Episode 92 We call the Airforce....Slappy goes on defense...Is Arizona really Ready for us?

Episode Summary

Episode 92 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with a new studio setup and a surprise third mic: Cigar Hustler employee Garrett Wasley — known around the shop as "Slappy" — who gets a proper introduction, a taste of what it's like to work for Mikey, and the show's standard five questions (his favorite cigar: the Powstanie Habano). The hosts also address a listener's complaint that RoMa Craft Tobac gets mentioned constantly without being a paid sponsor, and explain that the mentions come from friendship, not sponsorship.

The bulk of the conversation is a two-sided recap of a busy Florida cigar weekend. Mike Szczekocki (Mike 2) worked the RoMa Craft tent at the Tampa Cigar Bash — now run by Casa de Montecristo — and unloads on the realities of multi-vendor events: the good people you meet versus the "slapdicks" who ask for the pitch, ask the price, promise to come back, and never do; the swag-hunting mentality; and the awkward optics of the host company discounting Montecristo cigars to roughly $4.50 a stick while brand owners like Erik Espinosa, Robert Holt, Mike Rosales and Mike McKinney work the tents. Mike Palmer, meanwhile, hosted a competing Florida Cigar Club event at the shop that drew well over 100 people across the day, and the two compare the "goodie bag at the door" model against the older walk-around, trick-or-treat style of event.

Industry news covers La Palina Cigars taking over distribution for Matt Booth's Room 101 (Farce, Doomslayer, The Big Payback), including the Jerry Coutrone/Down & Back Texas backstory and Caldwell staying separate apart from the collaboration; Oscar Valladares launching a Cigar & Coffee Safari factory-tour program in Danlí, Honduras for February 2020; and another courtroom loss for the cigar industry as a U.S. District Court judge ruled against delaying substantial equivalence, still slated for May 2020 with no clear guidance on the paperwork. In RoMa Craft news, the Baka Bantu 4x52 Petit Robusto — a Cameroon-wrapped, limited line from Skip Martin — has begun shipping, with additional sizes following. The episode also debuts the show's listener call-in segment with Jason Walpert from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, who asks what the hosts think people really think of them; the answer turns into a genuinely useful riff on criticism, ignoring opinions from people who aren't your friends, and why honest disagreement is disappearing. Closing notes include podcast chart standings, YouTube growth, and an upcoming appearance at Owl Ear in Arizona on October 25 with Matt Hunt and Michael Rosales.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Meet "Slappy" — Garrett Wasley
   Cigar Hustler employee Garrett Wasley joins as a third mic, explains the unwritten rules of working for Mikey, and answers the show's five questions.
2. 02
   Sponsor Talk and RoMa Craft Mentions
   A listener asks why RoMa Craft gets named on every episode if the show has no sponsors — the hosts explain it's family, not advertising.
3. 03
   Tampa Cigar Bash and the Multi-Vendor Reality
   Working the RoMa Craft tent at the Casa de Montecristo-run Tampa Cigar Bash: tire-kickers, swag hunters, and the host brand discounting Montecristo against the visiting brands.
4. 04
   Florida Cigar Club Event vs. the Bash
   Mike Palmer's competing in-shop event drew 100+ attendees and sparks a debate over goodie bags at the door versus walking the floor to meet reps.
5. 05
   Church Fair Money Booth Story
   Mike's volunteer shift running the cash-grab booth at his son's school fair, stuffing extra blues in for every kid, and the parent who ruined it.
6. 06
   Industry News: Room 101 to La Palina
   La Palina Cigars takes over distribution for Matt Booth's Room 101 line, with background on Jerry Coutrone, Down & Back, and Caldwell's collaboration.
7. 07
   Cigar Tourism and FDA Substantial Equivalence
   Oscar Valladares' new Cigar & Coffee Safari in Honduras, advice for first-time factory trips to Estelí, and another court loss on delaying substantial equivalence.
8. 08
   Listener Call-In: Jason Walpert
   The show's first call-in guest, phoning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, asks what people really think of the hosts — leading to a candid talk about criticism and industry gossip.

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 92 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, this week we call the Air Force, Slappy goes on the defense, and is Arizona really ready for us? Sit back and relax, here comes the show. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, squared, Oh, look at that, it's episode 92 of a Cigar Hustlers podcast. Just like that?

Just like that, now we're on. Oh shit, I'm so nervous. You playing with your phone? Stop playing with your phone.

I gotta get my notes. I'm getting my notes. Why don't you just print them? I don't, I like it.

It's so unprofessional. Paper. Everything's paper. Paper.

As long as possible, not address the third person in the room. Okay. First, we'll explain the new setup. We're trying some new things.

Okay. Because we have some custom-made furniture coming. It's so weird, like I didn't hear any music or anything. I'm so unprepared now.

The music is really only for the free shows where we talk over the music. Oh, where were we? Where were we? Yeah, but this is it.

This is episode 92. The Cigar Hustler Podcast. This is not the free show, this is the Patreon show. I know, the free show has the music in the beginning that we talk over.

Oh. This doesn't. It's not a free show? No.

So you're making them pay for the show? I'm on the exclusive show? Shhh. Don't talk.

No, no, they don't pay for this one. You're free. So this is the free show. Okay, he's already spoke.

Now address him. He's ruined everything. See, my friend here, he's a little confused. Mike's a little off today.

Do you want to introduce yourself, Slappy? Don't call him. I don't know who that is. Don't call him that.

Yeah, that's how you get on the show to start with. But yes, Garrett Wosley, I work here at Cigar Hustler. You work here? Yes, yes, I work here.

That's cool. This isn't a permanent addition to the show, just so right now. Hey, I just want you to know that... It could be, though.

I mean, if the viewers like me, I'm gonna have to bring you back. He could be that guy we send out to do stupid stunts and get stuff thrown in his face and everything. So, my brother was watching the show the other day, and all of a sudden he heard, Mr. Palmer was reviewing the names of everybody he saw it.

" And then, of course, Slappy, out of nowhere, I mean, the guy hadn't said shit the entire day. " He's like, so angry that Slappy didn't even say his real name. So, in order to, since he made him feel upset, we decided to make him a partial guest on the show. But now, everyone knows we call him Slappy.

They know who he is. Now it's global. Global Slappy. So now you can identify.

Because this show is heard worldwide. Yeah. There's an attractive young lady in Portugal that listens now. " "Oh, it's Slappy.

" Next Slappy. You asked for it, you got it. I mean, listen, it's hard to earn that kind of a name. You really gotta do some special shit.

Hey, you think I like Mike, too? I mean, I don't know, but it is what it is at this point. I don't think I earned Slappy. I don't think that there was a...

I feel like you did. I feel like you did. I can't remember why he got that name. See, he can't even remember, so he can't be like it.

It's an old, I have a bad memory. Run to my family. It's a combination of things. It's a combination of things.

You know, what's really kind of funny is, um, I think Boss' Day was last week. I got you something? Yeah, I wouldn't know because I didn't get shit from anybody. I got you something?

You kind of slid that in at the end. Well, I meant to say that before, but I forgot it was. I'm not your boss. Somebody wish me?

I think that's made up. No, you have to buy me a present. It's a Hallmark holiday. This is not a present of enough me appearing on the podcast?

I thought that was a gift. This is a gift from us to you. Oh, okay, that's how this works. Mike, the conflict out in the shop.

It's lack of gratitude. That's the problem. Well, I'm very grateful to be here. I blame the youth.

The youth of America. It's the fucking millennials. In my day, we didn't complain. Are you considered a millennial?

No, I'm not a millennial. I believe I'm too young to be a millennial. You're Generation Z or some shit? One of those fucking letters.

Not even a thing. Generation. Generation. Yada yada.

Alright, so hey, we got a guest today. We were gilded. So feel free to contribute when we talk about this show. What number was he at?

Three? Yeah. Just shut him down. So you're gonna sit tight and we're gonna have fun with you.

All right. So what's it like working at Cigar Hustler? What are the seven laws of Cigar Hustler? Oh, God, you're putting me on the spot.

I don't know what the seven laws are. Rule number one, don't piss off Mikey. Don't piss off Mikey? Not after workouts.

