Episode 93 Mikey Gets in a fight...Hunt goes casual....Uneducated Co-host...ACHP a better value for your money!

Episode Summary

Episode 93 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a road-trip recap show with guest Matt Hunt (RoMa Craft Tobac) joining hosts Mike and Mike straight off a red-eye. The bulk of the episode walks account-by-account through their Arizona swing: Embargo Cigars, Fine Ash Cigars (shoutouts to Sam and Rosie, plus a birthday party with a state representative), Big Sticks Fine Cigars and "Tobacco Jesus" Paul, Scallywags Cigars with Chris, an event at Oliva-stocked Owlier Cigars with the infamous Lenny, and Cedar Lounge & Cigars with Mr. Rosales. Along the way: Phoenix traffic, dueling Embassy Suites reviews, the friendliest TSA line in America, a four-foot Punch devil bobblehead, White Castle "sack of pepper" mania, and Matt's late-night six-hour desert drive from LA that ended with him locked out of his brother's Burbank house.

The show's centerpiece conflict is Mike's response to comments made on another podcast (the Bearded Brothers show, hosted by Bradley Wraith with co-host Kevin Shanahan), where the co-host called RoMa Craft "garbage cigars," labeled the brand "next generation Gurkha," and dismissed their swag as a gimmick. Mike defends RoMa Craft and Nica Sueño on construction, flavor profile, and price-to-value, argues sweeping declarations like that are simply uneducated, and explains why the hosts canceled their planned visit with Bradley while acknowledging Bradley himself is a good guy who tried to defend the brand.

The back half tackles retail reality: why limited releases like the Baka arrive in samplers rather than straight boxes, and why loyal customers who build a relationship with their tobacconist get the phone call while coupon-code hunters don't. There's also a Listener of the Week nod to "Dr. Jeff," a lung doctor and serious cigar ager met at the Owlier event, a full rundown of the studio's new custom furniture and upgraded computer setup, a comparison of what other cigar podcasts offer on Patreon versus this show's tiers, Mike's Halloween Horror Nights confrontations at Universal, and a welcome to new listeners in Tunisia.

In This Episode

1. 01
   The Podcast Employee Curse
   Two for two: both shop employees who have appeared on the show quit shortly after, including Garrett from last week's episode.
2. 02
   Arizona Shop Tour: Embargo & Fine Ash
   The crew recaps Embargo Cigars and a hospitable night at Fine Ash with Sam and Rosie, including a private-room birthday party and a state representative's performance.
3. 03
   Big Sticks, Scallywags & Owlier
   Meeting 'Tobacco Jesus' Paul, an NFL argument at Scallywags, and the RoMa Craft event at Owlier Cigars with Lenny.
4. 04
   Listener of the Week: Dr. Jeff
   A pulmonologist and dedicated cigar ager met at the Owlier event who dates and bags his sticks in two shop lockers.
5. 05
   Defending RoMa Craft
   Mike responds at length to another podcast's co-host calling RoMa Craft garbage cigars and 'next generation Gurkha,' breaking down construction, flavor, and value.
6. 06
   The Baka Sampler Debate
   Why hard-to-get releases go out in samplers, why loyal customers get the first call, and why the discount-chasing consumer gets nothing.
7. 07
   Halloween Horror Nights & Universal Altercations
   Mike's Express Pass advice plus two run-ins over smoking cigars on CityWalk.
8. 08
   Studio Upgrades & Patreon Value Check
   New custom desk, a new computer replacing the ancient Apple, and a comparison of what rival cigar podcasts give Patreon subscribers.

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 93 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast. This week, Mikey picks another fight, why is Matt Hunt so casual, uneducated co-host, and the Cigar Hustler Podcast, a better value for your money. We'll see you next time. but you're not the freezer.

The Patreon show was episode nine, and I called it eight, but I called it nine when I put it up. Huh. And here you are. And here we are.

So every week I'll erase that and put a new one up. In all your glory. Got to do what I got to do, Mike. Yep.

I'm a big fan of all the energy that just came up with. He's got to aim his mic towards his mouth. Me? Yeah.

You need to tilt this up just slightly so it tickles your lip. Oh, so just to get it. Just there you go. Oh, there we go.

Straight in. This is nice. All right, we have Matthew Hunt here with us. Hi.

Because he took the trip with us. And we're all wearing fine-ass garb. Fine-ass cigars. So we got hooked up there.

That was pretty cool. Well, we got something first we need to discuss from last week. Yeah, I know, I know. But what I think is awesome is the fact that you're wearing a shirt that you had no idea was 90 by nature.

I have no idea what it says. Nope, I'm very old. It says fine-ass by nature. I'll take that one.

I like that one. Because you don't listen to anything. I don't listen to anything. Good.

Don't you have any Garth Brooks reference shirts or anything over there? He was here. He was here at Sanford. Oh, I know, yeah.

" You missed him? I have friends in low places, but not that low. Okay, so... So first...

He just got sidestreamed. Garrett Wallsley, which was on the show last week... Yeah. he quit right after he was on the show.

Yeah, so... So, there is a curse of the podcast. We're two for two when it comes to employees on the podcast. We've had two employees on the show, and two employees have quit.

And they both quit, so I don't know if we're going to have any more employees on the show. Can't. It's getting to be hard running the shop here with the employees that keep quitting. It's not good.

It's not going to work. It's not good at all. Yeah. So should we talk about the trip?

I'm talking about the trip. Well, we have other shit to address first. Yes, but I have that in a different order. Okay.

I thought we'd talk about the trip first. You're the producer. Did you say hello to Mr. Hunt?

Mr. Hunt, hello. Hello. Hey, how are you?

Oh, you look so happy. Hey, I came into this shop freaking so happy. Yeah. Didn't happen until we clicked that button to get this podcast going.

I got a smile out of this joint. Yeah. Glad to be here. Keep the energy up.

I know. Save it for the podcast. Save it for the podcast. I was telling people when I was out in LA, I was telling this story about how I was having a normal conversation with somebody and Mike goes, no, no, no, no.

Save it for the podcast. Don't tell us now. Is this how we do things now? We can't talk about it.

That's content. Save the content. Yes. Did you go see V-Cut Everything?

Huh? No. He never answered. What?

Is that English? I got it. V-Cut Melrose. Taz.

Taz. Taz. I never saw you. I can't wait to talk about this trip.

What a great trip. So great to be on the road with Mike and Mike again. So much fun. I thought it was good.

It's like traveling with my children. This trip was fantastic. And the reason why that was because we wasted zero time. We went only to accounts that are cool.

And we didn't get kicked in the dick at all, which is nice. Yeah, I'm a big fan of not getting kicked in the dick. Yeah. Big fan of not getting kicked in the dick.

I'll have to add that on, too. I enjoy not being kicked in the dick. Just so we're all in consensus. I mean, we've all had that experience.

" Just going back to the car. I was never here. Yeah. You know.

Curtains from 1970. "Do you have an appointment, son? " They're fucking hating all of us. We just cut into their general hospital time and shit.

That's so poppers are cool. I'm about to watch my stories. Can I help you? Yeah, hey, how are you?

I own some cigars. I got some cigars here to wrap. Okay. Jeez, sit down.

All right, I'm going to leave. I'm not smoking it now. Oh, you can leave it by the register. Oh, no, I thought I would actually smoke them here with you.

Oh, jeez, you're one of those. Okay, well, this is good. So I'm going to leave now? Yeah.

So yeah, so instead of doing any of that, we just went to our key accounts. It was awesome. Loved every minute of it. Yes.

First place we went? Were you gonna name wherever we went? Yeah, sure. Okay, we went to Embargo Cigars.

Embargo. Embargo. Great spot. Now with David and Alchemy.

Yep. I liked that. " Yeah. Yeah, so that was pretty funny.

Embargo. That was fun. I think I missed it. Where'd we go after Embargo?

We then went to Fine Ash. Yeah, we went to Fine Ash. Oh, that was that first day. We got in late.

We just did the two that day, that's right. Well, and then the traffic, that happened after Embargo. What happened was. Oh my gosh.

That's something I even put in my notes. I'm like, let's talk about that. Let's talk about how one road to get anywhere and not making it through a single red light. I think it's apparent.

I think it's like there's a downtown area that they have and we were smacked out. Oh my gosh. They're down there. We went through Old Town.

The worst. So we just watched the lights change. Oh my gosh, this is nice. This is nice.

