Friday set up to be a hot and muggy day and it did not disappoint. The smoking tent was set up by noon and people began taking advantage of it almost immediately. We were able to get some occasional relief from the humidity by opening the doors to the casino and letting copious amounts of cool air pour into the tent area.
A significant number of vendors took advantage of our Friday night check in to go ahead and set up their display for Saturday. This also results in a smoother Saturday check in because there are fewer people to check in.
The first thing we did was begin the Friday Night Buffet. Our buffet was different this year. Instead of having a catered event in a room reserved just for us we went with the stand Argosy Buffet. For $20 our guests got an all you can eat crab legs buffet. Not too shabby.
About 7:30PM we began our program with Mark Ryan on Perique tobacco. Mark’s story of how Perique tobacco was saved is just riveting. Mark and his company were able to save a bankrupt company from disappearing and to get the very few Perique farmers in the world on to a much more profitable footing. It is an intriguing story told with sincerity. The story ended much too soon when someone insisted on interjecting questions about the upcoming issues with the FDA. It was a shame because everyone was enjoying Mark’s story and nobody cares about the FDA issue.
After the Perique session we opened up the Vintage Tobacco Table. We had a 30 year old tin of Rattray’s Red Rapparee (supplied by Quinton Wells), a 30 year old tine of MacBaren’s London Burley (donated by Carl Staudenmyer), a 12 year old tin of G.L. Pease’s Bohemian Scandal, and a 30 year old tin of Drucquer’s Vintage Dry. I wish I could explain how good these tobaccos were. The highlight to me is when I opened the tin of Vintage Dry former Drucquer’s employee back in the day, Greg Pease, came running up to inspect the Vintage Dry. He said that it was almost certainly blended by him and it did have that signature smoky Latakia flavor that Greg has in so many of his blends.
After that we settled down to a fine evening of conversation and beverages.
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Tyler Beard & Posse
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CC from Left, Andy Petersen (in red), Scott Klein, Nate King, Jerry Crawford, Premal Chheda, and Mike Sandoval
If you would like to see a Photobucket slideshow of photos from Friday night go to
Friday Night at the KC Pipe Show
Saturday and the show doors opened. The day got started with a very smooth check-in process greatly aided by the number of people who checked in Friday night.
I wish I had a picture of how much space was available in the show hall. The two main horizontal aisles must have been 20 feet across each. Naturally everyone loved all the extra space.
About this time we realized that there were two unoccupied tables. These tables belonged to Nick Miller. Sadly we learned that Nick would not be coming as his mother had passed away. All of us that know Nick know he is one of the true gentleman in our hobby and we send him our deepest condolences.
Attendance wasn’t as strong through the day as we would have liked but this happens when you change venues. Fortunately those that came were buying.
We were thrilled that 25 North American carvers elected to attend our show. This is the most carvers we have ever had.
As the day wore on it became time to announce the winning carvers. Amazingly 5 of the winners were at the show. I am not sure but I think the most we have ever had in attendance at a show was 2. Anyway the winning carvers in alphabetical order by first name:
Colin Rigsby
Jesse Jones
Nate King
Premal Chheda
Rad Davis
Ryan Alden
Tyler Beard
They say nice guys finish last but I don’t think you could find seven nicer guys in the hobby.
Before anyone asks, no pictures of these pipes are to be released until after they appear in the fall issue of Pipes & Tobacco magazine. This is another good reason to subscribe to P&T.
Three of the winning carvers reside in Texas and another resides in the Texas Upper Peninsula.
There was something like 56 pipes entered in the contest. I have no idea how anybody judges a contest when the shape is a “classic billiard”. I was told by people other than the judges that if you remove all the ones that were really not billiards (i.e. stacks, pots, Canadians, non-round shanks etc, that this contest would be not that tough to judge. So they say. It just looked like a mass of wonderfully carved pipes to me.
I thought it was so cool that Kevin Godbee bought Scottie Piersel’s contest entry. He had some neat pictures taken of her and him with the pipe. Kevin was kind enough to send me the pictures so I could publish them. At this point it dawns on me I can’t publish these photos until the contest pipes appear in the next issue of Pipes & Tobaccos magazine. Here’s on with the pipe cropped out.
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Scottie Piersel and Kevin Godbee
I have always tried to buy one of the non-winning contest pipes as a show of support to the submitting carvers. I truly loath straight pipes and billiards in particular so I had to look hard to find one that I would enjoy. I did buy one that I found to have unique style and design work from Olie Sylvester. I may be a dullard but my pipes don’t have to be.
