Sketch a Sesh with Hall of Flowers Founder Rama Mayo
The tradeshow titan pictures a Labor Day joint jam involving food, a funny man and a salad of fine flower.
For the second installment of my Sketch a Sesh series — in which I ask a weed world mover and shaker to put together the ultimate smokeup sitdown — I buttonholed Rama Mayo, the cannabis consultant and branding impresario who founded the wildly successful Hall of Flowers trade show in the Golden State back in 2018 and is now poised to unleash it on New York City for the first time in early October.
For his imaginary tea (make that THC) party, Rama envisions a seriously surreal beach bungalow bake off that involves a famed pizzaiolo, a prolific painter, an old-school SNL alum and a lasagna-loving fat cat.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
PLACE: A Labor Day weekend tropical beach house
For me it’s got to be Labor Day weekend at a beach house — some place right on the sand in Malibu or somewhere tropical. And it’s got to be over Labor Day because the attitude [at that time of year] is always kind of “Fuck work,” and people really take that time off really seriously. It’s tradition!
PEOPLE: Chris Bianco, Pablo Picasso, Bill Murray and Garfield
I’d have Chris Bianco there to keep us fed. He’s like the number one pizza guy in America and has a bunch of Pizzeria Bianco pizza shops. There’s one in Arizona and he has one in downtown L.A. too. He was also in the first episode of Netflix’s [documentary-style show] Chef’s Table. He’s a pizza god.
And I’d have actor and comedian Bill Murray there to keep us laughing the whole time. And Pablo Picasso to do some artwork documenting the event. And finally Garfield — the cat from the comic strip — to keep things in perspective. And he pretty much always acts like he’s stoned.
PRODUCT: A tossed salad of high-power flower
It would definitely be all different kinds of flower. I’m a high-end Indica smoker but we’d have all different options. So there’d be kind of a salad thing going on. As far as brands, in no particular order, Maven, I’m smoking Connected’s Original Gushers right now — it’s their oversized SKU — Alien Labs and 710 Labs. And I love anything from Pure Beauty. They’re probably my favorite.
PARAPHERNALIA: Bespoke joints rolled by the Grasshoppa
I’d probably have professional joint roller the Grasshoppa there, just rolling up fresh trays of joints, just huge, awesome personal joints for everybody and no one is sharing. They’d be all different shapes but they’d be perfect. And thry’d be built to smoke and have fun [with].
PARTING GIFT: Personalized smoking jackets and stylin’ slides
Everybody would get a robe and a pair of slippers [to take home]. The slippers would be the ones I always wear: Lusso Cloud [Pelli slides]. Except they’d be embroidered with a logo for the weekend designed by Picasso.
The robe would be like a smoking jacket you’d wear around the house — maybe a little longer and a little more beachy than the “Saturday Night Live” five-timers’ jackets and more like a luxury spa cover-up. Everyone would have their initials embroidered on their robe.
It would be [stylish enough] that someone really confident — like Brad Pitt — could wear the robe out to dinner potentially.
If there’s someone in the cannabis community whose fantasy fire-up you’d like to read about, drop me a comment here or send me an email at adam@adamtschorn.com and let me know. Thanks for reading!