Leave the cello on and send them to me. I'll put them with mine and assure I won't smoke more than half of your box.
An alternative and probably better idea is to leave the cello on all except one cigar, then clip and light the one without cello and smoke it...they're great!
I'm not going to give you my opinion about cello on or off,. I'm sure at least 20 other people will give you different advice about cello on or off, however I don't think Pete Johnson would have told the factory to put cello on them if he thought he felt you should take it off.