Special Memorial Day Episode

Episode Summary

For Memorial Day, A Cigar Hustler's Podcast re-runs one of its favorites: Episode 176, the Cigar Coop special interview. Hosts Mike Szczepankewicz and Mike "Palmer" open with a short holiday greeting before rolling the archival conversation with Cigar Coop (William Cooper), who finally made it back to the shop after a two-year, pandemic-interrupted gap. The episode opens with a running gag about a mixed-up calendar date that had Coop showing up a week early elsewhere, the elaborate revenge skit the crew had planned, and a lot of friendly ribbing.

The substance kicks in with trade show talk. Coop breaks down what he heard about TPE — a mixed bag on sales, a slightly heavier premium cigar presence, Drew Estate sitting it out while Altadis and Dunbarton expanded booth footprints — and why many manufacturers deliberately held their new releases back to support PCA. Looking ahead to PCA, Coop explains he's expanding his coverage team with Aaron Nielsen and Bear on video, and that the real story of the show will be whether PCA itself can perform after a lost year, the Big Four's absence, and the Cigar Con fallout. He's skeptical of the PCA exclusives announced so far (mostly line extensions) and notes the big open question is whether Fuente and Padrón will reveal anything about their collaboration.

The conversation also covers the retailer side of attending PCA — budget burn after day two, buying to earn allocations from houses like Fuente — plus the cigar media compound the guys are invited to. Coop vents about brands handing exclusives to Cigar Aficionado first, the industry's growing habit of undisclosed blends, and the old-guard faxing habits of Fuente and Padrón (though Carlito will answer a direct question, to a point).

They wrap with Weasel Fest recap talk: a permit cleared by the fire department the morning of the event, strong attendance, Luciano of Ace Prime hanging around HQ, Vince Hildebrandt of Sons Cigars in attendance, a visit to Havana House and its deep humidor finds, Rosales' photo/video coverage and dance moves, and Chet's blowout sales weekend back at the shop while the hosts were away. Light, unfiltered industry shop talk from start to finish.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Memorial Day Intro & Best-Of Setup
   The crew explains they're off for the holiday and re-airing Episode 176, the Cigar Coop interview.
2. 02
   The Mixed-Up Date & the Skit That Never Aired
   Coop showed up a week early because of an email mix-up, and the hosts describe the elaborate strip-club-themed revenge skit they had planned.
3. 03
   TPE Recap
   Coop relays secondhand reports of mixed sales, a slightly larger premium cigar presence, Drew Estate's absence, and bigger booths from Altadis and Dunbarton.
4. 04
   Building the PCA Coverage Team
   Aaron Nielsen joins the Cigar Coop crew on the ground while Bear focuses on video, with Dave Burke covering from Australia.
5. 05
   PCA Expectations and Fuente x Padrón
   Whether the show itself can perform post-COVID, lowered expectations, underwhelming PCA exclusives, and the still-unrevealed Fuente/Padrón collaboration.
6. 06
   Retailer Strategy at the Trade Show
   Why many retailers only do two days, how budgets get spent, and buying from specific houses like Fuente to secure allocations.
7. 07
   Media Access, Exclusives and Undisclosed Blends
   Coop on brands feeding Cigar Aficionado first, the fax-era habits of Fuente and Padrón, and the trend of undisclosed wrapper/binder/filler.
8. 08
   Weasel Fest Recap and Shop Talk
   Last-minute permits, big attendance, Luciano of Ace Prime and Vince Hildebrandt of Sons Cigars on site, Havana House's humidor gems, and Chet's record sales weekend.

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 the Memorial Day edition of the Cigar Sir Podcast. We are not here, so we are putting up a best of this week. Yes. We're not supposed to be here, Mikey.

We're not. No, no, he can be here. He can talk to you. Otherwise, why would I ask you three to stay if we're not all doing the intro?

Yeah. Dummy. We can't take him anywhere. No.