It's green, no one's moving. And it's green again. We were in separate cars, and we kept going, did you pass the Pete Seafood yet? No.

Well, I was in a great mood when we left Embargo, and then by the time we got to finance, I was like, okay. Hey, but you know what, Sam and Rosie, they rallied hard. They did, they rallied. Super hospitable, awesome people.

Very nice, up-class job. Well, and it's always nice, always nice when you come in and they say like, it's like, I'm not necessarily super buddy buddy, but then they took it, like took me in and I felt like I was part of the team, part of the whole group. Oh, you gave a great big old hug. Yeah, big hug and then, and then invited to a little birthday celebration in the private room and we had a state representative that gave us a song and dance.

Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez. He didn't dance, he sang.

No, I was dancing. Yeah, you were? Yeah, I was. That was the dancing part.

You were behind me, so I didn't notice. I was. You didn't feel my hands on your shoulders? Well, yeah, but that's normal.

That's normal. Just let that go. Yeah, that was awesome. And the shop is gorgeous.

And we went to dinner, and they invited us to stay at their house. I mean, you know. They couldn't be any nicer. Yeah.

Yeah, it was pretty amazing. And then, you know, Rosie makes sure that you have to have a drink. If you're not having a drink, then if your drinks water is on, you're getting another drink. You're getting another drink.

But she did let in, she actually let us sign on the little secret about, she gives the people who don't want to necessarily be bothered constantly, get a styrofoam cup, so I can't see it. Oh, that's right. That way she knows that the ice is not watering down. That's nicely.

She has a solid, they have a solid drink. Yeah, here, I'll leave you alone, you get this. Make sure that frickin' cup doesn't have water in it. There you go.

So, I mean, yeah, they were, they're, yeah, they're pretty fuckin' cool people. Yeah, they're great. You know. And then they gave us outfits to wear.

It's nice to see you outside of a suit. Look at you. Yeah. I thought you might have it over your shirt.

I see this on sometimes. I figured you'd be wearing, you know, like a, at least a jacket over it. No, no, I don't do that, this, I wouldn't, like, this is a nice shirt, I like this shirt. It is a nice shirt, they fit very well.

Next level, very soft, very nice shirts. I mean, my, my sleeves aren't as tight as Mike's, but. That's okay, you'll get there one day. I don't even know if I can get there one day.

I believe in you. One day I'll hit puberty, it's a little, just, you have to shave, and your voice... It's all that cardio, it's all that orange theory rowing, you know. Oh, it is.

It's the rowing, the bike. It is the damn rowing. It's not eating enough. So this is just anorexia, it's a serious thing, and I love how open they were to answer questions, 'cause you guys know I love a good question.

I didn't know that about you. I love a good question. It's so weird. And it was awesome, 'cause I mean, Sam was just-- Can we go to the video where he interviewed Cesar Chavez?

State Representative Cesar Chavez. Cut to that right now. Yeah, exactly. No, but it was just awesome just to get to know him, and I mean, such a cool story, just going from, 'cause even you had told me, Like, oh, he's one of the OG guys from Facebook and kind of went from a not so sure shop that was much smaller than what he's got now to taking the plunge and getting this great space.

Yeah. I mean, he's done a great job on social media. You know, I mean, shit, we were in Tallahassee and we saw his t-shirts, you know, I mean, that's impressive from at another shop. That means that, you know, he's put in the work.

So, yeah, kudos to Sam and to Rosie. They're pretty badass. Hey, Rosie, please stop trying to find that video for us. We believe you.

You can stop sending messages. No, no, I'm not. She's tried twice today on Facebook to send us the video of what was his name? Oh, R.

Kelly. Of R. Kelly singing. She's still trying to find that and send it to us.

It keeps coming up like content unavailable. That's my favorite thing ever. I promise. He was here.

He was here. We believe you. It's fine. I mean, I saw pictures.

I'm skeptical. I don't believe. She did put a photo up now, so. Yeah, so it did happen.

And then we went back. Over the railroad tracks? Yeah. To find our hotel, right?

Yeah. That was nice. That was the first time we did the triple bunk situation. Yeah, the triple bunk.

Oh, the triple bunk. That's right. Triple bunker. I had to find a hotel with a couch.

Second night? Not as nice. Not as nice? Nope.

That's unfortunate. Yeah, it was also Embassy Suites. Another Embassy Suites, but an extremely older Embassy Suites. I'm just waiting on the email to come in for the review, because I'm like, yeah, we had no water pressure.

The fucking curtains were a mess in the shower. The front rod was bent in the shower, so if you stretch it out, it would slide to the middle. Stretch it back out, slide to the middle. We didn't notice the camera in the corner, that's a good angle.

There was no TV, the TV didn't work. Oh, yeah. The one in the bedroom, the one in the- It had a big radio then. Yeah, that was it.

I'll tell you what though, the omelette guys in that place, they were not fucking around. Really? Oh my god, there was a couple of machines. You want a western?

No, I just wanted cheese. No, you want a western? Oh, Jesus. A couple of short order cooks with a big griddle.

Everything was hammered out. Just like, bam, bam, bam, bam. I was like, holy shit. Yeah, that was hysterical.

That was pretty serious. Everything was fast. That's how, you know, I was like, oh my God. Everybody's ordering omelets and I threw in two eggs over easy just to see if I could mess them up.

No, Western omelets. There you go. You know, it's just like. Potatoes.

You want potatoes? Everything comes with potatoes. I don't know what they're paying them, but it's not enough. Not enough.

It's not enough. He did adjust that dip jar a few times. We're waiting in line. Yeah.

I didn't see. Was it an adjustment or was it a jingle? He's like, Mike's like, man, it's fine how it is. What are you talking about, sir?

I'm trying to get you. But it was nice to – I think it was fun to have all the different personalities on the road trip this time. Oh, yeah, it's always fun. It's always fun.

You know, you got the best of Mike. I got the worst of Mike. You know, he was a rollercoaster in motion a couple times. He was happy and then he was super angry.

Oh, hold on. Can we also talk about how upset you guys were that first morning When we went to Walgreens and there was no bang, you got something else, and you're like, "I'm just gonna throw it out the window. I don't like this one. " It's true.

Don't photo. Don't take my picture with it. Get me baby wipes and bang. Yeah, well, listen, you know, you gotta, you gotta do what you gotta do.

You gotta take care of the rental car. There's priorities you have to have. You have to eliminate the evidence. So, gotta be professional.

No ash anywhere. Ooh, that car was cleaner when we brought it back. Oh, my God, yeah. They just drove in and said, "You know what?

We're just gonna park it. " This one's good. Next? Yeah, next.

Yeah, this one's totally clean. Nothing happened in this car at all. It smells so nice and clean. It smells so fresh.

Like baby wipes and Oseum in there. Oseum, baby. Oseum. Works wonders.

This podcast is brought to you by Oseum. Oseum. Oseum and baby wipes. So where we go the next day, Michael?

Next day. Are we moving on through the trip? Moving on, we went to, where'd we go first? We went to Big Sticks first.

We did. We saw Tobacco Jesus, Paul. Oh, is he known as Tobacco Jesus? He's known as Tobacco Jesus.

Does he not see? I saw the long hair. He's got a long hair. Oh, no, I meant, did you see him walking on water?

Oh, no. Oh, no. I didn't see him. When we came in the door, he came down from the cross.

It was amazing. Smoking a cigar. Hey, what's up, guys? Hey, how you doing?

I'll tell you what, we've got some good shelf placement in that place. Yeah. Well, and also great at answering questions as well. He's been in this game for a minute.

Yeah. Longer than I've been alive. I know. Well, I love that he directed that to you, and not to me.

I was like, ah, that's because I've been, I've seen some stuff. I've been around the block a few times. I've been around a little bit, you know. Yeah, that's a pretty badass store, too.

It's huge. Huge. Dude, we had all the good shops. Yeah.

It was nice. Yeah, it was very, very cool. Yeah. And then we also, you found out that you wanted to get a four-foot bobblehead.

I didn't know that was someone that was missing at your house. The punch. The devil punch. The devil punch bobblehead.

That's a great Halloween decoration. If that were to arrive here, it would not be, it would be gone. It would be gone. It wouldn't stay in the shop.

I would definitely use that for Halloween. Well, he's got a new one on the way. Maybe you can cut a deal. I so might.

