Episode 62 Instagram, Industry News and Mikey gets in a fight at Universal Studio
Episode Summary
Episode 62 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with a new addition to the show — Mike's wife Brittany Strepankewicz, the shop's bookkeeper, joins from her own mic booth to fact-check the hosts. The guys kick things off with a birthday shout-out to listener Adam Acree, a monster cigar bomb sent in by a listener, and the news that Esteban of Ñoño Y Moro (A.J. Fernández/Skip-adjacent circles) and Skip quietly dropped a new 4x50 without telling anyone — with the hosts admitting they're watching Halfwheel and Charlie Minato for details.
A big chunk of the episode is shop talk about growing a cigar media presence: the guys debate buying a camera and going to video, reference the Boveda-produced "Box Press" podcast's three-camera setup and an article in Tobacco Business magazine, and share the one real Instagram "trick" — there is no trick, just consistent daily engagement (they picked up 125 new followers in a week doing it). Mike also delivers a funny PSA about paying attention to what's in the background of your cigar photos after catching a poster with a giant pack of Sam's Club toilet paper in frame, plus a nod to the guy who repaired a cracked cigar with cellophane (tape, vegetable glue and Chapstick get mentioned as field fixes too).
The industry news segment covers David Blanco suing the Line of Duty brand owner for defamation over an alleged oral manufacturing agreement and roughly 2,000 leftover branded cigars; Florida's tobacco-21 bill clearing its first committee as other states follow; and Thompson Cigar closing its Tampa operation after being acquired by Scandinavian Tobacco Group for $62 million, moving to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with around 100 layoffs. They also touch on RoMa Craft hiring, upcoming releases they're excited about (the new Guayamaro and Wunder|Lust "War Bear"), and Drew Estate joining the small-format trend.
The show closes with Mike's Universal Studios CityWalk run-in with an overzealous security guard who tried to move him off the property while smoking a cigar, podcast stats (up 13.4% year over year, #2 cigar show on Podbean behind The Cigar Authority, listeners in Bahrain, Uruguay and North Dakota), and a tease that Robert Caldwell of Caldwell Cigar Company is the surprise guest coming that Saturday.
In This Episode
- 01Brittany Joins the ShowMike's wife and the shop's bookkeeper, Brittany Strepankewicz, is introduced as a recurring voice to fact-check the hosts.
- 02Cigar Bombs and a Surprise New ReleaseA huge package of limited cigars from a listener, plus chatter about a new 4x50 quietly announced on social media and tracking releases on Halfwheel.
- 03Going Video: Cameras, Mics and Podcast ProductionThe hosts debate buying a camera, rebuilding the studio table, and look to Boveda's Box Press setup and other cigar shows for guidance.
- 04Instagram Strategy and Background FailsThe only real Instagram trick is daily engagement — plus a warning to check what's behind you in your cigar photos.
- 05Cracked Cigar Field RepairsCellophane, tape, vegetable glue and Chapstick as emergency fixes for a cracked wrapper.
- 06Industry News: Blanco vs. Line of Duty LawsuitDavid Blanco's defamation suit over an alleged oral agreement and 2,000 leftover branded cigars sold off.
- 07Tobacco 21 in Florida and Thompson Cigar Leaving TampaFlorida's smoking-age bill clears its first committee, and Thompson Cigar closes its Tampa doors after the $62M Scandinavian Tobacco Group acquisition.
- 08Universal CityWalk Security ShowdownMike recounts refusing to stop smoking his cigar in CityWalk after a security guard followed him out and tried to bluff him.
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
I'm Brittany Strepankewicz from Cigar Hustler. Welcome to episode 62 of Cigar Hustlers podcast. This week, they talk about Instagram, latest industry news, and Mikey fighting an old man in Universal Studios. Happy birthday, Adam Acree.
Enjoy the show. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike Squared, Squared, Squared, Squared, Squared, Squared. He is Mike, and he's Mike too, and this is a Cigar Hustlers podcast. Okay.
All right. I'm not gonna say it's on, but you know, the thing. It's going. The thing is going.