But if you want to see him in a pool, go to DJ Boots, not ENT, the regular one. Please enjoy episode 176, the Cigar Coop Special Interview. Ooh. It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Check it out. All right, guys. Thanks. Phil, you want to tell the people hello or happy Memorial Day or anything?

Uh, happy Memorial Day, and thank you for listening, and goodbye, and Palmer, do your TV thing. Yeah, he put his mask off. Alright, gotta go! Boop!

And we're back! Welcome to episode, uh, back from episode 176 of A Cigar Hustler Podcast. Joining us today is the legend himself. I was wanting you to say his name.

Am I gonna say it? I was trying to bring you in. That was your cue. We worked this out, Michael.

We worked this out, Michael. Coop! Oh, wow. What's going on, brother?

Sorry, sorry about that intro, Coop. I know, I'm terrible. Mike and Mike, what a pleasure to finally be back here. Yes, three more, you get a jacket like Taranio.

Exactly, exactly. I know. But it's been two years. I mean, that's the thing.

So, let's see, every two years, it comes on, so another 18 years, it'll be fine. Exactly. I mean, I thought I'd be down here a lot more regularly, and obviously, pandemic had a lot of... Oh, yeah, that's right.

The whole pandemic. Pre-pandemic. So, I got a funny story to tell you before we kind of get into things. Palmer almost killed you unintentionally.

Oh, I was going to tell the story. Because of me. I was going to apologize and tell the story. Because of me, you almost died.

More metaphorically than actually. You know, our video looks kind of like, looks like Evil Batman-esque. It's got kind of an angle on this one. Yes, that's what I told you.

That's okay. Alright, Michael told me you were coming on last week. Yes, I thought you were coming in. He said, "Hey, I'll be there Tuesday," and I didn't pay attention to the edge of that email that actually had the date and numbers.

Right. First, first. So I'm like, so I'm rallying the troops. I'm like, "Hey, listen, Coop's coming in.

" Last Tuesday, we're getting all set up. We're all ready. Right. We're gonna have him come in.

" "No, no, he's at Abe's. " And then one of them asked you where you were going. and you said, I don't know, some shop I don't know the name of, and then maybe go by and see Jeff. You're like, that son of a bitch.

He wouldn't even say her name. This is fucking war. I'm Switzerland here. No, I mean, I did say, I thought I said the name.

You did. It's totally not on you. It was 100% on me. I mean, I wouldn't risk the ridicule I would get from you guys on this.

Oh, the not ready for primetime hustler players had a whole skit we were doing for this week's show. Oh, there was. It was a beautiful skit. It was beautiful.

I was just talking to Hector. " I said, "I'm just wrapping up a call, Hector. " He's like, "You better go. You better hurry.

" So the Tuesday after, he texted me and circled the date. I think it was he meant next Tuesday. Yeah. Oh my.

" Yeah, I was still in the South Florida part of that trip. Right, yeah. But you're going around, you're making your way around the state at this point. You're almost like a sales rep, which is incredible.

No, actually, this is, this, I extended the trip so I can come in to see you guys, because I knew you guys were at Weasel Fest, and I said, uh, And the safe play, apparently so. So, uh, we'll leave in tomorrow's the last day, and I head back tomorrow, yep. No kidding, yep. I mean, at this point, I've seen you more than I've seen Alfredo.

And he's, he's still our rep, the new guy, he doesn't come before. " And why I'm not at Weasel Fest, why I wasn't, was because of this trip. Right, gotcha, that's understandable. I think that was the hard part about Weasel Fest is it was kind of like, all right, because you don't know when you're a go, and then they greenlit it, and you're finally, okay, let's do this.

I mean, legit, the fire department, I believe, showed up that morning to clear the permit so that the event could go on. Oh, wow. So it was really to the wire. So when you have to operate that way because of COVID, you didn't get enough time to prepare.

Exactly. I think a lot of people that really wanted to go didn't get an opportunity to go, but it was fantastic. Everything I've heard, I was just talking to Chet about it beforehand, yeah. It was absolutely phenomenal.