Rule number two, don't piss off Mikey. Rule number three, don't piss off Mikey. Rule number four, don't eat his canned chicken. I think that's all I got.

There you go. Canned chicken, baby. That's it. Don't drink his pink bangs.

I think I got enough for everybody. Yeah? Yeah. I buy it by the case now.

Which flavor is the pink one? Cotton candy. Oh, see, I don't drink that one. We're good.

I drink all of them. Don't worry. I'm not gonna be upset. He loves the birthday cake.

No, I do not. I can assure you that when I run out, I will solve that problem myself. " You need five cases? Which flavor?

All the cotton candy, please. I will take 12 cases of cotton candy. Okay, so far this has been a show completely about nothing, and we're, what, five minutes deep, so let's go, let's go. Four minutes deep.

Okay, welcome to the Bang Energy Studios. It is not the Bang Energy. Episode 92 of Cigar Hustler Podcast, presented by Aroma Craft Tobac. " So, what do you say to that, Mr.

Palmer? Who complained? I'm not giving up my sources. Huh?

It's not fair to me. You're the one who doesn't want sponsors. I'll take sponsors every day. Oh, so it's okay for you?

Yes, I'm smoking a Perdomo cigar, I'm drinking a Bang Energy drink, I've got an Apple computer. Jesus Christ. I'll name everybody. Send me free stuff, I will mention you on the show.

Until I'll put the fucking kibosh on that shit. Okay, so then let me direct the question to you, Michael. Back to rule number one, don't be soft, Mikey. We mentioned a certain gentleman in a company all the time on the show, but we're not taking sponsors, so why is that?

Yeah, we mentioned him because he's family, and we love his cigars, and we don't ever expect anything from him. We appreciate him. Oh, well, there's your answer, whoever it was asked the question. No.

Oh, I actually did say, well, I mean, he gets mentioned every day anyways, but, you know. We haven't said his name yet. But now you're like, you're, you know. They bought me this nice laptop, Michael.

You're like balls deep into the Roma. You're like, mmm, favorite, favorite cigar. That's my favorite cigar. You're very easily bought off.

Yeah, that's it. You know how much this thing costs? That's it. That's all it takes.

I did not come cheaply. There's like an echo. I think it sounds great, to be honest. All right.

Well, then we'll just leave it on. All right, so what'd you do this weekend? Okay, that was great. What'd you do?

What a great segue. Segue. So, you know, this is one of the people that I saw this weekend. I was at the Tampa Cigar Bash.

I went to Cigar Life as well, the CEO. It was romantic. Yes. We didn't do a podcast.

We'll get into that. So, you know, I went and helped Rosales out at the tent. Yes, it's on the video. Yeah, so, um...

Is he mic three or am I mic three? Now, did I get bumped down a notch? I mean... How did that work?

All you need is one mic. No, to save the world, you need a big mic and a little mic. First of all, he's Michael. Oh, okay, that's acceptable.

And, uh, yeah, I mean, he's, you know, he came before you in my life. But not on the show. You're not on the show. I'm Mike 2 at Cigar Hustlers Podcast.

Right. My wife doesn't call me Mike 2 at home. And he's now Bourbon Mike. Oh, that's right.

He is Bourbon Mike. Yeah. I saw you have become Tequila Mike. Yeah.

Oh, well, there you go. It's lovely. Tequila Mike is fantastic. Yes.

I love being Tequila Mike. We will take a tequila sponsor. Only Casamigos, because that's the one I drink. No, we will call, what's his name, and get that set up.

George Clooney? George Clooney. He sold the company. I'm sure he still has connections.

The man does not pay for tequila. I went to Tampa's Cigar Bash. Yes. And, uh, you know, multivendors are tough.

It is. You know, um, here's, well, let me tell you, like, the, the really good part about it, and then I'm gonna give you all the fucking dirt about multivendors. Okay. What's really good-- That particular one, the dirt, or just dirt?

No, no, no, it's just, it's just a blanketing in general. Okay. Feel free to chime in any time you want. Yeah, he knows a lot about multivendors.

That means there's more than one vendor. I know what the word "multi" means, but… Oh, okay, all right, just helping, just helping you. I appreciate that. Please, Michael, continue, so sorry.

Here's what's great about the multi-vendor is, like, you do get an opportunity to come across a handful of dudes that are, you know, all about the product, and you get to shoot the shit with them and stuff, and, you know, you kind of establish a better friendship with them. So you're referring to, I'm sorry, you're referring to the people that come to it, not the people that work in it? Yeah. So you're saying what's good about it from your side of the table.

Yeah. Okay. Just want to explain that for the viewers. I mean, the majority of the people, you know, the mentality for these multi-ventor events, unfortunately, it's all about, you know, let's get the best deal, and, you know, it's not even so much a concern of the quality of the cigar as it is the deal, which is kind of sad, but, you know, I think that it's not everybody.

So you do get to see some good dudes, some good people, and that's really cool, but you have a high level of slapdicks in these multivendors as well. Would slapdick and fanboy be interchangeable? No, no, a fanboy's a good dude, and a slapdick is just... Okay, so the first people you talked about were the fanboys.

Right, they're like cool people, and then, you know, the slapdicks. " Right? Whatever it happens to be. " Acceptable excuse?

That nobody ever comes back. " I mean, no one's looking for the sale. Like, "Hey, I'm just telling you about the product, are you interested in it? " Oh, I mean, that's fucking everywhere.

I saw people's photos where they had the Gurkha steak knives and the ashtrays. " And he started laughing. Are you now threatening customers? And he started, he was the customer who was buying.

So he started laughing, then I started laughing, then I fucking straightened. " Threatening customers, great business model. I mean, he never came back, and I didn't track him down either, but you know. Well, in all fairness, they did not have your cigar.

And it was not your shop. No, but I'll always, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll support Romacraft like, like they're my own, but, you know, um. Did Mr. Rosales go, will you stop threatening the customers, Michael?

No, no, if he, you know, I mean, he. There you go, give me another bourbon, I don't care what you think. I mean, he's, no, no, he's, he's definitely reeled me in before it, like the show, and so I was like, stop, you know, okay, sorry, but, you know, but, um, in general, you know, you know, who's cool and who's interested in the product and who really isn't, who's just kind of just kicking tires. You've got to kind of make it interesting.

I mean, you're standing there for five, six hours. Oh, you want to have fun, sure. You know, you want to have a good time. Maybe you break the ice with one of these guys and, you know, you become a, you know, it becomes a thing.

It becomes a thing, yeah. It becomes your friend on social media or something. Yeah, or whatever. So, you know, I'm all about making it interesting and having a good time.

So what kind of hat was you wearing? It was easily identical. Maybe you need to... Identiful?

Identifiable, sorry. It was easily identical. Youth of America first. It was like a straw hat, but it was very unique, you know?

Like a Farmer Brown? Kinda, yeah. Scarecrow? Yeah.

Or was it the Panama hat that's got the top? Maybe it was more Panama style. It had like a ribbon around it that was different colors and shit. " I don't know.

Who Rag makes those now, I think? Yeah, so. Who Rag makes those now, I think. Yeah, so.

I was like, I will find you. I will find you. And I will beat you to death. And I ask you why you're in the mind.

Did you decide to come back? Are you coming back now? I still have them over here. Hey, where'd you go?

You know, hey, come with me. Come with me. We can wrap that up for you. I've got it all set.

So, but that, I mean, that was cool. You know, the really good, the fortunate part about the multi-vendor is the fact that you do get to come across a couple of those good dudes, you know, that you don't get to see. I did fuck up, though, and I got to make sure that we do this better. " So then, I obviously needed to do a post in advance before-- Before, not day of.

Yeah, because by then, well, were they selling tickets at the door? I don't think it was sold out. Yeah, but you know-- But still, I don't think many people are gonna go, "Oh, look, Mike and Mike's there. " Well, some of my friends are sensitive Sally's, so I need to address that.

Oh. Well, the same thing happened with your post at your house the night before. Yeah. " So ridiculous.

