When comedy legends Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong roll into Florida this weekend for a pair of shows, they're sure to rock the joint. We had a chance to talk with the duo by phone about everything from their rocky breakup and reconciliation to "Lost" and the legalization of marijuana.
So you're promoting the latest installment of the Cheech and Chong story, the "Light Up America" tour. You haven't been together since 1985. Is this a reunion or a comeback?
Cheech: I don't know yet. (laughs)
Chong: It's a reunion. Neither one of us have gone anywhere, you know? We didn't have to come back from anywhere.
I read you two met in Vancouver during the Vietnam War.
Cheech: Yup. I believe it was 1969. I was living in Canada being a potter. Well, a potter draft resistor.
Chong: I had a topless night club/improvisational theater going. I was looking for actors. A friend of a friend recommended Cheech and he came down, watched the show and he joined it the next day.
Now that time has passed, when you look back on your careers, where do you think it went bad for you guys?
Cheech: You know we had been together 24-7 for 365 days a year for 17 years. We just got sick of each other. You just don't want to hear the other guy's opinion anymore. You're just like "I don't care." It's a tough thing to do a double act, meaning a comedy team, because you have to compromise so much. But that's the genius of it too if it works is where you compromise.
Chong: Oh (expletive deleted). I need to pay more attention to my driving. I just got on the wrong freeway. I think you lose interest after a while. Cheech and I really got out at the right time I think. We went out on top. We didn't mean to.
Speaking of comedy teams, you guys really are one of the only ones left.
Cheech: I don't know of any hardly other than the Smothers Brothers.
After everything you guys have been through, why come back now?
Cheech:We've always tried to get together and do stuff over the years and something intervened. We'd get in a fight or Tommy went to jail or I was on a TV series. We decided that there was just such a clamor for us to get back on stage that we just said if we're ever gonna do anything, we gotta do it now. So we said what's the thing we can argue least about and it seemed to be the stage show.
Chong: Everything fell into place. Cheech kinda ran out of roles to play in the movies and I was on the road with my wife doing small comedy clubs. Both of us, we're just ready to do it.
When you guys split up I know Cheech, you became a pretty accomplished actor in your own right. How did you hook up with "From Dusk Til Dawn" director Robert Rodriguez?
Cheech: He was a young Chicano kid in Texas that grew up watching Cheech and Chong. He met me years ago and said I want you to be in my movies and I said "Alright, kid. When you get it off the ground let me know." That was "Desperado." And now we've worked together about seven times all together.
As a "Lost" fanatic, I have to ask how did you land the role of playing Hugo "Hurley" Reyes' father?
Cheech: They begged me to do it. "We can't go on without you. Cheech, please!" You know there's a little hint the producers told me, too. At the end, we're gonna find out Hurley's dad is behind everything. Never saw that coming, did ya?
A while back Tommy, you got into some trouble with the law, doing nine months in jail for selling pot pipes over the Internet. What do you make of this country's treatment of marijuana-related crime?
Chong: It's getting better. The Attorney General just had a new policy (that will stop going after medical marijuana distributors). And that's the first step towards decriminalization. The Bush administration was really hurtful to the movement. You look at what they've done. They were like war criminals walking around like Pinochet. I love Obama. I'm a big supporter of his.
Didn't Joe Biden write the law that put you in jail?
Chong: He did. Biden's a hack politician basically like the rest of them. Mr. White Teeth with his foot in his mouth all the time. Most of those guys are political junkies. They're just animals. They're like comedians, you know, laugh whores. These guys just want to get elected. They don't even read the stuff most of the time. But I hold no grudges against him. His heart was in the right place when he did it. He thought he was helping. Instead he made it worst like most of the drug laws. You can't have America whose existence depends on the freedoms of their people and the pursuit of happiness and then come up with laws telling people who to worship or how they are supposed to feel chemically or otherwise.
What was the idea behind the new tour?
Cheech: We wanted to get back on the boards again. It was a lucrative market, there are fans out there that wanted to see us. That's the thing I'm impressed by every day. People come up and say thank you so much for getting back together. And you know 80 percent of the audience that comes to see us are between 30 and 40. So for a lot of them, they weren't even born the last time we were on stage.
Chong: Yeah people were clamoring for us to get back together again. We appeal to the anal Americans. You know the kind who can't stand the salt and pepper shakers being apart? They have to put them together. They line up their shoes at the door. (Writer's note: Don't worry. I don't know what he's talking about either.)
You guys do a lot of the old bits in the new act. Is there a routine you just get tired of?
Cheech: Sometimes you're tired of doing the whole show. It's a long tour. (laughs) No, I love doing all of them. It's a challenge to make them live every night.
Chong: You get tired of the travel behind the act. But you learn how to cope with it. It's like being in jail. All you can do is read, listen to music or sleep.
What's the biggest difference between the old days and touring now?
Cheech: I'm slower. My knees hurt a lot more now than they did before.
How did it feel to finally get back on stage with each other?
Cheech: It's good. You know it's the most natural feeling. It took me about a minute and a half to get back into character.
Chong:Oh, it's magic. There's a magic between us that is always there no matter what we're doing. You just can't copy it anywhere.