Yeah. Now, I know that you did some light coverage on TPE. Right. And you said that it looked like things were okay.

I mean, you know, I don't know, I don't know what the... You didn't go though, did you? I did not go. Okay.

I did not go. I just, you know what, I feel like I fucked up by not going because I don't, you know... I asked you 12 times. I don't have a real answer as to how it really went, you know?

You know, there's some people that will tell you it went great, but there's other people who have told me quietly, eh, it really wasn't the sales levels that we thought we were going to get. Right, right. But there were some companies that said, hey, we did really, really well, and I believe the companies that told me that. So, I think it was a mixed bag on it overall.

Right. Was it more like CBD, marijuana stuff? Was that still the vast majority? Or, you know, did you see more cigar, do you think that more cigar companies popped up this time around?

That's hard to tell, obviously, because I wasn't there, but it seemed like it was slightly bigger on the premium cigar end. Right. Because Drew Estate had a big booth before, and then they didn't go this year at all. Right, yeah.

But then there were some companies in the pavilion that upgraded to full-size booths. Right. So, you know, that was another thing. That's probably some type of incentive, I would imagine, because they don't want those big spaces sitting empty.

Right, right. And then, you know, Altidus had a bigger booth this year as well. Saka increased the size of his booths, from what I heard. Right.

So, I mean, there were some booth sizes that got bigger. Are they going to put a cap on booth sizes? Because I heard that wasn't possibly a thing. That I haven't heard.

I just don't see, like, I don't know, it just doesn't seem, I don't know, as advantageous, right? Like, you get some of these big guys, it'd be nice to kind of level the playing field and make-- I was thinking, maybe it's what they're thinking. Only get to a specific size, and then that's it, you know, I mean, fuck, the Drew Estate Lounge, you could have put a bowling alley in a TPE, you know, so, you know, it'd be cool if they were, I just, they just, it just seemed overkill, you know, so, alright, so, we didn't, you didn't go to TPE, obviously, you know, you have been, you have been hunkered down, you have been in the bunker for a year and a half, like, real talk, really, you know. With a long beard, and long, long hair.

Now, did you get vaccinated, or no? I'm vaccinated. Okay, what did you get, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer? Pfizer.

Did it knock you down? That second shot? Same thing. Yeah, the second shot was rough.

Yeah. But then it kind of, you know, it kind of cleared itself up. But the funny thing is, I thought I was getting like the blood infection, like I had, I was feeling all those same symptoms. " I'm pretty sure I've got a doc.

Call the attorney. Yeah, exactly. Get it all wrapped up. Okay, so that's good.

Are you gonna go to the PCA? That's what I was leading into. Yes. You're definitely covering that.

Definitely at PCA, we're gonna be expanding the team. Aaron Nielsen's gonna be on the ground with us this year as well. Yeah, he's a good dude. I've still been in communication with him.

Oh yeah. You know, he's the guy, his dad was Cheap Trick or something like that? Yep. Oh yeah, yeah.

Okay. But that's obviously not that important. I mean, the fact of the matter is the guy knows a ton about the cigar industry. Right, that's why I'm bringing him.

If he wasn't like that, you know, I met him because of the connection, obviously, to his dad, but I saw something that, hey, he could really cover the show like we need to cover it at Coop, so... Right, it'd be a different perspective. Yeah, so it's going to allow Bear, who's going to be covering it for Coop, he's going to focus more on video this year, and Aaron can kind of help me out with the fat gathering and the stuff we need to do with the booze, so... It's like you're building a team, bro.

We're building it slowly. We've got Dave Burke in Australia, but he couldn't come. Yeah, Dave's right, yeah, you know, we've got to get him to a PCA. I offered, I said, if you want to come to PCA, I'll get you at the PCA, I'll finance the ticket, I told him.

