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JL:
Where and when did you start smoking?
JS:
When I was seven years old, my father used to have a Christmas
cigar, which I found very interesting. In order to put me off
smoking, he let me have a drag on it - it worked the opposite way,
and I’ve been on and off them, ever since.
JL: What do you
smoke now?
JS: Bolivar, medium size, because I think they’re the best smoke.
Too big is too long, and too small is not long enough.
JL:
What do you say when someone asks you to put our your cigar?
JS: Nobody wants to die young, and I’ve never had that happen to me.
JL:
Who, living or dead, would you like most to share an ashtray with?
JS: Winston
Churchill.
JL:
Why?
JS: He was
unique. He used to have a good bevvie and enjoyed a good smoke. He
was a real man.
JL:
Whose doorway would you like most to smoke in?
JS: I don’t go in doorways.
JL:
For a life-long smoker, you are very fit.
JS: I’ve run 214 marathons, done the Lands End-John O’Groats three
times, and over 300 professional cycle races including the first
tour of Britain in 1951. When I was wrestling, I enjoyed 107
pro-fights.
JL:
That’s not bad for a smoker…
JS: It’s not bad
for anybody!
JL:
Is it true you run marathons while enjoying an Havana cigar?
JS: I’m always a leg puller, I always like to have a nice joke on
people, so very often I started a marathon with a Churchill cigar on
the go. So off I go and what the public don’t know is that 200 yards
down the road one of my guys is waiting to take it from me. He then
goes 200 yards from the finish and when he sees me coming he lights
it up and hands it to me. And I cross the line with a Churchill
cigar on the go.
JL:
Did anyone notice that the cigar hadn’t got any shorter?
JS: No, because people say ‘how many cigars do you smoke on the way
round’ and I say ‘3or 4’, which of course is not true. It’s the
same one and it’s called ‘Anything for a Laugh’.
JL:
What’s your most memorable smoking experience?
JS: Every time I light a cigar is a celebration. Every single one.
JL:
What do you say when someone asks you to put your cigar out?
JS: Nobody
‘lets’ me do anything. I do exactly as I want.
JL:
What about all these smoking bans?
JS: They don’t affect me at all.
JL:
If there was a button that, once pressed, would stop everybody
smoking – would you press it?
JS: I would find that pointless.
JL:
Why?
JS: Because why
should everybody stop smoking?
JL:
What do you get out of smoking big cigars?
JS: If you
started life skint, then a cigar was always the picture of being
loaded, and that’s the way that I still feel. A cigar is an ‘all
round good feeling.’
JL:
What’s your favourite smoking story?
JS: When I was
starting to get a few quid, I was a dance hall manager, and my night
watchman had, as a first job when he came on, to go round the
ashtrays and see if there were any big butt ends of cigars – which
he would collect. I would then smoke them at public times through a
cigar holder and got the reputation for being totally loaded. |
