Live from the cannabis industry trade show in Vegas Jim Marty interviews Charles Warner from Cannabis & Business Magazine. Larry Mishkin reviews the Karl Denson's Tiny Universe concert. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
Live from the cannabis industry trade show in Vegas Jim Marty interviews Charles Warner from Cannabis & Business Magazine. Larry Mishkin reviews the Karl Denson's Tiny Universe concert.
https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin
https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty
https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
Jim Marty: [00:00:35] Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Deadhead Cannabis Show, Jim Marty here reporting from beautiful 65 degree Las Vegas.
Larry Mishkin: [00:00:43] This is Larry, Mishkin, reporting from 15 degrees Chicago.
Jim Marty: [00:00:50] Very good, Larry. Well, we've got a lot to tell about. We got some great guests. We did a for this one. We have Charles Warner from Cannabis Tech. Today. Cannabis . Yeah, there's a there's a little land in there. But you know, either way. Yeah. So we're here at the convention. So we're going to give you some insight on that. And maybe I'll start with the two, a few takeaways from the conference. It's the big energy does come on. And I don't know how many tens of thousands are they approaching 30000 people down there. I think they were estimating need even $35000. Yeah. And it shows up right over them shoulder to shoulder. And a lot of really big displays of really heavy duty industrial extraction equipment and things for big machines for shredding Hemp. Just absolutely fascinating. Thousands of boots. You couldn't visit every booth in the three days. It's so big. So we're at the West Gate and I've guesstimate it's a better part of a mile to go from the hotel to to where the convention floor is and then find another half mile to find your boots. That's crazy. Las Vegas, as usual. Willie Nelson had his big party the other night.
Jim Marty: [00:01:58] Yeah, I was going to say what you're describing is a far cry from the circumstances at the MGP, his conference in 2013 when I first met you, as I recall, all 700 others sat in one room for presentations and then we went downstairs. And on the second floor of the clubhouse, it's a racetrack. They had a room set up with maybe two or three aisles of exhibits at the most. And all I remember is everyone being so excited because the year before in Denver they only had a hundred people and now they had 700 people.
Jim Marty: [00:02:29] I remember the racetrack. I had a few business meetings looking down at the racetrack and the windows above. I remember the big windows from that racetrack. The other west gate used to be the Las Vegas Hilton, and that's where Elvis Presley played over 800 shows. There's a big bronze statue of Ellerson that Elvis in the center of the lobby. You feel like you're stepping back in time to the 1960s or 70s in this hotel.
Larry Mishkin: [00:02:55] You know, as much as I like to think of myself now and, you know, the stage in life is real jam band fans and, you know, the more sophisticated rock and roll music. We always talk about and everything. But the truth of the matter is, is that my very first musical concert of any kind was seeing Elvis Presley analyze the Vegas Hilton doing a dinner show, a 1972, the very short version of the story as my father, who's now a retired orthopedic surgeon. I used to go out there every year for the annual orthopedic convention and they always stayed at the licensed Vegas Hilton because the conference was right there in the same convention room. You guys are in now. And my mother was the type of person who went around and made friends with everybody. And somehow she became friends with the house manager. And when the house manager had a medical situation, he would call my father. And one day he called my father and said, if you have a few minutes, Dr. Mishkin, I need some help. One of the performers in Elvis Presley's entourage is not feeling well. My dad left the conference and went with the house manager and they went up to the top floor of your hotel into the play was called the Elvis Presley Suite. My dad had an opportunity to tend to the sick member of the entourage. And as they were walking out, my dad said it was it was the biggest species' ever seen in his life.
Larry Mishkin: [00:04:05] Way over in the corner by a window standing all by himself was a guy. And the manager turns and says, Yep, that's all the associates. Her dad gave a little wave. They went back downstairs and the manager was very thankful to my dad. How would you like two tickets for the Elvis Presley show? And my dad said, Can we get four? Manager said, Sure. And he tried to take in my mom. I was maybe 10 years old at the time, and my brother and I were back in St. Lewis thing with our grandparents while our parents were in Las Vegas. And the next thing I knew, we were being hustled onto an airplane. Just my brother and I, we'd never flown by ourselves before. We flew out to Las Vegas, washed up, changed and went right downstairs to the ballroom. We had the big fancy dinner and then the big ballroom and one of those big boost with the high rounded back. And they all the plates and everything, and they set up the stage. And the next thing I knew there was Elvis Presley up on stage wearing the jumpsuit outfit, throwing his scarves into the crowd, the girls all rushing up to the front of the stage. I may have been too young at that moment to fully appreciate it. But looking back on it, it was quite an experience. And so I can say I saw a hundred ten dead shows, but I saw an Elvis show, too.