You can just put it in the carry-on. Just check him as another person. I don't know. Maybe I pressed Justin for it or something.

In the Arizona airport. I think we could have got through with it. Oh, man. What a great experience.

That is the best airport. The greatest airport in the world. We had no line. We walked right through.

We talked with all the TSA people. It was amazing. They were just shooting his shit, cracking jokes with them. " The young lady made a comment about his muscles!

" Yeah. That's awesome. " You can tell. It's working.

It's working. It's working. " It's working. It's a little warm in here.

" It was cool. And then after Big Sticks? Yeah, after Big Sticks. Scallywags.

Scallywags. Scallywags, Scallywags. It was nice, a full shop as soon as we walked in. Right behind the second most photographed landmark in Arizona.

Oh, that's, I mean, Mike is really, really... I'm really upset we did not take a picture of the horse. He's very excited about that picture, and he's upset that it didn't happen. We didn't take a picture in front of the horse.

I was so close to -- well, I mean, it's not an us picture, but I did take a picture of -- Oh, disappear. Well, no, I took a picture of an AFQ cigar with Scallywag. I did see that. And I was like, why didn't I just go over to the left a little bit?

Like, the second most photographed thing. Right there. That's a really nice sign. Big fan.

Big fan on the side. So, you know, what was really -- what was fun for me is my interjecting into the NFL discussion across from us. I thought you were going to pick a fight. Me too.

I thought that there was going to be something about to go down. You're like, who? What? I mean, because look.

Cheaters. What'd you say about the Patriots? I will end you. No, that's not how it went.

You know, usually when somebody says they're cheaters, I'm like, yep, they suck. You have six rings later. That was the line. Six rings.

Six rings. But the guy was a Cowboys fan, and he's going, oh, well, you know, the Patriots have it easy because the AFC East is fucking weak, and, you know, there's no hard teams in the AFC East. " And like, we're not even, I'm not even part of this conversation. Also, we're in a separate corner of the room.

Yeah. Other side of the room. Let me paint the picture. First off, it feels like you're in a fight, like- Get close to the mic.

Like a fight night circle. Well, see, I'm backed away because I'm a very loud person. Yeah, you're very empty. The fight night circle situation where the room is just boarded with chairs.

Right. We are in this corner. Right. Say, where I'm at.

Uh-huh. Ten feet away are these gentlemen speaking about their NFL talk. Yeah. Just to each other.

" That is not what's happening today. " And he's like, duh, and the entire fucking place starts erupting laughing because obviously the guy, you know, he's probably there every single day. Yeah, runs his mouth about the Cowboys. Yeah, you know, which I'm totally fine with.

You could say that. You could say your team's the best. I don't give a shit. Mike's fine with it.

You can tell he's fine with it. I'm not, I'm not fine with anybody saying, well, you know, the Patriots go to Jeezy. Who'd they play? And I was like, I don't know, fucking eight NFL teams so far.

They've, they've played and they've beat. So, you know, that counts for something. Also, can we talk about how that was the first shop I've ever been to that every TV had ladies golf going on? That was nice.

That was nice. Yeah. I love the nice slow swings and everybody was kind of like, it was nice. I'm glad you noticed that.

No, it was funny because one of my favorite things was walking into that humidor, the whole Scaliwax theme. I was like, did you put these planks in here? It sounds like a pirate ship in here. And he's like, no, it's just coincidence.

I was like, I hope he doesn't actually think that my dumb ass was like, wait, am I on a ride? Is this Pirates of the Caribbean? Did you do this? Yo-ho-ho-ho.

Because he's like, no. I was like, I know, Chris. I know that. Now, but wait.

I got to digress back to my argument. I did before we left. Nope. We're never going to be done with this.

Before we left, I did give him a cigar. You did. I said, hey, listen. You did.

This is for you. Also, you gave him to the Patriot fan. So I went out. There's three people on that side.

One was an employee. I said, this is for you because you work here. The guy in the middle is a Cowboys fan. I said, this is for you because you're a Cowboys fan.

" Because you're a winner. Because you're a winner. You're a winner. And we made our way out, and we made everybody laugh when we were leaving.

And nobody died. Yeah, nobody died. " Well, no, did you notice how none of us actually looked back? We walked face, face, face, door.

Not worrying about the other half of the room. Hey, I wasn't going to duel them out to everybody. No, of course not. Now, if any of those people spoke up and said something...

Patriots, I love 'em. Yeah, or, you know, teed back at the guy, the Cowboys fan who wanted to fucking chime in on the pads. Which you should have done and thrown a couple just in the middle of the room as we like. To the death, gentlemen.

To the death. Well, it's so funny that another big topic of conversation in that joint was the new, well, the only and the new White Castle. Oh, yeah. That was a big deal.

Big deal, apparently, in Arizona. Four-hour wait. Four-hour wait. Why?

And then I heard about the sack and pepper. I don't even know what that is. You didn't hear? Oh, no.

See, I'm big on the… You know, they talked about that at Owler, too. Did they? Yeah, they were big on the sack and pepper, which apparently is like 30 of those things, and then a Dr. Pepper.

" Oh, it's a thing. It's a thing. It's kind of a thing now. " There you go.

Would you like some Tums with that? Yeah, would you like to have… Here's this pink liquid. Here, take this, and this is a coupon for a treadmill. Yeah.

Here's our cardiologist. Here's his card. You want to go see him check that? This is a Sack of Pepper sponsored by a doctor.

Yeah, here, eat those and go see this guy and we'll let you know if you're going to survive. 30 of them, holy crap. 30 of them, yeah. Eh, I could be exaggerating, who knows.

Yeah. I don't do that. A Sack of Pepper. We don't factor.

Sack of Pepper. Sack of Pepper. So, and then afterwards, we actually ended up going to lunch with Chris, which is lovely. Yep, Barrio's Queens or something like that.

Queen Barrio, yeah. No, it was Barrio's Queens. Yeah, Barrio. Very good Mexican food.

Barrio Queen. Barrio Queen. Yeah, it was great. It was delicious.

I'm not a big corn tortilla fan. They had solid corn tortillas. I'm not either, but those were actually very good. Those were solid.

Also, I- That's quite the review of the trip. It's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, I want people to know. A lot of stuff happens.

Every one. I mean, Chris is awesome, too. It's great to be able to have lunch with him and kind of- Good guy. Yeah, just like see- So you could ask him more questions.

Oh, absolutely, because I really didn't get a lot of FaceTime, so I wanted to get real close and talk to him. No, no. Do you need to get that? It keeps going on.

No, it's okay. Don't worry. 92-year-old great aunt. She's surviving.

She's good. Thriving. Maybe this is her last call. No, definitely.

Believe me, it's not, because I spoke to her this morning, and I'm sure I'll speak to her again. She's totally fine. Okay, and then after? Hola, senor Matt.

Como esta? Why is my grandmother Mexican? I don't know. We went to Arizona.

He thinks that every Hispanic is Mexican. Everybody is now. Super aggressive. He's very racist.

He is. Hey, hey. Relax there. All right, then?

Then we went to Owlier, we had the event at Owlier Cigars. It was awesome. I'm so glad I left with another t-shirt and some stickers. Yeah, and a button.

The stickers I got to put up on our no parking side. So the Lenny shirt is going to make its debut at the next podcast. Oh, it's cool, so I'm pencil in for the next one. Lenny approved.

Do you want to show up? That door is always open to you, bud. Just call first. Well, we have to set up the tables.

Oh, we have not mentioned the new furniture. He's a manager. Yeah, I was just waiting. You told me that we weren't allowed to talk.

How do we just maul, wait a second. We can't just maul over the entire hour. No, no, no. We'll get back to it.

It just means he needs to call because I have to set up the end. I wish that people could call in, like it would be like a live thing so they could be like, "Why are you guys so little? " We're all midgets. This is nice.

This is good. This is... Oh, great. Now he's dead.

You killed my producer. So you will be here next week as you have to run all this. You gotta run the board. Yeah.

I'll show you quickly how it works. This is nice though. It's lovely, yeah. Beautiful.

A lot better than the other stuff we have. Greg. Designer? Is it a designer?

It's custom. Told Greg what we wanted, and he built it. And he made it two inches taller than we asked for, so it worked out great. Yeah, it's amazing.

He said we need it this high, and he goes, that doesn't work for me. Yeah, I can't do that. We can't do that. So, now we're not gonna pay him.

