Category Archives: Celebrity Cigar Chat

by Craig Vanderslice | May 26, 2023 · 7:25 pm

A Video Interview with Marvin Samel, Writer and Director of iMordecai

I first met Marvin at a local cigar shop back in 2009, it’s when I smoked Liga Privada No. 9 for the first time. I enjoyed seeing Marvin at events over the years, but it’s been quite a few years since we talked. When I heard he was making a movie, I was excited. When I heard iMordecai was available on Amazon, I watched it immediately. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, it was relatable and quite touching. Here is my discussion with Marvin.

Here is the trailer:

I highly recommend seeing iMordecai, it’s available on Amazon and Apple TV. Thank you to Marvin for taking the time, and to Matty Rock for connecting us.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Celebrity Cigar Chat, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, iMordecai, Marvin Samel

by CigarCraig | January 17, 2014 · 6:14 pm

CigarCraig’s Celebrity Cigar Chat with Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown

Back in the 1980’s I worked in a record store. For you youngins, “records” were the media that stored our music. We also had “tapes” and eventually “CDs”. Now we have MP3s and no record stores to speak of! Anyway, this is where I first encountered the band Savoy Brown. Kim Simmonds founded the band in England in the mid-60s, when Blues was all the rage. My guess is that they were influenced by many of the same American blues artists who influenced other English groups of the same time. Perhaps Kim will leave a comment and expand on that! Anyway, nearly fifty years later and Kim Simmonds is still touring the US with Savoy Brown, now calling New York home. A few months ago he followed me on Twitter, which I took to mean he may have an interest in cigars. Further conversations confirmed this and I’m honored to say that he is a reader of CigarCraig.com! I’ve been overdue for a Celebrity Cigar Chat installment, so I imposed upon him to take a few minutes out of his schedule to answer a few cigar questions for us!

1. How and when did you come to be a cigar smoker?

I’ve never thought about that question until now. I’m thinking it was back in the 70’s in London when I started smoking cigars. All the pubs sold them from behind the bar (Hamlet was one brand) and I’d have the occasional one with a beer. It was just a natural pairing…a beer and a cigar.

I’ve been playing music now for 50 years come 2015 and it’s strange what sticks in your mind…..one memory is of a Decca Record Company executive pulling out an expensive cigar from his desk humidor, at a meeting we were having, and soon the office was full of Cuban aromas. I must have been in my early 20’s but I can still taste that marvelous cigar now!

2. What is your “goto” cigar? What is it you like most about that cigar and how long has it been your favorite?

My cigar smoking is pretty much like my guitar playing and my music…it changes every day (I like to keep things fresh for myself and the audience).

That being said I always had a preference for the old H.Upmann’s. I must have tried the new brand but I’m not sure…I do have it in mind to buy a five pack and find out what they are like these days. I did smoke a “Havoc” from that company fairly recently and was surprised the band looked so average. The cigar itself was okay.

Recently my “go to” cigar has been the “Vegas 5 A series”. I got some at a good price from CI and they have a nice taste, don’t knock my head off and are smooth. I’ve enjoyed those cigars, off and on, for over two years now.

I like a smooth cigar be it mild, medium or strong. I don’t inhale…it’s a matter of taste rather one of nicotine buzz. I used to only enjoy mild cigars but so many of those have no taste so I have gone to a more medium cigar as a general rule.

I like Montecristo whites and Cohiba Red Dots but rarely smoke them as I’m always looking for a $2.00 bargain!

I like your blog because it gives me ideas for cigars to smoke other than the usual I might run into.

3. What is your ideal situation for enjoying a cigar?

In the summer sitting on my patio with my dogs (well, dog now..my eldest passed away)….nothing beats it. For that matter….sitting in the summer with a cigar on anyone’s patio!

I also like smoking a cigar on the road with my band mates. It’s a way for us to relax together and share time together other than professionally.

And quite often in the winter, I will go for a drive simply to smoke a cigar and let my thoughts clear up problems or give me ideas. I live in the country so traffic is minimal.

4. Do you have the opportunity to enjoy cigars while touring? Do you search out local shops or lounges?

That’s one of the highlights of touring! As a band we all seek out a cigar lounge wherever we are and that ends up being the most relaxing time during stressful tours. And it’s fun, at the lounges, trying a cigar you might not normally smoke.

5. If you could hang out and smoke a cigar with anyone, living or dead, who would that be, why, and what cigar would you smoke?