We're here. The thing is going. So, hi. Hello, Michael.
What's going on, buddy? I'd like to introduce the new member of our team. Ooh. Yes.
So, the producer of this fine Cigar Hustlers podcast has... Oh, the producer's fine, but not the job I do. No, it's just okay. But you're getting there.
Nope. You're getting there. I have calls coming in all the time to do other shows. I mean, he's already fucking cut me off twice, and we're 10 seconds into the fucking podcast.
One minute, 29 seconds. So anyways, we have a new edition that we're going to integrate from time to time on the show. You went ahead and you took a mic and you ran it all the way to our bookkeeper's desk. To her booth.
To her booth. And it is my wife, Brittany. Hi. So Brittany's just going to chime in and just kind of probably slap me down every once in a while.
She shot me down every once in a while. Wow. Oh, God. You know, just correct me whenever I say something that's incorrect, or, you know, standard wife stuff.
Now you tell stories about her and you'll be corrected. Mm-hmm. Perfect. " And I was like, ooh, I was way off on that.
You're going to be a dick. No, no, just breaking the ice. Just getting you comfortable. This is where the marriage ended right here on the show.
So what's going on? Mike, I have great news for you. I'm going to tell you. Wait, hold on.
First, today's Adam Acri's birthday. It is Adam Acri's birthday. So I added in his little song to the beginning of the show. Oh, it's like a little present.
He is Mike. He's Mike too. You're such a sweet man. Well, he's a very good listener and a fan of the show, and he's helped us out a couple of times.
He's a good dude. He's a good guy. I like him. So, I've got a couple of things to talk about.
Okay, because the first thing on my list is really it ain't good. Once I read it, it doesn't happen. I mean, you've yet to really provide any good content to this entire thing. That's not my job.
Not my job, but we'll work on that. We'll get you better. We'll get you better. Can you talk into the microphone, please?
No. Thank you. So, first of all, I got a ridiculous bomb that I posted on Instagram the other day from my buddy--my dear friend-- Turn your phone off, please, Mr. Professional.
My dear friend, Greg, sent me a bomb. Your brother? No. 'Cause he's dying.
No, this is a different Greg. A far nicer, way better of a friend than my brother, Greg. I think his--what's his name on Instagram? I think it's like at Southern Draw L.
Southern Draw? Robert Holt? Southern Draw. No, no.
It's something better than that. Let me see. Better than Robert Holt? I will tell you.
Yeah, Southern Draw L underscore. Okay. He's my dude. He went fucking ape shit and sent me.
He did send you like two, three bags full of stuff. A ton of limited stuff. I really think that he's trying to lube me up really good and solid for the Sabertooths that are coming out. So I want to make sure he gets a box, I think that's his plan.
Old box? He's a box guy. Wow. So, who knows?
Who knows what will happen for my boy Greg, who I fuck with the long way. That's a fact. I fuck with him the long way. Wow.
And if you don't know what that means, you need to just look it up. I don't even want to ask. Google it. Google me, bitch.
Does Brittany know what that means? Brittany knows. Yeah. She's learned.
We had to look it up. She's learned. So, Greg Noggle. Greg Noggle.
Fuck him. Fucked him the long way. I fucked with him the long way. Oh, sorry.
Jesus Christ. I guess that means something completely different. So, like, so, apparently Skip and Esteban just went ahead and fucking dropped a major bomb about Anouk Y Moro's eyes. Oh, I saw that.
Did you see that? Yeah. A little 4x50 action. I saw.
He's like those little ones now. He's doing a lot of those. Yeah. I mean, you know, the fact of the matter is that nobody has control over Esteban.
He just kind of does what he wants, and boom! All of a sudden, you kind of decide to watch it. Hey, look at this two cigars! Check this out, I made this.
It's like, alright. I want to smoke faster. Because he didn't talk about it at all when I was down there. Well, they don't tell you everything.
No, but you know, I mean... It's a secret. You're the gringo. You'd think you would have been excited to share it.
