On this episode of The Story & Craft Podcast, we sit down with comedian, musician, actor, writer, director, entrepreneur and cannabis advocate, Tommy Chong. It’s a great chat where we touch on his career on stage and screen, his comedy partnership with Cheech Marin and the ups and downs of being a cannabis advocate. It’s an insightful look into how Tommy crafted a career as a backing man, but has always tried to lead by example. We also take a few detours to chat about George Carlin, Tommy’s philosophies on American culture and even a chance encounter with John Lennon. It’s a cool tour into the mind of the legend and cultural icon that is Tommy Chong.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
0:03:06 - Sushi Chef's Biker Fanbase
0:07:27 - Government Entrapment in Bomb Manufacturing
0:10:56 - From Bodybuilding to Comedy
0:13:39 - The Role of a Backup Musician
0:16:41 - From Nightclubs to Comedy
0:20:00 - Meeting Teech and Discovering Comedy Talent
0:29:17 - Comedy and Cultural Sensitivity
0:39:41 - Comedian Influence on Each Other
0:47:10 - Stand-Up Comedy and Rodney King Reference
0:53:36 - Cheech and Chong's Comedy and Legacy
0:55:36 - Cheech and Chong Documentary and Movie
1:00:15 - Comedy Style and Jerry Lewis's Influence
1:09:39 - Promoting Health and CBD Use
1:13:22 - Seven Questions
Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Also, check out the show and sign up for the newsletter at www.storyandcraftpod.com.
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#podcast #interview #TommyChong #Chong #CheechAndChong #Comedian #Actor #Director #Cheech #CheechMarin #420 #Canabis #CBD #acting #actorslife #storyandcraft #voiceover #voiceactor
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The fiddle player that I worked with.
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Tommy Chong: He taught me the basics of entertaining
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Tommy Chong: people and he said first of all, you give
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Tommy Chong: the people what they want, you know.
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Announcer: Welcome to Story and Craft.
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Announcer: Now here's your host, Marc Preston.
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Marc Preston: Hey, how are you?
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Marc Preston: Welcome back.
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Marc Preston: Another episode of Story and Craft.
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Marc Preston: Glad to have you here today.
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Marc Preston: I'm Marc Preston.
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Marc Preston: If this is your first episode, I want to
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Marc Preston: thank you for stopping by.
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Marc Preston: Really cool for you to check out the show.
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Marc Preston: Now, if you've been here before, welcome
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Marc Preston: back.
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Marc Preston: Love the fact you're here, especially today.
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Marc Preston: A really cool episode, a legend, a guy you
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Marc Preston: know to use the phrase, someone who needs
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Marc Preston: no introduction.
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Marc Preston: Tommy Chong is that guy.
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Marc Preston: Everybody knows Tommy Chong.
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Marc Preston: Just in case you're not as familiar with
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Marc Preston: Tommy Chong, he's a comedian, a musician,
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Marc Preston: an actor, a writer, a director, an
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Marc Preston: entrepreneur.
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Marc Preston: He's a cannabis advocate.
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Marc Preston: I mean, if you know Tommy, you know he is.
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Marc Preston: You know Tommy's just a really interesting
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Marc Preston: guy, a lot of fun to talk to and I'm really
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Marc Preston: jazzed that I get to share this with you.
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Marc Preston: Hey, by the way, don't forget
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Marc Preston: Storyandcraftpod.com.
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Marc Preston: Have you been there?
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Marc Preston: Great, thank you.
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Marc Preston: Oh, you haven't.
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Marc Preston: Why not?
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Marc Preston: You got to go by.
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Marc Preston: Check out Storyandcraftpod.com, everything
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Marc Preston: about the show.
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Marc Preston: Sign up for the newsletter, of course.
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Marc Preston: The show's available on your favorite
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Marc Preston: podcast app.
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Marc Preston: Just make sure to subscribe.
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Marc Preston: That way you get notified anytime there's a
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Marc Preston: new episode.
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Marc Preston: Okay, all right, so let's get after it.
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Marc Preston: It is time for a legend.
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Marc Preston: It is Tommy Chong Day right now on
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Marc Preston: StoryandCraft.
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Marc Preston: Thanks so much for taking time out.
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Marc Preston: It means a lot to me.
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Marc Preston: It's such a pleasure to sit down with you
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Marc Preston: and talk to you for a few minutes here, and
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Marc Preston: so many things to cover I don't even know
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Marc Preston: where to start, really.
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Marc Preston: But first of all, did you have a nice
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Marc Preston: breakfast?
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Marc Preston: Did you get the day started nicely.
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Tommy Chong: How's everything going?
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Tommy Chong: You know, my breakfast is the most
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Tommy Chong: important meal of my life, Of my day, and
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Tommy Chong: this morning was no exception.
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Tommy Chong: I have a little problem with gout and
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Tommy Chong: whenever I get a little taste of God I feel
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Tommy Chong: that in my toes.
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Tommy Chong: Yeah, I think it's a age, you know, and
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Tommy Chong: it's excess of protein to this what I've
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Tommy Chong: been told.
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Tommy Chong: And so this morning I found I go to Gelsons
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Tommy Chong: near my house and I just started.
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Tommy Chong: It's a Marcet where Cheech and I share,
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Tommy Chong: Because he lives in the highlands, and they
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Tommy Chong: had one of the nicest display of sushi I've
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Tommy Chong: ever seen and I'm trying to stay off of
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Tommy Chong: sushi.
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Tommy Chong: I think that's why I got goat, because I
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Tommy Chong: was such a sushi addict.
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Tommy Chong: Anyway, they had some.
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Tommy Chong: They had some.
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Tommy Chong: My son's a sushi chef, Paris, Really.
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Marc Preston: Yeah, yeah, I know that.
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Tommy Chong: Well, he's not practicing right now.
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Tommy Chong: Actually, he learned how to do it because
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Tommy Chong: he was working on my, my brother-in-law's
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Tommy Chong: nightclub and they had a sushi bar there
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Tommy Chong: and my son could have learned how to become
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Tommy Chong: a bartender or a sushi chef, and so he
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Tommy Chong: picked the sushi chef, which is very smart.
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Tommy Chong: And anyway, when he was cooking, when he
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Tommy Chong: was making sushi in the nightclub, the
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Tommy Chong: nightclub catered to a lot of Hell's Angels,
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Tommy Chong: the bikers, and my son would make this tuna
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Tommy Chong: dish with spicy, spicy tuna dish, and these
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Tommy Chong: guys, they loved it so much they couldn't
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Tommy Chong: get enough of it.
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Tommy Chong: Well, it takes time to do sushi and and if
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Tommy Chong: he's, if he wasn't working fast enough, the
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Tommy Chong: drunk bikers would throw things at him.
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Marc Preston: Well, how long ago was this?
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Marc Preston: Was this a?
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Tommy Chong: This was years ago and the this one he was
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Tommy Chong: like just coming out of school, you know,
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Tommy Chong: looking for something to do with his life,
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Tommy Chong: but now he's he's.
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Tommy Chong: He still knows how to cook sushi, but the
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Tommy Chong: bottom line is that he made this beautiful
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Tommy Chong: dish that, like I said, the bikers would
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Tommy Chong: riot if he didn't get it too fast enough,
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Tommy Chong: and and Gelsen's happened to serve it and I
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Tommy Chong: so I bought some and that's what I have for
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Tommy Chong: breakfast, and so what I'm, what I'm
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Tommy Chong: looking at now, is just waiting to see if
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Tommy Chong: my toe is going to react, and so far it has.
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Marc Preston: You know, you know what?
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Marc Preston: I also heard that sometimes, and I don't
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Marc Preston: know and I'm no doctor, but I heard that if
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Marc Preston: you ever do this, you know, like some
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Marc Preston: people do, the intermittent fasting, like
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Marc Preston: if you don't eat, like for a day or
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Marc Preston: something that can kind of trigger it also,
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Marc Preston: or something I don't know?
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Tommy Chong: Oh, I believe that.
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Tommy Chong: I believe that, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Tommy Chong: Well, you know what you're doing is your
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Tommy Chong: body gets used to certain things and and it
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Tommy Chong: gets used to rejecting certain things,
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Tommy Chong: especially as you get older.
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Marc Preston: You know, when I was growing up you always
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Marc Preston: heard that like really wealthy people that
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Marc Preston: eat nothing but steak nonstop, you know,
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Marc Preston: but that's actually like some kind of uric
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Marc Preston: acid or something, I don't even, or some
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Marc Preston: kind of acid.
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Tommy Chong: That's what it is, Uric acid.
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Tommy Chong: You nailed it, yeah, but I was told.
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Tommy Chong: In fact I was in Japan and I was feasting
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Tommy Chong: on.
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Tommy Chong: In fact, we were staying at a resort and it
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Tommy Chong: specialized in seafood, you know, shellfish,
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Tommy Chong: and that's when I got probably one of the
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Tommy Chong: worst cases of goat in the history of goat.
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Tommy Chong: It was so bad I had to go to the emergency
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Tommy Chong: room and the doctor looked at it and they
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Tommy Chong: just put a needle right into it, right,
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Tommy Chong: right, right, right, directly into it.
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Tommy Chong: And I was glad to get that needle because
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Tommy Chong: it cured it, it cleaned it up.
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Tommy Chong: I don't know what they put in it, but yeah,
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Tommy Chong: I know I've been dealing with goat.
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Tommy Chong: That was, that was years ago, though.
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Tommy Chong: That was back in 07, actually 07.
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Tommy Chong: Yeah, you know where I found out I had goat.
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Tommy Chong: Where was that?
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Tommy Chong: In prison.
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Tommy Chong: I was in prison.
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Tommy Chong: I've been there a couple of days and I'm
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Tommy Chong: walking across the field now, Limpin, I
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Tommy Chong: thought I dropped a weight on my foot you
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Tommy Chong: know weightlifting, and that's what it felt
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Tommy Chong: like.
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Tommy Chong: But then I thought I haven't weight lifted
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Tommy Chong: or anything, you know.
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Tommy Chong: And so I so, on my way to my cell or my
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Tommy Chong: cubicle we weren't in cells I had three
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Tommy Chong: doctors that were also doing time in jail.
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Tommy Chong: When I was in there, there was about seven
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Tommy Chong: doctors legitimate MDs, you know doing time
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Tommy Chong: for opioid.
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Marc Preston: Oh, prescribing huh.
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Tommy Chong: Anyway, three of them told me I had goat
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Tommy Chong: before I got to my bunk.
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Tommy Chong: Oh you got goat, you got goat.
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Marc Preston: And I did hear an interview Now when we
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Marc Preston: were talking about you being which I think
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Marc Preston: is just such a travesty when you think
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Marc Preston: about it, that you weren't.
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Marc Preston: It was for paraphernalia, it wasn't even
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Marc Preston: for any, it was just glass basically.
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Tommy Chong: No, it was for being Chinese.
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Tommy Chong: Actually, that's my assessment.
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Tommy Chong: No, bush was looking for an excuse for the
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Tommy Chong: you know, to get the press off disaster in
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Tommy Chong: the Iraqi war that he started, and so they
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Tommy Chong: were going after the hippies, like Nixon
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Tommy Chong: did back in the Vietnam days, and there was
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Tommy Chong: nothing going on.
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Tommy Chong: And so they come up with this bogus claim
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Tommy Chong: that the bomb business was funneling
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Tommy Chong: billions of dollars into IKDA, billions,
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Tommy Chong: billions of dollars into IKDA.
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Marc Preston: And so when they say, when you look at the
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Marc Preston: profit margin on that.
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Marc Preston: It's not you know you're going to do.
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Marc Preston: There's no way.
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Tommy Chong: They went to great lengths.
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Tommy Chong: You know what.
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Tommy Chong: One of the things they did that was kind of
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Tommy Chong: cool they embedded a financial expert into
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Tommy Chong: our company.
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Tommy Chong: Because this guy showed up all of a sudden
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Tommy Chong: out of nowhere and he started showing my
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Tommy Chong: son you know how to run the business more
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Tommy Chong: effectively.
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Tommy Chong: You know, this guy really knew what he was
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Tommy Chong: doing and then of us did I never knew, my
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Tommy Chong: son never knew.
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Tommy Chong: You know, there was like the reason we got
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Tommy Chong: in the bomb business is that my wife and I
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Tommy Chong: were on the road doing comedy and people
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Tommy Chong: would bring up homemade Chongbongs and to
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Tommy Chong: get them signed.
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Tommy Chong: And so my wife says, well, why don't we
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Tommy Chong: start manufacturing our own bombs, you know?
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Tommy Chong: And so we started the Chongbong company.
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Tommy Chong: But you know, with that, all the lives
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Tommy Chong: going on about making billions of dollars,
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Tommy Chong: the government they embedded a financial
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Tommy Chong: expert who actually helped us get out of
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Tommy Chong: the red because we were operating so poorly
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Tommy Chong: that the guy couldn't help it.
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Marc Preston: Wouldn't that be considered entrapment?
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Marc Preston: I mean basically Big time, Big time.
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Tommy Chong: Not only that, they filmed everything, and
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Tommy Chong: they had it turned it over to us, and so we
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Tommy Chong: knew that I was being followed.
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Tommy Chong: I was being filmed.
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Tommy Chong: I was going to all sorts of head shops, you
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Tommy Chong: know, signing my bombs, and what they
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Tommy Chong: filmed was me admitting that the bombs
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Tommy Chong: weren't really for tobacco use only.