That’s a no brainer. Sir Winston Churchill. A monumental presence in British political history and someone I grew up admiring for his strength and fortitude. Also, like me, he is a painter and his book on the subject inspired me years ago. And, of course, we would smoke a Romeo y Julieta!!!

Thank you Kim, for taking the time to give us a little glimpse into your cigar passion, and thank you for following along with my adventures! I seriously hope to be able to have a cigar with you one of these days, and you can bet I’ll be looking for a Philly area show to come to! You can read more about Savoy Brown and Kim at their website: http://www.savoybrown.com/ and get the music on iTunes and Amazon. It’s a lot of fun when passions collide!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as celebrity, cigar, cigars, Kim Simmonds, Savoy Brown

by CigarCraig | August 4, 2013 · 12:58 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Acid Shorty, Natural Shorty, San Bajito Robusto and Shorty Rossi

The IPCPR show always seems to have it’s share of celebrities, Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted at the show on the first day (not by me!) as well as Mike Ditka, and previous years have seen the likes of Ron White and Dennis Rodman walking the floor. Shorty Rossi, the star of Animal Planet’s Pit Boss, has also been a fixture at the show for a few years. I met up with him this time and he took a few minutes to tell me about some of his new cigar offerings being distributed through Meier and Dutch, which is the wholesale arm of Cigars International. I had the opportunity to smoke a couple of them this week, here’s what I thought:

The Acid line isn’t one I gravitate to, I can usually smell them a mile away, and except for a late night Kuba Kuba Maduro in Nicaragua a few years ago, I haven’t really had too much to say about the line. I’ve been to the factory, I’m confident that they use the finest materials, and I know they are rolled very well. So I was a little hesitant to choose the Acid Shorty Friday evening for my walk, after a long week I usually select a “sure thing” from the humidor. This is a 4″x 60 cigar with a very sweet cap, candy sweet, diabetic coma inducing sweet. It also had an herbal aroma off the foot. It turned out that this was a very nice cigar. It didn’t have the cloying incense, aroma-therapy kind of flavor I expected. It was medium bodied with a nice, sweet tobacco flavor. I enjoyed this cigar once the sweet cap was gone. I’d smoke this again.

Also from the Drew Estate factory is the Natural Shorty. This is a 4″x 50, a little more manageable than the 60 ring, and the perfect size for a rainy Saturday afternoon walk. Again, the sweet gum on the head was overwhelming. This is “short and sweet” taken to the extreme. I’ve smoke a few of the Naturals, but none recently, and I remember them using some fairly unique tobaccos, Turkish, maybe some Perique or something from Louisiana or something. This is one that I wished was longer, because it was a nice smoke, again, once the sweet cap was gone. Unique, for certain. Again, I’d smoke this again, but I’d probably try to wipe some of the sugar off first…it’s just too much for me.

Shorty Rossi made his first entry into the cigar world with Cigar International‘s Diesel Shorty. I didn’t have any of those, although I like the Diesel line in general. He does have a line called San Bajito, and Niko of Meier and Dutch (and also a regular on the Over a Cigar show on Blogtalk Radio) was kind enough to provide me with a 4½” x 60 robusto. I enjoyed this cigar after dinner on the patio. This cigar is made in Nicaragua, and was a really nice, smooth, flavorful smoke. I got a nice sweet tobacco flavor at one point, no sweet cap on this one, just nice, sweet tobacco. I want to smoke more of these, especially after a few months time-out in the humidor. Shorty did a nice job blending this cigar.

Have a look at the video, Shorty give us some insight into how he ended up in the cigar industry as well how he got into the dog rescue business.

One of the things I appreciate about all Shorty’s cigars is that a portion of the proceeds go toward his Pit Bull rescue. The dog pictured above, the one I walk every night, is actually my youngest son’s dog. She is a Pit Bull/LAb mix that we got from our local SPCA. She’s a sweet dog whose enthusiasm can be mis-interpreted as aggression, but she really just loves everyone. We think she may have been given up because, we were to find out, she has seizures, and is now on medication to control them. So I believe in Shorty’s Pit Bull mission, and wish him continued success. His dog, Hercules, was there throughout the show and provided some comic relief at one point when he cleared the booth with a gaseous emission. I wish I had the video recording for that!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Celebrity Cigar Chat, IPCPR, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk, Video