I would have loved to smoke it, so it obviously wasn't, you know. Wasn't ready. Oh. Take a drink.
Swallow it in the air. That sounded nice. My Pellegrino going. Bougie.
Bougie. So I'm super excited about that. I can't wait to get more details about it. I'm sure Charlie Minato and Half Wheel is probably going to do a post about it if they haven't already.
I've been checking Half Wheel a lot last couple of days, so I didn't know anything he thinks. Yeah. Well, have you done it? Have you checked it today?
As a matter of fact, I did. Oh, okay. You're a nerd. Yeah.
So I feel like I'm failing you, Michael. Why are you failing me? Because we still don't have a fucking camera. Like, you were about to do some fucking, you're about to record me from your phone.
Yes. I have editing software on my phone that works really, really well. I think, I don't think that that's, you know, the right, the right direction to go. So, you know what, I've been thinking about this, well, not so much the video, but we should move downstairs and your whole printing shirt production should take that room down there.
Yeah? Like what, like the heat press and the vinyl clutter? Yeah. Well, maybe.
I don't know. But I think that, in all reality-- Especially why Greg is sick and not here. I don't have the keys. Oh, the keys are over here.
They're over there. They're hanging on a wall. I think that we're going to have to make some modifications to this table as well. Yeah?
Yeah. I've always wanted it to be round. I don't know why. No, just kind of like almost like a half circle, like a half moon, so that you can kind of...
Oh, so we're facing like a news desk. Yeah, so that everybody can kind of talk. Gotcha. So we're looking at the camera.
Because now, even if we set it up to my right, it'd just be the sides of our head. You'd have to do this all the way. I think that we need to just go ahead and buy a camera. We're just gonna do it.
And fuck Greg, see what he says. So, but I don't know where to start with that, I've never done anything like that before, so if any, any listeners have any advice about what we should, we should be purchasing. I read an article on podcasting today in Tobacco News Magazine. Oh yeah?
They have a three, Boveda does the box press, they call it. Yeah. They have a three camera shoot. Yeah, he's a good guy.
I met that guy out in, what do you mean? Sounds a little bit. In North Carolina. Huh.
He's a cool dude. He's a cool dude. So. It's a neat little article.
Maybe I'll reach out to him. If you know him that well. Yeah. I got his number.
But have you seen their set? I mean. No. It's very fancy.
Yeah, well, they got Boveda money. Right. We got Cigar Hustler Small Retailer money. I mean, shit.
So we'll just have to fucking wing it. But, you know, we'll put a nice camera on a credit card. And when we get asked about what the fuck it is, I'll be like, oh, I don't know, man. It must have been theft.
Oh, don't say that. Don't say that. Stand in front of the bookkeeper, very nice. So.
Just pencil that through, Rick. So, I think that when we get off the air, we need to sit down and we need to start doing our research, and we need to get a camera. You know, the hot ticket guys just got a camera. Oh, really?
Yeah. Well, we should reach out to them. Yeah. Ask them.
I like them. Probably take out Greg's desk. Put the camera there. Just get him out of here completely?
Yeah. That'd make Brittany very happy. That'd be fine. That would be fine.
They look at each other from the desk. So. He's looking for things on eBay. So I don't know if you know this, but I'm kind of a sick fuck when it comes to Instagram and photos and looking at other people's shit and constantly checking hashtags and yada yada yada.
Oh, that little trick you taught me? Ooh. It works like crazy. It's all about being engaged and looking for stuff and just, you know, the trick is that there is no trick.
Right. The trick is you need to be engaged. Right. So if you can devote, set aside a certain amount of time throughout an entire day and constantly be checking on people and learning and engaging, you know, you'll build an audience.
We've picked up 125 new followers since last week. Right? It works. Yeah, just put in the time.
So, getting back to me being a sick fuck and constantly looking at photos, I saw this guy, I'm not going to say his name because I don't think that it would be appropriate, but I was right. That's not how sick he is. I was rifling through, and I saw this dude, he was just kind of chilling, he's easing back, smoking his cigar, and he took a pic of him, like, just kind of looking like a badass. Yeah.