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Tommy Chong: That was a big deal.
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Tommy Chong: They got me to admit that the bombs were
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Tommy Chong: for marijuana.
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Marc Preston: One of the questions I had for you was I
236
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Marc Preston: was thinking that, let's say up in smoke,
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Marc Preston: you did that.
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Marc Preston: Was it like 78?
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Tommy Chong: Roughly 78 was the year.
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Marc Preston: So would you say in 1978 that if somebody
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Marc Preston: said to you 44 years later we would still
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Marc Preston: be dealing with some aspect of a
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Marc Preston: prohibition on cannabis, cannabis products
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Marc Preston: and all that I mean granted it's, you know,
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Marc Preston: california, oregon, I mean they're places
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Marc Preston: it's legal, of course, but would you think
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Marc Preston: by now we would still be dealing with this
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Marc Preston: big question of legalization?
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Tommy Chong: Well, you know, hindsight is 20-20, of
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Tommy Chong: course you know so at the time.
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Tommy Chong: I knew, see, I started bodybuilding when I
252
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Tommy Chong: was quite young, 16 years old, when I got
253
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Tommy Chong: into bodybuilding, and then I met some
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Tommy Chong: serious bodybuilders and the first thing
255
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Tommy Chong: they did was make me quit smoking and
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Tommy Chong: change my diet, you know.
257
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Tommy Chong: But I realized over the years that the only
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Tommy Chong: substance that these healthiest people on
259
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Tommy Chong: the planet would do was pot, was marijuana,
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Tommy Chong: and they wouldn't let me smoke cigarettes,
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Tommy Chong: they wouldn't let me drink alcohol, but
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Tommy Chong: they had no problem with me getting high on
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Tommy Chong: pot.
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Tommy Chong: And so I knew instinctively, or you know
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Tommy Chong: from that amateur research, that the
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Tommy Chong: healthiest people on the planet would smoke
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Tommy Chong: pot.
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Tommy Chong: So I knew, and so when we did Up and Smoke
269
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Tommy Chong: Up and Smoke wasn't supposed to be a stoner
270
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Tommy Chong: movie, up and Smoke, lou Adler, our manager,
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Tommy Chong: our producer at the time he was a record
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Tommy Chong: producer he just wanted us to do Cheech and
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Tommy Chong: Chong's greatest hits of all the, you know,
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Tommy Chong: put all our greatest hits Like all your
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Tommy Chong: comedy bits.
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Tommy Chong: Basically, yeah, all the comedy bits into a
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Tommy Chong: movie.
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Tommy Chong: Well, I, you know I don't work that way.
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Tommy Chong: You know, we're very improvisational with
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Tommy Chong: everything we do, cheech and I.
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Tommy Chong: And so one day I came, well, one night I
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Tommy Chong: stayed home and I wrote a song called Up
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Tommy Chong: and Smoke and then I sang it for Cheech and
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Tommy Chong: Lou the next day and Cheech says that's the
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Tommy Chong: movie, that's the title of the movie.
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Tommy Chong: Well, once it became the title of the movie,
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Tommy Chong: then we started writing it with the
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Tommy Chong: characters that we put in there, because
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Tommy Chong: Cheech and I together we did a couple of
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Tommy Chong: hundred characters, you know.
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Tommy Chong: And so when I wrote Up and Smoke, then
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Tommy Chong: Cheech realized that the Chacarno character,
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Tommy Chong: you know, the lowrider and the hippie, they
294
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Tommy Chong: were the guys, they were the what Up and
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Tommy Chong: Smoke was all about.
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Tommy Chong: And so that's how we went in that direction.
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Tommy Chong: But as and what I wanted to show in the
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Tommy Chong: movie and I did very well, I did really
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Tommy Chong: well because I wrote the movie.
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Tommy Chong: You know there's a lot of talk that we
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Tommy Chong: never had a script.
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Marc Preston: Yeah, no, you wrote, you also directed a
303
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Marc Preston: few movies.
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Tommy Chong: Yeah, yeah, I directed that one too, but I
305
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Tommy Chong: never got credit for it.
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Tommy Chong: Yeah, see, the way I've always operated is
307
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Tommy Chong: that I've always been in bands and I've
308
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Tommy Chong: never been the best musician in any band
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Tommy Chong: that I ever played in.
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Tommy Chong: In fact, most of the.
311
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Tommy Chong: I got into music because I had the ability
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Tommy Chong: to back up a fiddle player, and I was eight
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Tommy Chong: years old and he found out I could play a
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Tommy Chong: guitar good enough to be able to back up,
315
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Tommy Chong: back him up, and so so my whole career has
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Tommy Chong: been helping other people in the music
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Tommy Chong: industry, you know.
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Tommy Chong: So I became known as a good backup guitar
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Tommy Chong: player, and so singers would hire me to
320
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Tommy Chong: back them up, and that's how I ended up
321
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Tommy Chong: with a band and that's how I ended up with
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Tommy Chong: a nightclub.
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Tommy Chong: But I was more the business guy of all the
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Tommy Chong: musicians.
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Tommy Chong: I wasn't that good of a musician.
326
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Tommy Chong: I'm a good musician but I'm not dedicated.
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Tommy Chong: You know, I had other interests, and my
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Tommy Chong: natural instinct was giving the people what
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Tommy Chong: they want.
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Tommy Chong: I could sense what the audience was looking
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Tommy Chong: for, and that came from when I was eight,
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Tommy Chong: nine years old, the fiddle player that I
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Tommy Chong: worked with.
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Tommy Chong: He taught me the basics of entertaining
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Tommy Chong: people, and he had said first of all give
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Tommy Chong: the people what they want.
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Tommy Chong: You know, don't switch and bait and switch,
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Tommy Chong: you know.
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Marc Preston: Being a showman is its own craft, you know.
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Tommy Chong: Yeah, and he taught me and he says give the
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Tommy Chong: people what they want, and if they want the
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Tommy Chong: same tune over and over again, give it to
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Tommy Chong: them, you know, and be glad to do it.
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Tommy Chong: So he taught me that lesson.
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Tommy Chong: And so then, at an early age of my life, I
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Tommy Chong: learned how to make people happy.
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Tommy Chong: You know, not it wasn't my plan, but it was
348
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Tommy Chong: my ability to be a solid backup guitar
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Tommy Chong: player for these guys and that's what they
350
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Tommy Chong: needed and that's been my whole career.
351
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Tommy Chong: And so when I got into like comedy for
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Tommy Chong: instance, you know I was in the comedy
353
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Tommy Chong: before Cheech.
354
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Tommy Chong: Cheech came later I had been doing the
355
00:16:10,190 --> 00:16:14,731
Tommy Chong: comedy routine for about maybe six months
356
00:16:15,734 --> 00:16:19,632
Tommy Chong: and then Cheech joined and then we were
357
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Tommy Chong: together again for another maybe three
358
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Tommy Chong: months and then Cheech and I, then we got
359
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Tommy Chong: fired from my own club.
360
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Marc Preston: Well, that's how you know you're really in
361
00:16:28,570 --> 00:16:28,972
Marc Preston: the business.
362
00:16:29,045 --> 00:16:30,670
Marc Preston: You got to get fired that first time, you
363
00:16:30,710 --> 00:16:30,870
Marc Preston: know.
364
00:16:31,011 --> 00:16:32,656
Marc Preston: Yeah Well, how did you?
365
00:16:32,785 --> 00:16:33,949
Marc Preston: I know you've probably told the story a
366
00:16:34,029 --> 00:16:35,534
Marc Preston: million times, I've just never heard it.
367
00:16:35,625 --> 00:16:36,587
Marc Preston: But how did you meet?
368
00:16:37,650 --> 00:16:39,455
Marc Preston: How did y'all two connect initially?
369
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Tommy Chong: Well, in our we had, we had a app drawers
370
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Tommy Chong: club which was given to us, given to me.
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00:16:48,008 --> 00:16:50,371
Tommy Chong: Basically I was the one that was interested
372
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Tommy Chong: in it.
373
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Tommy Chong: You know the band.
374
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Tommy Chong: We had a singer that was very flamboyant
375
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Tommy Chong: and not that good of a singer but he
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Tommy Chong: entertained.
377
00:17:00,385 --> 00:17:02,006
Tommy Chong: And then we had other instruments, other
378
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Tommy Chong: musicians that were just more or less into
379
00:17:04,526 --> 00:17:05,210
Tommy Chong: the music part.
380
00:17:05,625 --> 00:17:09,916
Tommy Chong: I was more into the business part of it,
381
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Tommy Chong: you know.
382
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Tommy Chong: So when we got offered a nightclub I jumped
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Tommy Chong: on all over, you know yeah, Is this in Los
384
00:17:15,808 --> 00:17:16,491
Tommy Chong: Angeles or?
385
00:17:16,785 --> 00:17:18,451
Tommy Chong: No, this is in Vancouver, Canada.
386
00:17:18,932 --> 00:17:20,248
Marc Preston: Oh, that's right Cause aren't you from
387
00:17:20,268 --> 00:17:21,092
Marc Preston: Edmonton originally?
388
00:17:22,047 --> 00:17:24,053
Tommy Chong: I was born in Edmonton and raised in
389
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Tommy Chong: Calgary and then I got deported to
390
00:17:27,953 --> 00:17:28,495
Tommy Chong: Vancouver.
391
00:17:29,185 --> 00:17:30,671
Tommy Chong: Well, so so we're in Vancouver.
392
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Tommy Chong: The club was so successful.
393
00:17:34,810 --> 00:17:38,148
Tommy Chong: It became so successful that another club
394
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Tommy Chong: was given to us by another Chinese friend
395
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Tommy Chong: of mine whose club wasn't doing very well.
396
00:17:43,605 --> 00:17:46,935
Tommy Chong: So so I turned that club the one that was
397
00:17:46,975 --> 00:17:49,853
Tommy Chong: given to us into a strip, a titty bar.
398
00:17:51,406 --> 00:17:54,568
Tommy Chong: And so the bikers you know a lot of bikers
399
00:17:54,668 --> 00:17:58,151
Tommy Chong: in Vancouver, so we had a very rough crowd
400
00:17:58,191 --> 00:17:58,351
Tommy Chong: there.
401
00:17:59,385 --> 00:18:01,772
Tommy Chong: So when I got fired from Motown which is
402
00:18:01,833 --> 00:18:04,691
Tommy Chong: another story I went back to the clubs and
403
00:18:04,731 --> 00:18:10,250
Tommy Chong: I started working the lights at the strip.
404
00:18:10,491 --> 00:18:12,487
Tommy Chong: The titty bar you know, the other after
405
00:18:12,548 --> 00:18:14,827
Tommy Chong: hours club was doing fine, but the titty
406
00:18:14,847 --> 00:18:16,072
Tommy Chong: bar was more fun to be in.
407
00:18:16,505 --> 00:18:19,234
Tommy Chong: And then I realized that I could turn this
408
00:18:19,334 --> 00:18:22,854
Tommy Chong: club into an improvisational comedy club,
409
00:18:23,545 --> 00:18:26,333
Tommy Chong: which I did using the girls who were
410
00:18:26,574 --> 00:18:29,532
Tommy Chong: beautiful and very funny as comedians.
411
00:18:30,245 --> 00:18:32,574
Tommy Chong: But I needed another partner.
412
00:18:32,765 --> 00:18:36,015
Tommy Chong: So I talked to Dormian his name was Dave
413
00:18:36,665 --> 00:18:40,355
Tommy Chong: and to I said I wanted him to be the MC.
414
00:18:40,745 --> 00:18:41,950
Tommy Chong: I was just gonna work the lights.
415
00:18:42,665 --> 00:18:44,311
Tommy Chong: And then Dave said well, I'll do it if you
416
00:18:44,331 --> 00:18:44,592
Tommy Chong: do it.
417
00:18:45,405 --> 00:18:47,413
Tommy Chong: And so he called my bluff and I said okay.
418
00:18:47,565 --> 00:18:49,752
Tommy Chong: So next thing, you know I'm on stage with
419
00:18:49,812 --> 00:18:50,133
Tommy Chong: Dave.
420
00:18:50,965 --> 00:18:53,346
Tommy Chong: And then we needed a straight man because
421
00:18:53,366 --> 00:18:55,868
Tommy Chong: Dave and I both had real long hair and back
422
00:18:55,928 --> 00:18:58,368
Tommy Chong: then it was, you know, long hairs were like,
423
00:18:58,549 --> 00:19:01,628
Tommy Chong: you know, the dirty hippies, and he always
424
00:19:01,668 --> 00:19:03,815
Tommy Chong: had a straight guy with a straight haircut.
425
00:19:04,305 --> 00:19:06,171
Tommy Chong: So we had a straight man named Rick Lenz, a
426
00:19:06,211 --> 00:19:08,568
Tommy Chong: real actor, because once I started the
427
00:19:08,668 --> 00:19:12,907
Tommy Chong: improv club it attracted actors and so I
428
00:19:12,947 --> 00:19:15,315
Tommy Chong: got all the acting community in Vancouver
429
00:19:15,425 --> 00:19:18,134
Tommy Chong: all excited about this club that I had.
430
00:19:18,265 --> 00:19:20,673
Tommy Chong: And then so I started to have an actor sing
431
00:19:20,773 --> 00:19:23,251
Tommy Chong: out and but the straight guy, rick.