It's a little bit, he couldn't get out this year anyway, but I know he's also got some stuff going on, he's going for his PhD and stuff like that, so he's... That's kind of a big deal. Yeah, yeah. Dr.

Burke. Dr. Burke. Dr.

Burke. Dr. Burke. Yeah.

All right, so... Kind of coverage on TBE, I mean, we can talk weasel fest, I just don't want to spill the whole beans just yet. Right, because we haven't had a chance to discuss it yet. And then you're going to definitely do PCA with like a full team, you know, so you're going to cover all four days, or?

All four days. I'm thinking I'm going to go just kind of in and out two days and be done. Well, I'm hearing that from a lot of retailers who are going to go there, because what I hear, and you could probably tell me better, is after day two, your budget's kind of shot. I mean, not necessarily.

It depends. Right. You know, it depends upon how you, what you kind of structure out. To be honest, I haven't gone as a retailer in five years.

You know, I've gone as a wholesaler, and then I've made a couple of orders. While I'm there, you need a light? You all right? I got one here.

Okay. So this is the first time that we're not really showcasing, not really displaying. And I'm like, okay, well, if we're doing that, then I can get in and out. I know that I got to play some order with Fuente.

day i know there's there's specific companies that you want to cover by purchasing at pca to get specific stuff right so um i think we're gonna do it well you could use a lot you don't forget you could you have media you're media as well we are media now that is true now you have an invite to the cigar media compound yes yes we have official it's official we have the house booked and everything so what day is that every every day i'll let you know specifically what nights we're We're not going to be there, but I think the plan... So that's the night we want to go. Yeah. But we upgraded the compound this year.

Really? Yeah, we upgraded the compound, so. Okay. Loomis really kind of came through with a really good house.

Really? Yeah. Okay. I'm in.

So you want to go, Mike? Yes, I'm in. You guys should definitely go. I mean, I passed up Weasel, so I figured I'll go to that one.

I did pass on Weasel. Yeah, Chad does not get to go to PCA. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry, Chad.

I hope you enjoy Weasel. Look, I missed Weasel Fest, too. I was really bummed. It was this vacation.

weekend but uh it was pretty epic dude i have never seen anything like it never seen anything like that it was incredible i'm probably didn't i mean it was the most amazing thing i've ever seen thanks i don't mean to i don't want to play it down oh yeah but it was absolutely under underplay the whole thing no no it was uh save it for the for the other show we have no chance to do it on the radio yeah yeah we're shooting this out of order we're doing this backwards so we had to get Coop when he's available. Very busy man. Yes. I appreciate it.

Very busy man. So is there anything at PCA that you're excited about? Any more sagas or something? You know, I think the story of PCA is obviously going to be the show itself this year.

Because it's, everyone's looking at PCA. Word is it's going to be a smaller show footprint this year. Right. It's coming back after a year lost.

Big Four not there. The mess at Cigar Con two years ago. So I think everyone's really looking at PCA. Can this show perform?

They're going to get a little bit of a pass, I think, because of COVID. Right. Expectations will be a little bit lower. Yeah.

" I mean, release-wise, the big question is, is Fuente and Padrón going to show anything off with what they're doing with that collaboration? And it's sounding like no. But in fairness, they never committed to do anything at the trade show either. They announced it, and I think everyone, all of us just assumed it was going to be the trade show, and they didn't, so that's, I think, but that's going to be the highlight, I think, if they show something, or if they're together at the trade show.

Yeah, I mean, I guess so. I can't, I don't really think of anything that's really kind of popped for me that I'm like, I gotta see this. Yeah, it's down to, what, 30 days now, so the announcements should be out. I think you missed a whole year of production, for the most part, for creating something new and innovative, or whatever the case may be.

Or everybody worked on something that nobody ever heard about, because, you know, what tobacco we got left? Throw that together, see how it turns out. What happened at TPE was, the companies were going to both. They held back their releases for PCA.