Right? " Now, through the smoke, in the background, there's this packet, this big box of Sam's Club's toilet paper. Is that the photo there on your phone? Yeah, I have the photo right here.
So I wrote to him. So you, like, zoomed in? No, I mean, you can see it. I zoom in at people's photos all the time.
But, like, if you're kind of looking through pictures, a lot of people don't focus on the entire picture as a whole. You know, you just look at whatever the focal point is. So, like, you've got to take the time to kind of look at the photos and see what's going on, right? So I'm like, "Oh, shit.
" Oh, members, Mark. I know that shit. So I wrote on there, I wrote Sam's Club. Nice!
Exclamation mark. And then I did a little toilet paper emoji and a thumb up. And he writes back, I'm dead. And just started laughing.
So, you know, that goes out to anybody who's posting on social media, you know, pay attention to what you're doing, because if I see that shit, I'm gonna fucking put you on blast. But, you know, I think that's wrong. I feel like when you're not putting him on blast then. So I'll casually put you on blast.
If I know you, I'm going to definitely put like... Just a casual... If It's Southern Gunner does something fucking stupid, you're goddamn right I'm going to talk about it. You know, Adam Acree, you know...
Now it's going to be like a Where's Waldo, they're going to purposely put stuff in the background. Any of those dudes, you know, they do a post and I'm like... Yeah, that was their whole production staff you just called out. They just did a post while they were on the toilet, you know, or some shit.
Nice. So, yeah, totally. Wait, was he on the toilet? No, no, man.
I don't know. It's hard to say where he is. He's all dressed up. There's some clothes in the background and stuff, like, kind of hanging up.
I don't know exactly where he is, but he's got a really bougie shirt on, too. He's got some flowers and shit. Somebody deliver him coffee today, maybe? What?
Somebody deliver him coffee today, maybe? Maybe, yeah. Wow, without a straw. Oh, fuck you.
Oh, he even cut the straw, too. Look at that. No, I did that. So, there was another one I saw where this dude had a crack cigar, and he fucking took some cellophane and he celloed around close to the top where the crack was so that he could still smoke his cigar.
I've done it before. I mean, that was pretty impressive. I've done tape, not cello. I've done tape.
Sallow seems pretty, you know, would obviously be pretty effective. I mean, you know, there's like vegetable glue out there that you can pick up. Chapstick works. Yeah, chapstick.
Chapstick is a quick fix as well. But the Sallow I was impressed with. I was like, man, you know, that's... Yeah, that's Andy's though.
That's fucking devotion. I mean, just fucking saran wrap this bitch and we'll be operational. So, kudos to that guy as well. So, the onesie incident, I'll give you a little update.
Okay. It, uh, the Onesie has now found a new home at the... Onesie Gate, 2019? Onesie Gate has...
The reason that you have clearanced the, uh, Roma Crafts... That has nothing to do with that, that has nothing to do with that. Okay. I did it, I just did it today only.
We gotta, we gotta... Always gotta put me on blast. We gotta protect the production, I understand. You're so ridiculous.
Just between you and me. You know... Who knows? Anyway, what, it found a new home?
Sometimes I just want to beat you to death, you know? Because I was going to get it and put it on my dog. Oh yeah, well, no, that's not going to happen. It's found a new home.
Yes. It has made its way to the Rosales family. Oh. Yes.
They don't have small children. They have a daughter who has a baby doll. Oh. And it is officially on the baby doll.
Oh, very nice. So I got a really nice video, really made my day. So, have no fear. Do you still have the video?
We should post it on the Instagram. I do have -- well, I need -- I'll have to get permission because, I mean, there's a kid involved, you know? Okay, yeah, never mind. I was thinking it was just the baby doll.
No. So, yeah, I'm probably not going to do that. Can you take a photo from the video of just the baby doll with the onesie? You might be able to zoom it in, yeah.
We could do that. But we didn't do the last post -- we didn't do the last video yet of skips on the -- No, no, you never sent it to me. Yeah. You never reminded me.
