The couple that rolls cigars together stays together.

Each attendee was given a task, and that was to roll a cigar. They were given a bunch, the filler and binder leaves of a cigar, and asked to finish the cigar by rolling a leaf of wrapper tobacco around the bunch, just as it's done in the factory.

Led by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, the maker of La Gloria Cubana cigars, and moderator George Brightman of Cigar Aficionado, the crowd enthusiastically took their seats and got down to business. Following the expert guidance of Leo, one of Perez-Carrillo's best rollers, who worked at the front of the massive room with his talents projected on a big screen for all to see, the crowd tried their best at rolling a handmade cigar.

The crowd watches a master roller on the monitor as they try their hand at making cigars.

The crowd was eager to start. Brightman teased them with a list of some of the many prizes that would be given away for notable cigars, and the participants became even more interested when Perez-Carrillo and La Gloria's Mike Giannini explained how the winner would compete in the finals of the La Gloria Cubana Super Roll contest, the preliminary rounds for which are held at Cigar Aficionado Big Smokes. The winner would be flown to Miami to compete with other winners, and the best cigarmaker would be inducted into the El Credito Hall of Fame.

At this point, Cigar Aficionado editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken stepped from the sidelines and challenged Perez-Carrillo to sweeten the pot. "The winner will get a lifetime subscription to Cigar Aficionado," Shanken began, "and, if Ernesto will pick up the expenses, he or she can have a great lunch in my office with great wines." The crowd cheered, and Shanken added: "And I hope the winner is from Hawaii."

Ernesto Perez-Carrillo poses with winning cigar roller Ron Militello, who holds his winning cigar.

The crowd roared, and Perez-Carrillo agreed to fly the winner to New York, to cheers. Shanken then invited Carrillo to join the winner at lunch.

With an even greater desire to win, the rollers began working, and the lesson began as well. "The main thing about making cigars is patience," said Perez-Carrillo, helping the rollers along. "Making a cigar isn't as tough as it looks," he said. "It's harder."

After wetting their hands with water and letting the tobacco moisten in their grip, the rollers trimmed their leaves with the razor blades, working on a cutting board.

The art of cigar making is difficult, but the audience did an admirable job. Most of them doing it for the first time, but some were veterans of previous Big Smoke Roll Your Own seminars.

Perez-Carrillo, Brightman, Giannini and others worked their way through the tables, selecting cigars to be judged. Soon the podium was brimming with cigars of all kinds, and Brightman was ready to hand out the awards.

People won boxes of cigars, Cigar Aficionado ties, even humidors and tickets to next year's Las Vegas Big Smoke. Not all the awards went for the best work. One of the most popular cigars was among the ugliest, a grotesque beast that had been hacked into several pieces and banded with a photograph of Osama bin Laden. It came with a plaque:

"The Osama bin Laden cigar," read Brightman. "Produced by Al-Qaeda, modified by the U.S. Air Force."

The winner was Ron Militello, who paused in disbelief at the podium when told he had won the grand prize.