They didn't want to sacrifice what they were doing at PCA, so they kind of want to support the PCA, so they're doing that. And then, there's a lot of companies that are having back orders, too, so it didn't do any good to show it early. So, you know, I know there's companies who are at TPE that are going to PCA that have stuff coming out. Right.

Any of them excite you? Nothing yet. I mean, the PCA exclusives have not excited me yet. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a line extension, but as a PCA exclusive, I'm kind of expecting something more, and that's what it seems like it is so far.

It's like the TAA stuff. Right, right. So, that part, I do notice some companies that do have some special lines coming out. Right.

But they probably made deals with Scar Aficionado to give it to them first. Huh. Oh. Bullshit!

That's not you. That's bullshit. Well, that stuff kills us right now. I mean, it kills us because, like, if they give it to us the same day, it's okay.

But after that, if they just don't even, we can't get the information, that's when it's a problem. Right. Yeah. " and stuff, like, come on, so some, yeah.

I'm curious to what companies those are, but I don't want to put Coop completely on blast. No, go ahead. Nobody listens. You can figure it out.

I'm sure I could. If you see any Cigar Ficionado and it's not on a half-wheel Coop, then you know what it is. I didn't even realize that existed because I never look at Cigar Ficionado to me. Right, exactly.

Now look, there's some companies like Fuente and Padron. They were so used to dealing with cigar fish now and sending faxes. You're not going to change, get them to do new tricks. They're still sending faxes.

That's how it's going to be. Now, but if I call Carlito and ask him a question, he will respond on it. Right. He'll elaborate for it.

He'll elaborate on it, to as much as he will elaborate. Right. He likes to keep an aura of mystery. Okay.

Yeah, so that's okay. I'm okay with that, too. Right. I don't know if I'm going to say anything about blends moving forward.

Like, what's in it? I don't fucking know. Just leave me alone. Oh, yeah, that seems to be the thing.

Nobody's saying it. Undisclosed. It's an undisclosed wrapper filler binder. Magic blend.

It blows up in the middle. Yep, exactly. You know, I mean, it's, um, but like, like I smoked a cigar this weekend, or actually yesterday, I was holding out for it, and um, the wrapper is supposedly something that I've never had in an external wrapper, so I was curious to how it would taste, and if it actually was possible. So, I don't know if it is or not.

I'm still curious. Was it one of Rose Alice's special blends that he...? No, it was a friend. It was from...

I don't want to give out too much information. It's undisclosed information. Oh, undisclosed. Thanks.

It was from a good dude at Weasel Fest. It was from a good dude at Weasel Fest. I mean, I heard there were some company owners out there, too. Other company owners were out there.

I know Ace Prime was out there. Were they? I don't know. Luciano was out there, because I talked to him.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Luciano was definitely out there. I actually talked to him from there, that's why. He was, he hung out inside HQ a lot where it was cool, air conditioning, yeah, he was definitely there a ton, but I don't think there was anybody else really, you know, I mean, as far as, there were other retailers, there were consumers, you know, and trying to talk to everybody is definitely difficult, but I tried, that number of people, yeah, I made the best round I could possible, you know, I ran into Mitch, he was, he was, he was, I didn't know who he was at first.

I'm like, man, I know his face, but he had a Cigar Hustler decal on his travel humidor. Right. So I just gave him a war bear. I said, here you go.

Like, he had a table full of people. I was like, nice sticker. Boom. And I walked away.

Chet said, if he saw one, he would go on Facebook and go, okay. Okay, and then he walked back over and go, hey, aren't you? It's hard to figure that out sometimes. It's like, hey, you know, I'm used to seeing you in this round circle, and you look a lot taller than I thought.

Or you're a lot shorter than I thought you were. How old is that photo? I feel like that happens a lot with me. " You know?

No, no, I doubt anybody says "bigger" when they see you in person. I thought you were taller. That could be me. Yeah.

Maybe. I thought you were taller. Because somebody said that this weekend. I forget who it was.

