try to do my best and stay away from them. I think it's the ones that are focusing on their bottom line instead of the customer experience?

Of course. Yeah. I got to say, Rocky Mountain Cigar Fest, I find pretty impressive. Yeah.

As far as organization and, I mean, in general, but they've been evolving that over, you know, many years. Right. I haven't done that one. You should.

You'd enjoy that one. And there's, you know, a lot of smokers that come from all over in that part of the country. Right. They do.

It seems to be one that people travel to. Yeah. I mean, it's a bigger thing. Yeah.

Because everything's so spread out there. Right. But people make a trip to make that one. But they have it very, everything's really well organized and just makes the experience more enjoyable.

So you can focus on, you know, doing what you need to do and selling. Nice. Yeah. Very nice.

All right, so I got two things down that we're going to just lightly dabble on. Well, first of all, I can just say one question, and you can just talk for hours. I don't know if I lightly dabble, yeah. But we were talking about a little meditation out there, right?

Yeah, we were. Which was cool, because I didn't know you were- Totally do. That technique you just took, it was pretty cool, yeah. Yeah.

So box breathing is five seconds in, you take a deep breath, you go up five seconds, you hold it there for five seconds, and then you bring it back down for five seconds, And then you, as you're exasperated, you have five seconds, and then you do it again until you're kind of in your meditation, the meditational phase, or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. But, you know, this is kind of, that's something that's kind of new in your life, huh? You know, recently, it used to be a part of my life, you know, a good, you know, 15 years ago, I actually, before moving down to Nicaragua, I actually lived in a Buddhist community in France.

And outside of Bordeaux, there was actually a Vietnamese monk, he was actually nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, his name is Thich Nhat Hanh, he's wrote a lot of books about meditation, and it was more about not just sitting meditation, it's just being present, you know, it's not like some, you know, crazy practice of, it's just, you know, your mind tends to work like a machine a lot. It's in the past, it's in the future, and that could cause a lot of stress, anxiety, and it's just, you know, he would do walking, meditation, you know, it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been traveling the world. It was on this old, he had purchased an old vineyard outside of Bordeaux, and it was absolutely unbelievable, so I got to spend some time there, which was kind of cool, so that kind of got me into it.

You gave it up for a little bit, huh? Yeah, and I definitely have noticed the effect on my life in a, you know, negative way of just being more stressed out and, you know, I got a lot going on over the past, I've had a lot going on for, you know, many years, but, you know, over the past three years and just, you know, recently, over the past six months, it's, you know, just simple, like, the box breathing, just been doing, you know, six, just being aware of your breath. Our breath is what keeps us alive you know it's that bridge between this life and the next and we don't really realize we're doing it a lot so it's not some like religion or spirit it's just you know you can take it down to just the science of it right is just being aware of your breathing is uh can do wonders kind of a big deal yeah so we have like 85 listeners so of them 30 of them will start meditating. Okay, but you know, if you look at it too, again, not getting into any labels of it, because people right away want to go into religion.

" But that's what's happening, whether you realize it or not. It's the cigar that's bringing you to the present moment of being able to be calm. And this is why cigar-smoking, cigar-smokers, I feel, live longer, you know, depending on your diet, and there's a lot of other factors, but in general, you were relaxing, you were, you know, your mind is not in the past and present and all that, you're, it's bringing you to this moment, with every puff. Speaking of this moment, what are we all smoking?

I am smoking a Tabernacle, or not Tabernacle, but the Waywind Say. The original Waywind Say. The original Waywind Say. Yep, I am smoking the Neanderthal HS.

I got the SBC 18. I gotta say, it's pretty tasty, man. It's nice. Starting off really nice.

It's got some body and strength to it, but it's… I got a good factory I'm working with, so they help. They help. You know, there's some good knowledge down there on that floor. No doubt.

And I am having the metal, like, damn, dude, this is fucking amazing. Nice. I haven't had it since last time you were here. Oh, really?

Yeah. Nice. And it's money. It is super good.

I might have to come out with those one day. I think that would be a great idea. Sooner, then later. What's that?

Is there anywhere anybody can buy them? No, you can only get them to select events and stuff. Only when I'm doing an event. I just wanted to do something special for guys that purchase boxes at events.

You know, sometimes you'll kick down some cigars and you have a special. I wanted to make a special stick. So by the time this airs, Nick will be long gone, so we won't have them here. It'll be tomorrow.

It'll be tomorrow. It'll be tomorrow. This'll air tomorrow. Yeah, exactly.

So be on the lookout for Nick Melillo's events, and definitely make sure you do what you gotta do to get your hands on some mental effects. Are there any listeners in South Florida? What's that? Do we have any listeners in South Florida?

Yeah, we're actually biggest in Florida. We have most listeners in Florida. Really? Put up in the one in Yemen, or was it somewhere else?

Djibouti. Djibouti. We can't discuss that. All right, gang, we're going to cut this right here and make this the end of part one.

You'll have to come back next week for part two with Nick Melillo from Foundation Cigars. This is the operator with a collect ball from Emery Cells. To accept the charges, press one, now. All right, folks, that's it.

Show's over. Thanks for listening. You can send in any of your questions or suggestions for guests to a Cigar Hustlers podcast Facebook page. You can follow the show on Instagram at a Cigar Hustlers podcast.

You can follow Mikey at Cigar Hustler. You can follow me at FCC_Mike. Remember to please rate, review, and subscribe to our channel. Whichever our providers you listen to.

Call a project a project, because it's a project, an experiment, we're in it, only it's objects, an object for us to explore our process.

Show Notes

Cigar Hustler Podcast After Dark!

Late night in the studo means better content for the listeners!

Our good friend Nick Melillo sits down with us today with special guest interviewer David Ribidibdow (sp) from the Cigar Hustler Shop Family.

We talk music, politics, conditions in Nicaragua and certainly cigars cigars cigars!

So sit back take a listen and enjoy Part 1!

As always we welcome your comments, ideas and guest suggestions on our FB Page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".  You can always follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, or Mikey @cigarhustler and myself @fcc_Mike.

Please remember to rate, reply and subscribe on whichever of our providers you listen through.