432
00:19:24,606 --> 00:19:27,233
Tommy Chong: We were so popular that we got a front page
433
00:19:28,155 --> 00:19:31,453
Tommy Chong: picture of Rick with the strippers on
434
00:19:31,493 --> 00:19:34,251
Tommy Chong: either side of him, with the other titties
435
00:19:34,872 --> 00:19:38,609
Tommy Chong: in the Rick's ear, and so Rick's wife.
436
00:19:39,150 --> 00:19:39,992
Tommy Chong: We never saw Rick.
437
00:19:40,073 --> 00:19:42,850
Tommy Chong: After that picture Rick disappeared, his
438
00:19:42,930 --> 00:19:43,151
Tommy Chong: wife.
439
00:19:45,225 --> 00:19:46,691
Marc Preston: Because he was like that's what you're up
440
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Marc Preston: to.
441
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Tommy Chong: He told his wife that he was doing comedy.
442
00:19:50,265 --> 00:19:53,254
Tommy Chong: I mean theater, you know like what do you
443
00:19:53,274 --> 00:19:53,554
Tommy Chong: call it?
444
00:19:54,385 --> 00:19:55,530
Tommy Chong: You know community theater.
445
00:19:57,225 --> 00:19:59,513
Tommy Chong: And so I needed a straight guy.
446
00:19:59,985 --> 00:20:02,213
Tommy Chong: And so this one customer, a Russian kid,
447
00:20:03,045 --> 00:20:05,531
Tommy Chong: that he said, I know the perfect guy for
448
00:20:05,551 --> 00:20:05,872
Tommy Chong: your act.
449
00:20:08,125 --> 00:20:10,233
Tommy Chong: And I said he said come on out and meet him.
450
00:20:10,965 --> 00:20:12,973
Tommy Chong: And so I went out and I met Teech.
451
00:20:13,265 --> 00:20:16,105
Tommy Chong: He was Richard Merritt, right, right, and
452
00:20:16,166 --> 00:20:19,335
Tommy Chong: Richard was up in Vancouver, canada,
453
00:20:19,485 --> 00:20:20,510
Tommy Chong: dodging the draft.
454
00:20:21,586 --> 00:20:24,634
Tommy Chong: He was trying not to go to get killed in
455
00:20:24,654 --> 00:20:25,195
Tommy Chong: Vietnam.
456
00:20:26,325 --> 00:20:27,328
Tommy Chong: And so we did.
457
00:20:27,469 --> 00:20:30,408
Tommy Chong: None of us knew the strippers or any of the
458
00:20:30,809 --> 00:20:33,570
Tommy Chong: people in the club knew that Teech really
459
00:20:33,650 --> 00:20:36,552
Tommy Chong: was Mexican Because he had been such a good
460
00:20:36,672 --> 00:20:38,691
Tommy Chong: actor, you know, we thought we didn't know
461
00:20:38,732 --> 00:20:39,113
Tommy Chong: what he was.
462
00:20:39,265 --> 00:20:43,614
Tommy Chong: He was brown, something and so and so we
463
00:20:43,654 --> 00:20:44,055
Tommy Chong: didn't know.
464
00:20:44,625 --> 00:20:46,786
Tommy Chong: I didn't really know he was Mexican until
465
00:20:47,167 --> 00:20:48,492
Tommy Chong: we came down to LA.
466
00:20:49,405 --> 00:20:52,114
Tommy Chong: And that's when and I found out, when we
467
00:20:52,745 --> 00:20:55,153
Tommy Chong: the first time we found out that we were
468
00:20:55,173 --> 00:20:55,895
Tommy Chong: funny together.
469
00:20:58,225 --> 00:21:00,886
Tommy Chong: We had a band, we were gonna play music and
470
00:21:00,906 --> 00:21:03,549
Tommy Chong: Teech is a singer, and but we never got
471
00:21:03,589 --> 00:21:06,447
Tommy Chong: around to playing one note, because Teech
472
00:21:06,508 --> 00:21:10,428
Tommy Chong: and I did 45 minutes of comedy and found
473
00:21:10,488 --> 00:21:12,013
Tommy Chong: out that that was it.
474
00:21:12,205 --> 00:21:15,190
Tommy Chong: We were a comedy team, and so that's when I
475
00:21:15,230 --> 00:21:15,973
Tommy Chong: found out his name.
476
00:21:16,305 --> 00:21:18,647
Tommy Chong: His nickname was Teech, because we were
477
00:21:18,687 --> 00:21:20,745
Tommy Chong: trying to find a name for our group and
478
00:21:21,207 --> 00:21:23,113
Tommy Chong: Teech and Chong turned out to be the winner.
479
00:21:24,426 --> 00:21:29,138
Tommy Chong: And then we snuck back into LA and the rest
480
00:21:29,239 --> 00:21:29,660
Tommy Chong: is history.
481
00:21:30,105 --> 00:21:31,571
Marc Preston: Now is that where he's from originally?
482
00:21:31,945 --> 00:21:33,792
Tommy Chong: Yeah, yeah, he was from LA, yeah.
483
00:21:34,645 --> 00:21:35,950
Marc Preston: Yeah, that's one of the things I loved
484
00:21:35,970 --> 00:21:37,628
Marc Preston: about your movies when I was probably too
485
00:21:37,689 --> 00:21:38,692
Marc Preston: young to be watching them.
486
00:21:39,625 --> 00:21:41,591
Marc Preston: Way back when, was you know?
487
00:21:42,674 --> 00:21:44,308
Marc Preston: My view of LA was always the glitz, the
488
00:21:44,349 --> 00:21:48,473
Marc Preston: glam, you know, the watching emergency, you
489
00:21:48,513 --> 00:21:50,799
Marc Preston: know, or chips, you know.
490
00:21:50,865 --> 00:21:52,807
Marc Preston: To me that was LA, it's like, but there was
491
00:21:52,827 --> 00:21:54,426
Marc Preston: this whole Chicano side, there was this
492
00:21:54,446 --> 00:21:57,248
Marc Preston: whole other like I was like, and so I was
493
00:21:57,509 --> 00:21:59,326
Marc Preston: equally enamored with others, this whole,
494
00:21:59,346 --> 00:22:01,427
Marc Preston: like you know, other side, he has a little
495
00:22:01,467 --> 00:22:03,086
Marc Preston: kid with this whole LA thing I started to
496
00:22:03,106 --> 00:22:05,907
Marc Preston: come in and enamored like, but no, what you
497
00:22:05,927 --> 00:22:07,729
Marc Preston: were saying before about how you supported
498
00:22:07,769 --> 00:22:10,832
Marc Preston: somebody, how you I kinda like the back of
499
00:22:10,972 --> 00:22:12,911
Marc Preston: up, I mean that's, there were scenes in
500
00:22:13,052 --> 00:22:14,308
Marc Preston: your movies that I can think of.
501
00:22:14,348 --> 00:22:16,008
Marc Preston: That Chich is, you know, he's got the lines
502
00:22:16,068 --> 00:22:17,926
Marc Preston: and it's kind of focused on him, like, for
503
00:22:18,046 --> 00:22:21,375
Marc Preston: instance, him getting pulled over.
504
00:22:21,885 --> 00:22:23,471
Marc Preston: There's this scene and I don't know what
505
00:22:23,511 --> 00:22:24,848
Marc Preston: movie it's from the policeman's, like I see
506
00:22:24,868 --> 00:22:26,869
Marc Preston: your license and he's like wait, isn't it
507
00:22:26,910 --> 00:22:27,712
Marc Preston: on the back of the car?
508
00:22:27,752 --> 00:22:27,953
Marc Preston: You know.
509
00:22:28,665 --> 00:22:29,388
Tommy Chong: Yeah, isn't it on the bumper.
510
00:22:30,105 --> 00:22:32,547
Marc Preston: Yeah, yeah, and then you're, but see,
511
00:22:32,607 --> 00:22:33,209
Marc Preston: you're there.
512
00:22:33,229 --> 00:22:34,948
Marc Preston: It's like, visually you're doing something.
513
00:22:34,989 --> 00:22:35,510
Marc Preston: I think you're.
514
00:22:35,932 --> 00:22:37,228
Marc Preston: You know you're always kind of in the
515
00:22:37,268 --> 00:22:39,868
Marc Preston: background, yeah, Doing something, you know
516
00:22:39,908 --> 00:22:41,307
Marc Preston: you're supporting him, so it's not like
517
00:22:41,328 --> 00:22:42,527
Marc Preston: you're just sitting there letting him.
518
00:22:42,687 --> 00:22:45,638
Marc Preston: You know, there's so much visual comedy
519
00:22:45,698 --> 00:22:48,159
Marc Preston: that I think was just, you know he was the
520
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:49,919
Marc Preston: boisterous one, but you know, but he did,
521
00:22:49,939 --> 00:22:51,249
Marc Preston: he had a lot of visual, like you know.
522
00:22:51,290 --> 00:22:53,361
Marc Preston: This one scene sticks out of my mind.
523
00:22:53,381 --> 00:22:53,985
Marc Preston: I don't know what movie it is.
524
00:22:54,249 --> 00:22:56,013
Marc Preston: You're playing guitar in the house and he's
525
00:22:56,033 --> 00:22:56,802
Marc Preston: trying to get into the door.
526
00:22:56,822 --> 00:22:58,323
Marc Preston: Apparently you've got so many monitors
527
00:22:58,344 --> 00:22:59,925
Marc Preston: going he can't get the door open, you know,
528
00:23:00,567 --> 00:23:03,555
Marc Preston: and he's like but yeah, I think grossly
529
00:23:03,615 --> 00:23:06,473
Marc Preston: under underappreciated physical comedians.
530
00:23:06,633 --> 00:23:08,365
Marc Preston: I will say you know, you grew up in Canada.
531
00:23:08,970 --> 00:23:10,824
Marc Preston: Now your folks when they saw the kind of
532
00:23:10,844 --> 00:23:12,038
Marc Preston: mischief you were up to, did they
533
00:23:12,079 --> 00:23:12,545
Marc Preston: understand it?
534
00:23:12,787 --> 00:23:13,391
Marc Preston: Did they like?
535
00:23:14,157 --> 00:23:15,125
Marc Preston: Did they think it was cool?
536
00:23:15,226 --> 00:23:16,385
Marc Preston: They think it was just ridiculous?
537
00:23:16,505 --> 00:23:18,753
Marc Preston: What was your family thinking about your
538
00:23:18,793 --> 00:23:19,114
Marc Preston: endeavor?
539
00:23:19,625 --> 00:23:23,315
Tommy Chong: Well, you know, it was my dad really that
540
00:23:23,415 --> 00:23:30,496
Tommy Chong: encouraged me because you know the party to
541
00:23:30,537 --> 00:23:31,218
Tommy Chong: play guitar.
542
00:23:31,826 --> 00:23:33,831
Tommy Chong: My dad really, you know, he was very
543
00:23:34,412 --> 00:23:37,409
Tommy Chong: traditional Chinese, but he never spoke
544
00:23:37,489 --> 00:23:40,648
Tommy Chong: Chinese around the house, he never taught
545
00:23:40,708 --> 00:23:41,351
Tommy Chong: us anything.
546
00:23:42,365 --> 00:23:46,295
Tommy Chong: We were like his, his white, his Caucasian
547
00:23:46,355 --> 00:23:49,271
Tommy Chong: family, you know, because my mother was a
548
00:23:49,332 --> 00:23:50,134
Tommy Chong: very beautiful.
549
00:23:51,625 --> 00:23:55,455
Tommy Chong: Well, I found out later she was 25% native,
550
00:23:57,167 --> 00:23:59,133
Tommy Chong: but we always thought she was Scotch Irish
551
00:24:00,186 --> 00:24:04,568
Tommy Chong: and my dad was Chinese, of course, and so
552
00:24:04,608 --> 00:24:08,624
Tommy Chong: my dad, he treated us and mom and the
553
00:24:08,645 --> 00:24:14,058
Tommy Chong: family more like his white family, you know,
554
00:24:14,780 --> 00:24:15,281
Tommy Chong: and he would.
555
00:24:17,267 --> 00:24:20,426
Tommy Chong: So when I started, when we did, well, first
556
00:24:20,446 --> 00:24:22,725
Tommy Chong: of all when we did the night clubs, you
557
00:24:22,745 --> 00:24:24,933
Tommy Chong: know, my dad and mom, everybody came.
558
00:24:25,265 --> 00:24:30,017
Tommy Chong: My brother actually managed all the clubs,
559
00:24:30,745 --> 00:24:32,432
Tommy Chong: leaving me to go on the road, you know,
560
00:24:33,926 --> 00:24:35,431
Tommy Chong: with the bands and everything else.
561
00:24:36,365 --> 00:24:38,993
Tommy Chong: So my parents, my dad, he was very
562
00:24:39,093 --> 00:24:42,833
Tommy Chong: traditional, he was in the Second World War,
563
00:24:42,893 --> 00:24:46,211
Tommy Chong: he didn't have to go, he was in Canada and
564
00:24:46,411 --> 00:24:49,689
Tommy Chong: they didn't want Chinese in the war but in
565
00:24:49,729 --> 00:24:50,230
Tommy Chong: the army.
566
00:24:50,350 --> 00:24:53,928
Tommy Chong: But he enlisted with his friends and he was
567
00:24:54,108 --> 00:24:58,379
Tommy Chong: born and raised in Vancouver and Ableton
568
00:24:58,419 --> 00:25:00,949
Tommy Chong: too, where he met my mother.