Jim Marty: [00:05:06] You got to see the king. Do you remember any of the songs?
Larry Mishkin: [00:05:09] Very, very vaguely. I do remember that they played You Ain't Nothin But a Hound Dog, because there may have been the only real Elvis Presley tune I recognized at the time. But you just played one song after another, and after every song he passes that. New star fathers the audience in turn around, around and to have a drink and he'd come back. But I do remember at the end of the show, right when it was all done, he finished his final note. He hold up the curtain. He slipped out underneath it. And 30 seconds later, we got the announcement that Elvis has left the building.
Jim Marty: [00:05:37] Wow. That's a great story. Elvis most Cannabis. My understanding is he didn't drink or smoke and he was very religious being from the south.
Larry Mishkin: [00:05:47] We learned that in the show that he was not drinking alcohol.
Jim Marty: [00:05:50] Yes. Now he did. He never drank or smoked. He trusted his doctors, which is why he died of the pills that he was taking and contributed to his obesity. He was only 42 when he died. Yes, that's right. I do believe so. Anyways, Charles, so tell us about Cannabis InTech today. How long has it been around? What is your focus?
Charles Warner: [00:06:11] So we have been around. We're going on two years now. I've been in the magazine business for a long time. I've done really high end event publications, the World Series program, the Bowl Games. I've done PGA Championships. Yes, I was used to making really nice magazines that people would hang on to and keep for a laptop. Now, all of a sudden, I got out of sports and we really went into into tech about five, five years ago. And we launched a magazine called Innovation in Tech today, covering all the stuff that, you know, people people kind of care about, you know, from gaming to entertain, made cybersecurity smart, all that stuff. And being a part owner of this Cannabis tech company in Denver, right in the epicenter of all this. Cannabis business, we realized maybe we should do a Cannabis Tech magazine. You know, there are lots of magazines out there in their great magazines. And, you know, we like them all, but a lot of them are lifestyle focused, a lot of them where, you know, a little bit different.
Charles Warner: [00:07:05] And we wanted to make a really high quality, you know, kick ass $10 magazine that would speak to the innovation and the tech and the business and make it the same kind of quality as those, you know, keepsake magazines, that is, you know, like at the Super Bowl or the World Series. You go to stuff like that, you know, throw that away.
Larry Mishkin: [00:07:23] And I just jump in for one minute here. I just have to tell you now that I know who you are, my wife doesn't like you. She hasn't met you, but she doesn't like you because my basement is filled with those magazines from the World Series, from college, bowl games from the NHL and NBA playoffs. I've got so many of those magazines they saved in my basement. She doesn't know what to do with the ball.
Charles Warner: [00:07:45] She did a good job. We think print works better when it doesn't get thrown away.
Jim Marty: [00:07:48] So I'm looking at his magazines and they're beautiful, glossy, super high quality print and pictures. Very nice magazine. So is this your first MJB, this car?
Charles Warner: [00:08:00] No. So this is probably and here and you guys go back. It would be great to be a fly on the wall. You know, for the first MJB is listening to guys talk about it. I think we quinces maybe three. So we've seen it grow quite a bit too, but not to the extent you guys. All right. So what are your takeaways then? Have you been to any of the parties? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Couple. You know, the thing is, there's almost like to two sides of the coin and MJB is, you know, you've got the work you do on the show floor and you tell your clients you're selling your networking, whatever you're doing. And then there's a whole nother shift afterwards. And that's, you know, after you leave the committees that are also sometimes it's tough, you know, getting up there in age a little bit. It's tough to to go out, hit all the parties. But my takeaway is it's becoming very similar to CBS. Like you said, there's so much stuff. There's a lot of great technical people showing off all of their gear and everything like that. And it's very professional, you know, very kind of business oriented. I mean, I've seen a lot of business being done. I mean, it's that it's the big kahuna right now, for sure. As I said before, you can't even visit every booth and spend five or 10 minutes at every booth. You wouldn't have enough time in the day. And even the traffic, you know, getting here. We're not stay very far away, but it's just there. We're all somebody will be that I guess about 10 or 15 years ago, they doubled the size of the convention center, but they didn't change the roads. He's got twice as many people in there and the same sized roads. And so it gets a little congested. It's a really cool event. I think it's important for the industry.
