A Spirits Educator Helps Conan Find A More Masculine Cocktail l "Conan O'Brien Needs A Fan"

And where are you right now, Michael? I'm in Reno, Nevada. Okay, are you at a blackjack table? Where are you specifically? (Sona laughing). I'm in my office, actually. I'm a consultant and a beverage educator. I'm a spirits educator, so I'm in my office. where I take most of my Zoom calls. Oh, that's so funny, 'cause I heard that you were a spirit guide. before you got on and I'm realizing, I swear to god, I thought you were a spirit guide. You're a spirits guide. You're a spirits educator. The S is very important. Yeah, because I'm sure there are people that come to you.

and say, can you help me find my, I want to talk to my great-grandfather and you say, I can't do that, but I have a really good port for you. that you might want to drink. I do a fair amount of necromancy, but not a great deal. Like I try to limit the amount. Man, here's another thing, he says necromancy. I know. I love it. I love anyone who knows that word and says, I am a necromancer. It's such a menacing word that no one uses anymore. Lots of drama in that word. Michael, tell me about this. I'm interested in this.

You work with spirits. What does that mean exactly? Do you help develop types of drinks. or do you mostly do you study drinks? What do you do? All of it. So my principle job is as a spirits educator. is to talk and teach and get people into products, teach people new things about drinks. I do beverage design for like menus. I design bars. And then my like full-time job I work. for a bartender advocacy agency, which is like a PR firm specifically for bartenders. Whoa.

That's fascinating. Now why do people need, I mean, most people figure out. drinking pretty much on their own, you know? Don't you think most people are self-taught. when it comes to alcohol. They figure out what they like to drink. and then they have way too much of it and they get sick. What do you find that you're teaching people about? Sort of more of the refined aspects of certain spirits? I always say I'm the Sherpa. up the mountain of alcohol, right? (Sona laughing). So my job is to help you find your new favorite friend. (Conan laughing).

Okay, and what are your favorite drinks? What drinks do you? Tell us, what do you, what's your favorite drink that you find yourself. moving towards in life? I mean, I love a piña colada. I love rum. So I like a piña colada 'cause they're fun. Who doesn't want a piña colada? But I love bourbon. I help host a bourbon summer camp that bartenders go to, which is its own magical thing itself. What? A bourbon summer camp. Yes. This sounds so much better than Craggett Mountain Farm, where my parents sent me,

where there are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. and we had to climb the entire Presidential Mountain Range. in July in New Hampshire and be eaten to death. by mosquitoes and no one had invented. any kind of sun lotion yet, so I just burned up. and became a massive pustule. What you just described is a much better camp, a rum camp. It's bourbon. Oh, bourbon, okay. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell you something. I have a huge fondness for rum. I really do like rum and I like rum.

in kind of a fruity punch. And I'm probably not supposed to admit that, but I do like a fruity rummy drink, or like a rum punch, a planter's punch, if you will. Why can't you admit that? Because I also like it when it has fruit in it. floating around and I like it when there's. like a little plastic statue in it too. that's on the top of a swizzle stick. I like it to be a drink that emasculates me immediately.

the minute it's brought to my table, those are my favorite drinks. Big twisty straw. I like a twisty straw. I love all that stuff.