569
00:25:01,391 --> 00:25:03,206
Tommy Chong: But my parents were sort of, you know,
570
00:25:03,307 --> 00:25:05,995
Tommy Chong: tradition, but they went along with me
571
00:25:06,405 --> 00:25:10,656
Tommy Chong: because, you know, one of the kids is an
572
00:25:10,796 --> 00:25:11,418
Tommy Chong: entertainer.
573
00:25:11,805 --> 00:25:13,752
Tommy Chong: You know, the whole world revolves around.
574
00:25:14,265 --> 00:25:15,389
Tommy Chong: I remember my sister.
575
00:25:15,570 --> 00:25:19,268
Tommy Chong: She was a tap dancer and she went on the
576
00:25:19,328 --> 00:25:21,865
Tommy Chong: road with a tap dancing crew one time and
577
00:25:21,906 --> 00:25:23,993
Tommy Chong: we followed her, or actually we drove her,
578
00:25:25,047 --> 00:25:26,713
Tommy Chong: and that's when I got a taste of the
579
00:25:27,175 --> 00:25:31,710
Tommy Chong: entertainment world, you know.
580
00:25:32,472 --> 00:25:35,066
Tommy Chong: And so, being an entertainer I was, you
581
00:25:35,086 --> 00:25:35,627
Tommy Chong: know I was.
582
00:25:36,109 --> 00:25:37,633
Tommy Chong: I was lopped into a.
583
00:25:38,525 --> 00:25:39,931
Tommy Chong: Let me tell you a story about my uncle.
584
00:25:40,785 --> 00:25:44,275
Tommy Chong: My dad had a brother who I was named after,
585
00:25:44,335 --> 00:25:44,636
Tommy Chong: tommy.
586
00:25:45,205 --> 00:25:47,453
Tommy Chong: My dad and my brother were opposites.
587
00:25:47,645 --> 00:25:52,607
Tommy Chong: My dad was rough and ready to go to war and
588
00:25:53,028 --> 00:25:54,874
Tommy Chong: he was a pool hustler one time.
589
00:25:54,934 --> 00:25:57,050
Tommy Chong: You know, he wasn't tall, he was five foot
590
00:25:57,111 --> 00:26:01,755
Tommy Chong: three, but he ended up being a big, distant
591
00:26:01,975 --> 00:26:02,938
Tommy Chong: truck driver, you know.
592
00:26:03,985 --> 00:26:07,474
Tommy Chong: So he was a macho kind of guy, very macho,
593
00:26:07,574 --> 00:26:08,356
Tommy Chong: very tough too.
594
00:26:09,285 --> 00:26:13,676
Tommy Chong: But my uncle Tommy was an academic.
595
00:26:14,545 --> 00:26:15,769
Tommy Chong: He never got out of school.
596
00:26:15,829 --> 00:26:18,306
Tommy Chong: He stayed in the University of Alberta
597
00:26:18,808 --> 00:26:22,256
Tommy Chong: until he died at the age of 80, something.
598
00:26:23,465 --> 00:26:27,609
Tommy Chong: He was a diving coach, even though he
599
00:26:27,649 --> 00:26:30,987
Tommy Chong: couldn't swim, but he was a gymnast and he
600
00:26:31,007 --> 00:26:34,707
Tommy Chong: was also an intellect, you know he was, and
601
00:26:34,767 --> 00:26:37,654
Tommy Chong: he wasn't really thrilled with my dad or
602
00:26:37,715 --> 00:26:41,933
Tommy Chong: his family until, until I started getting
603
00:26:43,156 --> 00:26:47,875
Tommy Chong: written up in the movie, the movie section,
604
00:26:48,036 --> 00:26:53,350
Tommy Chong: and then, and because I carry his name, all
605
00:26:53,370 --> 00:26:57,621
Tommy Chong: of a sudden I became his favorite nephew,
606
00:26:57,821 --> 00:26:58,102
Tommy Chong: you know.
607
00:26:58,665 --> 00:26:59,951
Marc Preston: So how many kids were in your family?
608
00:27:00,286 --> 00:27:01,731
Marc Preston: How many brothers and sisters did you have?
609
00:27:02,425 --> 00:27:05,569
Tommy Chong: I had a brother and a sister, and my
610
00:27:05,629 --> 00:27:06,593
Tommy Chong: sister's still with us.
611
00:27:07,086 --> 00:27:11,148
Tommy Chong: My brother passed a couple of years ago and,
612
00:27:11,530 --> 00:27:12,974
Tommy Chong: yeah, and we were named after him.
613
00:27:13,245 --> 00:27:14,449
Tommy Chong: My mother was very.
614
00:27:14,890 --> 00:27:17,747
Tommy Chong: She went to Chinese, moved when she met my
615
00:27:17,828 --> 00:27:22,732
Tommy Chong: dad and she just she adopted everything
616
00:27:22,872 --> 00:27:25,418
Tommy Chong: Chinese and she adopted.
617
00:27:25,805 --> 00:27:28,774
Tommy Chong: She had three kids, like my dad's family.
618
00:27:29,765 --> 00:27:33,576
Tommy Chong: There was my dad, stan, and my uncle, tommy,
619
00:27:33,825 --> 00:27:36,673
Tommy Chong: and my aunt Nelly, who I never met.
620
00:27:36,753 --> 00:27:37,475
Tommy Chong: She died before.
621
00:27:38,305 --> 00:27:40,866
Tommy Chong: But my mother had three kids too and she
622
00:27:40,926 --> 00:27:44,635
Tommy Chong: named them Stan, tommy and Nelly and yeah,
623
00:27:45,686 --> 00:27:46,931
Tommy Chong: so about what year?
624
00:27:47,151 --> 00:27:48,126
Marc Preston: what about was it?
625
00:27:48,146 --> 00:27:51,275
Marc Preston: Was it in 1969, 1970-ish, roughly?
626
00:27:51,325 --> 00:27:52,750
Marc Preston: Is that when you came to LA?
627
00:27:53,565 --> 00:27:54,649
Tommy Chong: We came to LA.
628
00:27:54,669 --> 00:27:57,629
Tommy Chong: Yeah, it was actually, you named it right.
629
00:27:57,909 --> 00:28:06,135
Tommy Chong: We did 1969 in Vancouver and 1970, 71 in LA,
630
00:28:06,525 --> 00:28:07,147
Tommy Chong: application in thefluodance to
631
00:28:07,167 --> 00:28:10,780
Tommy Chong: sweetiewater們 BM-Marriageğlithololocee.
632
00:28:13,706 --> 00:28:17,695
Tommy Chong: And 71 was when we put out our first album,
633
00:28:18,136 --> 00:28:18,838
Tommy Chong: our first record.
634
00:28:18,858 --> 00:28:19,860
Tommy Chong: They're not here.
635
00:28:20,722 --> 00:28:22,807
Marc Preston: I think that's one of the things I love
636
00:28:22,928 --> 00:28:24,491
Marc Preston: that you share in your time here, because I
637
00:28:24,512 --> 00:28:26,464
Marc Preston: mean, not, I think there's a generation, my
638
00:28:26,484 --> 00:28:28,389
Marc Preston: kid's generation, hasn't really been
639
00:28:28,449 --> 00:28:31,203
Marc Preston: exposed to the things that you did or the
640
00:28:31,383 --> 00:28:34,690
Marc Preston: era of comedy albums, you know, and back,
641
00:28:34,730 --> 00:28:36,233
Marc Preston: how big of a deal they were back.
642
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:38,004
Marc Preston: I was just watching the George Carlin
643
00:28:38,044 --> 00:28:39,147
Marc Preston: documentary that Javelin.
644
00:28:39,188 --> 00:28:41,624
Marc Preston: Tell did and as remembering, it's like man,
645
00:28:41,664 --> 00:28:43,930
Marc Preston: I remember sitting down, I mean, we'll
646
00:28:43,970 --> 00:28:44,672
Marc Preston: saying it now.
647
00:28:44,940 --> 00:28:48,563
Marc Preston: It's, of course, you know Bill Cosby, but
648
00:28:48,583 --> 00:28:50,310
Marc Preston: you know, sitting down listening to these
649
00:28:50,410 --> 00:28:52,619
Marc Preston: albums, that my father had this big old
650
00:28:52,659 --> 00:28:54,605
Marc Preston: collection and I would just be just, I
651
00:28:54,645 --> 00:28:56,089
Marc Preston: wouldn't understand half of what was going
652
00:28:56,230 --> 00:28:58,707
Marc Preston: on, but that was a big thing.
653
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,344
Marc Preston: And then to transition from doing the
654
00:29:01,385 --> 00:29:06,153
Marc Preston: comedy albums to getting on camera and
655
00:29:06,213 --> 00:29:10,357
Marc Preston: bringing these characters to film how did
656
00:29:10,398 --> 00:29:10,880
Marc Preston: that come to be?
657
00:29:11,141 --> 00:29:12,284
Marc Preston: How did Javelin Tell decide okay, we're
658
00:29:12,303 --> 00:29:14,309
Marc Preston: going to start acting on camera now.
659
00:29:14,750 --> 00:29:15,391
Tommy Chong: That was me.
660
00:29:16,541 --> 00:29:19,508
Tommy Chong: I got really tired of going to Australia
661
00:29:19,769 --> 00:29:24,740
Tommy Chong: every year to work, because every time we'd
662
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:26,965
Tommy Chong: go out of the country, you know, to a new
663
00:29:27,005 --> 00:29:29,971
Tommy Chong: country, I would have to write a new show
664
00:29:31,983 --> 00:29:37,617
Tommy Chong: and okay, you know, writing a show, doing
665
00:29:37,657 --> 00:29:38,860
Tommy Chong: an album is one thing.
666
00:29:39,423 --> 00:29:41,915
Tommy Chong: You know that takes a lot of work and time
667
00:29:41,955 --> 00:29:44,426
Tommy Chong: and everything else, but it's fun too.
668
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:49,353
Tommy Chong: Live shows they're tough because you have
669
00:29:49,373 --> 00:29:50,837
Tommy Chong: to repeat it every time.
670
00:29:51,158 --> 00:29:55,084
Tommy Chong: You do a comedy album, it's done, you know,
671
00:29:55,445 --> 00:29:58,857
Tommy Chong: you can repeat it, maybe in a show, but for
672
00:29:58,877 --> 00:30:01,103
Tommy Chong: the most time it's done when you do live
673
00:30:01,143 --> 00:30:01,604
Tommy Chong: shows.
674
00:30:02,266 --> 00:30:04,980
Tommy Chong: You got to do a live show every night and
675
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,290
Tommy Chong: so we'd been to Australia a couple of times
676
00:30:09,321 --> 00:30:13,465
Tommy Chong: and it was work, yeah, but we had, you know,
677
00:30:13,485 --> 00:30:14,830
Tommy Chong: we never had Mexicans there.
678
00:30:15,161 --> 00:30:17,025
Tommy Chong: See, when Cheech and Chong go on the road,
679
00:30:17,726 --> 00:30:18,869
Tommy Chong: unless we're going to, like a
680
00:30:18,929 --> 00:30:22,964
Tommy Chong: Spanish-friendly country, we're not
681
00:30:23,686 --> 00:30:24,227
Tommy Chong: accepted.
682
00:30:24,247 --> 00:30:28,662
Tommy Chong: The way we are seeing LA, you know, like in
683
00:30:28,722 --> 00:30:31,450
Tommy Chong: fact, we were killing them in LA.
684
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,344
Tommy Chong: We had lineups around the block,
685
00:30:33,545 --> 00:30:35,330
Tommy Chong: celebrities, everybody wanted to see us in
686
00:30:35,350 --> 00:30:35,430
Tommy Chong: LA.
687
00:30:36,422 --> 00:30:39,430
Tommy Chong: We went to New York and we were teaching.
688
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:41,345
Tommy Chong: I was very excited, you know, because we
689
00:30:41,385 --> 00:30:45,378
Tommy Chong: have, you know, we're, we're buying, you
690
00:30:45,398 --> 00:30:48,282
Tommy Chong: know, we're all over the place, new York,
691
00:30:48,302 --> 00:30:51,283
Tommy Chong: la doesn't matter, but the audience.
692
00:30:52,185 --> 00:30:55,050
Tommy Chong: If you don't have a Chicano audience, with
693
00:30:55,090 --> 00:30:57,321
Tommy Chong: Cheech and Chong, you're going to have a
694
00:30:57,362 --> 00:31:00,763
Tommy Chong: whole different show, and that's what with
695
00:31:00,944 --> 00:31:01,446
Tommy Chong: Australia.
696
00:31:01,980 --> 00:31:05,291
Tommy Chong: And so New York New York was such a wake up
697
00:31:05,332 --> 00:31:07,519
Tommy Chong: because Cheech and I were basking in the
698
00:31:07,559 --> 00:31:10,304
Tommy Chong: glory of all the Chicanos, you know.
699
00:31:10,785 --> 00:31:13,671
Tommy Chong: And then you get to New York and New York
700
00:31:13,771 --> 00:31:15,213
Tommy Chong: is deadly.
701
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,845
Tommy Chong: If you're not funny, if you just show the
702
00:31:18,926 --> 00:31:22,272
Tommy Chong: slightest bit of hesitation in New York,
703
00:31:22,352 --> 00:31:22,973
Tommy Chong: you're dead.