At 5PM we closed the hall and moved into our evening activities. A number of people went to the tent to have bowl and a beverage.
At 6:30PM the banquet room and cash bar opened. We had about 75 people in attendance for this. The meal was extremely good. We had a small filet and a small chicken breast plus some al dente string beans. The filet as cooked to perfection and the chicken had an herb rub on that made it spicy and good.
At my table we had two people present last second requests for different meals. One wanted a vegetarian meal and the other wanted a gluten free meal. To my amazement the banquet staff never blinked when I asked them if they could do that. In less than 15 minutes they brought these people there meals. The veggie stir fry looked fabulous.
Then Steve Fallon was introduced as the Speaker for the evening. Steve did his shtick and it was hilarious. It is one those things were you have to be there to appreciate. He will introduce luminaries in the pipe world and ask them awkward questions. Killer stuff.
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Steve Fallon, The Waco Warbler
You really need to have been there when he had Brian Levine discussed his visit to KC. Brian is a huge Disney collector and he went to the old building in KC that was where Walt Disney started his first studio called the “Laff Factory”. The building is one step short of collapsing, so Brian had no trouble picking up half a brick from the building for his collection of Disneyiana. Brian also picked up another brick while he was in town, but you will have to ask him about that.
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Fallon, Brian Levine & the Laff Factory Brick
After Steve finished his wonderful talk Carl Staudenmyer presented Steve one of our hand written plaques by Mike Sull in recognition of all that he has done for the pipe hobby and the GKCPC in particular.
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Call also presented a similar award to John Cermak, our past president, for his contributions.
Once the banquet ended we had a drawing for a wonderful Icarus pipe donated by the Briar Works International. The pipe was by Jeanne Stein who is the wife and distinctly the better half of member Steve Stein.
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Jeanne & Steve Steve
Here is a link to a lot more photos from the banquet in a photobucket.com slide show.
KC Pipe Show Banquet
Then we adjoined to the smoking tent.
Sunday and the show doors opened again.
The first event of the day was the slow smoking competition. Ten competitors joined Steve Butler at the smoking tent to test their skill. The three winners were:
Dave Houfek – 53.14
Mitch Denny - 49.25
Vlad Jirinec - 48.02
Dave received a wonder Neptune pipe from Briar Works International. Mitch got a nice Big Pipe, and Vlad got two tins of club tobacco.
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Slow Smoke Director Steve Butler with winner Dave Houfek, Mitch Denny 2nd and Vlad Jirinec 3rd.
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Close Up of Slow Smoke First Prize - a Neptune Pipe from Briar Works International.
Later we announced the Best in Show awards that went to:
Best Pipe - Bob Shadur’s Tom Eltang Pipe
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Eltang Pipe with Beautiful Birdseye
Best Non-Briar - Dru Melpolder
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Dru Melpolder's Tactical Pipe
Best Collection - Steve Stein
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Joe Ketcherside with Steve Stein
Best Display - Scott Thile
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Carl Staudenmyer, Scott Thile & Joe Ketcherside
Best Carver - Lee Von Erck
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Carl, Lee Von Erck & Joe K.
Then we moved on to the main event. The drawing to see who would take home the coveted Seven Day Set of winners from the Carving Competition is always highly anticipated. For the fifth time in a row the drawing was won by someone who attended the show.
And defying all odds for the fifth time in a row the winner was someone whose first name was some variation of “Bob”. In this case the winner was Bobby Fabian of Austin, TX. Congratulations, Bobby.
At this point, the show wound down into the obligatory packing and saying good bye.
I bought too many pipes. I got one from Andy Petersen, Scott Klein, Scottie Piersel, Ramazan Tufan and Olie Sylvester. I also picked up some clay pipes from Kelly Kruggel at Old German Clay Pipes.
The Venue was amazing. Moving to the Argosy Casino & Hotel was a smash hit with just about everyone who attended. I don’t even know where to begin. The staff of the Argosy could not have treated us any better. They bent over backward to make everyone’s stay enjoyable. Go listen to the Episode 93 podcast on pipesmagazine.com. Fast forward to 1:04:20 and listen to Brian Levine talk about the place. He was not exaggerating.
The open air balcony outside the exhibit gave the smokers who needed a quick place to go to have a puff while offering them a wonderful view of the Missouri River and the downtown skyline.
Smokers on Outdoor Balcony
About the only thing hard to figure out were the shower controls. And lookout the main shower head is directly above you. The showers were so large that you and your sweetie could shower at the same time and remain celibate.
