One could reasonably say that comedian Tommy Chong has a one-track mind. For the half-Chinese, half-Scotch / Irish half of the dissolved comedy duo of Cheech and Chong, the conversation never strays far from marijuana. And you can be sure that Chong's current stint of three performances at Ann Arbor's Main Street Comedy Showcase will play off variations on this familiar theme.
"I'm a born-again doper, so there'll be a lot of born-again doper jokes," Chong told The Michigan Daily in a recent telephone interview. In spite of the now temperate views of his one-time partner Richard "Cheech" Marin, the 58-year-old Chong has remained unabashedly devoted to marijuana, its medicinal applications and the industrial uses of hemp, the fiber extracted from the marijuana plant. "I'm a big hemp advocate," Chong noted. "Hemp is going to replace everything."
Chong is certainly something of an authority on marijuana, having been a friend of the weed for the past 40 years. A unique dimension of Chong's interest in marijuana is his belief that "pot and working out go hand in hand." Toward this end, he has been developing a workout video titled "A Doper's Guide to Fitness." As Chong explains it: "If you're gonna party, you gotta be in shape. If you're in shape, you can do everything once." Chong observed that he has been lifting weights and seriously working out longer than he's been smoking dope.
Not only is the video no laughing matter, but Chong was dead serious when he told me that he wants people to know, "I really do smoke pot." When asked about Ann Arbor's own slice of commercialized hedonism, the annual Hash Bash, he said, "I think we need more dope-smoking. I intend to make (Hash Bash) so it's every day."
Chong failed to acknowledge the psychologically addicting lure of marijuana and said the only thing he's addicted to is Salsa dancing. And when pressed about marijuana's status as a so-called "gateway" drug, Chong responded, "It's definitely a gateway, but the gate can lead to anything, like creativity or mind expansion."
Despite Chong's contention that "every generation gets to go through their doper stage," times have changed somewhat since the early '70s when Cheech and Chong arrived on the comedic scene. This change can be gauged by Marin's transition from a crude, perpetually stoned doper to one of the voices in Disney's "The Lion King" and his role on CBS's police show "Nash Bridges." Of this, Chong said, "If you told me in '85 that Cheech was gonna be playing a cop, I would have asked what you were smoking."
If the latest phase of Marin's career trajectory is perceived by some as a "sell-out," then perhaps Chong represents a vestige of '60s radicalism that is still with us. Growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, Chong's first passion was the guitar. From 1967-68, he played lead guitar in the Motown R&B group Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. Chong still receives royalty checks for the group's big hit "Does Your Mama Know About Me?"
After the group's break-up, Chong moved back to Canada where he met Marin while working in an improvisational troupe called "City Works." After several years together on the comedy circuit, they began to release comedy albums based on their live acts. The albums were wildly popular, with 1974's "Los Cochinos" garnering a Grammy for Best Comedy Album and all six records achieving "gold" status.
The move to film was inevitable. In all, from 1978 to 1985, there were seven films, including "Up in Smoke," "Nice Dreams" and "The Corsican Brothers." In 1985, the team separated at Marin's urging, much to the chagrin of many potheads for whom Cheech and Chong were iconic figures from a fast fading era. As Chong explains, "Part of the engine that drove our act was that we needed property, we needed to work."
Considering this, Chong still finds the timing of the split troubling. "It killed me when Cheech quit. We were just going into harvest time. We could have played arenas like the Eagles." To indicate the significance of his union with Marin, Chong said, "When Cheech and I got together, it was the best time in my life. And when Cheech and I split apart it was the worst."
Time heals old wounds, though, and Chong said he has fully recovered from the trauma. He tartly added that it was very helpful to join a support group in Beverly Hills for people who "lost their Mexican." Chong chooses simply to savor the fond memories of the Cheech and Chong period and does not envision a reunion. "It can never happen again. The moment has passed."
For now, Tommy Chong is content to complete his workout video and focus on the stand-up circuit. His wife, Shelby, plays a major part in his performances. Apparently, this is because "she's beautiful. I just want to keep an eye on her." In addition to stand-up, Chong has collaborated, with his daughter, Precious, on a film titled "Best Buds." Finally, there's the illicit activity for which Chong is world-famous. "I'm a super-guru of marijuana. Eventually, I'll just inhale air and it'll turn into pot."
Showbiz legend and ardent pot advocate Tommy Chong headlines at Mainstreet Comedy Showcase this weekend.