704
00:31:24,703 --> 00:31:26,348
Tommy Chong: People who will kill you there.
705
00:31:27,141 --> 00:31:30,006
Tommy Chong: In fact, when, when Cheech and I you know,
706
00:31:30,046 --> 00:31:32,291
Tommy Chong: when Cheech and I broke up, my wife and I
707
00:31:32,331 --> 00:31:34,983
Tommy Chong: were doing comedy and she was like starting
708
00:31:35,043 --> 00:31:36,989
Tommy Chong: out on her own, doing doing stand up,
709
00:31:37,069 --> 00:31:42,687
Tommy Chong: shelby, and we were in in the Dice Andrew
710
00:31:42,707 --> 00:31:47,635
Tommy Chong: Dice Clay's territory in New Jersey, deadly,
711
00:31:48,442 --> 00:31:51,284
Tommy Chong: shelby went out, shelby went out and there
712
00:31:51,404 --> 00:31:54,241
Tommy Chong: wasn't one laugh, it was.
713
00:31:55,083 --> 00:31:59,683
Tommy Chong: I was horrible, and but that showed you how
714
00:31:59,763 --> 00:32:03,569
Tommy Chong: tough the the my lady is, because after I
715
00:32:03,629 --> 00:32:07,014
Tommy Chong: said, you know it was not one last nothing.
716
00:32:08,101 --> 00:32:09,745
Tommy Chong: You know, usually they're polite enough to
717
00:32:10,307 --> 00:32:12,261
Tommy Chong: to give him applause or something, but it
718
00:32:12,301 --> 00:32:14,728
Tommy Chong: was they just, you know that's, that's the
719
00:32:14,748 --> 00:32:17,757
Tommy Chong: way the Andrew Dice Clay's crowd were, you
720
00:32:17,777 --> 00:32:18,780
Tommy Chong: know, just like you know they're horrible,
721
00:32:20,052 --> 00:32:22,463
Tommy Chong: they're like Trumpish, you know, and so so.
722
00:32:22,984 --> 00:32:23,845
Tommy Chong: So we ended up.
723
00:32:25,028 --> 00:32:26,691
Tommy Chong: So she, she never got one laugh.
724
00:32:26,771 --> 00:32:29,095
Tommy Chong: And she's walking up and in my mind I said
725
00:32:29,155 --> 00:32:31,259
Tommy Chong: well, this'll either make her break her,
726
00:32:31,279 --> 00:32:31,840
Tommy Chong: you know.
727
00:32:32,563 --> 00:32:35,377
Tommy Chong: And so I said to her as I went on stage, I
728
00:32:35,398 --> 00:32:38,327
Tommy Chong: said pretty tough and she said F them.
729
00:32:40,382 --> 00:32:42,731
Marc Preston: She said you know she, she, she.
730
00:32:42,751 --> 00:32:44,037
Marc Preston: You know she's kind of built up that callus
731
00:32:44,057 --> 00:32:44,880
Marc Preston: to be able to handle those folks now.
732
00:32:46,184 --> 00:32:48,390
Marc Preston: But like you know, that's one of the quite
733
00:32:48,410 --> 00:32:50,596
Marc Preston: you mentioned Andrew Dice Clay and you know
734
00:32:50,616 --> 00:32:51,880
Marc Preston: you go back to Sam Kinnison and you go back
735
00:32:53,322 --> 00:32:55,246
Marc Preston: as I was coming up in the 80s watching
736
00:32:55,947 --> 00:32:56,327
Marc Preston: comedy.
737
00:32:56,367 --> 00:32:59,372
Marc Preston: You had Eddie Murphy doing these big almost
738
00:32:59,392 --> 00:33:02,418
Marc Preston: like you know, these big arena shows.
739
00:33:02,478 --> 00:33:02,698
Marc Preston: Yeah.
740
00:33:02,718 --> 00:33:03,640
Marc Preston: You had a lot of folks doing that.
741
00:33:03,900 --> 00:33:05,799
Marc Preston: You don't hear about that nearly as much.
742
00:33:06,542 --> 00:33:09,329
Marc Preston: I mean, it seems like the 80s was that a?
743
00:33:09,409 --> 00:33:13,339
Marc Preston: Was that a real heyday for comics to put on
744
00:33:13,359 --> 00:33:13,780
Marc Preston: just killer big shows?
745
00:33:14,943 --> 00:33:16,426
Marc Preston: And what's the difference between then and
746
00:33:16,507 --> 00:33:17,369
Marc Preston: now in your mind?
747
00:33:19,221 --> 00:33:22,512
Tommy Chong: Well, now it's more sophisticated and it's
748
00:33:22,572 --> 00:33:24,880
Tommy Chong: more segregated.
749
00:33:25,781 --> 00:33:30,165
Tommy Chong: You know, like that, one time Bill Cosby
750
00:33:30,385 --> 00:33:33,608
Tommy Chong: was the opposite of Eddie Murphy, but
751
00:33:33,648 --> 00:33:35,590
Tommy Chong: they're both black, you know.
752
00:33:35,770 --> 00:33:38,293
Tommy Chong: But Cosby was appealed to the, to the
753
00:33:38,353 --> 00:33:41,416
Tommy Chong: whiter blacks, and Eddie Murphy appealed to
754
00:33:41,796 --> 00:33:42,417
Tommy Chong: all blacks.
755
00:33:42,517 --> 00:33:45,246
Tommy Chong: You know, it's almost like the ones that
756
00:33:45,286 --> 00:33:46,669
Tommy Chong: are in prison, the ones that are under
757
00:33:46,710 --> 00:33:47,050
Tommy Chong: prison.
758
00:33:48,641 --> 00:33:52,867
Tommy Chong: It's almost that ghetto or upper class, you
759
00:33:52,907 --> 00:33:53,047
Tommy Chong: know.
760
00:33:53,688 --> 00:33:56,551
Tommy Chong: But now there's.
761
00:33:56,572 --> 00:33:58,614
Tommy Chong: So that, what's that culture?
762
00:34:00,903 --> 00:34:03,209
Tommy Chong: I can never remember the phrase.
763
00:34:04,362 --> 00:34:05,848
Tommy Chong: I hadn't changed my act.
764
00:34:06,442 --> 00:34:08,330
Tommy Chong: Listen, you know I'm, I'm.
765
00:34:08,691 --> 00:34:10,659
Tommy Chong: I never considered, you know, I mean, I was
766
00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:10,880
Tommy Chong: married.
767
00:34:11,322 --> 00:34:12,507
Tommy Chong: My first wife is black.
768
00:34:12,940 --> 00:34:15,840
Tommy Chong: I got two black kids, you know daughters.
769
00:34:16,621 --> 00:34:19,326
Tommy Chong: I never, ever, considered myself anything
770
00:34:19,426 --> 00:34:21,851
Tommy Chong: less than you know a brother.
771
00:34:22,572 --> 00:34:23,754
Tommy Chong: You know, I was there.
772
00:34:24,843 --> 00:34:27,771
Tommy Chong: We did a bit called a blind melon chiming
773
00:34:28,945 --> 00:34:31,578
Tommy Chong: and and it was a takeoff on a blind blue
774
00:34:31,619 --> 00:34:36,147
Tommy Chong: singer and now I got the premise or the
775
00:34:36,287 --> 00:34:40,012
Tommy Chong: idea from the committee was an acting group
776
00:34:40,533 --> 00:34:41,715
Tommy Chong: out of the San Francisco.
777
00:34:43,224 --> 00:34:48,629
Tommy Chong: They did a bit similar, but then I saw the
778
00:34:48,669 --> 00:34:49,572
Tommy Chong: T-Bone Walker.
779
00:34:50,421 --> 00:34:52,627
Tommy Chong: Now, I was a guitar, I am a guitar player,
780
00:34:52,767 --> 00:34:56,222
Tommy Chong: and I saw T-Bone at his height and then I
781
00:34:56,282 --> 00:34:58,807
Tommy Chong: saw him at his lowest part and it was the
782
00:34:58,867 --> 00:35:01,712
Tommy Chong: lowest part that inspired us to do blind
783
00:35:01,752 --> 00:35:02,434
Tommy Chong: melon chiming.
784
00:35:02,940 --> 00:35:05,685
Tommy Chong: Well, I, I'm getting you know, to me it was
785
00:35:05,705 --> 00:35:08,250
Tommy Chong: like it wasn't insulting or any of that
786
00:35:09,712 --> 00:35:14,284
Tommy Chong: stuff, but I was ready to do a show in Reno,
787
00:35:14,985 --> 00:35:17,949
Tommy Chong: teach that I am in Shelby and Herbie
788
00:35:17,989 --> 00:35:21,473
Tommy Chong: Hancock, the great Herbie Hancock, the jazz
789
00:35:21,493 --> 00:35:26,741
Tommy Chong: guy, he, he was a big fan and I knew that
790
00:35:26,821 --> 00:35:32,308
Tommy Chong: because he one time he had us appear on his
791
00:35:33,550 --> 00:35:37,735
Tommy Chong: in Switzerland at the jazz concert.
792
00:35:39,723 --> 00:35:41,450
Tommy Chong: Yeah, they had a jazz show there in
793
00:35:41,490 --> 00:35:43,860
Tommy Chong: Switzerland and teach and I were invited.
794
00:35:44,562 --> 00:35:48,069
Tommy Chong: We came and worked a little bit, you know,
795
00:35:48,290 --> 00:35:49,112
Tommy Chong: mc a little bit.
796
00:35:50,342 --> 00:35:51,386
Tommy Chong: Herbie's a big fan.
797
00:35:53,523 --> 00:35:55,887
Tommy Chong: So Herbie, we're talking because he's going
798
00:35:55,907 --> 00:35:59,092
Tommy Chong: to appear in Reno after teach and I,
799
00:35:59,272 --> 00:36:04,765
Tommy Chong: charlie, and then Herbie, he said, he said,
800
00:36:04,786 --> 00:36:09,372
Tommy Chong: you know, we kind of like a serious.
801
00:36:10,253 --> 00:36:11,615
Tommy Chong: It was a serious discussion.
802
00:36:11,900 --> 00:36:15,348
Tommy Chong: He was trying to get to me about my blind
803
00:36:15,388 --> 00:36:18,801
Tommy Chong: melon chiming bit and the way he said it
804
00:36:18,841 --> 00:36:19,061
Tommy Chong: was.
805
00:36:19,601 --> 00:36:23,845
Tommy Chong: Hey, man, you know, when you do the blind
806
00:36:23,865 --> 00:36:24,586
Tommy Chong: melon thing.
807
00:36:24,966 --> 00:36:27,388
Tommy Chong: He says you start off playing.
808
00:36:27,548 --> 00:36:32,973
Tommy Chong: You know you got that really good jazz, you
809
00:36:32,993 --> 00:36:35,855
Tommy Chong: know like good music, you know, and then
810
00:36:35,895 --> 00:36:37,176
Tommy Chong: you get into that other shit.
811
00:36:39,322 --> 00:36:40,507
Marc Preston: He's like well, you mean the thing I do for
812
00:36:40,527 --> 00:36:40,828
Marc Preston: a living.
813
00:36:41,008 --> 00:36:44,445
Tommy Chong: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and then he said,
814
00:36:44,465 --> 00:36:44,868
Tommy Chong: well, he said that.
815
00:36:46,837 --> 00:36:47,457
Tommy Chong: I looked at him.
816
00:36:48,579 --> 00:36:51,723
Tommy Chong: I respect jazz guys more than you know.
817
00:36:51,783 --> 00:36:57,811
Tommy Chong: To me they're the real spiritual leaders of
818
00:36:57,831 --> 00:36:58,292
Tommy Chong: the country.
819
00:36:58,332 --> 00:37:03,265
Tommy Chong: Yeah, indeed, and so it really struck home.
820
00:37:04,658 --> 00:37:07,167
Tommy Chong: And so, even though I did Blame Melancholyn
821
00:37:07,247 --> 00:37:09,595
Tommy Chong: after that, I changed the act.
822
00:37:10,076 --> 00:37:12,343
Tommy Chong: See, when Cheech and I did it, I used it,
823
00:37:12,684 --> 00:37:13,546
Tommy Chong: it was all visual.
824
00:37:14,478 --> 00:37:17,577
Tommy Chong: He was too drunk to really play and so he
825
00:37:17,617 --> 00:37:19,741
Tommy Chong: just did all these visual funny things that
826
00:37:19,781 --> 00:37:22,926
Tommy Chong: were very funny and would get the crowd on
827
00:37:22,966 --> 00:37:23,888
Tommy Chong: the floor laughing.
828
00:37:24,935 --> 00:37:26,977
Tommy Chong: And then, when Cheech and I broke up, I
829
00:37:27,598 --> 00:37:30,320
Tommy Chong: started doing the Blame Melancholyn voice
830
00:37:31,882 --> 00:37:33,644
Tommy Chong: and doing jokes bits.
831
00:37:33,824 --> 00:37:37,247
Tommy Chong: You know, different, different black bits.
832
00:37:37,307 --> 00:37:39,449
Tommy Chong: You know, in fact I was, you might as well
833
00:37:39,489 --> 00:37:41,851
Tommy Chong: say, in fact I did appear in blackface,
834
00:37:42,935 --> 00:37:46,440
Tommy Chong: still smoking, in the movie because I
835
00:37:46,540 --> 00:37:51,527
Tommy Chong: always felt that that blind, you know, had
836
00:37:51,567 --> 00:37:57,400
Tommy Chong: the soul of a black man and but obviously
837
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:01,026
Tommy Chong: not because her being, her, being a class
838
00:38:01,206 --> 00:38:02,708
Tommy Chong: on, he saw through it.