A lot of ice plunge photos lately, though. Yeah, I see that. You guys are going fucking nuts. I mean, you're having a lot of fun with the cold plunge.
The cold plunge. Jeez Louise. What are you up to now? Day and a half?
Well, I did 20 minutes, I think last week, but then I brought it back down to 15. I mean, 20 is a little scary. You said you lost feeling in your arms. Yeah, it was pretty, I was really cold for a long period of time that day.
So I'm like, all right, maybe 15 minutes is efficient. So, and, and, uh, the bookkeeper doesn't want me to go past 15 minutes anyways, so. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, there's a sign that says 10 minutes max.
What do they fucking know? I mean, I'm just saying. Is there one in the ladies too, or do you go in the men's locker room? I go in the men's locker room.
Oh, good for you. To do it, yeah. She doesn't care. Yeah.
She's living her best life. Yep. A naked guy might be in the locker room. What do you mean, just a naked guy?
I just ask him to move over. Multiple cocks. It's ridiculous. So we went to Universal this weekend.
We had some friends in town. Did you take the ear pods off your watch this time when you rode the hunk? We weren't in that theme park. We were just in the regular Universal.
Oh, okay. But I was smoking a cigar in CityWalk on our way into Universal, right? So we get in and there's kind of like this space between you entering Universal and you're no longer in CityWalk, where you kind of go to get your tickets and stuff. Okay, yeah.
Down by the big globe. The Globe. Yeah, so it's like, we'll call. Right.
So we're setting aside, we're kind of on the right, and I'm still smoking my cigar, and shout-out to Lewis, the security guard, who is 4'3", and every bit of angry, and had a walkie-talkie, so God fucking love him. " I said, "Okay, man, no problem. " Did he have an accent? Yes, he did.
But he did have an accent. " And he points to like this fucking area of nothingness. " dude i don't want you around here i was like well i'm not fucking moving so he got in like a little tither tither whatever fucking walks over to his other security guards grabs a walkie-talkie like he's a fucking supposed to scare me so i just fucking open my hands up i'm like come at me bro fuck you i'm not doing anything wrong are you not banned from city one no so he didn't he it was just an empty threat he totally bluffed i'm like fuck you man i'm gonna sit here i know big man Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
That's right. Big man. I'm gonna kick his ass. So he came in here all puffed up on Monday morning, wasn't it?
That was it? No. Ruined his whole day. He probably talked about it all day.
" Because he didn't make fucking-- Was it an old man that you didn't mention he was a senior citizen? No. He was fucking old. He wasn't old?
How? He wasn't old? Michael. The man was probably like-- In his mid-40s?
Oh, no. He was a lot older than that. No way. He was like maybe pushing 70, maybe in his 70s.
I appreciate you thinking that, that's really nice of you, but I was fully engaged with Lewis, and I can assure you, he wasn't 70 years old. I don't know, Michael. Maybe he just looked tougher to you, Mike, because of the walkie-talkie. Well, he tried to prove his point, and he lost.
Then he got his walker and shuttled off away. got back in his electric scooter and he left me. Meep, meep, meep. So that was the fun and exciting life of a cigar hustler this week.
I got a special guest for you this Saturday. Yes. I think I figured it out. I don't think you figured it out unless Brittany told you.
No, no, I didn't ask her. I was going to ask her because she would have told me, but I didn't ask her. No, I completely forgot. So who is it?
It's not Mr. Martin. No. No.
He'll never come here. It's not John D. Oliver. No, it's not Frenchy.
He's in the Keys, I believe, fishing. Oh, really? Yeah. That son of a bitch.
I think that was him that I saw and checked into, or maybe he's going there. I think I need a job at Roma Craft. I mean, holy shit. They're hiring, did you see?
They're hiring. Yeah, they are hiring. I figured you were gonna move now. I don't know.
I don't think so. Just putting stuff in boxes. I mean, you can handle that. It doesn't, no, it's not big enough for me.
The pay looked pretty good for boxing. I feel like I need corporate shares. I need, you know, I need complete commitment. You need a name on a T-shirt.