Every employee we met always greeted you with a smile and a greeting. This was apparently a no-frowning zone.
Here's a link to a photobucket slideshow of the show itself.
SLideshow of KC Pipe Show
A significant number of vendors took advantage of our Friday night check in to go ahead and set up their display for Saturday. This also results in a smoother Saturday check in because there are fewer people to check in.
The first thing we did was begin the Friday Night Buffet. Our buffet was different this year. Instead of having a catered event in a room reserved just for us we went with the stand Argosy Buffet. For $20 our guests got an all you can eat crab legs buffet. Not too shabby.
About 7:30PM we began our program with Mark Ryan on Perique tobacco. Mark’s story of how Perique tobacco was saved is just riveting. Mark and his company were able to save a bankrupt company from disappearing and to get the very few Perique farmers in the world on to a much more profitable footing. It is an intriguing story told with sincerity. The story ended much too soon when someone insisted on interjecting questions about the upcoming issues with the FDA. It was a shame because everyone was enjoying Mark’s story and nobody cares about the FDA issue.
After the Perique session we opened up the Vintage Tobacco Table. We had a 30 year old tin of Rattray’s Red Rapparee (supplied by Quinton Wells), a 30 year old tine of MacBaren’s London Burley (donated by Carl Staudenmyer), a 12 year old tin of G.L. Pease’s Bohemian Scandal, and a 30 year old tin of Drucquer’s Vintage Dry. I wish I could explain how good these tobaccos were. The highlight to me is when I opened the tin of Vintage Dry former Drucquer’s employee back in the day, Greg Pease, came running up to inspect the Vintage Dry. He said that it was almost certainly blended by him and it did have that signature smoky Latakia flavor that Greg has in so many of his blends.
After that we settled down to a fine evening of conversation and beverages.
Tyler Beard & Posse
CC from Left, Andy Petersen (in red), Scott Klein, Nate King, Jerry Crawford, Premal Chheda, and Mike Sandoval
If you would like to see a Photobucket slideshow of photos from Friday night go to
Friday Night at the KC Pipe Show
Saturday and the show doors opened. The day got started with a very smooth check-in process greatly aided by the number of people who checked in Friday night.
I wish I had a picture of how much space was available in the show hall. The two main horizontal aisles must have been 20 feet across each. Naturally everyone loved all the extra space.
About this time we realized that there were two unoccupied tables. These tables belonged to Nick Miller. Sadly we learned that Nick would not be coming as his mother had passed away. All of us that know Nick know he is one of the true gentleman in our hobby and we send him our deepest condolences.
Attendance wasn’t as strong through the day as we would have liked but this happens when you change venues. Fortunately those that came were buying.
We were thrilled that 25 North American carvers elected to attend our show. This is the most carvers we have ever had.
As the day wore on it became time to announce the winning carvers. Amazingly 5 of the winners were at the show. I am not sure but I think the most we have ever had in attendance at a show was 2. Anyway the winning carvers in alphabetical order by first name:
Colin Rigsby
Jesse Jones
Nate King
Premal Chheda
Rad Davis
Ryan Alden
Tyler Beard
They say nice guys finish last but I don’t think you could find seven nicer guys in the hobby.
Before anyone asks, no pictures of these pipes are to be released until after they appear in the fall issue of Pipes & Tobacco magazine. This is another good reason to subscribe to P&T.
Three of the winning carvers reside in Texas and another resides in the Texas Upper Peninsula.
There was something like 56 pipes entered in the contest. I have no idea how anybody judges a contest when the shape is a “classic billiard”. I was told by people other than the judges that if you remove all the ones that were really not billiards (i.e. stacks, pots, Canadians, non-round shanks etc, that this contest would be not that tough to judge. So they say. It just looked like a mass of wonderfully carved pipes to me.
I thought it was so cool that Kevin Godbee bought Scottie Piersel’s contest entry. He had some neat pictures taken of her and him with the pipe. Kevin was kind enough to send me the pictures so I could publish them. At this point it dawns on me I can’t publish these photos until the contest pipes appear in the next issue of Pipes & Tobaccos magazine. Here’s on with the pipe cropped out.
Scottie Piersel and Kevin Godbee
I have always tried to buy one of the non-winning contest pipes as a show of support to the submitting carvers. I truly loath straight pipes and billiards in particular so I had to look hard to find one that I would enjoy. I did buy one that I found to have unique style and design work from Olie Sylvester. I may be a dullard but my pipes don’t have to be.
At 5PM we closed the hall and moved into our evening activities. A number of people went to the tent to have bowl and a beverage.