839
00:38:03,856 --> 00:38:05,467
Marc Preston: And so it's kind of like Mel Brooks.
840
00:38:05,507 --> 00:38:06,635
Marc Preston: You know he had a lot of his comedy.
841
00:38:06,896 --> 00:38:09,523
Marc Preston: It was never making fun of, it was trying
842
00:38:09,563 --> 00:38:10,486
Marc Preston: to embrace the.
843
00:38:11,899 --> 00:38:12,622
Marc Preston: It was parody.
844
00:38:12,662 --> 00:38:14,568
Marc Preston: Yeah, it was trying to kind of celebrate
845
00:38:14,588 --> 00:38:16,053
Marc Preston: the culture in a way where people like,
846
00:38:16,113 --> 00:38:17,939
Marc Preston: okay, I get it, he's not making fun of us,
847
00:38:18,059 --> 00:38:20,426
Marc Preston: you know, but it's a fine line.
848
00:38:20,735 --> 00:38:22,682
Marc Preston: But I just don't think that that could
849
00:38:22,742 --> 00:38:23,545
Marc Preston: happen today.
850
00:38:23,816 --> 00:38:25,161
Marc Preston: You know, I don't think they comedy.
851
00:38:25,655 --> 00:38:27,223
Marc Preston: I think the people are too quick on the
852
00:38:27,263 --> 00:38:29,635
Marc Preston: trigger to not political correctness.
853
00:38:30,279 --> 00:38:30,762
Marc Preston: I don't know.
854
00:38:34,001 --> 00:38:36,768
Tommy Chong: Yeah, the culture stealing the culture,
855
00:38:36,788 --> 00:38:37,770
Tommy Chong: something culture?
856
00:38:38,853 --> 00:38:39,354
Marc Preston: appropriation.
857
00:38:39,374 --> 00:38:43,037
Tommy Chong: I think yeah, I call it yeah yeah, all that
858
00:38:43,157 --> 00:38:45,240
Tommy Chong: all that weird talk, you know.
859
00:38:45,500 --> 00:38:48,464
Tommy Chong: But then if you look at like I was what I
860
00:38:48,484 --> 00:38:52,529
Tommy Chong: watched, all in the family and all the
861
00:38:52,549 --> 00:38:54,791
Tommy Chong: family just showed Archie Bunker there and
862
00:38:54,992 --> 00:38:57,615
Tommy Chong: another, you know, trump right up the bat.
863
00:38:58,157 --> 00:38:59,181
Tommy Chong: You know, I mean this.
864
00:38:59,261 --> 00:39:02,615
Tommy Chong: This guy was really sick in his hair.
865
00:39:03,376 --> 00:39:05,299
Tommy Chong: Nobody believed but it was it was.
866
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:07,603
Marc Preston: It was parodying that guy, but you're also
867
00:39:08,024 --> 00:39:09,526
Marc Preston: empathetic and I think that's that's a
868
00:39:09,627 --> 00:39:10,929
Marc Preston: great acting and great.
869
00:39:11,129 --> 00:39:13,293
Marc Preston: You know, great comedy is you can be
870
00:39:13,353 --> 00:39:14,635
Marc Preston: empathetic to the ridiculous one.
871
00:39:15,056 --> 00:39:16,539
Marc Preston: You know you can kind of he's like all
872
00:39:16,559 --> 00:39:19,845
Marc Preston: right, but but when you had the, the, the
873
00:39:19,966 --> 00:39:21,990
Marc Preston: offshoot, which is the Jeffersons, the
874
00:39:22,010 --> 00:39:24,455
Marc Preston: interaction he had with his name is Kate
875
00:39:24,475 --> 00:39:24,635
Marc Preston: George.
876
00:39:25,518 --> 00:39:26,342
Tommy Chong: Yeah, George.
877
00:39:26,775 --> 00:39:29,780
Marc Preston: Yeah, the interaction that they had was
878
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:31,042
Marc Preston: just like they're going at each other,
879
00:39:31,142 --> 00:39:32,885
Marc Preston: which is the way kind of funny, because
880
00:39:32,905 --> 00:39:34,167
Marc Preston: they're both being real from their own
881
00:39:34,207 --> 00:39:35,148
Marc Preston: perspective, you know.
882
00:39:35,408 --> 00:39:35,529
Tommy Chong: Yeah.
883
00:39:36,635 --> 00:39:38,842
Marc Preston: But I think that the comedies is very it
884
00:39:38,882 --> 00:39:40,975
Marc Preston: was nuanced, you know.
885
00:39:41,056 --> 00:39:43,218
Marc Preston: I guess you can say, but like you listen to
886
00:39:43,679 --> 00:39:45,401
Marc Preston: you talk about Bill Cosby before and who he
887
00:39:45,441 --> 00:39:47,644
Marc Preston: was appealing to, and I remember one of the
888
00:39:47,684 --> 00:39:49,687
Marc Preston: bits that Eddie Murphy did.
889
00:39:49,707 --> 00:39:51,770
Marc Preston: He was talking about how he got a call from
890
00:39:52,795 --> 00:39:54,619
Marc Preston: oh yeah, got got a call from Bill.
891
00:39:54,899 --> 00:39:56,382
Marc Preston: You know Bill Cosby saying, hey, you know
892
00:39:56,402 --> 00:39:57,644
Marc Preston: you need to dial back on that.
893
00:39:58,365 --> 00:39:59,928
Marc Preston: You know four letter words and all that and
894
00:39:59,948 --> 00:40:01,070
Marc Preston: he calls up Richard Pryor.
895
00:40:01,090 --> 00:40:02,192
Marc Preston: Is like Richard, what do you think you know?
896
00:40:02,212 --> 00:40:03,635
Marc Preston: Because Richard Pryor is like you know,
897
00:40:04,196 --> 00:40:04,817
Marc Preston: hell with him, man.
898
00:40:04,837 --> 00:40:06,319
Marc Preston: You know, I'm sure more colorful language
899
00:40:06,339 --> 00:40:07,100
Marc Preston: like do your thing.
900
00:40:07,140 --> 00:40:09,403
Marc Preston: You know it's like Richard Pryor was.
901
00:40:10,624 --> 00:40:13,728
Marc Preston: I think that that there's so many comedians
902
00:40:13,869 --> 00:40:17,393
Marc Preston: now that you can trace back the DNA to you
903
00:40:17,433 --> 00:40:18,615
Marc Preston: know, oh yeah, that Eddie Murphy.
904
00:40:19,037 --> 00:40:21,446
Marc Preston: Well, eddie Murphy traces DNA back to you
905
00:40:21,486 --> 00:40:22,772
Marc Preston: know, richard Pryor.
906
00:40:22,812 --> 00:40:23,635
Marc Preston: So I don't know.
907
00:40:23,655 --> 00:40:25,462
Marc Preston: There, I think I love comedy.
908
00:40:25,655 --> 00:40:27,110
Marc Preston: I think that I think I grew up in a really
909
00:40:27,170 --> 00:40:30,505
Marc Preston: wonderful time and I think in the 80s it
910
00:40:30,525 --> 00:40:32,270
Marc Preston: was all happening at Sam Kenneson, which is
911
00:40:32,311 --> 00:40:35,322
Marc Preston: just you know, probably off the wall.
912
00:40:36,316 --> 00:40:38,961
Marc Preston: Yeah, you know, and watch that documentary
913
00:40:38,981 --> 00:40:41,446
Marc Preston: that John Appetow did on George Carlin.
914
00:40:41,746 --> 00:40:42,327
Tommy Chong: I did, I did.
915
00:40:44,857 --> 00:40:46,501
Marc Preston: And I never knew this George Carlin had
916
00:40:46,601 --> 00:40:49,306
Marc Preston: seen Sam Kenneson and recognized wait a
917
00:40:49,346 --> 00:40:50,990
Marc Preston: minute, I need to make some adjustments
918
00:40:51,010 --> 00:40:53,415
Marc Preston: because I don't want to be kind of an
919
00:40:53,475 --> 00:40:56,063
Marc Preston: actress yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, left behind.
920
00:40:58,159 --> 00:40:59,522
Marc Preston: Yeah, and the and George Carlin weren't you
921
00:40:59,602 --> 00:41:00,404
Marc Preston: on his show once?
922
00:41:00,665 --> 00:41:02,940
Marc Preston: Yeah, yeah, back at the George Carlin show,
923
00:41:03,655 --> 00:41:03,936
Marc Preston: yeah.
924
00:41:04,318 --> 00:41:07,221
Tommy Chong: I sure was, and I got to know George.
925
00:41:07,715 --> 00:41:10,680
Tommy Chong: One thing about George that nobody really
926
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,304
Tommy Chong: talked about, even in the documentary I was
927
00:41:13,344 --> 00:41:15,387
Tommy Chong: shocked that he's a piano player.
928
00:41:16,068 --> 00:41:19,004
Tommy Chong: Really, I didn't know that he was once he
929
00:41:19,044 --> 00:41:19,608
Tommy Chong: had a group.
930
00:41:20,434 --> 00:41:22,125
Tommy Chong: One time he played in a group.
931
00:41:22,709 --> 00:41:23,615
Tommy Chong: He can play piano.
932
00:41:23,755 --> 00:41:26,464
Tommy Chong: That's where he got all the word stuff from.
933
00:41:26,956 --> 00:41:29,384
Tommy Chong: You know he's, he was very musical.
934
00:41:29,815 --> 00:41:31,799
Marc Preston: Yeah, I always thought I came up in Dallas
935
00:41:31,899 --> 00:41:33,322
Marc Preston: Radio and I always thought it was kind of
936
00:41:33,342 --> 00:41:34,804
Marc Preston: cool because, like you know, George Carlin
937
00:41:34,844 --> 00:41:36,187
Marc Preston: worked in Fort Worth Radio.
938
00:41:36,287 --> 00:41:39,141
Marc Preston: Yeah, and I was like that's kind of cool.
939
00:41:39,735 --> 00:41:41,219
Marc Preston: And this is where the seven words came.
940
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:43,224
Marc Preston: The FCC got their seven words from as this
941
00:41:43,264 --> 00:41:43,846
Marc Preston: guy yeah.
942
00:41:44,876 --> 00:41:47,041
Marc Preston: George Carlin, you know, one of the funny
943
00:41:47,121 --> 00:41:48,525
Marc Preston: things I was wondering if you could kind of
944
00:41:48,565 --> 00:41:51,813
Marc Preston: clarify that I saw was they were actually
945
00:41:51,873 --> 00:41:53,438
Marc Preston: referred to Cheech in this and they said
946
00:41:53,458 --> 00:41:54,822
Marc Preston: that there was some time in the 80s where
947
00:41:54,842 --> 00:41:58,515
Marc Preston: they said Cheech said he was Get kind of
948
00:41:58,535 --> 00:41:58,635
Marc Preston: passé.
949
00:41:59,178 --> 00:42:00,705
Marc Preston: It's like, okay, you know George Carlin's
950
00:42:00,725 --> 00:42:02,293
Marc Preston: the 1970s.
951
00:42:02,313 --> 00:42:02,615
Tommy Chong: He's obsolete.
952
00:42:03,056 --> 00:42:04,943
Tommy Chong: He said no, he said he was obsolete.
953
00:42:06,217 --> 00:42:07,682
Tommy Chong: George Carlin was obsolete.
954
00:42:08,675 --> 00:42:10,963
Tommy Chong: And Cheech Cheech denied saying that.
955
00:42:12,496 --> 00:42:16,302
Tommy Chong: I asked Cheech about it, you know and, and
956
00:42:16,943 --> 00:42:20,247
Tommy Chong: he denied saying he could very well upset
957
00:42:20,327 --> 00:42:20,988
Tommy Chong: it one time.
958
00:42:22,916 --> 00:42:25,682
Tommy Chong: But George Cheech used to do George, one of
959
00:42:25,722 --> 00:42:29,537
Tommy Chong: George Bitts, really, george, yeah, just
960
00:42:29,557 --> 00:42:31,460
Tommy Chong: pulled the twine something.
961
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:34,766
Tommy Chong: You know, cowboy, you don't take off on the
962
00:42:34,806 --> 00:42:35,247
Tommy Chong: cowboys.
963
00:42:36,815 --> 00:42:40,265
Tommy Chong: I, I, I then I knew George.
964
00:42:41,076 --> 00:42:41,979
Tommy Chong: I was on a show.
965
00:42:43,816 --> 00:42:46,838
Tommy Chong: I never got tight with him, you know, and,
966
00:42:47,019 --> 00:42:50,056
Tommy Chong: and, by the way, I saw the last show George
967
00:42:50,176 --> 00:42:55,143
Tommy Chong: did was there was a whole slew of comedians
968
00:42:55,844 --> 00:43:01,439
Tommy Chong: at the Wadsworth Theater in Westwood and it
969
00:43:01,499 --> 00:43:04,125
Tommy Chong: was George's last performance, really.
970
00:43:04,145 --> 00:43:04,806
Tommy Chong: And you saw that.
971
00:43:06,076 --> 00:43:07,882
Tommy Chong: Yeah, I saw that Norm Cosby was there.
972
00:43:08,815 --> 00:43:10,659
Tommy Chong: Oh, what was the?