If You Go
WHAT: Cheech and Chong's "Light Up America" Tour
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday at Florida Theater, 128 East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville; 8 p.m. Sunday at Hard Rock Live, 6050 Universal Blvd, Orlando.
TICKETS: $39.50-$59.50 through ticketmaster.com or by calling 407-839-3900
Cheech: Yup. I believe it was 1969. I was living in Canada being a potter. Well, a potter draft resistor.
Chong: I had a topless night club/improvisational theater going. I was looking for actors. A friend of a friend recommended Cheech and he came down, watched the show and he joined it the next day.
Now that time has passed, when you look back on your careers, where do you think it went bad for you guys?
Cheech: You know we had been together 24-7 for 365 days a year for 17 years. We just got sick of each other. You just don't want to hear the other guy's opinion anymore. You're just like "I don't care." It's a tough thing to do a double act, meaning a comedy team, because you have to compromise so much. But that's the genius of it too if it works is where you compromise.
Chong: Oh (expletive deleted). I need to pay more attention to my driving. I just got on the wrong freeway. I think you lose interest after a while. Cheech and I really got out at the right time I think. We went out on top. We didn't mean to.
Speaking of comedy teams, you guys really are one of the only ones left.
Cheech: I don't know of any hardly other than the Smothers Brothers.
After everything you guys have been through, why come back now?
Cheech:We've always tried to get together and do stuff over the years and something intervened. We'd get in a fight or Tommy went to jail or I was on a TV series. We decided that there was just such a clamor for us to get back on stage that we just said if we're ever gonna do anything, we gotta do it now. So we said what's the thing we can argue least about and it seemed to be the stage show.
Chong: Everything fell into place. Cheech kinda ran out of roles to play in the movies and I was on the road with my wife doing small comedy clubs. Both of us, we're just ready to do it.
When you guys split up I know Cheech, you became a pretty accomplished actor in your own right. How did you hook up with "From Dusk Til Dawn" director Robert Rodriguez?
Cheech: He was a young Chicano kid in Texas that grew up watching Cheech and Chong. He met me years ago and said I want you to be in my movies and I said "Alright, kid. When you get it off the ground let me know." That was "Desperado." And now we've worked together about seven times all together.
As a "Lost" fanatic, I have to ask how did you land the role of playing Hugo "Hurley" Reyes' father?
Cheech: They begged me to do it. "We can't go on without you. Cheech, please!" You know there's a little hint the producers told me, too. At the end, we're gonna find out Hurley's dad is behind everything. Never saw that coming, did ya?
A while back Tommy, you got into some trouble with the law, doing nine months in jail for selling pot pipes over the Internet. What do you make of this country's treatment of marijuana-related crime?
Chong: It's getting better. The Attorney General just had a new policy (that will stop going after medical marijuana distributors). And that's the first step towards decriminalization. The Bush administration was really hurtful to the movement. You look at what they've done. They were like war criminals walking around like Pinochet. I love Obama. I'm a big supporter of his.
Didn't Joe Biden write the law that put you in jail?
Chong: He did. Biden's a hack politician basically like the rest of them. Mr. White Teeth with his foot in his mouth all the time. Most of those guys are political junkies. They're just animals. They're like comedians, you know, laugh whores. These guys just want to get elected. They don't even read the stuff most of the time. But I hold no grudges against him. His heart was in the right place when he did it. He thought he was helping. Instead he made it worst like most of the drug laws. You can't have America whose existence depends on the freedoms of their people and the pursuit of happiness and then come up with laws telling people who to worship or how they are supposed to feel chemically or otherwise.
What was the idea behind the new tour?
Cheech: We wanted to get back on the boards again. It was a lucrative market, there are fans out there that wanted to see us. That's the thing I'm impressed by every day. People come up and say thank you so much for getting back together. And you know 80 percent of the audience that comes to see us are between 30 and 40. So for a lot of them, they weren't even born the last time we were on stage.
Chong: Yeah people were clamoring for us to get back together again. We appeal to the anal Americans. You know the kind who can't stand the salt and pepper shakers being apart? They have to put them together. They line up their shoes at the door. (Writer's note: Don't worry. I don't know what he's talking about either.)
You guys do a lot of the old bits in the new act. Is there a routine you just get tired of?
Cheech: Sometimes you're tired of doing the whole show. It's a long tour. (laughs) No, I love doing all of them. It's a challenge to make them live every night.
Chong: You get tired of the travel behind the act. But you learn how to cope with it. It's like being in jail. All you can do is read, listen to music or sleep.
What's the biggest difference between the old days and touring now?
Cheech: I'm slower. My knees hurt a lot more now than they did before.
How did it feel to finally get back on stage with each other?
Cheech: It's good. You know it's the most natural feeling. It took me about a minute and a half to get back into character.
Chong:Oh, it's magic. There's a magic between us that is always there no matter what we're doing. You just can't copy it anywhere.
If You Go
WHAT: Cheech and Chong's "Light Up America" Tour
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday at Florida Theater, 128 East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville; 8 p.m. Sunday at Hard Rock Live, 6050 Universal Blvd, Orlando.
TICKETS: $39.50-$59.50 through ticketmaster.com or by calling 407-839-3900