Oh, cool. That was the deal. He does that. Yeah, that's fine.

Anyway, the event at Owler. Yes, so Lenny is definitely, I always say that Lenny is my kind of lunatic, and now you guys got to experience it and understand exactly what I'm talking about. Now, we can't talk too much about the story, because you guys got to pay for that, because that's part of the shoot. Chase the Patreon this week.

Well, you know, I mean, I think some of those stories are a little off color, and, you know, I mean, we have to keep our broken ribs are involved and all kinds of other things. Yeah, some explosions, some, you know. So, you know, if we're going to say those stories. Missing fingers, possible loss of a hand.

I like that. There's a lot that happened. Things that may incriminate him, they belong on a private. Could be used in court maybe at a later date.

On a private section. But we have a nice whole interview with Mr. Schmigo. We do?

Yeah. That will be on the Patreon this week. Yes. What a stud.

What a guy. Good guy. And now he's a dad. I know, dad.

I've seen him being a dad. You're a baby. Well, it's so funny. I hope the traditions carry on from here.

It's going to be amazing. Yeah. Do you have a son or a daughter? Daughter.

Daughter. Oh, that would be even better. Oh, yeah. Even better.

Do you want to know when he did this? You know what I did to daddy when I was five? What's amazing, though, is to see, like, okay, so you have him, like, one-on-one, you get to know him a little bit, blah, blah, blah. But then, to see how he interacts with customers, it's pretty cool.

Oh, it's like a switch. That is his jam. A switch goes off. Yeah, he's just like, that is his jam, and he knows what he's talking about.

I mean, great tobacconist, and it's awesome to know that you have your cigars in the store just because you know that he's taking care of it. He's a good dude, yeah. I mean, wow, you know, yeah, you're absolutely right. When he would approach customers, it was like a flip of a switch, you know, just there to help, and, you know, he knew everybody.

Yeah. Well, that's the cool thing, just because, like, that's not necessarily, like, your typical cigar shop. I don't know if you have ever talked about Owler before, but, I mean, I don't know if you want to touch on that a little bit, because even me, we're touching it. Even like when I had come in, like I was kind of surprised at what we were walking into.

First off, we went to the first place, and... It was literally a convenience store. " And then they walked in behind me. " So then we ended up finally getting to the spot, and yeah, you walk in, and it looks like a discount Tobacco Depot type situation, but then...

Yeah, it looked like a convenience store. It looks like a convenience store. Yeah, it looks like a convenience store, but then... Then you pop that door and there's that big, beautiful lounge back there with the TVs in it and a leather chest.

Very well titled, Cigar Humidor, Cigar Lounge. Apparently, he's had issues in the past. There was no confusion between the two. Was there a humidor?

Oh, I should have gone with the two and a half foot letters. Wow. I didn't even see those words. There's a place I can sit down, the other two and a half foot worth of words.

Yeah, it's only missed that. Oh, wow. Well, and of course, it was beautiful to go see Mr. Roe.

The Roe. The Roe of Rome of Crafts. Yes. I felt pretty good about that segue.

I like that we all walked in, and I'm going to bring this up, because it's fucking hilarious, and Mr. " Talk to me. " He was like, "Oh, yeah, I told him that. I wouldn't take you.

He wouldn't let you come in unless you came with him. I was like, "You thought I was his attorney. " It's fine. It's fine.

I get that all the time. I do get it. But the event was awesome. He's got some great customers.

The doc. It was cool. I mean, obviously- Should we go ahead and hit him for Listener of the Week? Yeah, he's gonna be our Listener of the Week.

Oh, look at that. Are we gonna have like 10 seconds of silence? Are we gonna start meditating? I don't know.

Was it Dr. Jeff? Yep. Dr.

Jeff. His Listener of the Week. I love that. I just went with the doc.

I loved it. " That's what we're gonna keep it as. So, yeah. We didn't catch his last name.

Well, it was great to be able to... Matt had questions for him, too, about his health. Yeah, well, not so necessarily about his health. Are cigars bad for me?

Well, that was kind of the thing. " That's really what I wanted from him. Hey, take a look at this. He was a...

He was a respiratory-type doctor. Yeah, he's a lung doctor. And he's like, I've cut, he's like, he actually said, I cut open a lot of people, like cigarette smokers and stuff. Yeah, smoking has made a lot of money for me, but not this type of smoking.

Yeah, never this type of smoking. And it was, and very cool, because I mean, the guy, he'd only started smoking like three, four years ago. And he's just, now he's, he's in a knee deep. Two lockers in there.

Yeah, two lockers. Aging stuff. Yeah, he writes the dates and all the bags. " I was like, yeah, like three years on.

I was like, okay. So that's a certain kind of smoker. Love that. He's a professional.

He is a professional. What a nice guy. And it was cool to be able to go, but it was also, no, no, because I wanted to get back to what I was going to say, is that obviously Mike goes into places, crowd goes wild. Yeah, yeah.

It is nice. It is nice to go into a place. And it was cool, especially like all the way across the country that he's like, oh, I didn't think that it was first to meet that. He's like, oh, you have a very familiar face.

And he looked at Mike, he's like, you have a very familiar face. " So it's actually this, the podcast. The podcast, he was a fan of the podcast. Very excited.

Love that. Love that. Comes a light. I got reprimanded.

Did you see where I did my Pellegrino last time? I did it over here because I didn't want to get it. Alright, we got one more shop. We got to talk fast because we had two minutes and we got to go break.

And then we got rid of Mr. Hunt for the evening and we went to Cedar. Cedar Lounge and Cigars with Mr. Rosales, very upscale, very nice place, we had a romantic evening around the fire pit.

Yeah, we shot the shit. Discussing life and all kinds of my complicated family problems. And then three women came over and asked if they could sit with us. Oh, yes.

Did you notice their husbands came over very fast after that? You make it sound like... No, no, they just wanted the heat from the fireplace. And how old were they?

Is that the heat that they wanted? Is that what they wanted? Oh, they were probably my age. Yeah.

Maybe a little older. Maybe a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, they weren't.

But that's the same guy who came by looking for the phone when we first got there. Yeah, super angry. Super angry. Mike offers to call.

" "No, it's fine. " But apparently that's where all the bougie people hang out. Yes. And that's when I left, huh?

Yep, you missed it. Yep, you went to drive back to Los Angeles. Also, I don't know if we'll quite tell a little story about my drive back. About your lonely drive back?

All right, let's go to break and then we'll get his drive-back story when we come back. I didn't really want to talk about it anyways. Good. When we come back, okay, hold on, we'll be right back.

Bye. Want to become part of the show? com, search for a Cigar Hustlers podcast, and pick which tier works best for your budget. Thanks, we appreciate the support.

Okay, we're back. Hi. We're back. Okay, I'm Mr...

Okay, after we sat there all by ourselves. Yeah. Yes. And then you left, you had a story about driving back.

I did. Tell us your story. Tell us your story. A.

a little bit early because I figured I was going to spend some money. I may as well go see some family while I'm out there. A. and then I made the six-hour drive down to Phoenix.

Very easy. It felt like I was driving on Mars. Yeah, it does. 30.

Yeah. Six-hour drive. Uh-huh. Not the best.

Right. How dark is the dark? Oh, my God. Pitch black.

Like nothingness. No lights. Nothingness. There's nothing.

How did you know you were on the road? Did you ever-- No, you fell off a couple of times. It was flat. It was flat, Michael.

I mean, if the road all of a sudden turned and you weren't looking. What am I doing? I'm covering my eyes? No, I'm looking at the road.

It's a red door. Actually, no, I learned my lesson about smoking. Looking at porn on your phone in the desert. No, I learned my lesson about smoking, even having just a little bit of the window down, literally the most chapped lips I've ever had in my entire life.

That's right. Sweet Jesus. That video you sent me with. They were nice.

They were nice red. And it's so funny because then, you put a little Vaseline, people are like, yeah, lipstick on, just like a little bit of pop of color, come on. Red pocket square, red lips, come on, you get it. And so, I made the drive, of course I had to stop for gas, because gas in Arizona is like $3 less than it is in California, did you like all that kind of things?

I make my own, because I don't know what's going on over here. And then I ended up getting my cold brew, which was garbage at Starbucks because they, I guess in Arizona, they don't, they have to cut it with water, stupid. It has sand in it. Yeah, that's what it is, the grounds.

And then I got some in and out. You know, just like I had to get that before I went. Yeah, you lived that. And then literally, that was a terrible joke.