I need commitment to the team. They can't put your name on a T-shirt. It's too damn long. You know, I mean, Vasquez is really working hard with the Rome of Us shit.
He's just kind of like, you know, that's been popping up a little more and more lately. But you still haven't guessed. No, okay, who is it now? You didn't even guess.
Oh, I have no idea. It could be anybody. You said you think you know who it is. Well, I said the two names, and it wasn't the other one of those, so.
Okay. Fred Rui. No. He'll be here Friday, though.
Oh, we should totally do him, too. You want to see if I can get him in earlier? Yeah, that'd be cool. All right.
What would we talk to him about? Check in on him, see what the fuck he's doing, you know? He's putting up pictures of bacon still. Life has not changed.
He just went to the Great Smoke in Miami, gave Groover a deviled egg. Well, we can interview him and see if it's complete shit or not. If it's complete shit, we just won't air it. Oh, yeah, we do that.
We should do secret episodes. We have two now that I've never seen a lot of today. Just play those. This is complete shit.
1995, you get these secret cigar podcast episodes. And then after they listen, they're like, why the fuck did I pay for this? Well, that's just it. They pay first.
Oh, good. Duping the customer. That's awesome. Sounds like a great idea.
We'll do one of those premium podcast things. Sounds fucking fantastic. They get the money, and they get the bad episodes. Ooh!
So you don't want to guess? No, it could be anybody! He's in the cigar industry. That doesn't really narrow it down.
He's tall. Terrence? He doesn't know how to button his t-shirt. T-shirt with buttons?
Yeah. No idea. Wow. You know nothing about the industry.
Well, t-shirts don't have buttons. You know what I'm talking about when I say t-shirt. Your buddy from LFT. John Carney?
Yeah. No, he buttons his fucking college shirts and shit. He did a lot of pictures of meat over the weekend. He loves pictures of his meat.
He does. Robert Caldwell. Oh, oh, yeah, the shirt thing, okay. Yeah.
So Groover's bringing him by? No, he's just, he's going rogue, I guess. He's gonna be up in Tampa and then he wants to swing by on Saturday, so. Yeah.
" I mean, I got some good stories I'm gonna try and pull out of them. Okay. I've only met him once. So, he's got some good stories.
So we'll see what we can get going. Yeah, I would never have guessed Robert Colba. No. Let me see your paper and see what kind of shit you have on there.
I've got some news on there, because we did news last week. Oh, okay. So there's news on there. Do you want to do the news?
Is there anything you want to talk about? Uh, well, Blanco is suing somebody. Blanco did the show, so I thought it'd be interesting to talk about. He's suing Line of Duty.
He's suing the guy from Line of Duty for defamation of character. I don't know. So how does that work? I mean, like...
Well, I saw this stuff beforehand because Blanco's tried to get me to work with him a few times. Right. But, yeah, evidently the guy said allegedly that Blanco sold his cigars on third tier marketing or something, I don't know, some swap meet or something with the Line of Duty logo and everything on it. Yeah, but it's not his brand, right?
Right, well, he was making, Blanco, in the lawsuit, Blanco says they had an oral agreement that he was producing Line of Duty cigars. And the line of duty guy has since moved on to a different - He's working with Black Label. Yeah. Yeah, but evidently Blanco had 2,000 leftover cigars that for some reason the guy didn't take, or wouldn't take, or didn't want, or something.
I mean, that's a bunch of horseshit, dude. I mean, really, fucking 2,000 cigars for a major manufacturer? Yeah, it's not a big number. Just dump them if you're really pissed off about it.
Well, that's what Blanco did. He dumped them, but then he got caught selling the line of duty cigars. So he should have unbanded them. That's what he should have done.
He should have taken the bands off. It just sounds like a horrible pissing contest. It does. It sounds like two guys are just mad at each other.
You push me, I push you. Fucking hug it out. Get over it. What else you got?
Well, the guy went rogue on them on social media is what David's suing about. Ah. Hey, what the fuck? It's social media.
