Together again and still relevant

By Jerry Fink

Monday, Oct. 13, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong burned a niche in American culture before their comedy team went up in smoke in 1985.

They first worked together in a Vancouver, British Columbia, nightclub in 1968 and forged a counterculture union that resonated with anti-establishment audiences.

Times changed. Marin became a star on TV and in Disney movies as well as an art collector and promoter of Latino artists. Chong continued to act in films and on TV and spent nine months in jail after a drug paraphernalia bust. He no longer smokes marijuana.

Cheech & Chong decided to dust off the bong jokes and show the country what it has been missing.

Their reunion tour, “Light up America,” lands at the Palms Saturday.

In separate telephone calls, The Sun caught up with the pair after a recent concert in Tampa, Fla. Cheech was walking off the golf course. Chong was in his hotel room with his wife, comedian Shelby Chong.

Cheech Marin

Why did the team break up?

It was creative differences of who was going to be the leader. I didn’t want to be the leader, I just didn’t want to be led. When you’ve got two people who are two very strong creative forces and you’re together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for years, you kind of get sick of it after awhile. That’s what it led to. “OK, you go do your stuff and I’ll go do my stuff.”

Any regrets?

No. I did many more projects than I would have ever done with Cheech & Chong, and very satisfying ones — the TV series “Nash Bridges,” all the Disney movies, all my own movies. It made me confident as an artist. But the longer we stayed apart the bigger the hunger for us to get back together grew. Actually the perfect time for the reunion is now. The truth of the matter is we have been apart longer than we were together. But the legacy of the things we did has remained such a part of the landscape, part of the culture, that we must have been doing something right. When people get a chance to see us now, it’s like we’ve come back from the dead.

Is there any tension on the tour between you and Chong?

None whatsoever. It’s better now than in the day. We really appreciate what we both do now. What were we going to do, wait till we were 90 to start touring again? We’re having a lot of fun traveling around the country doing the show and letting people see what they’ve missed all these years.

Why didn’t you get together sooner?

Over the years we’ve tried to get together to do something but we’ve ended up arguing with each other or something intervenes — like Tommy going to jail or I had a job. Something happens. Finally, the offers got so good I said, “Hey, listen, if we’re ever going to do something, it’s now or never.” So we kind of put aside our differences and concentrate on what we do best. We’ve had the most fun. It has worked well. We don’t argue anymore.

Do you think the act is still relevant?

The amazing thing is how classic those bits are. It’s like we’re Frank Sinatra at this point. It’s as relevant now as it was in the day. It’s flabbergasting.

Is there anything about you that would surprise people?

I think the collecting Latino art thing surprises everybody. I’ve been a collector of all kinds of things ever since I was a little kid. I also studied art from a very early age. When I got to where I could buy paintings I discovered these Chicano artists and decided to be their champion because they didn’t have one and they’re being excluded from museums and museum shows and collections because they were thought of as folk art.

Tommy Chong

Has your position on marijuana use changed?

Personally, I don’t smoke. Actually I quit before I went into jail. It’s called pretrial probation and so they drug tested me. It was a game. They were trying to violate me. If I violated their drug policy then I would go immediately to jail. So I quit smoking. I started up again as soon as I got off probation then, just lately, I quit again. I think there’s an age thing. I think there’s a certain age when it doesn’t help. When you’re young you can run it off, work it off, whatever, the effects. But for me, I’m definitely a medical use advocate. It is being used for M.S. and Alzheimer’s and cancer. It is an effective medicine.

What’s your take on how the drug scene has changed since the hippie era?

If you want to look at it, look at Hunter S. Thompson’s life. He personifies the whole hippie movement. A straight guy, turned on, next thing you know he’s writing these incredible books and then the next thing you know he’s an alcoholic a drug addict and then he’s dead. If you just stick to pot, it wouldn’t be so bad. A lot of pro athletes just do pot because it’s the only substance that relaxes them. Recently some paparazzi asked me who were some of the famous people I had smoked with. I said Arnold Schwarzenegger. And it hit the Internet like crazy and they asked Arnold and he admitted it.

“Yeah, I smoked with Chong.” Arnold is one of the healthiest men on the planet. He knew exactly what to put into his body and not. His endorsement of pot is the same as mine. It’s not going kill you. But there again, the best thing about pot is that you don’t have to smoke it.

Will there be another Cheech & Chong movie?

Oh yeah. We’re in the process of getting the best deal possible out there because of the heat of the “Pineapple Express” and the “Harold & Kumar” movies. Everybody said Cheech & Chong are like the father of all these genres, and we’re still active. What we do is use our live show as a rehearsal for the movies.

The opening scene of “Up in Smoke” was actually the first 30 minutes of our live show. The riding in the car. We still do that bit onstage. It’s still our first bit. And so what will happen, we will probably reach into our Cheech & Chong bag and pick out a bit and do a movie around it.

Is there anything about you would that surprise your fans?

I can dance. I’m a tango dancer and a salsa dancer. They submitted me to “Dancing with the Stars” but the powers that be said, “Nah, don’t want no stoner on there yet.” It’ll happen the last season when they got nothing to lose. But I would go. Absolutely.