So I won't be posting when I'm having a good time in my house, 'cause fuck you guys. You need to tape it, or take the photo, but save it 'til the next day. Last night. It's the same thing.

I guess it would be the same thing, yeah. I think it would be less offensive, 'cause then there's no way they could have made it. I was just having fun, but you know what? It looked like you might have been heavy tequila mic in by the time you did the video.

No, that was right at the beginning. Was it? Yeah. You were quite boisterous and joyful.

Yeah, so what else is new? No, that's not you. Oh, okay. " Sometimes I feel like you don't even know me, Michael.

Stare at you. Yeah, you're a little more the angry type in my experience, but... That's because you work for me. It's totally different.

Both of us. You don't perform on level all the time, so I gotta, you know. Hence the name, Slappy. See, my friend Skip taught me a long time ago.

My friends, Skip? Yeah, my friends, your friends, Skip, too. Our friends, Skip. Our friends, Skip.

Well, he sent me. So, yeah, we got that. My computer friends, Skip? Yeah, our friends, Skip.

So, he taught me a long time ago that, you know, you got to, I can team that shit, right? So, I got to build you up, but I also got to slap you down. So, you know, let you know that I love you and I appreciate you, but I got to keep you in line. So, you know, that's just kind of the thing.

So, there you go. That's what you get. You just get slapped more than brought up, that's all. It just kind of happens.

Is it supposed to be a 50-50 type thing? Well, I mean, it's, I think it's a case-by-case basis, I think that, you know, John gets a lot of positives, John gets a lot of build-up, you know, very seldom slap down. But it does happen. It does.

It does happen. You guys asked me before what it was like working here. I think everybody just found out. There it is.

And he explained it. And it's amazing. And that's Jared, everybody. Thanks for coming in.

You're fine. Jared. I don't know who Slappy is. I don't know who Jared is.

I'm just kidding. I'm using all sorts of names for you today. Franky, are we going to get that one next? I was about to say that.

I'm coming to Franky. Okay, so. Don't work ahead. So anyway, I had an event this weekend also that was competing against your event.

Yes. Because we didn't have a good time last year as a group, my Florida Cigar Club. It was very hot. They don't like the new style where you get the bag as soon as you show up with all the stuff in it.

Nobody likes that. Oh, you prefer the trick-or-treat? They like the trick-or-treat because a lot of times, some of the guys they brought up, they'd have like maybe a Habana or Connecticut, They ask you which one you want, and then you can pick which one, and now you just, you get the bag. Okay.

Now the walk around thing, I had a long talk with Greg. You could still do that if you wanted to, you know, walk around and find you and go, "Okay, hey, let me dig through my bag here. You gave me this. " That doesn't happen.

No, it does. That's why I tried to explain to Greg. That does not happen. No.

But it was more fun to walk around and, you know, you would have to, well, I guess you still have to talk to me, but you would get a little interaction with the, with the You know, what's kind of crazy about the multi-vendor, though, is like, this is where we piss people off. So, you're in the tent, right, and you got to sell by the box, right, because that's the design that they have. And, you know, there's like five different tents, and everybody's kind of broken up. Like, I'm sure you've been there before, right?

It's the first year I haven't gone. Now, it's a Casa de Monte Cristo now, because Tampa Cigar Bash is now Casa de Monte Cristo. Right. So now Monte Cristo.

Which is where it changed. Monte Cristo has this lovely tent with, you know, all these little goodies, and not only do you have to buy, you don't have to buy by the box, it's a mix and match, and I don't fact check, so I don't know if this is entirely accurate. Okay. 50 per.

Any 20 sticks? Any 20 of the Monte Cristo cigars. So it's like, okay, so now you have everybody showing up here. I mean, Eric Espinosa was there, you know.

Robert Holt, Mike Rosales, Mike McKinney. Mike McKinney was there. You got all these guys that put in a lot of time and this effort, and then just go in and sandbag them. That'd be like me doing a multi-vendor event and having everybody here and then just discounting the fuck out of Powstanie, right?

Oh, so that's all they would buy. Like, I mean, that just seemed, you know, I mean, it was smart, I guess. So when you say Monte Cristo, just the Monte Cristo or whatever they're – Yeah, you know, Ryan was sitting over there in a bougie tent, You know, he had like nice glasses and everything, I mean, you know, he's living his best life, you know, and I'm just like, damn, man, you know, I mean, okay, sure, he's like the king there now, isn't he? Oh yeah, he's just, you know, yeah, he looks like an absolute stud, you know, he's got better chairs than us, you know, but what's really cool too about the other, the other cool aspect about, about the multi vendors, you get to get to see a lot of friends that are in the industry, you get to shoot the shit with them a little bit and stuff like that, which is really cool.

Right. So, I mean, I heard some good stories with Eric Espinosa, told me some good stories. I don't think that it's appropriate. Did you ask him to come on the show?

No, I could just ask him any time. Well, let's get Eric on. Oh, we should totally get him on. He's on my bucket list of guests.

Oh, really? I didn't know that. But where am I on the bucket list? Am I pretty high?

We just got you. So my life is complete now. My life is complete. Perfect.

Perfect guilt thing. I could die right now, and I would be satisfied. It would just be fine. So, yeah, I mean, I guess that was, you know, it was smart.

I don't think they work for Monte Cristo, because, you know, they run the show. Right, there's rumors every year that it'll be the last year. Yeah, I don't think so. That's bullshit.

They're still making money. Yeah, that's bullshit. I mean, that post was packed, man. Yeah, because they had just bought it.

Last year was the first year they took over from Tampa Human Order. I mean, look, at the end of the day, they're looking to sell all of it. Right. You know, you're gonna have another, you're gonna have a transition here relatively soon to get those five guys, you know.

Yeah. Five companies going in to try and buy it. It'll be different next time. Oh, you think so?

Of course. It'll be run by a different person. But now, maybe the first time will be similar to how CDM did it, but moving forward, you know. Oh, you mean, now, yeah, because last year was the first year that, I believe Mike was the name of the previous owner of Tampa Humidor.

He was not involved in it. That's why the rumor was that it was not going to happen again. Yeah. So, but if they did it last year, then this year, I'm sure all the kinks have worked out.

I mean, like, yeah, no, it's not, though, because, like, just how, like, Sirius, the Sirius Cigar Fest, the Texas Cigar Fest, when it was ran by Ron, it was fucking amazing, you know, like, I remember the first couple times doing that, that once the tent opened, and, you know, Skip and Mike and I, and, I don't know, whoever else was there, like, everybody ran to the table, and, like, everything was just kind of devoured, you know, it was like, holy shit, that was awesome, you know? And then, as CDM kind of took over, it's like, they didn't really find their footing. Gotcha. So, and now they're selling, promoting, promoting Christo's stuff outrageously, but hey, you know, I mean, kudos to CDM and what they're doing.

Good for them. Okay, anyway, I had it up. Yeah, sorry. That's okay.

So anyways. So anyways, we had two big-- This is gonna be a long one. Watch your time. I am.

We had two big large groups come in, one in the morning, everybody came in for a potluck breakfast on the way there. Mm-hmm. Which is when you were kind enough to stop by. And then it died in the middle of the day, which I would imagine is when Tampa Humidor was coming on.

Yeah. And then we were swamped at 4 o'clock. Whenever it was leaving. Yeah, they started pouring in again.

We had well over 100 people in there for the whole day, easily. Yeah, a lot of FCC guys. I saw some FCC shirts at the-- Yeah, the guys were telling me, the guys that went, that some vendors were offering them special deals because they were Florida Cigar Club members. " Well, you're kind of a big deal, Mr.

Palmer. Mr. President. Mr.

Prez? You know. I think that's what it is at this point. Brian, what's his name?

Brian Morris came over. He does the podcast I Smoke Cigars and I Know Things. Oh. He does a little video.

How'd that go? Video show. It actually went up last night. I watched it last night.

Yeah? I'm listed as a special guest. Mike Palmer with the Florida Cigar Club. Ooh, and you talked about the Cigar Hustlers podcast?

No. No, you fucking didn't. I had the shirt on, though, but it was not about the podcast, Mike. It was about.