You got a sack of pepper? Because I didn't get a sack of pepper. You should have got a bang. You should have got a bang.

45 minutes in, I thought I was going to be in a coma. I had to stop and I slept for like 10, 20 minutes. And I was on my way. But I get to LA, right?

uh-huh get to my brother's house uh-huh and he calls me at like 1 30 in the morning like oh hey like are you good blah blah like i'll leave a key on the door or whatever okay so i get there man i'm tired and i go up to the back door oh hey there's the key go to put the key in oh he's at the wrong house no the key doesn't fit and i'm like okay i know that everybody has wonky wonky locks and stuff so i'm like maybe the top one no okay how about the bottom one still no okay So I'm like, why would my brother give me the key to the front door when it's so much closer to him and like the baby's room, the whole thing? So I go up to the front, still doesn't work, and I'm just like, if anybody's watching this, at 2:30 in the morning, me going around in a Burbank neighborhood, what the heck is going on here? And so I feel bad, so I'm just texting him, I text him 10 times, so I'm not gonna call him because they have the kids and blah, blah, blah. By the grace of God, my little nephew, before he went to sleep, went out the sliding glass door and the sliding glass door was open.

Because otherwise, I would have just been chillin', chillin', no I know, well I mean, but I was so happy, and then my brother like woke up, and then it was my sister-in-law's key to her office or something, and I was like, oh good, thanks Joe, and I was like, in case you get a call from any of your neighbors about a large man in a, in a cufflinks trying to break into the back door, you know who it was, there you go, there's my story, that was it, that's amazing, that's amazing, all the hunts are a mess, except Gary, Gary's got his stuff together, yeah. That's nice, that's nice. Congratulations, Gary, on your fourth child. What a good guy.

I was talking about your dad. , good guys, those hon boys. Yeah. All right, sorry.

Okay, moving on? We moving on? Sure. Okay, so that wraps up the trip.

Anybody, any more last-minute... Well, before the trip, I went to Halloween Horror Nights, and we haven't talked about that. Oh, no, we didn't. Because there's some good shit that happened there.

Oh, well, please. Hold on, let me check his notes from the trip. Is that okay? No, this is more important.

Okay, go ahead. Okay, so first of all, I highly suggest always taking the Express Pass. If you don't take the Express Pass when you do the Halloween Horror Nights, it's a complete fucking waste of time. Can anybody get the Express Pass?

Yeah, it's an extra $150. Oh, is he going to pay for the Express Pass? It's worth every penny. You just walk right on.

Wow. Yeah, it was fucking amazing. So what's it cost to get in? I know you had passes, so did it cost you anything?

No, it comes with my season pass. It's going to be season pass. Okay, so if you don't have season passes, what's it cost? It's like a hundred bucks.

So a hundred bucks, so then another 150 get in, so you're 250 and you're not waiting in line? Yeah, life is good. Yeah, I guess that's worth it. Yeah.

So we hit everything. We were done, you know. Was this you and Britt? No, Britt didn't go because she's very pregnant and she gets super scared of those things.

Oh yeah, so bad news. I don't like them. I'd never go. So she can't get shit-faced.

She can't get shit-faced and, you know, well, not shit-faced, but you can't drink. Dude, I will tell you this, those fucking haunted houses, those guys are so dialed in, I have never ever had, I go every year, I've never had somebody come so close to my face in every single haunted house. How do you not punch them? Okay, let me tell you, so funny, Gary Hunt Jr.

hates Halloween Horror Nights, I don't even know if he's allowed back because he's had some incidents there where getting so close to him, like knee-jerk reaction - You should just grab somebody and... - Yeah, that's all right. - Sorry, you can't grab the... you can't grab the employees.

- Okay, jump to your face? - Yeah. I mean, I don't know, you kind of go in with... you have to kind of...

like, I talk myself down and just kind of... - Don't kill anybody. - Not moving. - Would you get scared of those kind of things?

- No. - Okay. " - You almost touched me. " - Yeah.

- I mean, holy shit. - Here's a tic-tac. - Yeah, you need this. - Damn.

So, um, there's a, there's one scene, it's like, they had like this Universal Monsters Haunted House, so we're walking in and, uh, you guys ever seen Young Frankenstein? Yes. " So, this guy got, uh, wrong movie. " Oh wait, the guy, the guy from Howling Horror Nights got butthurt about that?

Yeah. Okay. Come on, pal. He helped me clarify that he wasn't Igor, I'm like, okay, okay, we get it, yeah, and then I had one guy, like there's a Facebook thing, like there's like a graveyard thing, and this guy had like a spray can before he walks in, and he hits you with it, and he's like, he's like, how do I say it, he's like the cool kid or whatever the fuck, and he's like, oh, you're a dork, you know, like he's saying that to me, I'm like, okay, I'm like, I almost punched that guy.

Yeah. Just, just, just out of, not even because I was afraid, just that I hated his guys. Yeah, just because he just made me, he aggravated me to a point where I was like, oh man, but he's in character. Yeah, you succeeded, I hate your character.

This is not good. So, um, uh, one of my friends, my old school friends was with us, her name, we call her Animal. We call her Animal for a reason. " And he had nothing to say back to that.

" Oh, man. Wow. I mean, you just shut him the fuck down, which is pretty cool. Just hitting his integrity, hitting him really, really weird.

Yeah, right there. Yeah, he was just like, you could tell that he was just totally shook. Just shook. You know, just like a blank stare.

Man, do you work here? He's like, we're employees. We're together on the pier. Yeah, that was pretty intense.

Yeah, Animal is, yeah, she's not one to, you don't want to mess with her. And then, okay, so as I'm leaving, you know, obviously, you know, I'm well-versed in the universal experience, so as soon as I'm leaving, I bust open my Intemperance BA intrigue, and I start walking through City Walk, and all of a sudden I hear this shouting from behind me, and it's, um, it's, uh... She heard us talk about the girls, didn't she? She heard us on the break.

She did, she heard. She's tapped into the camera. She's Facebook. Hey.

To make sure she's not going into labor. I know. This damn podcast, is everything okay? No, I'm okay.

I love you, bye. Okay, that was Brittany, everybody. That was Brittany. She used to do the show before she was pregnant.

Well, you know, when you double call in, you gotta answer. When there's two rings, you're like, okay. So, all of a sudden, I hear this shouting from behind me. Put that cigarette out!

Put that cigarette out! I look back, and it's... It's still having a hornet. And it is Honey Boo Boo's mom, you know, pre-weight loss.

Pre-lap man? Oh, man. So she looks at me and she goes, what's that horrible smell? And I turn around and I say to her, it's you.

I said, it's probably because you haven't bathed successfully in a long time. Ooh, she got super angry. So then. Security.

Wait, she didn't like that? No. You're right. She didn't just laugh.

Oh, you got me. High five. High five. You got me.

So she waddled over to security, and I was like, go ahead, go tell 'em. So she goes and tells security. He said I smell bad. They're smoking cigarettes.

Okay, well, first of all, we're smoking cigars. So that goes to show you how fucking intelligent this person is. And he's like, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you, but also you smell bad.

Did you step in something? Did you step in something? Did they throw something on you? Have you gotten under all those rolls, or what?

Did he throw something on you? Sorry, that's Mike Palmer's joke? I just don't know if he said it loud enough. So, um, yeah, so it was, uh, it was pretty, uh...

I don't talk to him right now, man. It was, it was nice, it was a good... Sir, you threw shit on this woman. Yeah.

She smells terrible. So, uh, really upset her. It was, um, you know... The best of times, the worst of times.

It's kind of amazing to me, it's like, you know, you obviously haven't taken care of yourself in a really, really long time, right? Like, you gave up on life 20 fucking plus years ago, you know, with the first tub of ice cream, right? And here you are, fucking chiming in on me smoking this, because you have a fucking problem with it? Also, was she solo?

Was it just her? Oh yeah, it was just her, I just saw her. I didn't see her with anyone. She's an angry, lonely woman.

But I mean, but has high self-esteem, but homegirl can just like, she has no team around her, she's calling out. She has no control of her life. " That's amazing. That's amazing.

I had that first tub of ice cream, but dammit, no cigarettes. Get a salad every once in a while, I mean, come on. You know, so yeah, that was pretty awesome. It's just kind of baffling to me how somebody can be so adamant about cigar smoke, and in the meantime, all of her arteries are clogged.