973
00:43:10,699 --> 00:43:12,342
Tommy Chong: Remember the guy that used to have the
974
00:43:12,402 --> 00:43:16,877
Tommy Chong: newspaper under his arm the very first?
975
00:43:18,521 --> 00:43:19,382
Tommy Chong: What was his name?
976
00:43:22,635 --> 00:43:28,366
Tommy Chong: He did commentary on God.
977
00:43:28,387 --> 00:43:29,609
Tommy Chong: I can't think of his name right now.
978
00:43:29,936 --> 00:43:31,140
Marc Preston: I think I know what you're talking about.
979
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:32,284
Marc Preston: I'm not wearing a curtain on it.
980
00:43:32,635 --> 00:43:32,836
Tommy Chong: It was.
981
00:43:33,038 --> 00:43:34,628
Tommy Chong: It was his, his last show.
982
00:43:35,201 --> 00:43:37,879
Tommy Chong: In fact, it was because of that, it was
983
00:43:37,899 --> 00:43:40,057
Tommy Chong: going to be his last show period and he
984
00:43:40,097 --> 00:43:41,382
Tommy Chong: died shortly after that.
985
00:43:41,958 --> 00:43:44,799
Tommy Chong: But yeah, I saw all those last shows and it
986
00:43:44,839 --> 00:43:48,411
Tommy Chong: was quite a thrill for me because I, you
987
00:43:48,431 --> 00:43:49,635
Tommy Chong: know, we grew up with all those guys?
988
00:43:50,158 --> 00:43:51,826
Marc Preston: Well, yeah, but you also know how much goes
989
00:43:52,087 --> 00:43:55,085
Marc Preston: into building an act and how many, how much
990
00:43:55,145 --> 00:43:57,296
Marc Preston: is working it out over and over, and just
991
00:43:57,757 --> 00:44:00,082
Marc Preston: till you get your show set, your HBO show
992
00:44:00,162 --> 00:44:00,423
Marc Preston: set.
993
00:44:00,483 --> 00:44:02,026
Marc Preston: You know they don't see all the time you're
994
00:44:02,046 --> 00:44:03,469
Marc Preston: in these dark clubs working it out.
995
00:44:03,976 --> 00:44:05,619
Marc Preston: But you know, george Carlin, I think
996
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,325
Marc Preston: starting in about 2016, I wish is like God,
997
00:44:09,365 --> 00:44:11,609
Marc Preston: this is the time he was meant to be here.
998
00:44:11,736 --> 00:44:14,570
Marc Preston: You know, 2016 forward, when, politically
999
00:44:14,610 --> 00:44:15,996
Marc Preston: and everything going on in our world I mean,
00:44:16,017 --> 00:44:19,199
Marc Preston: this is the stuff he was commenting on and
00:44:19,240 --> 00:44:21,265
Marc Preston: people thought he was extremely cynical or
00:44:21,305 --> 00:44:21,586
Marc Preston: whatever.
00:44:21,635 --> 00:44:23,179
Marc Preston: I was like no, he's, he's got some
00:44:23,199 --> 00:44:25,064
Marc Preston: perspective that maybe he was a little bit
00:44:25,084 --> 00:44:27,960
Marc Preston: of a forecaster, you know, oh he was he was
00:44:28,655 --> 00:44:30,058
Marc Preston: and what the truth is.
00:44:32,262 --> 00:44:34,587
Tommy Chong: I think you got to be very careful when
00:44:34,607 --> 00:44:35,409
Tommy Chong: you're a comedian.
00:44:36,999 --> 00:44:37,480
Tommy Chong: I had a.
00:44:39,185 --> 00:44:42,414
Tommy Chong: They honored me at the Skirball in Los
00:44:42,454 --> 00:44:42,635
Tommy Chong: Angeles.
00:44:43,197 --> 00:44:44,462
Tommy Chong: Do you know where the Skirball is?
00:44:44,675 --> 00:44:46,221
Tommy Chong: I've never heard that about that before.
00:44:47,177 --> 00:44:52,073
Tommy Chong: Skirball is a Jewish center, the community
00:44:52,093 --> 00:44:52,595
Tommy Chong: center kind of thing.
00:44:53,078 --> 00:44:53,722
Marc Preston: Oh, okay, I got.
00:44:53,742 --> 00:44:55,595
Tommy Chong: You Is like all Fairfax or something, or,
00:44:56,296 --> 00:44:59,663
Tommy Chong: yeah, no, it's up on 405, near the Getty
00:44:59,703 --> 00:45:01,727
Tommy Chong: Museum, near the museum up there.
00:45:02,148 --> 00:45:05,021
Tommy Chong: Okay, and as you go up, then it's Skirball
00:45:05,081 --> 00:45:08,097
Tommy Chong: is called any, it's a Skirball center and
00:45:08,277 --> 00:45:11,597
Tommy Chong: and and so they're going to honor me and
00:45:11,697 --> 00:45:14,261
Tommy Chong: anytime anybody honors anybody.
00:45:14,401 --> 00:45:18,067
Tommy Chong: It's just a scam really to get them to do
00:45:18,107 --> 00:45:19,069
Tommy Chong: an act for nothing.
00:45:19,655 --> 00:45:21,438
Tommy Chong: You know, you get a plaque, you get a
00:45:21,478 --> 00:45:24,602
Tommy Chong: plaque or you get a meal, but and usually
00:45:24,622 --> 00:45:27,606
Tommy Chong: they have a lot of other comedians on and
00:45:27,927 --> 00:45:29,870
Tommy Chong: they're they're doing their act and
00:45:29,890 --> 00:45:30,390
Tommy Chong: everything else.
00:45:31,337 --> 00:45:35,407
Tommy Chong: So I got, I got they wanted to honor me.
00:45:36,076 --> 00:45:38,759
Tommy Chong: Well, I'm kind of in.
00:45:41,222 --> 00:45:45,287
Tommy Chong: I only went into comedy after when we broke
00:45:45,387 --> 00:45:45,447
Tommy Chong: up.
00:45:48,775 --> 00:45:51,404
Tommy Chong: See, I was always a part of a comedy team
00:45:51,936 --> 00:45:54,103
Tommy Chong: and I was very comfortable with that.
00:45:55,077 --> 00:45:58,341
Tommy Chong: When she and I broke up, I saw Dennis
00:45:58,381 --> 00:45:58,642
Tommy Chong: Miller.
00:45:58,762 --> 00:45:59,725
Tommy Chong: Remember Dennis Miller?
00:45:59,806 --> 00:46:03,142
Tommy Chong: Yeah, absolutely, I saw Dennis Miller in
00:46:03,182 --> 00:46:06,440
Tommy Chong: Vancouver and he was in this little comedy
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:06,721
Tommy Chong: club.
00:46:06,801 --> 00:46:09,657
Tommy Chong: I knew the owner of the comedy club and he
00:46:09,697 --> 00:46:10,999
Tommy Chong: said Dennis Miller's playing, oh.
00:46:11,019 --> 00:46:14,325
Tommy Chong: So I went down and and I met Dennis and
00:46:14,365 --> 00:46:17,516
Tommy Chong: Dennis is all nervous before the show, and
00:46:17,536 --> 00:46:21,963
Tommy Chong: the little guy you know and and he said to
00:46:22,023 --> 00:46:24,828
Tommy Chong: me he says do you, do you still get nervous
00:46:24,868 --> 00:46:25,729
Tommy Chong: before you go on?
00:46:26,795 --> 00:46:29,003
Tommy Chong: And I hadn't been on stage for years by
00:46:29,043 --> 00:46:32,197
Tommy Chong: that time, yeah, doing movies and that, and
00:46:32,438 --> 00:46:33,722
Tommy Chong: and he just caught me.
00:46:34,755 --> 00:46:39,040
Tommy Chong: He just caught me in a net and and then I
00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:41,546
Tommy Chong: watched the show and I sat there thinking I
00:46:41,586 --> 00:46:43,622
Tommy Chong: got to do this, I got to do this.
00:46:44,125 --> 00:46:45,595
Tommy Chong: This is this is what I got to do.
00:46:46,296 --> 00:46:48,000
Tommy Chong: And so, right after Dennis Miller that was
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:54,880
Tommy Chong: 90, christmas of 93, I believe Because as
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,967
Tommy Chong: soon as I got back to LA, I went on, I went.
00:46:58,147 --> 00:47:00,693
Tommy Chong: I found, you know, the freebies, the comedy
00:47:00,713 --> 00:47:02,820
Tommy Chong: club where you can go worse, and there was
00:47:03,020 --> 00:47:03,462
Tommy Chong: one in this.
00:47:04,456 --> 00:47:07,922
Tommy Chong: It's kind of a kind of poetic justice in
00:47:09,284 --> 00:47:09,645
Tommy Chong: teaching.
00:47:09,705 --> 00:47:11,067
Tommy Chong: I did a song one time.
00:47:11,127 --> 00:47:12,470
Tommy Chong: You know that you're in my eye.
00:47:13,036 --> 00:47:15,402
Tommy Chong: You know I'm so bloody rich on apartment
00:47:15,442 --> 00:47:17,186
Tommy Chong: building, shopping centers.
00:47:18,136 --> 00:47:20,420
Tommy Chong: Well, the comedy club that I was going to
00:47:20,460 --> 00:47:22,604
Tommy Chong: work in was the shopping center that we
00:47:22,644 --> 00:47:23,906
Tommy Chong: were part owners of.
00:47:26,538 --> 00:47:28,123
Marc Preston: You call the irony tour yeah.
00:47:28,916 --> 00:47:32,586
Tommy Chong: And so I'm getting ready to go on stage, on,
00:47:33,449 --> 00:47:35,635
Tommy Chong: on stage, for the first time by myself.
00:47:36,276 --> 00:47:39,201
Tommy Chong: I got myself a nice sports jacket.
00:47:39,342 --> 00:47:42,007
Tommy Chong: You know I was going to be like a standup
00:47:42,067 --> 00:47:47,124
Tommy Chong: comedian, you know, like, like, like Dennis
00:47:47,164 --> 00:47:47,404
Tommy Chong: Miller.
00:47:49,437 --> 00:47:54,006
Tommy Chong: Well, anyway, the night before Rodney King
00:47:54,747 --> 00:47:55,368
Tommy Chong: got, whacked.
00:47:55,835 --> 00:48:01,007
Marc Preston: Oh, that's right, it was a 92 93 93, 93.
00:48:02,538 --> 00:48:08,359
Tommy Chong: And that happened the night before I saw it
00:48:08,699 --> 00:48:09,020
Tommy Chong: and then.
00:48:09,921 --> 00:48:12,724
Tommy Chong: So I wrote down a few bits about it and
00:48:13,164 --> 00:48:16,148
Tommy Chong: when I went on stage that was the first
00:48:16,188 --> 00:48:18,430
Tommy Chong: thing I did was talk about the Rodney King
00:48:18,911 --> 00:48:23,060
Tommy Chong: beating and I said it's funny how mothers
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,304
Tommy Chong: doesn't matter why you're on TV, mothers
00:48:26,324 --> 00:48:28,488
Tommy Chong: will get excited just seeing their son on
00:48:28,528 --> 00:48:28,828
Tommy Chong: TV.
00:48:31,156 --> 00:48:33,620
Tommy Chong: And I say I could just visualize the cops,
00:48:33,701 --> 00:48:36,806
Tommy Chong: mother you know saying oh, that's my boy,
00:48:38,795 --> 00:48:39,959
Tommy Chong: that's my boy, look at him.
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,079
Tommy Chong: Oh yeah, and it got a.
00:48:44,199 --> 00:48:45,202
Tommy Chong: You you laugh.
00:48:45,563 --> 00:48:48,239
Tommy Chong: Yeah, and I got a few chuckles.
00:48:48,679 --> 00:48:51,345
Tommy Chong: But the first thing a guy said after I did
00:48:51,385 --> 00:48:54,058
Tommy Chong: that bit hey, where's cheats?
00:49:04,579 --> 00:49:07,023
Marc Preston: Well, what is that like, though, being so,
00:49:08,846 --> 00:49:10,189
Marc Preston: you know, independently of done?
00:49:10,489 --> 00:49:12,138
Marc Preston: You know y'all definitely stand on your own
00:49:12,158 --> 00:49:14,364
Marc Preston: two feet, had great projects and endeavors
00:49:14,484 --> 00:49:16,458
Marc Preston: and entrepreneurial things that you've done,
00:49:17,215 --> 00:49:18,879
Marc Preston: but what's it like to kind of spend a
00:49:18,919 --> 00:49:21,806
Marc Preston: career that you've got a career brother, as
00:49:21,846 --> 00:49:22,147
Marc Preston: it were?
00:49:22,295 --> 00:49:24,260
Marc Preston: You know you get kind of hard to talk about
00:49:24,581 --> 00:49:25,904
Marc Preston: one of y'all without thinking about the
00:49:25,964 --> 00:49:26,105
Marc Preston: other.
00:49:26,145 --> 00:49:26,806
Marc Preston: What is that like?
00:49:27,476 --> 00:49:30,644
Marc Preston: Is it, is it ever impeded you anything
00:49:30,664 --> 00:49:32,057
Marc Preston: you've done, in a way, like it's like oh
00:49:32,077 --> 00:49:33,421
Marc Preston: man, I'm trying to kind of break out of
00:49:33,481 --> 00:49:33,622
Marc Preston: this.