You just got to slide it in. You got to take every chance to plug your podcast. Yeah, it's like, hey, you know, hey, I'm the president, I'm a very successful man. Everybody relax.

We want to come down. I just want you to know that, hey, you should check out a Cigar Hustles podcast. Well, his is a completely video show. Right.

No, no, no, it's shot different. It's different from our show. I know. So, like, the shot he does to come into the store, it took like four or five.

My little part took five takes to get it right. And the lighting's off, or somebody walks in. So you have five chances to mention the Cigar Hustles podcast. I had to mention the Cigar Housewives podcast.

Yeah, exactly. I didn't have anything. That's crazy. I think I'm done with it.

Right? Good job, Slappy. I'm done with Slappy. Good job, Garrett.

Slappy. Oh, now he gets the name right, too. You know, yeah, so you didn't mention the podcast. No.

You know, unlike Brian's operation, we just do the one take. Right, where one camera is set up, one take. They use two cameras. We just set it up.

They've got the gimbal where they follow you around and everything. You get the raw deal here. It's just the one-shot of the room over there with the camera. Everything that's imperfect.

You know, there's like more and more wires hooked to the camera just about all the time. That's good. What'd you say, Gary? What'd you say, Gary?

Nothing. You were talking? Well, no, you're saying until very little. You want to get every moment of what you're saying.

It's on tape, so we can go back and review it just so you know. I called my boss an asshole. Oh, okay, good. So.

So, I don't want to talk about it anymore. No, I'm done. That's it. You're done?

I'm done. You went on the... Well, you do more shows than I do, Michael. Well.

You're a very big deal. He is Michael number one. You know, you could just start acting like me and just start doing them. Like, hey, yeah, I'm Mike Cigar Hustler.

Well, I'm getting you on them, so I'll just start saying me. Yeah, yeah, hey, I'm Mike Cigar Hustler. Well, we did apply to be on two different shows for next week, and one we are a pair, just because of the type of show it is, and one it is, you know, just you again, Michael. Looking forward to that.

See what, you know, see how it pans out. We got going. It's a new thing. I get an email every Monday with shows that are requesting guests.

Does he put you a commission on the shows you book for him or? Uh, no, but I do get 15% of anything he gets paid to do, though. There you go. I'm his agent now.

We are, um, uh, putting our foot in the water for the luster's world of voice over acting and commercials. Ooh. Yes, we are. We are.

So soon you'll be able to hear us in books on tape. Yeah, it's gonna be great. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

You might be riding the subway and hear me saying, "Gate number two coming up. " Thank you for visiting Orlando. Thank you for visiting Orlando. This is Mike Palmer from Florida Cigar Club.

I appreciate you visiting. Check on the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, thank you. Yes, check Cigar Hustlers Podcast on the airplane. So, I was doing a, my kids had a fair today, or yesterday.

Can you do this in five minutes? I can. Or do you want to take a break and then come back? Whatever your heart desires, I'll let it go.

Let's go ahead and break just to be safe. I don't want you to run over. All right, we're gonna go to break. We'll be right back.

Break. Want to be part of the show? com/thecigarhustlerspodcast, pick which tier works best with your budget, and then you too can listen to the secret shows. Okay, and we're back!

And we're back. And we're back. Nobody even moved. It's amazing.

Okay, anyway, sorry. You look very relaxed, Gary. He does, doesn't he? Very relaxed in his hoodie and his sweatpants.

Yeah, my Pastaña hoodie exclusive is only... Oh, somebody did have one at the Florida Cigar Club event, Mr. a. the captain.

He said he had to buy it because it was so cold here the day before. It's an excellent tactic we have here. You're welcome. The air turned down to 65 degrees.

Oh, everybody looks really warm in here. Anyway, your son had an event. So yeah, so there was like this fair at his school, and they needed volunteers. So I volunteered, which is cool.

What tent or activity or something did you do? So I did like, I got to do this money thing, you know, like the kids would go into this money grab and they'd get like fake money to go buy prizes and stuff. Oh. You know, like the vacuum thing.

A little vacuum. Yeah, it's like a box. But like, it was hell for me in some ways because I'll tell you exactly, you know, a couple things that happened. Number one, all the kids are winning.

I don't care. They're all winning, it is what it is, it's fine, you know, so there's, I'm supposed to… Are you spraying them down with spray adhesive before they go in or time? No, I just let them scoop it off the ground, so, so they're… We're not even going to turn it on, kid, just picking stuff up. No, no, I just wait until, if they didn't get much, I'm like, oh, look, so, so, you get… The church is now checking a bunch of, oh, man, why the hell do we give away so much stuff with that vacuum money thing?

So, check this out. So, you're supposed to have one five, which is a blue dollar, and then ten ones in each turn, right? You did it the other, right. And that's it.

So I'm like, okay, like, no, that's gotta suck for the kids. So I would throw like three or four fives in there and a shit ton of whites and, you know, it would go and the kids would catch a couple, I'm like, oh, and then if I didn't see they got any blues, they'd be like, oh, get that blue, you know, you know, and like some of them, they were, they were hip to it anyways, they'd take it anyways, right? I can't wait till next year to see where they put you. Oh, I won't be there.

So, uh, so the guy, a guy, like one of the staff guys comes up to me and he's like, ah, one blue was supposed to be in there? I see four in there. You're giving away too much money. And I look at him, I'm like, oh, like, look, look, dude, okay, what the fuck is this costing you?

Here, here's a hundred bucks, I'm here for two hours, just go the fuck away. Like, let the kids have a good time. Oh, you swear. Was it not a church type thing?

It was. You're going, hey, preacher, get the fuck away from me. No, no, I would never talk to the preacher like that. The preacher's a really nice guy.

This fucking slapdick is trying to regulate me, and the kid's having a good time. Fuck him. Next year, you're in the dunk booth. So he almost got his ass kicked, but...

That would have went over my back. See that on the news. Let's finish off, Mikey. Back to rule number one.

Circle back. Maybe we should distribute those to the church. So here's one that's really fucked up, though, right? So there's this lady that would come up with her daughter, and the daughter went, and you know, again, I made sure, you know, that the kids win.

Everybody wins. Everybody wins when Mikey's winning the game. We always have a winner. Except for Garrett.

Garrett doesn't win. Garrett doesn't win. Hey, I gave you that shirt. You did win it, and you won it, by the way.

And you did win it. So there you go. So shut up. Boom.

Backpedal, backpedal. " Here's three more little girls. So, you know, and there was already a bunch in there. And then, so, the little girl went.

You know, I made sure she won. Right. And then, like, some of the ones and stuff will get stuck on the grate. And then when you turn it off, they'll come down.

Or sometimes they'll stay stuck up there. So the mom... You made it rain for the mom? " So she went in, fucking ripped it all off the grates, scooped it all up, and then took it.

" Like, what are you teaching your fucking kid, dumb dumb? Maybe she's the biggest donor for the church or something. Oh, she's definitely not. So then they came back a second time.

She's smoking a palm oil. There's so much stuck to the top of the place. So they came back like an hour later. To go again?

And the little girl went again. And as she's walking out, again, winning. Winning. Right?

Everybody wins with them. Her mom's like, you didn't get those other ones on the ground. There's some stuff up there. There's some more on the ground than you would get those places.

Do you want me to get them for you? And she goes, no, Mom. Fuck yeah, Mom. Get that shit.

No, she was embarrassed. This poor little girl, she's like, no, Mom. She puts her head down, like walks away, like, yeah, do you see what you're doing to your daughter? The preacher must have said something to her.

Is there any idea, like, I mean... A little sadly, it's a sin to take too many of the blues from God's face. No, I mean, but, you know, look, here's the reality, right? It's a fair, everybody's supposed to have fun, you know, okay, so...

Is it a fair to raise money or just to have fun? Look, let me tell you something, okay, that fair raised money... Well, everything... Not even, I mean, what I gave away in the money booth wasn't even close to the money booth.

That's close to the money that this fair made. So do you have to pay to play the games? Yeah, you get like 10 tickets for like five bucks or something like that. So how many tickets was your game?

Two. Two tickets. And how much did the tickets cost? Let's just work this out.