Tagged as chateau real, cigar, cigars, drew estate, IPCPR, Pit Boss, San Bajito, Shorty Rossi

by CigarCraig | January 25, 2012 · 9:13 pm

CigarCraig’s Celebrity Cigar Chat with Brian Propp

I haven’t done a Celebrity Cigar Chat in a while, and what better way to launch the new and improved CigarCraig.com. Brian Propp has been a fixture on the Smoke Magazine tasting panel for a while and I figured I’d reach out to him with a couple questions. For those of you who don’t know, here’s a bio from his website:

Brian Propp was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round in 1979, and launched an outstanding career in the National Hockey League that spanned three decades. The first round pick joined the Flyers team in 1979 and made an immediate impact on a line with Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach. The Flyer’s recorded a record 35 games without a defeat that season. A complete player in all aspects of the game, Propp put up his best scoring totals during the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons, accumulating 97 points in each season. Propp was elected to the Flyers Hall of Fame in 1999.

He is currently the Vice President of Strategic Account Management at The Judge Group. The Judge Group specializes in technology consulting, enterprise-wide staffing, corporate training and unified communications.

1. When did you start enjoying premium cigars?

“I started smoking cigars after my daughter’s birth in 1996. I usually have them when I am playing golf.”

2. What are some of your favorite cigars?

” My two favorite cigars are Hoyo de Monterrey double coronas and Montecristo # 2’s.”

3. What do you find most interesting or challenging about being on the Smoke Magazine tasting panel?

“I believe that it is interesting to be on a Smoke Magazine tasting panel because of the different tastes and types of cigars. The challenging part is that most countries have improved their product so it is tough to rate the different cigars.”

4. If you blended your own cigar, what traits and flavors would you try to achieve?

“I would like to have a cigar that was consistently well rolled with mild-medium taste with earthy yet chocolate flavor.”

5. How do you like the Flyers Cup chances this year?

“I have seen the Flyer’s this year score a lot of goals. They are very fast and have a nice mix of veterans and young players. If they get great goaltending down the stretch they will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this year.”

Thanks, Propper, for taking the time to answer my questions. I always enjoyed watching you play, then listening to you on the radio when you did the color commentary for the Flyers games. I hope everyone enjoyed this brief glimpse into the cigar life of a celebrity!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as celebrity, cigar, cigars, Flyers, hockey, Smoke

by CigarCraig | January 15, 2011 · 9:47 am

Cigar Beatles – A Guest Article by Jennifer Vanderslice – Sunday January 16, 2011

The following article was written by my wife, Jennifer, in the spring of 2008. Since it’s original publication, Jenn received information from a descendant of the Morrita Cigar Company saying that they never produced Beatles banded cigars and the examples pictured in the article were counterfeits. I’ve reprinted it here with my thanks for allowing me and only minor formatting changes.

My Two Loves

By Jennifer L. Vanderslice

I believe that everyone at some point in time would love to be able to find a link, if not combine, two passions that seem unrelated to one another. Take for example the “Seinfeld” episode called “The Blood” where George decides to combine sex with food. My two hobbies, the Beatles and an occasional cigar will meet this summer in Las Vegas when my husband and I attend LOVE: Cirque du Soleil and attend the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers convention. I had to wonder if I there were any other connections between the Beatles and Cigars.

What really kick started my search is the current issue of “Cigar Magazine”, with an article titled “Hey! You’ve Got to Hide Your Smokes Away” and subtitled, “There is nothing fab about these beetles!” Not only did the editor choose to reference the Beatles in the title, there is also a beautiful caricature by Christine Fusco of “The Beatles” as cigar beetles. Even though the article’s author, Frank Seltzer, who happens to be a good friend and also a Beatles fan, makes no mention of the Fab Four, it did set me on my quest to find more of the connections that I crave.

But I would need…Help!

It was time for an email to my good friend and cigar expert, Mitchell Orchant, in London. Mitchell owns CGars Ltd., and Turmeaus, the oldest and only cigar store in Liverpool. Turmeaus opened in 1817, and one can’t help but imagine the Fab Four going in as lads in the 1950’s and 60’s to buy their fags. I haven’t yet been able to get a story from Mitch, but I know that hidden within those 190-year-old walls is a story about four young lads from Liverpool who made it big!

My first search of the internet on these distant topics brought about some surprising results… bands! No, not the musical bands, but the paper rings on cigars. In the 1960’s several companies, including Murillo and Morrita, put out sets of cigar bands with images of the Beatles on them. These are known to fetch a pretty penny at online auctions. I decided to send out another email to inquire about these. I emailed Tony Hyman, owner of the National Cigar Museum. Though he admitted his expertise was in US-Canada and Cuban cigar related items, he could tell me that labels like these were created strictly for collecting. He said you could tell by the fact that there is no white tab on the ends for gluing. He also made another interesting point: In the 1960’s, the majority of Beatles fans were teenage girls and why would teenage girls want cigar bands? This might explain why these types of labels are so rare today!