At 6:30PM the banquet room and cash bar opened. We had about 75 people in attendance for this. The meal was extremely good. We had a small filet and a small chicken breast plus some al dente string beans. The filet as cooked to perfection and the chicken had an herb rub on that made it spicy and good.
At my table we had two people present last second requests for different meals. One wanted a vegetarian meal and the other wanted a gluten free meal. To my amazement the banquet staff never blinked when I asked them if they could do that. In less than 15 minutes they brought these people there meals. The veggie stir fry looked fabulous.
Then Steve Fallon was introduced as the Speaker for the evening. Steve did his shtick and it was hilarious. It is one those things were you have to be there to appreciate. He will introduce luminaries in the pipe world and ask them awkward questions. Killer stuff.
Steve Fallon, The Waco Warbler
You really need to have been there when he had Brian Levine discussed his visit to KC. Brian is a huge Disney collector and he went to the old building in KC that was where Walt Disney started his first studio called the “Laff Factory”. The building is one step short of collapsing, so Brian had no trouble picking up half a brick from the building for his collection of Disneyiana. Brian also picked up another brick while he was in town, but you will have to ask him about that.
Fallon, Brian Levine & the Laff Factory Brick
After Steve finished his wonderful talk Carl Staudenmyer presented Steve one of our hand written plaques by Mike Sull in recognition of all that he has done for the pipe hobby and the GKCPC in particular.
Call also presented a similar award to John Cermak, our past president, for his contributions.
Once the banquet ended we had a drawing for a wonderful Icarus pipe donated by the Briar Works International. The pipe was by Jeanne Stein who is the wife and distinctly the better half of member Steve Stein.
Jeanne & Steve Steve
Here is a link to a lot more photos from the banquet in a photobucket.com slide show.
KC Pipe Show Banquet
Then we adjoined to the smoking tent.
Sunday and the show doors opened again.
The first event of the day was the slow smoking competition. Ten competitors joined Steve Butler at the smoking tent to test their skill. The three winners were:
Dave Houfek – 53.14
Mitch Denny - 49.25
Vlad Jirinec - 48.02
Dave received a wonder Neptune pipe from Briar Works International. Mitch got a nice Big Pipe, and Vlad got two tins of club tobacco.
Slow Smoke Director Steve Butler with winner Dave Houfek, Mitch Denny 2nd and Vlad Jirinec 3rd.
Close Up of Slow Smoke First Prize - a Neptune Pipe from Briar Works International.
Later we announced the Best in Show awards that went to:
Best Pipe - Bob Shadur’s Tom Eltang Pipe
Eltang Pipe with Beautiful Birdseye
Best Non-Briar - Dru Melpolder
Dru Melpolder's Tactical Pipe
Best Collection - Steve Stein
Joe Ketcherside with Steve Stein
Best Display - Scott Thile
Carl Staudenmyer, Scott Thile & Joe Ketcherside
Best Carver - Lee Von Erck
Carl, Lee Von Erck & Joe K.
Then we moved on to the main event. The drawing to see who would take home the coveted Seven Day Set of winners from the Carving Competition is always highly anticipated. For the fifth time in a row the drawing was won by someone who attended the show.
And defying all odds for the fifth time in a row the winner was someone whose first name was some variation of “Bob”. In this case the winner was Bobby Fabian of Austin, TX. Congratulations, Bobby.
At this point, the show wound down into the obligatory packing and saying good bye.
I bought too many pipes. I got one from Andy Petersen, Scott Klein, Scottie Piersel, Ramazan Tufan and Olie Sylvester. I also picked up some clay pipes from Kelly Kruggel at Old German Clay Pipes.
The Venue was amazing. Moving to the Argosy Casino & Hotel was a smash hit with just about everyone who attended. I don’t even know where to begin. The staff of the Argosy could not have treated us any better. They bent over backward to make everyone’s stay enjoyable. Go listen to the Episode 93 podcast on pipesmagazine.com. Fast forward to 1:04:20 and listen to Brian Levine talk about the place. He was not exaggerating.
The open air balcony outside the exhibit gave the smokers who needed a quick place to go to have a puff while offering them a wonderful view of the Missouri River and the downtown skyline.
Smokers on Outdoor Balcony
About the only thing hard to figure out were the shower controls. And lookout the main shower head is directly above you. The showers were so large that you and your sweetie could shower at the same time and remain celibate.
Every employee we met always greeted you with a smile and a greeting. This was apparently a no-frowning zone.
Here's a link to a photobucket slideshow of the show itself.
SLideshow of KC Pipe Show