I have no idea. Well, you get 10 tickets for... I could tell you this, because a staff member yelled at me, okay? Twice, he came back twice.

The second time he came around, he broke down batches for me with one blue and 10 whites in paper clips, right? " I was like, "Okay, so let me run some quick math here. I'm here two hours. Everybody's in there for 15 seconds.

If I put four in every single time and they got four, here's a hundred bucks. Leave me alone. " Go away. $100, you're still making money.

Yeah, your debt, I just totally eradicated me being a problem, okay, you know, so, I mean, it didn't get to that, I was just like, oh, okay, you know, go away, because I'm just going to shove some more in here, but, I mean, they had lobsters that they were selling, I mean, this thing was no joke, so, I mean, they crushed it. They had a lobster tent where you could go get a lobster? You could buy a lobster. With drawn butter?

It was $10 a lobster. Oh, were they big lobsters? They were pretty big lobsters. Originally 15.

Was it just the last day, though? So there were 10. Did they let the kids, like, fish for the lobsters themselves? No, I think you could just buy the lobsters, but they had a Ferris wheel, they had rides, I mean, it was insane, it was awesome, you know?

A regular carnival. Sounds like six flags. Yeah, it was really legit, so, you know, I mean, for one, I'm there for free, I'm helping out, just because, you know, my kid goes to school there. Well, really, you paid to be there.

Yeah, and then, you know, my kid bought tickets and stuff. Oh, did he win a lobster? No, he didn't win a lobster. Did you come home with like in a bag that normally eats goldfish?

He won like little- Did you come home from the church with a lobster in a bag? He won like little spider rings and some- Oh, he had one on today when he showed up? Yeah. Ah, okay.

How many blue fives did you put in there when your son went in the money tank? Just the same amount. Like 30? I kept it even.

I kept it even. He slipped into him as he left his son. Oh, yeah. If the guy brought you over the stack, you just slipped him a stack.

If I want a sandbag, yeah, just give him a whole stack. And with that whole stack, he got two spider rings. You know what I mean? So it's like, okay.

I was like, okay, winning. Winning. Winning. Exactly.

High-five him. So that was fun. Some parents are horrible parents. I can tell you that I definitely met one.

The lady with the palm walls? The lady with the palm walls. Honey. I can tell you that every kid, I mean, I did not stop for two hours.

I did not get a break. Every 15 seconds there was a new kid in there. Every kid had a good time. Well, the word was out.

Every kid had a good time. You were the man giving everything away. And hey, you know, next year, they'll probably stick me in Plinko or something, but... Plinko.

You'll be doing the, uh, crap, here's what it's called, what you call the numbers. The lottery. Bingo? Bingo, yeah, bingo.

G-15, G-15, God loves you 15. It'll be good, you'll be able to use that as tape for your auditions for your voiceovers, right? I'm like, hey, okay, so, yeah, if I did bingo and some little kid came, oh, there was another thing I did, like, if you didn't have two tickets, you were fucking in. " They're running the numbers today, going, "That's Stefan Kiewicz, guys.

" Dude, I'm not gonna tell some little kid. Don't even worry about the ticket, kid. Go on it. I'll go off.

You know, well, yeah, okay, oh, nope, sorry, rules are rules. There's a nun at your house right now with a bill to your wife. That's fine, I'll pay for it. Here's the bill from your husband working the-- $7,000.

That's how many extra $5 bills you're working. That's right, we assumed we lost $7,000. $7,000 worth of spider rings. Father Guido says we lost $7,000.

The Father Guido is a really nice guy, by the way. His name is Father Charlie is a good dude. Father Charlie, sounds like a good dude. Can we have him on the show?

I don't think he'd come on. Sure he would. Just have to clean up the language a little. And don't tell him that Patreon had us as an adult content show for a while.

Bless this podcast, will you? Yes. So. Bless fathers for we have talked in Sydney.

What did you do on the Patreon show that it's adult content? all the content. We got it fixed. We're not anymore.

Misunderstanding. Yeah. It's a small misunderstanding. Yeah, you got to listen.

If you listen, you know what's going on. Oh, would you like to listen to the Patreon show? Don't have to pay for that? No, you just listen to the regular show.

Yeah, we talk about it on the regular show. I mean, I listen to the regular show. I know John listens because I hear him every week when he's working. I listen to the regular show.

You know what's kind of scary for me is like I'm hanging out with some friends and like I'm talking about different principles or point of views that I have that you mentioned on the podcast and then they'll cut me off and finish the sentence before I'm done. " Before we get into the regular stuff, do you want to ask him the five questions? Sure, what the hell? Oh, there's a test?

Let's ask him the five questions and get him the hell out of here. Five questions and get him out of here? Yeah. We're going to put him to work.

He's already on the clock. I'm getting paid while I'm on this podcast. Yeah, he's been on the clock for over an hour. For an hour already.

Oh, look, it's 3:30. Okay, we have five questions. We have the same five questions to everybody who comes on the show. Sure, shoot.

All right, question number one. You can't look at them. Don't look at them. He's been trying to read my notes all week.

This is what I do. Question number one. Name one person living or dead you would like to share a cigar with or smoke anything with. Tupac Shakur.

Oh, little known fact that it's on the radio, Tupac Shakur was arrested in Tennessee over the weekend. What? He's been dead. No, I don't think he's alive.

Well, actually, it was another gentleman with the exact same name. So they think he might have changed his name after Tupac died. But he's about the right age that Tupac would currently be. Wow.

So we have a word for those people in my young, un-millennial culture, a cult chaser, that's what those people are. Can you talk into the microphone? Yeah. Am I not?

Oh, that's better. That's better. Much better. Yeah, he kind of gave up.

Okay, Tupac. Okay, best piece of advice anyone ever gave you, do not say a line from a Tupac song. The best advice anybody ever gave me, ask for forgiveness, not permission. Who told you that?

Greg. Probably my father. Mm-hmm. Okay.

I hate him in the ass a couple of times, but here we are. There you go. Do you have a favorite cigar? Mmm.

My favorite cigar, you know, I might sound a little bit like a Homer when I say this, but it's gotta be the Pistania Habano. Hey! There you go. All right.

You're rehired. You're rehired. What fictional character would you like to share a cigar with? Somebody from, you could say Tupac again, because he could be fictional.

I mean, Tupac. Somebody from a movie. That's a real person. A rap song you've heard.

Fictional character? Graphic novel or comic book? I don't know. That's a good one.

Anime. I don't know what your kids watch or listen to. I don't know, maybe Shrek. Shrek?

Oh, actually, that's a good answer. Wow. And that's kind of funny. Shrek 5 is getting ready to come out next year.

Oh, good. I'm excited. Yes. All right, fifth question.

Do you want to tell people how to get a hold of you? Social media or Facebook? You don't want to give out your club on the... Oh, yeah, go for it.

We give out your number every week on the show anyway, so... Yeah, I do have Instagram. It's Garrett underscore Wasley, G-A-R-R-E-T-T underscore W-A-S-L-E-Y. I'm gonna be on Instagram and on Twitter on both of us, and I'm on Facebook.

I'm not very active, but I am there. All right. All right. Well, Garrett, thank you for coming in.

We appreciate it, Chuck. That's it, you're out of here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you paying me to be on the podcast.

Yeah, it was lovely. That's the least we could do. Duck under the camera and don't snag the wires. I got so upset.

You don't have to duck under the camera. Oh, you just gotta close up. Boom. Earl, close up down on the way in.

See you out there, Slappy. Thanks, Garrett. Don't call him Slappy. He doesn't like it.

Now I'm Slappy. He doesn't like it. He'll have to be on the show again. Make sure you close the door.

So there you go. There's Slappy. We're Slappy, everybody. He's a good kid.

He is a good kid. I like him. Okay, we have industry news. Let's see, we are at 25.

Oh, we got plenty of time. All right, starting October 16th, La Polina, which has already passed. La Polina Cigars will be handling distribution for Room 101, the company behind such as Room 101 Farce, Room 101 Doomslayer, Room 101, The Big Payback. Patrick's going to be so excited he's going to have a reason to come back in here.