Yeah. " Can't believe I was that big? Yeah, yes, yes. I mean, they had heard you had been working out and everything, but they couldn't believe you were that big.

I wasn't that massive. It wasn't that massive. It's the cereal. It's all the cereal.

I heard about the cereal thing. I was listening to the bear show. Yeah. Cereal's fantastic.

I almost died on the bear show. I heard. That's why it was only two hours. Yeah.

Normally bear shows is three, three and a half hours. I'm like, ooh, you've never made it. I want to tell you right now at the two hour mark. We're going to take a poop break bear.

I'll be right back. I would have had to tell him like, hey, listen, I'll be right back. You give me a solid five minutes. I'll be right back.

I will purge and I will be right back. Or just take the phone on their way there. I go, what happened? This was only two hours.

I listened to it coming up from Miami, and I'm like, it's over. I went over. He's like, I'm not there yet. That was it.

We like to leave you wanting more. So I planned the stomach bug. Yeah. It was very interesting.

My son's got it. Does he? Yeah. It's making its rounds, man.

He called me yesterday. He was sent home from work today. Really? I mean, it slowed me down for a whole week.

Oh, I told him he's only got the day. Yeah. You gotta get back to work. You need the money.

Yeah, exactly. It's not, it's no, it's no bueno. " Imagine you got a shit up there. Right.

Oh my god. That's what I was saying last night, because they're at other people's houses. " Right. What if there are people under you on the ladder?

He said a modium. Take a modium for you, Leif. A modium helps. I'll take like seven.

I don't think it's a cure-all. And eat cheese. Just back yourself up. Lots of cheese.

Chaopectic. But, you know, I got to give Bear credit because, you know, I really thought that that was a really good interview. You know what I mean? He did.

He did a good job. He does. Like, to see, you know, even though, like, I think the last time I was on was, what, maybe two years ago, and that was a good interview. I felt that we had, you know, it was a good, the way that he handles himself.

But I feel like he's made a lot of progress within that period of time. I mean, yeah, he's definitely, and, you know, he's very well prepared. That's the one thing you'll know about him. He does a shit.

Oh, my God. Yeah, he's, um, I mean, I work with him on the Tuesday show, obviously, and, um, you know, like, his preparation is second to none. Right, I mean, he's telling me about where I went to call, I was like, "Did I? " Yeah, I did go there.

Yeah, he'll pull up these facts, you know, and you don't even remember what the facts are. Right? Yeah. It's crazy.

Yeah. That's the other thing about the podcast and stuff, too, is, you know, when you go out and you meet a bunch of people, they start fucking quoting you on some shit that you said, and I'm like, "Did I? " Yeah, you're sure, we were doing FTG down at Caribbean, actually, when you guys were on. Who was the crew?

It was the Drew State guys going on, Hector Of course Terrence came out Terrence was out that night too Rare FTG sighting Except he says, heck that guy He was going up to Charlotte He was going up to my neck of the woods when I was down here So he's giving me crap, I'm like, come meet me at Caribbean I'm going to be there, and he did I said, so before you go, yeah But no Jack Taranio? Jack came out Monday night. I think Jack had some-- He was up in Washington. When he did the video for me, he was up in Washington State.

Right. Yeah. But Jack came out Monday night, so. I ran into Alan at Weasel Fest, too.

He sent me a nice little message. Alan did? Alan of the Caribbean? Yeah.

Oh, no, I wasn't Alan, so it was Vince. Vince Hilde. Oh, Vince Hildebrandt? Yeah.

Now, Sons Cigars. Sons Cigars? Yes. That's good stuff.

What do we have for time? I don't know. We're at 19 minutes. We have plenty of time.

Yeah. So is there anything else you want to cover? What else you got? Me?

Nothing! You said you had the show wrapped up this week, so... You know, you wanted to kill Coop. Well, that didn't happen.

We could do the play if you want. I still have that on my phone, so... Coop, you want to show the play? I think the play is pretty funny.

