Of course he learned it from the French.

“When I was fifteen,” he tells me, “I saw this film, a French Criterion piece. And one character in this movie, whenever he pulled out his cigarettes, he kind of threw one in the air and caught it on his lip, like a magnet.” He juggles his Blacks in his hands. “I’ve tried to do it ever since.” And, like a magic trick, he flips a cigarette in the air and catches it on his lip, as though his lip were magnetized.