Everybody takes things so personal anymore. I mean, Skip should have like 75 lawsuits going at this point. Exactly. He pisses up people all the time.
So... That's funny. Yeah. Well, hey, so, you know, like, so don't, everybody talk shit about Blanco, I guess.
Nobody talk shit about anybody. It'll be a civil fucking lawsuit. All right. Allegedly.
Allegedly. Allegedly talk shit about him. So, what else you got? State of Florida is trying to change the smoking age of 21.
Oh, good. What? That's not gonna fucking matter. I mean, that doesn't really make a big difference.
Well, it already passed the first round. Now it's going before the house or whatever the terminology is. Yeah. Yeah.
It cleared the first committee. So fucking stupid. Everybody's doing it. It's sweeping the nation.
Everybody's going to 21. Other states are doing it. I think I saw it in New York, but... I saw like five.
Pennsylvania was doing it. California. I think California's already 21. Well, California will do anything they possibly can to regulate the fuck out of anything.
Anything. Anything. So become adult at 18, you can't do anything. Right.
Congratulations. Four more years. But I'm guessing if you're already 18, you'll be grandfathered in for the thing. I guess the way the government sees it is, you know, a lot of people aren't leaving their parents' house until they're in their mid-30s, so.
To change the adult age to 30. So why not just push it to, everything to 21. Well, that sucks. I hope that that dies in the house.
Doesn't look how he's going to. Thompson is closing their doors in Tampa. Really? That was announced today.
Why? They were bought the end of last year by Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Oh. For $62,000,000.
So they're closing the doors in Tampa and moving everything to Bethlehem. To Pennsylvania? Yeah. Really?
Yeah. That's interesting. The whole building, they're putting, what was the number? 20-something, 28, oh, 22nd.
I feel like we could sell Cigar Hustler for $68,000,000. I'd be happy with that price. Well, it was $62,000. Oh, $62,000.
5. You know. Just a little more. There's like 104 people they're laying up or something.
Damn. I guess you can move to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania if you want to, but if you live in Tampa, why would you want to move to Pennsylvania? I don't know. We have, there's no tax here either.
Right. Well, is there state income tax in Pennsylvania? No. No, there's no, I'm talking about tobacco tax.
Tobacco tax. Yeah. Well, that's totally fucked. What other shitty news do you have for us, Michael?
That's all the shitty news I have this week. Nothing good? Oh, no, it's all shitty news. What would be good news?
I don't know. Well, Drew Estate's putting on tiny little cigars, too, so it's the only thing everybody's doing nothing. New cigar coming out you're excited about? Nothing?
No. Well, the new Guaymaro, obviously. Right. And the War Bear.
And the War Bear. The War Bear. Yes. Okay.
Well, hey, thank you for bringing me down at the end of this podcast. I really appreciate it. We got a show update, too. The show's doing well.
Oh, yeah? We got more. 4% against last year. Yeah.
That's some growth. That is growth. The followers have slowed down a little bit. We're still in the 1400 number.
That's okay, because you're no longer featured. Right. No longer featured. But we're still getting one or two followers a day, so it's clicking up.
Still the number two show on Podbean and cigar related topics. Should put that on the boss's desk. Let him know. Number two.
Number two. Who's number one? Cigar Authority? Cigar Authority.
I fucking messaged that guy, David. He didn't respond to me. He's so big. He's scared of us.
We're coming after him. Are we though? I don't feel... As soon as we hit video.
I don't feel like we're competing with anybody. We're just kind of living our best life over here. No. As soon as we hit video, we're gonna pass him up.
We have 12 subscribers now on YouTube. Hey, that's pretty impressive. Double digits now, considering we're not even feeding video to it yet. That's nice.
Good for you. I'm proud of you. I didn't do it. I'm gonna buy you a camera.
A shiny one. And a tripod? And a tripod. And a microphone?
And we're gonna mic up. Now we just need a boom mic on it. Is that how it works? Yes.
What about like something that you put on like a clip on or some shit? No, that's too much. It's too much. We'll compare.