Still, these beautiful treasures did not provide me with the links I wanted. So my search continued. The next door that I opened was an email to my fellow Beatles Freak and the host of Breakfast with the Beatles, Andre Gardner. He told me of a photograph of George Harrison and Ringo Starr dressed in tuxedos and smoking cigars. This photo (which is available for purchase at www.rockartshow.com) was taken on March 23, 1964 at the Carl-Alan Awards where the Beatles were presented with two awards and were also informed that they were the recipients of three Ivor Nivello Awards. Sounds like a good cause for a celebration!

Another photograph, taken by Terry O’Neill in 1965 shows Ringo standing in front of 10 Downing Street in London with a large cigar clutched between his teeth and flashing his customary peace sign with his left hand. Even though I have not been unable to find an explanation of this photo, it did reaffirm that Ringo did enjoy a fine cigar now and then. But does he still indulge this passion? And if he does, it may be time for me to email the editors of Cigar Aficionado and ask why Ringo Starr has not graced their cover?

It’s been interesting to find cigar references in other places in Beatles history. In 1968, the movie “Yellow Submarine” was released. In it there is a scene called “Sea of Monsters”. As the Yellow Submarine (with the Beatles contained within) travels through the sea of monsters, they encounter a boxing dinosaur in a green polka dotted jacket. In order to avoid being ‘knocked out’, they stuff a cigar (with a flowered band) into the dinosaur’s mouth and light it by flipping up the top of the submarine like a Zippo. While this is all happening, Bach’s ‘Air on a G-string’ begins playing right before the cigar explodes. When asked about this scene, George Martin has admitted that they used that particular piece of music as a reference to Hamlet Cigars, who’s use of Bach’s Air on a G-string in their ads is well known throughout the U.K.

So is George Martin (sometimes referred to as the 5^th Beatle) a cigar lover too? Not according to his son, Giles. “Wow- that’s obscure!… No my dad has never smoked cigars!” was his reply when asked.

And is it coincidence that the motto for Hamlet Cigars is “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet”? After a little research I found that the similarity to the song “Happiness is a Warm Gun” are just coincidental. John Lennon got his title from the cover of a gun magazine.

During a 1966 interview with John Lennon and Paul McCartney for Flip Magazine, a DJ named Jim Savilla walked into the dressing room and sat down. John commented to Jim that he wasn’t smoking. Jim replied that George had complained about the dressing room being filled with smog. After John declared, “That was George”, Jim promptly lit up a large cigar. Interesting that it was George Harrison, a chain smoker, who had complained and John who approved. So I shot off a quick email to author and Beatles expert, Larry Kane. When asked whether or not he knew if John was a cigar smoker, his reply was short, “As far as I know…he did not.” Not quite satisfied with this answer, I emailed John’s former girlfriend, May Pang. She sent a note back within the day stating, “John did not smoke cigars. He barely liked the cigarettes he was smoking.” Ah, isn’t it just as you would imagine it to be…John being so open and accepting of others and their vices?

It was now time for me to move on to Paul McCartney and this is where my panic set in! When I thought about it, I realized that Paul McCartney lives in sort of a bubble world that we can only see the outside. Getting inside his world to talk to his people was going to be a little difficult. And Paul is an ex-cigarette smoker, but even ex-smokers still smoke an occasional cigar.

I started out by sending a note to famed photographer Jorie Gracen (Paul McCartney: I Saw Him Standing There). She may have seen him standing there, but she never saw Paul smoke a cigar. Another email went out to Paul Gambaccini, the author of “Paul McCartney: In His Own Words” and “The McCartney Interviews: After the Break-Up”. Even with all his research and knowledge on Paul McCartney, his reply was, “Wow. I’ve never heard this question before. Unfortunately, I haven’t a clue how to answer it, either!” Hmm…maybe he’ll put my question in his next book of interviews.

While researching this piece, I sent queries to Paul’s people at MPL Communications and Ringo’s people, but haven’t received a reply as of this writing. When (more like ‘if’) their peeps contact my peeps, I will add an addendum to this article. I’m really not expecting one though with Ringo touring and Paul planning an upcoming tour.

After two weeks, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that my search for a link between my two loves, the Beatles and cigars, is coming up null. I don’t consider this a defeat though.