Well, you want to? You can talk about it. Or we could just give you the clip notes. Right, yeah, I'll just...

So it was gonna be this whole skit where that, like, where he... You called in to apologize for missing the show, but then we had strip club music behind you. " And then we had Boots, our construction guy who built the deck out front, he was gonna be the bouncer and throw you out for touching the dancers. No, I didn't even-- We told you, Mr.

Coop. By the way, this is the first I'm knowing that there was this almost mix of the date. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Well, I made a couple of comments on Abe's thing.

Luckily, you didn't see him. I was gonna go back and check him out. And then he called me off. " I'm like, "No, no, fuck this.

" Yeah, so I'm trying to pull him back. " Yo, it's okay. It's okay. What if Abe was like asking me questions other than we have?

It's like, what? What's wrong with my Palmer? What's wrong with Palmer today? He's a little angry.

He's very agitated with you for some reason. Well, Abe, Abe kind of, I've been on Abe's case lately because of his bets, right? Yeah. These bets, I told him, I said, if you're not going to disclose what the bet is, it's like getting a participation trophy.

It is. Oh, that's right. You never say it. You never say it.

He won't say it. And I said, just say what the bet is. Even if you say, hey, it's some business reason, I can't disclose it. I can't disclose it.

Right, something. You don't have to, but they go kind of like, I don't know, I'd say they're kind of shallow. Right, yeah, because it's just. He's sandbagging.

It's just, I was right. Oh, I said it on the air to Abe, so. Right. Of course.

My goal is, I'm gonna beat Abe at a bet, but the challenge is, we're both pretty smart how we bet, so. He's probably, yeah, so he's not gonna make a bet he can't win, and the same thing with me. Right. I can say, we'll help you cheat if you want.

We can, we can help load this. We can sway this without any problem at all. We could infiltrate the Abe community with bad information. I know a couple of his guys.

Yeah, it's like, we could, you know, yeah, we could do this. We could do this. All right, well, I've set this up. We've got to set this up.

And then we'll give Coop the, because Abe doesn't listen to the show. I don't remember him. No, no, he won't. He can't.

We're in a million years. No. He barely knows we do one. Yeah.

I don't even think he knows who the fuck I am. Now, actually, okay. He does. He tells you the Polish guy.

See, actually, you've missed some jukebox episodes, because I talked about the date, the weekend I was going to be down here. Yeah. On Ukebox. Yes, I have.

You obviously put it on the text message, but he didn't show that. It was on the email. It was on the email, yeah, where it was. I mean, it's totally on me, 120%.

No, it's all good. No, I mean, I would have done the same thing. That's why we get no exclusives here, because they sent him emails, and he just... Nah, I don't want that.

" I'm like, "All right, cool, Tuesday. " You know, like, I didn't even... I didn't even see which Tuesday. Yeah, right.

I was like, all right, cool. Yeah, I should have realized it was a double Tuesday. Because like I said, I extended the trip. We were going to leave today and I said, well, I got to come see these guys.

So we were able to get the house another day. I'm like, let's just stay another day. So you got the whole fam? Well, they're all departing right now.

My wife and one of my sons is still here. Okay. But we had my brother-in-law in, we had my father-in-law. He lives down here.

And we wanted to spend a lot of time with him. You know, we hadn't seen him in two years. He's 87. That's right.

He's 87. For 87, the guy's still very knock on wood, yeah. Very active? Good for you.

Yeah, very active, yeah. Looking good? Yeah. We had a bad storm on Sunday, though.

Really? Yeah. I was out of Port Orange at a wedding, and it didn't rain out there at all, not at all. But when we got home, the signs had blown off my patio, all the cushions were in the yard.

Yeah, we had a flagpole where the house we were renting cracked. I mean, the thing really cracked. Rusty's flags outside, the poles are there, but the fabric went like down the street or something? Yeah, I'm kidding.