Jim Marty: [00:09:31] It is. It's the big kahuna. I mean, there's lots of weather. You could go to one of these every weekend. But this is really the biggest one of the year. Yeah.
Larry Mishkin: [00:09:38] Let me ask you this, if I can. As in any new industry, it's not uncommon to see a bunch of references. You know, magazines pop up to the wine industry, the cigar. You know, everybody's coming out with a magazine one way or another. And so let me ask you this. What distinguishes your publication from some of the others that are out there?
Charles Warner: [00:09:58] That's a great question. You know, some of the things that I think I think some magazines are a little bit misunderstood right now in the in the terms of, you know, everybody's heard Prince, dad, Prince, dad, Prince, Dan Prince that print his is evolving. Trinkaus print is now for some types of publications. Print is dead. Get your news so fast on the Internet that you maybe don't need a newspaper every day. But as far as. Publications, niche publications are doing very well. And in fact, some really big tech brands have just launched magazines, print magazines. Netflix has a print magazine, a quarterly print magazine that they have put out because they know it's a way for them to create a emotional connection with the people they're trying to reach. Basically, when you're all read magazines, they love their magazines. You look forward to getting it. You know, do you remember ever subscribing to something? And you'd go and open the mail box and you're like, damn, it's not here, you know, when it came. You're happy, though, cause you know that I remember Playboy is labeled with a real glossy pictures of beautiful women. I subscribe to that. When I was 18 in the Army.
Larry Mishkin: [00:11:00] I've been a subscriber to Sports Illustrated since I was in grade school. And year after year, I would always go running to the mailbox whenever the issue comes up. And I'm usually the one to grab it except for the issue that comes out the weekend after the Super Bowl. That's the swimsuit issue.
Larry Mishkin: [00:11:16] And my wife is the one waiting in front to make sure she grabs it so that my younger son still get their hands on it.
Dan Humiston: [00:11:24] I want to take a quick break to thank you for listening to today's show as the leading Cannabis podcast network. We're constantly adding new Cannabis podcasts to support our industry's growth. And that's why we're so excited to announce our newest podcast, The Cannabis Breakout. The show's about the thousands of Americans who remain in prison for violating Cannabis laws that have long since been overturned. The Cannabis breakout gives Cannabis political prisoners a voice. If you're a former Cannabis prisoner or have a loved one who is a Cannabis prisoner, we want to share your story. Please go to MJBulls.com and sign up to be a guest.
Jim Marty: [00:12:04] Larry, I understand that you've been doing some musical things.
Larry Mishkin: [00:12:07] Well, that's true, Jim. I was lucky enough to be out in San Francisco recently for you and our listeners, who may recall my good friend Andy Greenberg from society, Jane, who was a guest on the show recently. Her husband, Alex Whelan's, works for an outfit called The Blue Shirt. And he and his business were celebrating their 20th anniversary. We flew out there to support Alex on Thursday night. They hosted their party at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, which was certainly a venue at which the dead played a number of stellar shows. And the house band for the night was Carl Danson's Traini Universe. And for those who have never heard of Carl Benson, his day job is being the saxophone player for the Rolling Stones when they on tour. He tours with them as their saxophone players. So this is a guy who's been in the industry for a long, long time, knows everybody, knows everything. And he's put together a band that's just absolutely incredible. Some great guitar players, a couple of drummers, really good bass player. And he, of course, plays the sax. And I've seen him on a number of frames. And what would he typically tends to do is play a lot of other people's music. So one year down at Jazz Fest, we went and saw his show and they were covering exile on Main Street.