Oh, that's right. He's already posted a welcome to Matt Booth in his crowd. Nice. The union will serve as a mutual benefit of both organizations as reflective of our resolve to provide our retail partners with the best service and support possible, Booth said.

While this might be a surprise for many, the partnership will be familiar to those in Texas, the surrounding state, as a year ago, Jerry, how do you say Jerry's last name? Who, Cutrone? Cutrone, thank you. Jerry Coutrone, he was then the La Polina sales representative, he took over the entire down and back LLC portfolio, which include Room 101, Caldwell, and La Barba.

Coutrone left that position earlier this year. So you think it's a good move, bad move, Michael? So is Caldwell going with him? No, Caldwell is not.

He also released a separate statement, wishing Matt and his group a best of luck thing. but they are still handling distribution for the collaboration cigar that the two of them do together. Okay. Caldwell does a Room 101 cigar, I'm guessing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So what's your question? Do you think it's a good move, bad move?

Do you have opinions? I mean, I can just read the news if we're going to do that. I'm going to have Earl just sit on me, and I'm just going to read the news. I don't know, man.

I don't really believe in a Salesforce team, to be honest, to pound the pavement. I mean, my design is totally different. So, I don't, I mean, I learned from the best, in my opinion, and my, you know, and the best has a couple people in an office making a few phone calls and checking in on people, you know, it's hard, it makes things more difficult when you have to pay an entire team, and you force sales on retailers, and I don't know, I don't know, I mean, it should be, hopefully it's good for him, you know, hopefully he'll sell some product, I mean, you know, he's been a name in the industry forever. Right.

You know. Didn't he, a couple years ago, didn't he leave to start making jewelry or something and then came back? I think he always made jewelry. He was with Davidoff, left Davidoff, hooked up, you know, had to do like his, I don't know, maybe he, again, we don't fact check.

Right. We don't fact check. Allegedly. Allegedly had to probably go out of the business for X amount of years and then came back in.

Not compete. Still possesses, still possess the name Room 101. Right. Which is a smart move to hold onto your name.

Well, because he still owned the jewelry aspect of it. Right. I mean, he's a good guy. I mean, I sat down and talked to him.

He's on the list. Did you see him this weekend? No. He wasn't there?

No. He's cool. I mean, Danny Vasquez is, you know, they're romantic together, I think. I've seen the post.

Yeah, it's kind of weird. It's a little weird. His wife even posts. You know, I mean, I've seen Danny in like, you know, like a Powstanie, like a hoodie.

Yeah. Room 101. I don't know. Oh, I've seen that too.

I don't know about all that. We'll see. 's. We're supposed to get extras.

Yeah, we'll see about that. I sold myself out for you, and I'm not getting anything for that? Yeah, I'm probably getting those. Alright, we're going to break again here.

There hasn't been really enough time, but we're going to break, clean up the desk here a little bit, make some more room, get rid of this other microphone. Okay. Alright, be right back. Looking for some show swag?

com/cigarhustlerspodcast. com. Okay, we're back. We're back.

Ooh, that's two breaks. That's gonna be a long show. Double break. We're already at 41 minutes.

We have a lot more news. Part one, part two. Part one, part two. No, it's okay.

Excuse me. You're a mess. I know. It's about to be a new option, Michael, for cigar tourism in the near future.

Oh, yeah? Oscar Valladares has announced that he is finalizing a project that will enable cigar smokers to visit Cigar Smokers a visit to Nali, Honduras to see his operation. How exciting. Dubbed the Cigar & Coffee Safari, the program is slated to begin in February 2020.

Baladari is finishing up the details on a guest house that will be used for the tour. While the company said a formal announcement is still to come, a representative of the company confirmed the plans, and Cigar Journal reports that 14 groups have already made their plans to visit next year. That sounds very exciting. Isn't it?

I mean, it's good to go. It's good to go and kind of get that experience. Well, it's a different country. I mean, everybody's done the, not everybody, but everybody's heard of the Cigar Safari, you know, that Drew Estate does.

Yeah, Honduras is a little different. Right, Honduras is completely different, is what I'm saying. And, let's see, who else does, uh, Perdomo does a big one. They do one a couple of times a year, too.

Yeah. So, there's that. Cool. All right, in FDA news, it's happened over the weekend.

You know, so like, I mean, as far as, look, if you ever want to go on one of these things, I highly recommend that you do, right? At least the first time. If you want to go to Esteli, Nicaragua, go ahead and take a tour. Fuck it.

You know, it's a little more organized. You know, if you never visited, you at least get an idea as to what you're looking at, right? Right. You mean one of the giant organized trips?

Yeah, some shit like that. That's cool. Now, after that, after you had the Disneyland tour, fucking get real. Hook up with some of these dudes, say hey, get maybe two or three buddies together, and then go fucking live it for real.

Get on a plane, figure out how to get to Managua to Esteli, and then go see the real deal of Esteli, Nicaragua. Stay in a local hotel. Yeah, once you've had the foo-foo one, go do the real deal. Or they pick you up at the airport, there's a company bus out there.

Yeah, and once you feel safe, a couple of things. Don't walk around with your cell phone out in the open like a slap dick and stuff like that. Be cautious. Don't leave money hanging around.

Always keep money in your pocket. Common sense stuff. Yeah, simple stuff. But it's different walking around in a foreign country than it is walking around here.

It's just crime of opportunity. It's not like New York. You get rolled in New York for nothing. Right.

You know, especially with the street signs. Because if the people, if you don't get hustled by the people in New York, you'll get hustled. Hussled by the street signs? By the fucking government.

No parking, no standing. It says no standing. Does that mean no parking, too? I didn't know that meant no parking, too.

I was technically sitting, officer. No, that means you were out of here. No waiting, either. You're lucky I don't tow this fucking thing.

I'm like, thanks. Have a great day. He goes home and kicks his dog, I'm gonna tell you that much, fuckin' hates his life. Hates his life.

Miserable. Just taking out on people on the street. Mm-hmm. Okay, anyway.

I hope I paid that ticket. Uh-oh. The cigar industry suffered another defeat in court when Judge Emmett P. S.

District Court of the District of Columbia ruled against the motion for partial summary judgment filed by the Cigar Industry Trade Association to delay the implementation of substantial equivalency, which is scheduled to be enforced. Just May 12th of 2020. So still, they're gonna do it, but they're not gonna tell you how they're gonna do it. Can't wait.

Can't wait till May 12th. Can't wait. It's gonna be fantastic. Substantial equivalency marks a pathway where many cigar companies can keep product on the market introduced after February 15th, 2007, without going through a more costly pre-market approval process.

It involves demonstrating a product that is substantially equivalent to a product commercially marketed before February 15th. Hence the name, I guess. Such bullshit. Products commercially marketed before that date are exempt from FDA regulations, the argument by the cigar industry has been specifics on what this process might actually be.

So they have no idea. So you don't know how to do it. Don't know how to do it, but you have to do it. And you have to do it?

No, no, no, you don't have to do it, but you have to have your paperwork filed. That's the statement FDA is saying. That's complete bullshit. You have to file your paperwork.

Well, what paperwork do we file? The paperwork. The paperwork, yeah. Well, what is that?

Uh, sir, if you'd... That's the paperwork right here. I have a question. You could have dragged it to our 1-800 number.

Yeah, if you'd like to just give this phone number a call. It just rings. 1-800-FDA, slap it. Where nobody fucking answers.

Because we don't know what we're doing. We don't know what they're doing. Can't wait. So some people are still hoping that there'll be some type of reprieve before February 12, 2020, but the clock is ticking.

Well, you gotta keep doing business, right? You gotta keep going. You just assume that the stuff you've done is gonna be correct. Well, you just have to be prepared to the best that you can.

Right. Right. And, um, if the day comes when they say, well, what's in it? You just say tobacco and...

Tobacco and water. That's all that's in it. It's leaves. It's leaves.

Where did you grow it? Dirt. It's a combination of leaves. Just tobacco.

So I would say it's the same. There's a little bit of gum. So if it was, so if it was made before 2007 or made now, I would say it's the same. And what you're doing is stupid and it's not...

