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Show all (5)At their peak in the 1970s, Cheech and Chong represented the mainstream embodiment of the attitudes and lifestyles of the underground drug culture. Much as W.C. Fields shot to fame by making alcohol the focus of his act, the duo of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong emerged from a cloud of pot smoke, simultaneously championing and lampooning the stoner community which became the team's most ardent supporters; although derided by critics and dismissed by the general populace, the team's stature as counterculture heroes was unquestioned, and for both aging hippies and dazed-and-confused teens, their comedy defined an era.The team began to take shape in the late 1960s when, after entering show business as a guitarist in a rock band, Chong established City Works, a wild improvisational troupe later joined by Richard "Cheech" Marin. When City Works dissolved, Cheech and Chong continued as a duo, formulating a musical comedy act. The music proved short-lived, however, when audiences began reacting favorably to the team's spacy pothead raps; after establishing their comic persona, the duo rarely deviated from the course -- for record after record and film after film, they remained blissed-out stoners, their humor locked in the druggy stasis of the doper mentality.Cheech and Chong debuted in 1971 with an eponymous LP featuring studio sketches like "Waiting for Dave" (a circular routine owing a debt to Bob and Ray), "Cruisin' with Pedro" (about drug-deal paranoia) and "Trippin' in Court." The album was a tremendous success, and its 1972 follow-up Big Bambu -- a record packaged in a giant rolling paper -- reached the number two spot on the Billboard charts. The following year's Grammy-winning Los Cochinos duplicated the feat, and included the novelty hit "Basketball Jones."After 1974's Wedding Album (which featured the hit "Earache My Eye") and 1976's Sleeping Beauty, Cheech and Chong had built enough of a cult following to make the leap into films. Their 1978 feature debut Up in Smoke established the formula followed by all of their subsquent movies, quickly dispensing with plot in order to focus on surreal narrative detours and long, meandering conversations between the principal characters. With the exception of 1980's Let's Make a New Dope Deal, the duo spent the next several years working exclusively on films, releasing a rapid-fire string of comedies like 1980's Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, 1981's Nice Dreams and 1983's Still Smokin.As the hedonism of the 1970s gave way to the "just say no" conservatism of the Reagan era, Cheech and Chong found little response to their trademark brand of humor; after 1984's The Corsican Brothers, their film career ended, and in 1985 they returned to the recording studio for their swan song LP, Get Out of My Room. After dissolving their partnership, both spent the remainder of the decade appearing in low-budget films; by 1993, Marin even recorded a children's album, My Name Is Cheech, The School Bus Driver. While Chong largely drifted into obscurity, Marin enjoyed a renaissance in the middle of the 1990s, appearing in the Robert Rodriguez films Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn; a prominent supporting role in Ron Shelton's romantic comedy Tin Cup led to a co-starring role opposite Don Johnson in the CBS detective series Nash Bridges. In 1997 Chong made a guest appearance on the program, marking the duo's first public reunion in a number of years. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Cheech & Chong
Tags:
sketch comedy, standup comedy, stoner comedy
Creator: All Music Guide 
Upcoming Events
| Event | Time | Location | Tools |
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| Cheech & Chong | Thu, Jan 8 7:30p | Ryman Auditorium, Nashville-Davidson (Balance), TN |
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| Cheech & Chong Light Up America | Fri, Jan 9 7:30p | Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX |
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| Cheech & Chong | Sat, Jan 10 8:00p | Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston, TX |
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| Cheech & Chong | Thu, Jan 15 8:00p | Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort & Casino, Mescalero, NM |
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| Cheech & Chong | Fri, Jan 16 8:00p | Omaha Music Hall, Omaha, NE |
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| Cheech & Chong | Sat, Jan 17 8:00p | Music Hall Kansas City, Kansas City, MO |
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| Cheech & Chong | Sun, Jan 18 9:00p | Pageant Theater, St Louis, MO |
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| Cheech and Chong - Light Up America | Sat, Jan 24 8:00p | INB Performing Arts Center, Spokane, WA |
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| Cheech and Chong - Light Up America | Sun, Jan 25 7:30p | Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA |
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| Cheech & Chong | Thu, Jan 29 7:30p | Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, OH |
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2 reviews
A Review of the Light Up Canada/America Tour - Their first Show, from Ottawa Canada.
By Justin and Fabiola of Ottawa.
We were blessed to see the very first appearance of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong in Ottawa; their first live show together in almost 3 decades! There were some minor errors in their first presentation of the show, but these minor human foibles only drew the entire crowd deeper into their full and unconditional love for these two iconic beings. Artificial boundaries of class and race melted away from the audience as this legendary duo went to work for the first time in a generation.
We sat in the third row just left of Center stage. It was fascinating to see how a combination of beauty, eloquence and hilarity formed an emergent new property in Shelby's first presentation with the new Cheech and Chong show. Her work here was genuinely funny and it carried a strong social message as well; - Good work Shelby!
Periodic smiles from Cheech Marin, as he quickly and seamlessly regressed back into each of his classic characters in this first show of the tour, melted the crowd's collective Canuck heart. Cheech literally had us crying with laughter throughout the show. Mr Marin is a deeply important modern media figure for my wife's Latino community even here in Canada. One can only imagine what will take place between Mr. Marin and his increasing Latino audience particularly in certain venue's South of the (Canadian) boarder. Cheech masterfully cements a sheer connection with his audience and there is an electricity that forms quickly between Mr. Marin and those who watch his performances.
Fabiola was one of the few Latin persons present for the Ottawa show that we could see. Fab laughed uncontrollably and I think actually lost her consciousness for a second as Mr. Marin performed his classic car starting routine "chinga-chinga-chinga-chinga" - "cavvvvrrrron!" "puta-puta-puta-puta, “ and this was just at the beginning of the show! As I have come to understand over the last 17 years Mr. Marin represents a major artery in the pan national Latin American Heart. When you see his art collection, and really pay attention to some of the roles he has played over the years you will begin to understand this fact.
Tommy Chong was golden in every sense of the word. His sincerity, his unbridled authenticity and his strong and refreshing sense of social critical purpose, provoked tender and at times, socially angry emotions in the audience, which he masterfully channeled for them into deep belly laughs. What a powerful formula Tommy, linking the lightly psychedelic and profound emotional attachment of the audiences' collective memory of "Cheech and Chong", with a gentle expanding of their social and political consciousness! Only a profoundly spiritually and mentally ill world would allow Mr. Chong to sit in jail the way they did or to pull him and his family along that ugly and shameful road (theirs not Tommy’s) to jail the way they did. Yes Tommy, George Bush is truely a Moron!
There is only one request which I am sure will resonated in the hearts and minds of all of your fans implicitly or explicitly guys; - and I ask this of you with the humblest of hearts. My question is this: How literally powerful would it be to see a fully "transformational" leap in the human connection behind the scenes between Tommy and Cheech? Beyond their dictionary exemplifications of on stage comedic legacy, brilliance and synergy, - even during their first live performance together in close to 3 decades; - if these guys could genuinely support each other into becoming "best friends" again, imagine how this could permeate an already "perfect show", how it would profoundly and correctively impact with and model transformational reconciliation in an age of such dangerous division and derision?
Long Live Cheech and Chong!
We look forward to your responses,
Gratefully,
Justin (a psychotherapist) and Fabiola (Hospital Manager),
from Ottawa Canada,
jdh@ripnet.com