You went the headphone with the wireless mic thing. We're going to review this, and we're going to figure this out. All right. And advice is welcome from any of our listeners.
Oh, guess what's the fourth biggest country we're in, though? We talked about this briefly yesterday, but it was off the air, so those conversations never count. Bahataki? Bahrain.
Bahrain. Bahrain. A lot of cigar smokers in Bahrain. A lot of cigar smokers in Bahrain.
That's about right. Somebody downloaded 16 episodes, or 16 people started listening, whichever way you want to look at it. This is just the one guy. I feel like it's the one guy.
" And he just kept going, so. I think they're planning out a torture. Like, that's cool. Waterboarding and a Cigar Hustlers podcast.
" And he said, "Oh, yeah? " And then he starts giving up all the information. He's just giving up all the information. "Oh, someone's in London, is that really dead?
" Very nice. And we have one listener in Uruguay. Really? One lonely man is listening in Uruguay.
All by himself. So hello to our Uruguayan listener. Uruguayan. And we have one listener in North Dakota, but that's the United States.
Yeah. One guy in North Dakota. Well, there's like two people there. Well, 50% of the market then.
Yeah, we're crushing it over there. We're crushing it in North Dakota. I wonder who it is in North Dakota. I don't know.
So if you are a North Dakota listener, if you'd like to message us, we'll give you a shout out. I'm willing to bet that they're in the Air Force. Air Force. You think military?
Yep. Is there a base in North Dakota? Two. Oh, maybe it's one of your relatives.
They don't listen to the podcast. No? You don't think? No.
They don't. Both our brothers are there. Oh, maybe they're listening together. But one of them's in Guam, right?
One's in Guam right now. There he is. He's not listening. He's living his best life.
Yeah. I feel really bad for him. Yeah. As I see him, I'm fucking riding...
Tubes. The jet skis. Oh. It's a really tough.
Tough life. Not a cloud in the sky. Keeping the United States safe. America.
America. Fuck yeah. So that was cool. Hey, little tidbits.
I'm glad that you gave me the good news at the end. Well, I feel really bad you charged Michael Knight for that coffee, because he's still the number one show for the last three months. It was a good show. It was a good show.
You know, different. Different. I'm excited about Caldwell. So I'll try to meet somebody else on social media.
Yeah, maybe one day we'll get Skip here, but until then we got-- There he is. He's calling your phone now. Until then, we got Robert Caldwell. All right.
That's it. That's all I got. Me too. All right.
Well, we're at 30 minutes. We made it through. Great podcast. Thank you very much for listening.
Leave your reviews. Your reviews. If you want to do five stars, that'd be great. If you think it's complete shit...
Oh, we did do a second review. You can do one star. That's fine, too. They said I was very funny.
I want to know why you were very angry. Because, you bring it out of me. He seems very angry. Why is Michael always so angry?
Because I work with a person that constantly cuts me off. I only cut you off once today. I know, you did a good job. I'm trying to do better.
I'm proud of you. I'm making big strides. You were insulting me before the show, so. I gotta slap you down and then build you up.
Evidently. It's a tough world here. Yeah. Alright, we'll cut off here.
Brittany, thanks for sitting in. Oh, thank you. Hello, this is a prepaid collect call from the correctional institution. This call is subject to recording and monitoring.
To accept charges, press 1. To refuse charges, thank you for using T-Netix. This has been a Cigar Hustlers podcast, a Mike and Mike production. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike Squared, Mike Squared, Mike Squared.
- Good.
Show Notes
More Technical Issues with the 1972 Apple Laptop! So here is the show finally!
We cover Mikey stalking people on Instagram! More bad news with the Cigar Industry and Mikey Getting in a fight with an old man at Universal Studios.
We tease about a special guest coming in for next weeks show and introduce a new member to the podcast team!
We welcome your show ideas on our FB Page, "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast". You can follow the show on IG @cigarhusterspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike Too @fcc_mike.
Please remember to rate, review and subscribe on our Podcast Providers!
Thank you for listening and enjoy the show!