Can you test it, sir? And it isn't... Yeah, sure. Here we go.

Tastes the same. And it really isn't fair to... to the smaller companies that are trying to do things better than the older companies that just take advantage of consumers. Right.

So there you go. Not all of them. That is what Michael says is going to happen, so it's got to be true. So there you go.

So it's true. All right, now for our favorite segment of the show. Da-da-da-da. Roma Craft News.

Roma News. Romal Craft Tobac has begun shipping the first size of the newest line of the Baca Bantu. The 4x52 Petit Robusto is the first of the two sizes that are expected to ship this year. Baca uses a Cameroon wrapper over an undisclosed binder and filler.

The name refers to Baku people, a small population of people living in the Cameroon and the surrounding countries. Do you think we could find out what the undisclosed binder is? There's so much thought in all that. It's crazy.

I mean, kudos to that guy. Skip, you're fucking, holy moly. Seven sizes of Baku were shown off at the summer at the IPCPR convention and trade show. RoMa Craft has long planned on releasing two of those sizes this year, although originally the Baku was, see, I can't pronounce these words, Asafaloas?

How do you say that word? Sounds great. I don't know. The 5x56.

Instead, the 4x46, the Pygmy size, will ship next month. Skip Martin, co-founder of RoMa Craft Tobac, told Halfwheel that, Pocky? Pocky? A 5x50 Perfecto, and the Jenga?

Jenga? Sorry, Skip, I'm so sorry. Don't take my computer back, please. Don't take my computer.

5x34x46 will ship early next year. Paco is limited production offering around a thousand boxes of the first two sizes are expected this year. And we're, what, getting 500 out of the pair? Is that what I heard?

Yeah, no, not even close. Danny, I like, what's his drink again? Oh, it gives me wings. Yeah, Red Bull.

Red Bull gives me wings. Now, you're not getting any bangs. Not getting any bangs? Yeah, now they won't send you any.

Oh, I thought you were trying to say Baku, and you said the wrong thing. Good job. All right, we have a show update. That's all I've got left.

Do you have anything else? No, we call in, we call in. Oh, that's right. We should do the call now.

Yeah. Okay. So, we decided to do a... Since we have this new fancy laptop.

I have a new fancy laptop. Okay, the wire's stuck. Pull this wire up. It gives us certain options we didn't have before on the other one.

Oh, I didn't print out my--okay, next episode, Skip. No, this goes to your phone, not mine. Oh, you're not calling them? No, you're calling from there.

I'll do the comparison, because I have it all worked out. Okay. So, we'll do it. So, we're going to start--we are now going to let some of our listeners call in and ask questions.

So, we're going to call the listener--oh, you know what? We should not say who it is next time and just--well, they don't really know, because several people have--well, it'll be fun. We're fun to get them on the phone that way. But you want to make sure they're available.

Well, they all have to be available between 3 and 4 on Tuesday, the 17th. Michael, I don't know what I'm doing here, but you're going to make this harder. I thought you were handling it. Don't you have his phone number?

He messaged the... I can't turn my phone off because it's taping the show. All right. Okay.

It's all right. We'll figure this out. Don't worry. This will go more seamless next time.

Messages. Okay. Man, a couple people called in, let's see. Yeah, so we had a couple people offer.

We're gonna rotate everybody in, try the best we can. Let me write this down. You're gonna have to write it down. Give me just a moment.

Earl, pan around, show the office. Now they're gonna have my number. I figured you'd use your Poshik phone. Hit *69 before you hit it.

No, it's not, it's not working. Yeah, it is, it's coming through. MacBook Pro? Yeah.

No, no, no, yeah, MacBook Pro. No? I heard it ring. Headphones?

Hello? Hello? Hello? Is this Jason?

Yes, yes, it is. There he is. Hello, Jason, you're on the air. Jason Walpert.

Oh, the slep... What's up, brother? What's up, brother? The slaptic champion of the internet.

Yes. Cruising. Oh, now he sounds better. Did you turn him up?

Yeah, I turned him up. Oh, good job. So, where are you at today, Jason? I am at work at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Ooh, that sounds like fun. I didn't know we were calling the military. So, we're going to be in Arizona next week, so you should try and come by. You know what, I was just over there, and that was kind of a pricey trip.

Oh, so then don't do that. Don't do that again. Let's do that again. No, I would love to.

I would love to, but there's a lot going on right now. Can you maybe accommodate a plane and come get us? So, you got a question for us? What's your question?

He had a good question. Yeah, so it seems to be, maybe it's like this all the time, but it seems to be a little hot topic around social media and out there in the industry, it seems like that. People are talking more about what other people think about them. Right.

I know you guys don't give two shits about what people think most of the time. Yeah. So, the thought was, what do you think people really think about you and the company and so forth? I mean, okay, so...

I love the Jack Taranio story that we told last week. Answers this for me. So, here's the thing. To be honest, I don't know what a lot of people think about us.

And, you know, I don't really care. You know, I mean, I know that a couple guys do like us, And they talk to us about it and stuff. I'm sure that we've pissed off a lot of people too, or maybe they don't listen, but the fact of the matter is that it didn't happen right away as far as me not giving a shit about other people, right, or, you know, at least their opinions. So, I think it took some time, you know, I think that there, through this process of me being in the industry, I was confronted with people who I respected and I thought They made flat-out statements that I wasn't qualified, or they would tell me that I sucked at certain things, and I think I took that to heart, and when I took that to heart, in all reality what that did was slow me down, it just made the process of me getting better at everything harder, and until I got to the point where I was like, wait a second, they're not telling me these things because they're better than me.

They're telling me these things because they're not my friends and they're intimidated by me. So, so, fuck those guys, right? And, you know, and at that moving forward, you know, kind of having that habit of not really letting a person's opinion, you know, some of that I obviously don't really care about, affect me, it was always been the way to go, you know, but it doesn't happen overnight, you know? I think that's the crazy part is like, yeah, you're right, it's all over Instagram, everybody's talking about not giving a shit about what other people think, and it's easy to say, it's very easy to say, it's not easy to do, and it takes time, but once you finally get to that point, man, is it liberating, I'll tell you what, yeah, it's a great feeling, it's a great feeling, you got anything to add to that Palmer?

No, we had a pre-show meeting where you and I had a discussion about some things that I handled, I might have handled it in the wrong way. Yeah. It, I don't know, it didn't sting, but I did understand the way you said it, that it could have come off in a bad way, even though it wasn't meant that way. Right, so, yeah, I mean, you know, you can't let those people bother you, but you also have to remember that, you know, there are, if people care about you, legitimately care about you, and they do have an opinion for you, It's only because they want you to get better, right?

Like, I will... I didn't take it negatively from you at all. Right, well, I'm just kind of covering both statements, right? So, 'cause like, I mean, Skip will tell me, fucking flat out, if he thinks I'm doing something wrong, or whatever, right?

Right. And, I don't, I mean, I respect him. He has, he usually has my best interest at heart 100% of the time, right? So, like, if he makes a comment towards me and has an opinion about it, of course I'm gonna respect it, But, you know, as far as outsource people who get upset about some of the things that I have to say, or, you know, if they have a problem with how we do things on the show, I mean, I really don't give a shit about those people, so it's like, okay, well, cool, have a good time, and go enjoy your life.

You know, hey, I wish you the best, but stop trying to shit on me. I mean, that happens to me at the gym. I swear to God, you know, like, if I'm working out, like, oh, well, you're not doing that right, you just need to do this. I'm like, dude, fuck you.

I don't remember asking. Right. You know? So.

Well, you told a story last week that Jack told. He had a conversation with Coop about being on our show, and Coop, who is the king of all this, I guess you could say, at some point. He is, yeah. He's around for a long time.

He gave Jack a hard time for coming on our show so often and says, "What are you doing on that show? Those guys aren't professional. They're just a bunch of jokers. " And then three weeks later, Coop was on the show.

Yeah, then Coop showed up on the show three weeks later. He was like, "Oh, I'm so wrong, Jack. I'm so sorry. They're awesome.