All of them. It's like, wait a second, the smoke bothers you? I mean, is this gonna be the needle on the camel's back? This is gonna be it?

Maybe she wanted one. Maybe that's what it was. Do you have a problem with mirrors, too? Annie held up a mirror to me, sir.

I didn't know I looked like that. Ma'am, Slimer is in the Ghostbusters one. What are you doing out of the haunted house? What are you doing out?

So, yeah. Get into makeup. But, yeah, I definitely want to make sure that that made the podcast because that was pretty epic. And, yeah, my rebuttal was on par.

They're going to ban you from Universal. That's the second altercation. It's over, you know, it's like annual. First one was like the security guard though.

Fuck Luis. Luis. He had picked a fight with a very old man named Luis. He was another guy.

Old man? Yeah. Old man working security. No, first of all, he picked a fight with me.

Yeah. He started it. He's doing his job. Yeah.

No, he wasn't. He was past doing his job. He was flexing on you. That's what I'm trying to do.

When he was telling me not, he's like, you can't smoke. Mike Palmer, what's up? Very hip. Very hip, Mike Palmer.

Another poor individual with no control of their life. He always likes to hit me back. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm smoking CityWalk with that guy, you know, I was smoking, like, in between CityWalk and before the entrance of Universal. He was smoking in line to get the ticket.

He's like, "No, I wasn't in line. " He sent his wife to go in line so he could smoke in line. Right. Let me know when you're done.

The thumbs are tapping. So I went and I left. " I said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll go.

" I was like, "I'm in CityWalk, bro. " Come at me, bro. Come at me. You're going to have to be my grandfather.

Put your headlock, and I will destroy you. Put your headlock, and I will put the cigarette out on your forehead. So then he, my cigarette. Cigar, sorry.

" I'm gonna stand right here. I'm gonna just run straight on every one of these cigars. Jackson, Justice, stand behind Daddy, boys. We gotta go.

Oh, man. And you still go. Still go! I love it, it's so amazing.

Steve loves it, he gets in a fight every time he goes. That's nice. It's not every time. It's not every time.

You scared the old lady at the water park, you're picking fights at Universal. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's threatening security. I have a lot of fun at Universal.

Apparently so. It's amazing. Next year you'll go to Renew and be an alarm. You'll scan your car.

Sorry. Yeah, we can't have you. Sorry, sir, you're not allowed in anymore. Your lovely wife and children can come in, sir, but no.

No, you are not allowed in. So, yeah. Alright. Moving on.

Hey, we're going to break again. No, no, we don't have to break again. Okay. This is great.

This is great. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks, man. We're all in fine-nice gear.

It's been... I know. We all look good. Can we talk about it?

I got the woo. You guys, you know... We'll take a photo in front of the thing afterwards. We'll send it to them.

There you go. Okay. You ready? Yeah, I'm ready.

All right. I think that's all I got. Should I check my notes? Hold on.

Check your notes. No, the show's not over. We got more to talk about it. I got so many things.

I got stuff to work out. I need you guys – I need your opinions on things. Oh. I'm just kidding.

Oh, please. You want to talk about your engagement? I don't want to talk about that. One day.

Oh, jeez. Is that an ooh-jeez to him or an ooh-jeez to me? No, he's always an ooh-jeez to me. No, you're good.

This is nice. Throw it out there. No, me. No, it's me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, is that everything? Yep. You got it all?

Yep. All right, on to Romacraft news. Here we go. Now, this only gets a fraction of the fucking podcast.

Oh, go ahead. Oh, well, we don't have to talk about it at all. No, no, we're going to talk about it. Okay, we're going to talk about it.

Okay, last week in a show called Bearded Brothers. Yes. With Kevin Shahan, and Bradley Wraith. Yes.

Mr. Shanahan said some disparaging comments on our Aroma Craft family. He did. He did.

Yeah. Terrible move. Yeah. Terrible move.

Terrible move. " Feel my heart racing. He referred to them as Next Generation Gurkha. Yeah.

" Nice. And he made reference to the swag as a gimmicky idea to help sell garbage cigars. Wow. Now, Bradley did try to defend the brand.

Yeah. And he actually seemed surprised that the gentleman made the comments. Right. But it has been all over social media since it happened.

So, unfortunately, Brad hasn't had really good luck when it comes to co-hosts. No, he's had, uh, Brad is a very nice guy. So first of all, Brad is a really nice guy. He really is.

Very nice guy. He used to be a, uh, yeah. Yes. He's the guy that makes the, uh, little cigar prop.

Yeah. Stan things. He's got a big beard and a hat. Big Drew is big Drew is state fan.

So yeah. So I got to take a deep breath. All right. Easy, Michael.

So here's the thing. Okay. Um, when you have a cohost that that's uneducated, They make fucking comments like that. It's unfortunate for Brad, because we were in town.

We would have gone to see him. We would have wanted to hang out with Brad, but I'm not about to affiliate myself with somebody who makes a comment about cigars like that, and really has no leg to stand on. If he didn't like the cigars, he'd just say, "Ah, they're not for me," or something like that. Yeah, but it's sweeping declarations.

Right. And then calling them Birka cigars is just atrocious. I mean, the construction on Roma Craft and Nico Sueno stuff is barred. The flavor profile is, bar none, right?

For me, the flavor profiles are fucking amazing. And I'd say that for a lot of the consumers, the price points are ridiculous, right? For what you're getting. So, I mean, to kind of come in and just absolutely slam a company like that, it's a little ignorant, flat out.

But that's what's tough for me. " Like, shut it down. It's like, are we live? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hitting the buttons. Shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut. Yeah, it's the, oh my gosh, poor guy. So.

This is the, I believe it's the fourth co-host that's had a problem one way or another. Yeah, so like. Poor Bradley. But like, I can't go see him.

I'm not gonna, you know, I would have loved to see the guy. I mean, he's a good dude. But like, how can I affiliate myself with somebody who just flat out bashed a product inappropriately? Yeah, he reached out to us, Bradley did, the day before this all happened.

This all happened. And we were gonna go see him, but then when this happened, it was... It's like, how do you go? Yeah.

How do we go at that point? Can't help support him. And like it wasn't even... I didn't even know about it.

I was like, you know, Rizal's like, who are you gonna see? I was like, I'm going here, here, here, here. You know, we're gonna go see Brad. And he's like, uh, what?

I said, yeah. Oh, no, that... Well, do you hear about what that guy said? I was like, no, but I'll go fucking find out.

Yeah. So... Man. Yeah.

I think it was on Facebook that based on what the guy says he likes, there has to be some other reason why he doesn't like Roma Craft. Right. Because their flavor profiles are similar with the other stuff that he said he smokes. Right.

So. Bradley did ask... That was very diplomatic of Skip. Yeah.

Are you sure there was Skip? Yeah, it was. It was Skip. He was very, he did rise above it.

Yeah. That a boy. He did. So, you know.

So what else you got? Is that the end of that? That's the end of that. Okay.

I do want to talk about one other thing. One other thing. Okay, we got three minutes for the next break. All right, so take the break.

Okay. We will be right back. Bye. Looking for some show swag?

com, search for Cigar Hustlers Podcast. You can find everything you could possibly want there. Thank you very much. Okay, and we're back again.

And we're back. Is this what you guys feel like all the time? You could not take the drink during the break, could you? No, no, I had to wait.

Is this what you guys feel like all the time? I feel like there's just so much room. That's nice. I'm talking about the t-shirt.

The t-shirt is phenomenal. I don't know if it's just this five-inch t-shirt. Yeah, 'cause you're usually in like this outfit the way you can't move. You can't move.

See what happens is, I'm unable to go to the gym as much as I'd like to, so I gotta lighten it up. I don't know why you don't have a job. What? Ooh.

There you go. See, I'm gonna rise above it, too, because there was... How do you not go to the gym? You work at a gym.

I know, it's a joke. Oh. Jeez. God, tough crowd.

Yeesh. Alright, you had something else, Michael? Do you have any notes, Michael? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, I want to talk about this. I saw a thread, or I heard about a thread about this baka sampler. Everybody's getting upset about the fact that… Oh, I had that later in the notes, but we can go ahead and do it now. Oh, you had it in the notes?

Yeah, the Ellie's versus samplish? Yeah, people getting super upset about the baka sampler. Good. What do you have on the notes?