Larry Mishkin: [00:13:21] We saw them two years ago down there and they were doing primarily covering the Allman Brothers. And both times I was impressed because you almost think that they were playing it better than the people themselves for this show. They just went through and played a bunch of fan favorites and everything. But the music is so tight and the songs are wonderful. Jim just kind of stretched out and about and you get that saxophone right in the middle of it. And it was really such a tremendous show and it's such a great venue that it was far from full because they had they had rented it out for this party. The highlight of the evening clearly for everyone, including my friend Alex. He has two boys and his youngest son, Max, is a saxophone player. They apparently had worked it out in advance. And at one point, Carl Denson called young Max Whelan's, who's I don't know if he's a sophomore or junior at Boulder up onto the stage. Max was a little bit of big time saxophone playing experience, went up there and joined the band for a cover of Shakedown Street, which is, of course, one of my favorite dead tunes.
Larry Mishkin: [00:14:19] I was playing marvelous, marvelous, marvelously.
Larry Mishkin: [00:14:22] But but clearly, Max stole the show. Here's a kid who's maybe in his early twenties at most. And he was standing right up there next to probably one of the most famous rock saxophone players out there, more than holding his own and really jam and having a great time, tremendous stage presence. We were all blown away. And at the end of the show, he got the official double thumbs up by first getting the fist bump from Carl Denson. Then over the microphone, invited Max to stay up and play with them for the rest of the set. If you've never seen Carl dance or even if you have, once he and his band from anywhere near where you are, that's a show you need to go see and you need to be a part of it. And it will change your life. There that good. And really the best thing was it was such a small crowd. Perhaps the show I was literally standing right up in the very front, two feet away from the stage, which is a perspective that I rarely get it. Fisher The Grateful Dead, given how hard it is to get anywhere that close to the stage and you see these guys doing their thing was amazing. Their keyboard player was playing a Hammond being. To really get it right up front there and see that thing in action was spectacular.
Jim Marty: [00:15:26] Well, that's great. Still got a couple more days here in Las Vegas at the show, Larry. Anything else?
Larry Mishkin: [00:15:32] Not a whole lot new going on here in Illinois. We're getting close to the deadline for the dispensary applications. We're at that stage where there's a lot of tell it, a lot of worry. Telephone poles going back and forth among attorneys, consultants, accountants. You understand what they're really asking for for Exhibit J. We have to do it this way. Do we have to do it that way? So, you know, we're all of a sudden really just puts down their guard. We'll talk to anybody, see if you can give me the answer if you can help me out. You're my new best friend. I will tell you this. The state just awarded the first to cultivation licenses to purchase existing medical growers, allowing them to start growing adult use Cannabis. And it really kind of came out of left field and nobody was expecting it until it was announced. And then the state kind of belatedly added, well, we think we're going to do on the growth side what we did on the dispensary side, which is if you have a license, we'll give you another one. The good news from our perspective is, is that that's two more cultivators who will be out there growing and hopefully contributing to the supply that is going to be desperately needed around here after the first of the year.
Jim Marty: [00:16:33] Yes, it certainly will be. And I'm I'm glad to hear that because they're not going to have enough supply. And I always say to my aunt, lines that bridge west, get to know your regulator, their people, too. And even though they're there to enforce the rules, they want to work with people they like, know and trust like everyone else. And so it's important to get to know your regulators. So when they're handing out an additional license in a emergency situation almost in Illinois, where they're not going to have enough product to give those license to the people that they're worthless for 10 years and that they know run compliant shops will pick this up on the next Deadhead in the show because we have more to talk about in Michigan and Illinois as the Midwest really cranks up with medical and adult use. Cannabis. So thank you very much, Chuck. Thanks for having me.
Larry Mishkin: [00:17:22] Please keep us up to date on what's going on with your magazine. Be very interesting to be reading it now going forward. Thank you.
Jim Marty: [00:17:27] And that's Cannabis. In fact, Technology magazine, I'd love for the Deadhead Cannabis show. This is Jim Marty saying over and out.
Larry Mishkin: [00:17:34] Thanks, similary, Michigan saying goodbye to everybody. Have a good day.
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