I mean, the first thing is we're trying to save the flag, because we don't want the flag, obviously. Right, right. My wife took it and we cleaned it, but the flag pole was busted, and the umbrellas came down in the backyard. There was hail, there was a lot of hail.

Yeah, there was hail. We had shit weather in Texas on Saturday. Did you? Yeah.

Before the event, because it didn't look like during the event. No, no, I'm sorry, Friday. Friday. It's all one big day to me at this point.

Right. And that was the day at the, at that shop down there. Yeah. Havana House.

Yeah. Havana House. I'll tell you what, man, they got some gems in that humidor. They got some stuff that, you know, it's like, how do you still have this?

Right. You know, I would say, you know, I probably saw 20, 30 things. I'm like, this is incredible. Turn me loose on this.

I'll sell all this shit in two seconds. Right. Let me have this. I can sell all this for a premium.

You know, Southern Gunner's selling a bunch of stuff. Do you see that? Is he? Yeah.

No, I have no idea. Well, you know, I was surprised to not see Hugh there. Oh, I had a little chat with him today because I was concerned there was something wrong. Yeah.

But all's well? Yeah, yeah, for the most part. Okay. Yeah, I mean, like, I think that, you know, the numbers for Weasel Fest were good.

Right. I think that next year, with the proper time and preparation for an actual event without COVID being a fucking wrenching things, it's gonna sell out and you're gonna have a lot of pissed off people. - Oh, I'm sure. - You're gonna have a lot of pissed off people.

- Well, they had pretty good attendance for the first time. - Yeah. - Well, they sold out. - Yeah, it sold out and then it was canceled.

- Yeah. - Yeah. - And then this time was close, but I'm gonna tell you right now, after witnessing the whole thing... - Oh, I'm sure.

Everybody's seeing the videos that Rosales did and all the photos everybody posted. - And then kind of perfecting what they worked, you know, like just improving on it. - Right. - You know, polishing.

I don't know what you're actually gonna improve on, to be honest. I mean, it's gotta be minimal. - Maybe Rosales takes dance lessons. I saw a lot of him dancing.

I think that he's a really good dancer already. Is he? Maybe he had a couple of drinks when I saw him dancing. Oh, yeah?

Maybe just walking. He was walking like Gumby or something? No, no. He was dancing.

Like the guy from Roger Rabbit after he got mulled over? He was dancing. No? No.

He was dancing. Okay. Well, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, you just get to run the shop now, so... No.

Yeah, no. It's done. I did too well. I shot myself in a white.

It's a done deal. No. I don't want it. Too well's an understatement.

Right, right, right. So we go out of town, and this guy fucking blows numbers out of the water like he's hosting events back-to-back Friday, Saturday night. I'm like, okay, well, you're friends. Saturday of rain, too.

Saturday night of rain. You made Chet look like Keanu. And Friday I had no parking because I was fighting with the realtors next door. And yet you still sold everything.

I'm surprised there's stuff in the shops. I evicted the realtors Friday, just so you know. You let them go? I let them out, and then you're gone.

That's fine. You know what? You do whatever you want. You keep doing those numbers, you do whatever the fuck, hey, whatever he says.

I'm not going to argue with him, you know? All right, Coop, we appreciate you taking some time here. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. I'm glad we got to get this in, so it was good.

Yeah, shoot the shit for a few minutes. Yeah. All right. That's it.

All right. Is this going to be the end of the show? I don't know what to say. Who the fuck knows?

All right. This may or may not be the end. It may be a whole separate show by itself. We could stick this in the middle.

Who knows? All right. Again, thanks, Coop. We'll talk to you later.

Bye. A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners, and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest. Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike and Mike Productions or the podcast providers, and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings.

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

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

I don't even have to try to hit the record. He's not even gonna try. We're gonna, we're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Mike. Alright.

Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast. It's gonna be like four cigars when I walked in a door. Alright, end this.

Show Notes

Please Enjoy this Memorial Day Episode Best Of A Cigar Hustlers Podcast Cigar Coop Interview