Well, it's just that one statement, actually, but to talk about it. I had it in the notes. So, here's the thing. So here's the thing.

People are getting upset that to get, like the Bacchus just came out, but hardly anybody was selling like a straight box of or even a five-pack of or anything like that. To get two or three Bacchus, you had to buy 18 other cigars you may not want or may not like or didn't need. So here's the thing. What was that?

I don't know. I just want to put it on record. My phone has not pinged the entire time we've been on this podcast. Something over there.

Oh, Greg's computer is over there. So here's the thing with a Bacchus sampler. I'm gonna put the vodka samplers out there, right? And if you're a consumer that doesn't fuck with Cigar Hustler often, that's how you're getting them.

You can buy that, and you can support the brand as a whole, right? Now... Well, it was not you specifically. I understand, but this is what makes sense to me, okay?

If you always order from me, right? If you always support my retail shop, if you always support the brand, But the brand, yeah, you can have access to whatever you want. You don't have to buy the sampler, right? Right.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people got phone calls prior to say, "Hey, you know what? " Right? It's easy to do that. Now, could I cater to everybody?

No. And if I miss somebody, I'd say, "Hey, dude, you know, I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. You do always support me.

Next batch is coming out. " Right? It's just that simple. Now, if you're some slapdick that fuckin' sends me an email lookin' for a goddamn coupon code and some other fuckin' discount shit, no, I'm not gonna fuckin', why would I sell you anything that you can't get anywhere else?

I'm gonna sell them, right? You know, I noticed Lenny was doing that too to his good customers. Right. He had a limit on what you could buy, and he was, several different people, he was, you know, same idea, same thing.

Well, you know what, I think that Rosales gave a great comparison, because he was even saying with the bourbon stuff, like, oh, and there's exclusive things, that his local bourbon guys will give them a call and be like, yo, we got two bottles, like, obviously you're gonna, anybody who supports you, you're gonna give them the opportunity to get something that is exclusive, and I think that that's, I think a lot of people don't necessarily see it as, like, supporting a brown, so jeez, guys, I'm not from here, I am out of my suit, I am out of my suit, no, but I just thing that's like that's telling a lot of people don't see us as uh see i didn't catch anything like this in it's a pilgrim of the bubble settling your throat no but my thing is that i don't think people think of it as like supporting a brand as a whole i think they're just like oh exclusive stuff new things right because they see it as like an opportunity like oh if i get one of those i'll be able to post it online and blah blah but they don't see it as like yeah and good for them i mean you know at the end of the day it's not like the sampler had like three ashtons and four Right. If you go out and you are constantly looking for deals, right, and are always trying to undercut a brand, why the hell would I go out of my way for you? I'm not going to. Like, you know, if you need a discount, that means I'm taking a hit.

If I'm taking a hit, why would I, oh, hey, you know, thank you so much for beating me up every fucking step of the way, you know, here's some Bacchus. Fuck you. But what's always interesting is also like when people just go online and they'll bash the idea without reaching out to their local guy. Yeah, I mean and that's something another thing that Rosales said was that like that kind of goes on to that consumer like have a good relationship with your tobacconist.

Right. I mean like instead of just being like a guy that's trying to get deal from deal from deal from every all these different retailers, know your tobacconist. Right. Try and see like like let them know what you like and then support them and not necessarily trying to get every little penny.

I don't want that consumer. I don't want the consumer that needs a deal. There are plenty of other sites where you can go get a deal. Go there.

And then when they get Bacas, let me know where you stand. You know? Yeah. I mean, it's just that simple.

Right? Right. Boom. Fuck those guys.

So bitch all you want and go find your coupon code somewhere else. Oh, it's so angry. Check out Cigar Prop. It's okay.

I'm actually pretty happy that the anger didn't come to this part of the show. Are you? I am. This has been nice.

Guys, if you're wondering, I'm the optimistic one in the group. What? Everything's so nice and rainbow. What?

Are you talking about-- Dude, I can still remember, it was just Mike and I in the walking park, and I was like, God, what a great day. Got our workouts in, got our breakfast on, and we're ready to take on the day. I was ready to boot him out of the car. And I came out with the other brain.

That was super weird, that's not how I felt at the time. I feel like I'm pretty good at reading people. I was pretty excited. I was pretty excited, too.

He thought it was going a lot better than that. It was a good day. It was a good trip. " Where's Palmer with my bang?

Then I came out with something else. And he did go, "Oh, is that flavor? " And then he took a drink, like, "Nope, trash. " I can't do this.

Tastes like betrayal. Tastes like diabetes and betrayal. Give me my bang, goddammit. It was very hard to find out there.

Can that be how you start the show every time? What? Give me my bang, goddammit. Give me my bang, goddammit!

We usually say in the bang studios, but he said I can't say that anymore. Go ahead, now what's next? Skip wanted a comparison for the new computer to the old computer, so I finally have it for you, Mr. Martin.

Okay, these are just obvious things other than the- It's a little dusty, by the way. Is it really? I would love it. It's on smoke over there, it's on smoke.

I think it's part of the wood from the new table. Oh, you know what? When he drilled yesterday, I bet it is. There it is.

You had to put the holes in for the wires. Anyway, the screen size and resolution is better. Yeah. We get no more errors that say memory full.

That's nice. That right there is the key. That's key. That's key.

Well, it also runs iMovie, an updated GarageBand, which means no more peaking. We don't have the sound peaking problem. And Mike can start his music career. I can now control the sound levels, so when Mr.

Hunt comes on, I can set him different than us. Yes. That works. The space bar works.

It doesn't stick. The other one, the spacebar would stick, so sometimes I would hit it and then it would lock up the screen. Oh, nice. Yes.

The sound is obviously better. And then I had to come up with certain shortcuts and things with the old garage band to actually do the show. Right. And I actually had to use my phone, my laptop, and the 1982 Apple to get every show to come out now.

It was the '82 Apple? It was the 1982 Apple, yes. Okay, Macintosh. Yes.

Let's see, sound editing, show prep, and video editing can be done on, everything now is just done on the one computer, not all the different machines, and then the only downfall, it's a very minimal downfall thing, it is the adapters you have to use to get USB. Oh, who cares? Well, that's just it, that's the only thing, because they have switched to the mini, and as usual, Apple is ahead of the curve as usual, you know, everybody else will soon switch to that also. I'm pretty sure anybody who's buying that computer, not concerned about the adapters.

Oh, I'm sure they're not. Not worried about the dongles, not worried about- Well, see, that leads into the next statement is, now we need to update the sound equipment, Michael, to go with the new computer. Okay, we'll work on that, so. We're on our way.

I mean, we're broken, what's up, bro? Come on, Mike. I did thank him in person for the computer when we saw him and he just sort of, it was nothing. Aw.

Ain't no thing. Ain't no thing, man. Yeah. I got you both, and he just gave me a little pat and we were on our way.

That's nice. That's it. We have some FDA news, if you want to do that, but we are running into an hour, We're going to an hour, so we can- Can we talk about the music on the trip? 'Cause you love the music.

Certainly. You know what? This is not as entertaining as the music will be, so we will not do the FDA news. Fuck them, 'cause nobody knows what's going on anyway.

Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So yes, so- FDA's upset.

FDA's upset. FDA's upset. FDA's like, wait, wait, wait, wait. We don't want this right away either.

Okay. We can talk about the music, and then I have just a couple other things. So now I hit 'em for full-court press with FDA. I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we want it now.

" Oh, you got nothing? Oh, okay. So then we can just- Well, they followed up into last week's story about the lawsuit, so it's not really important, but go ahead, yes, all the angry music you guys played throughout the trip. You guys.

You seemed quite hip with the music. Oh, you wanted to hear Ali Bouhaye. It was a very specific song. Just the one?

If you're wondering, I was not listening to that same kind of music in my car, if you were wondering, with the sound. I do have to thank Michael, after we left the airport, we got home, we got in the car, he did play my music on the ride home. What a guy. And I'm singing along, the windows are down, the hair just like in the wind.

I was having a great moment, I was very excited. Oh, I was, I knew all the words. But I'm gonna tell you right now, I mean... There was no racial slurs being yelled out the windows or nothing.

I mean, the hip-hop of the trip was pretty... Was that a point? A little aggressive. A little dark point?

A little dark, a little aggressive. I loved it. Doesn't you wanna... I was thriving.