" So yeah, you know, it's just a lot easier that way. If not, you know, if you let everybody's opinion of you kind of harp on you, you're never going to make progress. You're never going to get better, you know? I've heard people always say that, you know, it's not even really a cigar show that they do.

They're not even talking about cigars. We say that all the time. We're a cigar show that does not talk about cigars. And we have more listeners and more viewers than you, so enjoy your life.

So adding to that just a little bit, why do you think it seems to be more prevalent right now in the industry? Why are people, why are so many more people talking about who's worried about who and why? I mean, why does that seem to be sticking out? I think that it's always kind of been prevalent in the industry, especially in the cigar industry.

There's always rumors flying. I think that it might be more transparent to you, maybe because you're more involved with it on social media. I think that it's also, I think that it's kind of been painted more, brought to light, as far as other people's opinions, I mean, you know, you got a lot of these life coaches that talk about it now, not only they talk about it in books, they, you know, they'll do quick videos on social media, and you know, it's kind of, it's definitely more prevalent because of that, so I think that's the main reason for that. But, you know, I also think that everything's kinda up for grabs in this industry right now, you know, I think that some people are scaling back, other people are pushing forward, you know, and it's more viewable now via social media, and because of that, more people have more opinions about other people, like, "Oh, well, fuck those guys," and, you know, "Hey, you know, I don't like what they're doing," like, you see that more now than ever before, because...

It's out there a lot. Right. It exists more. I don't know if it's because we've been doing it so long, but it seems that there's a lot more shows, podcast type things that everybody's wanting somebody to come on and talk about something.

Right. And it's a better show if you can get somebody to say something bad about somebody, I mean. I mean, sure, yeah, I mean, it's definitely more entertaining. Well, it's more entertaining when people are honest.

Right. You know, like, when you have somebody who you're interviewing, and they're giving you, like, your standard bullshit fucking answers. Which we've had. I just want to end the show.

All right, thanks for coming on. Bye. Right, yeah, you surprised me that time you did it. We got done, I was like, what?

Yeah, well, it's over? Yeah, because this isn't a real interview. Right. You know, it's okay to disagree with people, right?

Like, what's wrong with that? Well, that's what's missing so much these days is we're, even as adults, people aren't even able to have a civil conversation about disagreeing opinions. Right. You know, it should be a pretty simple process.

Exactly. If you treat it right. Right. But a lot of people, you know, if you don't agree with them, then, you know, you're off the island.

That seems to be more the norm these days. It's hard to find somebody to actually have a differentiating opinion conversation, you know? But, hey, you know what? That's okay, too, because we've got to get through this shit anyways as a society to get to the other side, so.

Absolutely. Yeah. And it would be a lot easier if everybody could just take a second and try to understand another point of view from someone. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, Jason, we gotta keep this thing going. Thank you for being our first call in, and you had a great question, and you got some great points of view, and we appreciate you coming on. Yeah, always remember your first, Jason.

Thanks for having me on, and you guys keep up the good work. And we'll definitely have to have you on again, man, and thanks again for the goodies. Yes, thanks a lot, Jason. And enjoy your shirt, and your cigar holder, and nice sticker on the parking sign.

Absolutely. All right, Jason. All right. Thanks, bro.

You bet. Bye-bye. There you go. Jason Walker.

In Cali. In California at the Air Force Base. Nice little beta test right there. There you go.

We'll have to have it all at the beginning. We're a little rough on the setup. Okay. We're at one hour, so we're going to do a show update here, and then we're going to get out of here.

Okay. All right. On Player FM, we are number three now, Michael. Oh, Michael.

I don't even know what that is, but that sounds awesome. Player FM is one of the podcast servers that we... I figure. But they're one of the major ones.

Oh. We are number three behind Cigar Dave. He's number one. Somebody mentioned him at the Multivendor.

Did they? Oh, I listen to the Cigar Authority. Oh, that's Dave, General. Oh, but funny you mention them, they are number two.

Number two, yeah. And they're number one on Podbean Stone. We're still after them. I'm coming.

Either that or I'm going on the Cigar Authority. Oh, that's good. Good for you. iHeartRadio, after three weeks, we're still number 55.

We're 55. All right. But that was one of the things that I mentioned when we were talking to Jason. It's hard to believe that there are over 55 cigar-related podcasts.

Well, there's more than that because I highly doubt the worst. Well, there's more afters. No, no, we're not the worst. We're not the worst.

And then on YouTube, we now have 132 subscribers. Hey-o! Up from 125 last week. You know, and...

We had a big push over the weekend, apparently. You know what's kind of funny is like, you really gotta give credit to Skip for that, you know? I mean, if we didn't have the video options, like I can now tie some of those things in, you can crop videos a little bit easier and give them to me in post and like that brings more awareness to it and that wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for your best friend. This is my best friend Skip Martin, my BFF, Skippy.

I call him Skippy. This will be the last week that we do not edit the video with the new equipment just because of time restraints. Right. I'm still learning and the show has to go up tomorrow.

Okay. So this week we will do another show on Friday. Yes. Okay.

What was the look? It'll be interesting. Why? We'll be out of the...

Oh, shit. Yeah, so I'll look... I thought it was going to be tough to do. We'll figure it out.

We'll do the show from the hotel room. There you go. Oh, that'll be a lot of fun. All right, and then the listener of the week this week...

Oh, Jesus. Mr. Dak Knoll from Melbourne, I guess. I don't know if he's Melbourne or Sanford now.

Almost Sanford. Almost Sanford. He's going to be the new manager at the Executive Cigar in Sanford. It sounds like you have a mic right next to that thing.

Doesn't it? I was afraid. I was going to mic it itself. I was afraid it was going to be too far away.

Thank God you didn't because holy shit. The official listener of the week. It's going to scare people. I need a vinyl session.

Listener of the week to go across the tunnel. Bam. But I still need my rollercoaster. Yeah, we'll do that.

All right. All right, everybody. Thank you. This has been episode 92.

Remember on YouTube to subscribe. Hit that subscribe button after you listen. Stay in the know. Stay in the know.

That way you get notifications every time a new show comes up. We'd also like to thank our Patrons of the Patreon. Patrons of the Patreon. Hope you guys are enjoying your secret shows.

I got a lot of feedback from last week's. People like the secret shows. Yes, I was told that we need to be smoking during the review. Like, we can't smoke and then review.

They want the full month. But it's not a video, so we'll just tell them we're smoking. It doesn't matter. Just tell them we're smoking.

No, I'm not going to lie to them. We need to be smoking the one we're reviewing? Yeah. Oh, that's hard to do sometimes.

I think we can do it. I believe in us, we can do it, alright. Alright. Alright.

Would you like to say where we're gonna be this week? Because I don't even know. We're going to be at Owl Ear this Friday, October 25th, right? I think that is the 25th.

October 25th, we're going to be at Owl Ear in Arizona. Come in and say hello. Come see Lenny Schmigel, Lenny approved. Oh, Lenny Schmigel.

Schmigel. And we got a whole onslaught of people. It's me, it's gonna be you, it's gonna be Mr. Matt Hunt, and then of course, The Roe of Roma, Michael Rosales will be there as well.

Bourbon Mike, Bourbon Mike, Tequila Mike, and Mike 2. And then you, and then Matt. And Matt Hunt. The Fashion Sandinista.

The Fashion Sandinista. We'll have to have three Mikes for the podcast. I need a better name. Yeah.

We'll have to work on that. Send your suggestions for my new name to a Cigar Hustler podcast on Facebook. Alright everybody, thank you very much for listening. We appreciate all of you.

Thank you very much. Thanks. All right. Bye.

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 podcast ever again. Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing?

I don't even have to try it. I'm not even going to try it. We're going to cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right.

Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike squared, Mike squared, Mike squared.

Show Notes

We do our first listener call in this week! Turns out he is at Vandenbergh Airforce Base!! Slappy goes on the defense and tries to not be called Slappy. Some industry news, Some of what we have been doing, Mike Too does another podcast!As always we welcome your comments and show suggestion on our FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast". You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike Too @fcc_mike.Please remember to always rate, reply and subscribe on whatever provider you use!Thanks for Listening!