Nighttime, sitting in traffic in downtown Arizona. No, but speaking of music... Hold on. He's playing the music and singing along, yelling the N-word.

That's not true. Hold on. First off, my fucking line. " You are so full of shit.

I'm very old, I don't know the music. That is a complete lie. I thought it was so funny that, like, when we were going that one day that we were all in the same car, I was like, "Just imagine being just a pedestrian, all windows down, you got Spike in the driver's seat, You've got Father Time over here in the backseat. You've got Whitey in the back.

It's like me, myself, and Irene. And you have the attorney in the front, in the passenger seat. What is this? Where are these guys going?

Where are they going? I was like, wow, wow. How do they all three know each other? I need to follow them.

The attorney's obviously for the spiky hair guy. That's his dad in the back. Yeah, it all makes sense. He picked him up in court.

What a good time for you. Okay, but I was going to say, phenomenal soundtrack over at Fine Ash. Over at Binash. Yeah.

" Big fan. And then you were singing the mic. I was singing the mic a little bit. Yeah.

It was beautiful. It was quite the romantic moment for me. Probably the highlight of the trip for me. Get out of town!

Wow. I thought it was the hand job you gave him afterwards. That would be a highlight for him, not me. Oh, okay.

I thought you always aimed to please. I was obligated and a little uncomfortable. We found joy in it. Gentlemen, serving gentlemen.

It was so small, I didn't, you know. Wow There it is Man you didn't even Wow You didn't even say anything I didn't say anything Okay if anybody You actually said When I heard you say that That skip Rose above it That's how I'm gonna live my life From now on I was gonna bring up Other things I had on the trip Things that were said And I'm like you know what I'm better than that I'm not gonna do that I'm not gonna do that I met a really cool guy At the airport Yeah? Yeah Oh shit cool So I'm you know Fucking talking with him For a little bit I'm like here man And you gave him a wad of cigars It was his birthday Apparently it was the man's birthday Gave him a lighter I said here, take this for you. We gave him my lighter and his cigars, and we sent them off to his party.

Wait, so a party? Thanks, man. Which airport? Arizona.

Phoenix, when we left. Oh, so, but he was coming, he was going? He just arrived. He just arrived.

Waiting on his ride. Made his day. He was like, fuck yeah. Oh, man.

Then when the plane landed, the lady behind me across from Michael's, she dropped her cane, he got her cane for her, and he carried her bags off the plane. I'm just a stud. I would say, really, just put my stuff on a pedestal. I'm just here to help.

He almost carried the woman, too. I think that church every week is really... I think it's really healthy. It's doing well.

I think, yes, it is. Yes. For sure. All right.

What else you got? All right. The second night we were sitting in a hotel, we started looking up other cigar shows, Patreons, to see what they offered. Oh, man.

Oh, you're going to do that? Yes. To see what they offered against what we offered for different levels of patronage. Wow.

Are you going to tell me you need to show more skin, or what's happening? No, no, no. No, no, no. Wow, you're really pumped up about this.

Oh, yes, I am. I'm surprised that you brought it up. Why? I thought it was very good.

Okay. No, Patreon's the one where you pay for different, okay, well, there's different levels. Don't mention any of their names, please. No, no, no, no, no, no, I won't mention any of their names.

I won't mention any of their names. But there's different levels, and then what you pay, you know, they give you little things. So, like, for ours, when you pay, you get the secret show, you get stickers, you get autographs from the show, you get t-shirts and stuff, thank you handwritten, thank you notes and things. Well, the other shows, apparently, you get, like, Twitter shoutouts, the opportunity to buy stuff from them at a discount, the opportunity to go into a raffle to buy stuff from them at a discount.

Wait, a raffle to buy? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, interesting. It's a big deal.

Yeah, it's a big deal. Part of their marketing plan. You can be part of their research and development. Oh, yeah, the one guy will do a conference call with you so that you can help him with his marketing plan for his show.

I always love that. You have to give them money for them to call you. Can I pay you to give you an idea? It'll make you more money, it'll be good.

There was one that had cigar. And a lot of those guys had no Patreons. Yeah, most of them. It's so weird, I don't understand why that wasn't working out.

One of them had a lot, the one where you get the opportunity to buy stuff from him, he had a lot of Patreons, but he was $1, $3, and something else. And what do you guys know? We go $5, $10, and then we go up in $5 increments. Big time, I like it.

That's right, baller. There was one, it was two young ladies, but they were actually a band. They had cigar in the name. But when you paid them different levels, you got a personal concert over the phone?

Hello? Yeah. So, I mean, that would have been kind of cool. They call you and, you know...

Sing your song? Sing your song? Well, I'm sure they call people happy birthday all the time. Well, I don't think they just sing happy birthday.

So, for our show, you were getting quite the value for your investment. Yeah. Wow. That's where that works.

That was all leading to. Yeah. He was so entertained. Yeah.

We thought maybe we had undersold the show. No, that was great. Or you weren't getting value for your money, but apparently we give you quite the value. Yeah.

You know, I thought it was really cool. So on the way to Phoenix, I was passing the time by listening to your beautiful voices. Oh, you caught up. I did.

Oh, okay. Six hours. Yeah, you could've gotten six episodes. Yeah, I could've gotten a lot of episodes.

Eight if you listen to a couple of short ones. See, but I had to get all my music in before I had to... Oh. For the angry stuff.

Yeah, for the angry stuff. No, but I thought it was really cool how that, the episode that I was listening to, that you guys actually had the call-in listener, I thought that was really, really cool. Yes, we did that last week. I thought it was a really cool idea, and I thought it was awesome to have them.

We'll have to do that again next week. Yeah, I think that's really, really cool. Okay, finally, all I got is a show update, and then we can get the hell out of here. All right.

Sounds good. It's a very small show update, but we'd like to welcome Tunisia to the Cigar Hustler Podcast family. Tunisia! Thank you, Tunisia, for listening.

I don't know who it is, because it was unsolicited, but they popped on this week. I feel like my boy is back out, he's about back out of it again. Oh, you think so? Yeah.

Wasn't he just in Somalia? I don't know, I can't confirm or deny. Because they're still downloading in Somalia, so. Well, I mean, that is definitely a location.

We do have quite the military following. You know what I'm kinda hoping? Because those people that hijacked your credit card information, You're listening to the show on those airpods? Do the airpods ever show up?

No, no, they still haven't. What'd you have to do, Mike? Tell them what you have to do. Kings have to buy you normal airpods.

Oh, well, Michael and Greg bought me normal airpods. I know, what? Good birthday. Thanks, very nice guys.

Skip blew me out of the water with a fucking laptop. " Yeah. And look, you can charge him. Look, you got a mouse.

The next day, really, the mouse was from Skip, we had to play it off that day, so he came early. But that's it, that's the show. Hey, well, what a great show. Yes.

So help me out with the titles here for this one. We're gonna have Mikey Picked a Fight. Yep. That sounds good.

Yeah. Mikey Picked Another Fight. No, just Mikey Picked a Fight. Uneducated Co-host.

Oh, that's good, 'cause they'll think it's me. Uneducated Co-host, and what else? What else? Matt drops in.

Matt got locked out. Matt got locked out. Matt drops in. Matt drops in.

Matt drops in. And we're obviously a value for your money. Matt goes casual. Matt goes casual?

Matt goes casual. Matt goes casual. Matt goes casual. That could be coming up.

Matt goes casual. Matt goes casual. All right. That's it.

Episode 93. Well, Matt, thank you for stopping in. Yes, thank you for coming in to help us recap the show, Michael. It was very nice to have you on the show.

Absolutely. Nothing like a little red-eye coming straight to the studio. That's fine. So you wore that outfit on a plane?

What? No, I did not. Oh, so not right from the airport. Well, I had to change.

Oh. Sorry, Michael. That's all right. I took you at your word again.

Never do that. Never do that again. All right, everybody. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Bye. Bye. This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, a Mike and Mike production.

m. for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Husto E-Raw. Are we 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 to hit the record. He's not even going to try. 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. It'd be like four cigars when I walked in a door. All right, end this.

Thank you.

Show Notes

This week Mikey gets into another fight at Universal Studios.  Mr. Matthew Hunt with FQ cigars stops by to help us talk about the trip to Arizona!  We get into the Roma Craft assault from last week from another podcast and then we evaluate Patreon and if you get a value worth paying for!!

As always we welcome your show ideas 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, review and subscribe to the show on which ever of our providers you use!