00:49:34,675 --> 00:49:36,140
Marc Preston: Like in that, like right there on stage,
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:37,704
Marc Preston: I'm just like where's Cheech, you know, is
00:49:37,724 --> 00:49:38,126
Marc Preston: that something?
00:49:38,837 --> 00:49:40,782
Tommy Chong: I think no no, not at all.
00:49:40,983 --> 00:49:41,505
Tommy Chong: Not at all.
00:49:42,255 --> 00:49:44,742
Tommy Chong: No, I'm like I said, I grew up backing up
00:49:44,883 --> 00:49:45,204
Tommy Chong: people.
00:49:45,585 --> 00:49:48,624
Tommy Chong: Yeah, so I totally understand, you know,
00:49:48,945 --> 00:49:50,090
Tommy Chong: and me talking you know.
00:49:50,130 --> 00:49:51,756
Tommy Chong: You know, when people found out I was a
00:49:51,817 --> 00:49:53,262
Tommy Chong: comedian, they didn't believe it.
00:49:53,415 --> 00:49:55,822
Tommy Chong: They thought it was somebody else because
00:49:55,943 --> 00:49:56,525
Tommy Chong: I've gone.
00:49:56,826 --> 00:49:58,671
Tommy Chong: You know, I've known people all my life
00:49:59,032 --> 00:49:59,875
Tommy Chong: where I never talked.
00:50:00,536 --> 00:50:00,777
Tommy Chong: I knew.
00:50:00,897 --> 00:50:02,440
Tommy Chong: You know I was a backup guitar player.
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,669
Tommy Chong: You know I had nothing to say except and
00:50:06,755 --> 00:50:07,096
Tommy Chong: whisper.
00:50:07,317 --> 00:50:08,099
Tommy Chong: What corner are we in?
00:50:11,155 --> 00:50:13,022
Marc Preston: He wanted to do more acting stuff.
00:50:13,255 --> 00:50:13,698
Marc Preston: You know he was.
00:50:13,939 --> 00:50:14,442
Marc Preston: You know that was.
00:50:14,664 --> 00:50:15,227
Marc Preston: He was on the board.
00:50:15,388 --> 00:50:17,377
Marc Preston: Like I want to say straight as opposed to
00:50:17,798 --> 00:50:20,084
Marc Preston: you know but he's, he's one of you know,
00:50:20,144 --> 00:50:21,207
Marc Preston: non comedic necessary.
00:50:21,295 --> 00:50:23,021
Marc Preston: You know, maybe he was playing the kind of
00:50:23,081 --> 00:50:23,824
Marc Preston: funny guy in it.
00:50:23,975 --> 00:50:26,642
Marc Preston: But after that happened, what was kind of
00:50:26,662 --> 00:50:28,607
Marc Preston: your, your, your, what were your endeavors,
00:50:28,835 --> 00:50:30,201
Marc Preston: what were you up to at that point in time?
00:50:30,435 --> 00:50:32,656
Tommy Chong: Whenever you were just doing his thing, I
00:50:32,776 --> 00:50:36,123
Tommy Chong: was really on a roll because I had directed,
00:50:36,524 --> 00:50:40,120
Tommy Chong: I wrote and directed what happened when we
00:50:40,180 --> 00:50:42,669
Tommy Chong: got screwed out of the up and smoke money,
00:50:43,211 --> 00:50:43,954
Tommy Chong: which was a good.
00:50:43,974 --> 00:50:46,960
Tommy Chong: It was a good thing, because had we not,
00:50:47,081 --> 00:50:50,107
Tommy Chong: had we, you know, cashed in, we probably
00:50:50,187 --> 00:50:52,480
Tommy Chong: would not have done what we did, you know.
00:50:53,815 --> 00:50:54,858
Marc Preston: And so I kind of made you hungry.
00:50:54,918 --> 00:50:56,362
Marc Preston: I guess, right, yeah, yeah.
00:50:57,895 --> 00:51:00,116
Tommy Chong: I mean, I got this in the game, so I don't.
00:51:02,279 --> 00:51:05,545
Tommy Chong: The thing that really bothered me was when
00:51:05,825 --> 00:51:09,637
Tommy Chong: I you know, like you said I teach got all
00:51:09,657 --> 00:51:09,817
Tommy Chong: the.
00:51:09,957 --> 00:51:12,182
Tommy Chong: You know all the, the, the lines.
00:51:12,202 --> 00:51:15,537
Tommy Chong: You know he was the lead guy, you know like
00:51:15,557 --> 00:51:17,962
Tommy Chong: the lead singer, you know I was a backup
00:51:18,343 --> 00:51:25,426
Tommy Chong: guy, but when he had a chance, see, and I
00:51:25,486 --> 00:51:28,894
Tommy Chong: wrote most of the bits, but when he had a
00:51:28,954 --> 00:51:32,204
Tommy Chong: chance to write something, just on
00:51:32,325 --> 00:51:35,093
Tommy Chong: percheach, that's all he did, he just wrote
00:51:35,114 --> 00:51:35,535
Tommy Chong: it percheach.
00:51:35,836 --> 00:51:39,118
Tommy Chong: He never included song, and I'm talking
00:51:39,158 --> 00:51:40,487
Tommy Chong: about Born in East LA.
00:51:40,849 --> 00:51:42,336
Marc Preston: Oh yeah, See Born in.
00:51:42,436 --> 00:51:42,576
Tommy Chong: East.
00:51:42,717 --> 00:51:46,824
Tommy Chong: Born in East LA was a takeoff of Bruce
00:51:46,864 --> 00:51:48,888
Tommy Chong: Springsteen's song Born in.
00:51:49,575 --> 00:51:50,299
Announcer: Born in the USA.
00:51:51,655 --> 00:51:54,342
Tommy Chong: While Cheech turned it to Born in East LA,
00:51:54,904 --> 00:51:56,717
Tommy Chong: which is fine, it was great.
00:51:56,917 --> 00:52:00,223
Tommy Chong: Except when it came to put my part in, he
00:52:00,283 --> 00:52:01,486
Tommy Chong: never had a part for me.
00:52:03,475 --> 00:52:05,806
Tommy Chong: And then he says, oh no, and I called him
00:52:05,887 --> 00:52:07,615
Tommy Chong: out on it, you know, because he was telling
00:52:07,655 --> 00:52:09,422
Tommy Chong: me, you know, he wrote the song Born in
00:52:09,442 --> 00:52:09,883
Tommy Chong: East LA.
00:52:10,015 --> 00:52:12,461
Tommy Chong: I was like, oh great, you know, no, that's
00:52:12,481 --> 00:52:12,842
Tommy Chong: for him.
00:52:14,955 --> 00:52:18,243
Tommy Chong: But then he, you know, he was Cheech and
00:52:18,263 --> 00:52:19,787
Tommy Chong: Chong at the time, so he put it down.
00:52:20,175 --> 00:52:23,998
Tommy Chong: It was written by Cheech and Chong and
00:52:24,058 --> 00:52:25,522
Tommy Chong: everything is Cheech and Chong, cheech and
00:52:25,542 --> 00:52:26,966
Tommy Chong: Chong, except the performance.
00:52:27,535 --> 00:52:31,184
Tommy Chong: And so I said to him well, where's my part,
00:52:32,555 --> 00:52:32,856
Tommy Chong: you know?
00:52:32,876 --> 00:52:34,742
Tommy Chong: He said oh, you play a cop.
00:52:35,975 --> 00:52:39,421
Tommy Chong: Well, to me, you know, that's one of the
00:52:39,481 --> 00:52:43,467
Tommy Chong: biggest insults you could do, unless you
00:52:43,607 --> 00:52:44,669
Tommy Chong: add the comedy part.
00:52:45,355 --> 00:52:47,142
Marc Preston: Okay, you're a cop, but here's your
00:52:47,202 --> 00:52:49,240
Marc Preston: committee, yeah, where his focus is very
00:52:49,340 --> 00:52:50,824
Marc Preston: narrow about how he's going to be coming
00:52:50,925 --> 00:52:51,005
Marc Preston: out.
00:52:51,416 --> 00:52:52,719
Announcer: You know you're thinking globally.
00:52:52,759 --> 00:52:53,782
Marc Preston: You know you're thinking about the whole
00:52:53,822 --> 00:52:54,364
Marc Preston: project.
00:52:55,717 --> 00:52:57,242
Tommy Chong: That's and that's the way I thought about
00:52:57,302 --> 00:52:58,838
Tommy Chong: everything, the movies, everything.
00:52:58,898 --> 00:53:00,443
Tommy Chong: You know, I never, never think.
00:53:01,095 --> 00:53:04,541
Tommy Chong: And it wasn't until you know, lately, that
00:53:04,621 --> 00:53:07,988
Tommy Chong: I realized that he did his best he could do.
00:53:08,975 --> 00:53:11,163
Tommy Chong: You know that that was the best he could do
00:53:11,315 --> 00:53:12,881
Tommy Chong: and that was the best he could come up with,
00:53:13,355 --> 00:53:18,084
Tommy Chong: and so, as a result, we, we just quit.
00:53:18,986 --> 00:53:20,449
Tommy Chong: We could quit communicating.
00:53:22,178 --> 00:53:22,919
Tommy Chong: I'm going to show them.
00:53:23,059 --> 00:53:23,901
Announcer: Did you, did he come?
00:53:24,061 --> 00:53:24,683
Tommy Chong: Yeah, he came.
00:53:24,743 --> 00:53:25,584
Tommy Chong: He's going to talk to you.
00:53:25,945 --> 00:53:27,107
Announcer: And he looked it over.
00:53:27,388 --> 00:53:28,329
Announcer: Yeah, he's going to talk to you.
00:53:28,370 --> 00:53:31,055
Tommy Chong: Okay, thanks, was that show.
00:53:32,459 --> 00:53:35,758
Tommy Chong: Yeah, my darling wife just liked him oh.
00:53:35,818 --> 00:53:37,302
Marc Preston: I love, you know, I love hearing y'all with
00:53:37,904 --> 00:53:38,726
Marc Preston: when y'all were doing the podcast.
00:53:38,755 --> 00:53:40,601
Marc Preston: By the way, I want y'all to do the podcast
00:53:40,642 --> 00:53:41,404
Marc Preston: of Paris again.
00:53:41,736 --> 00:53:43,182
Marc Preston: I used to love and Shelby would show up.
00:53:43,636 --> 00:53:43,837
Marc Preston: That was.
00:53:43,857 --> 00:53:44,379
Marc Preston: That was fun.
00:53:46,980 --> 00:53:48,585
Tommy Chong: Well, you go way back with us.
00:53:48,775 --> 00:53:49,417
Tommy Chong: Yeah, no, no, no.
00:53:49,717 --> 00:53:50,118
Marc Preston: I loved.
00:53:50,158 --> 00:53:53,266
Marc Preston: You know, listening to the two of y'all is
00:53:53,286 --> 00:53:54,537
Marc Preston: like man, this is, this is some
00:53:55,459 --> 00:53:57,646
Marc Preston: non-traditional but awesome father-son time.
00:53:57,715 --> 00:53:58,878
Marc Preston: I love this, you know.
00:53:58,978 --> 00:54:00,321
Marc Preston: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:54:00,361 --> 00:54:01,284
Tommy Chong: No, he is Paris.
00:54:04,299 --> 00:54:04,881
Tommy Chong: All my kids.
00:54:05,443 --> 00:54:06,687
Tommy Chong: That was the other thing too.
00:54:06,707 --> 00:54:07,028
Tommy Chong: You know that.
00:54:07,048 --> 00:54:08,011
Tommy Chong: That was with Cheech.
00:54:08,071 --> 00:54:11,059
Tommy Chong: You know Cheech Well.
00:54:11,079 --> 00:54:12,703
Tommy Chong: You know he's raised by policemen.
00:54:13,184 --> 00:54:18,575
Tommy Chong: Really, yeah, his dad's was a LAPD and in
00:54:18,616 --> 00:54:22,663
Tommy Chong: fact, as dad rose up quite high in the LAPD,
00:54:22,683 --> 00:54:24,806
Tommy Chong: he became a teacher.
00:54:26,895 --> 00:54:28,119
Tommy Chong: He was very well respected.
00:54:30,115 --> 00:54:33,483
Tommy Chong: And so Cheech all his life had to deal with
00:54:33,563 --> 00:54:35,067
Tommy Chong: his dad being a cop.
00:54:35,735 --> 00:54:38,362
Tommy Chong: That's why, that's why the lowrider was was
00:54:38,402 --> 00:54:39,365
Tommy Chong: a big stretch for him.
00:54:40,295 --> 00:54:42,442
Tommy Chong: Cheech did not want to go down that route
00:54:43,195 --> 00:54:45,561
Tommy Chong: and we never knew he was Mexican until he
00:54:45,641 --> 00:54:47,807
Tommy Chong: came to to became Dalai.
00:54:48,296 --> 00:54:50,325
Tommy Chong: And then one time we were working a club
00:54:50,386 --> 00:54:52,194
Tommy Chong: and we weren't going over because we're
00:54:52,214 --> 00:54:55,777
Tommy Chong: doing all our Canadian humor, and I said to
00:54:55,817 --> 00:54:57,655
Tommy Chong: Cheech I said you're from here, man, come
00:54:57,695 --> 00:54:59,420
Tommy Chong: on, there must be a character.
00:54:59,720 --> 00:55:00,603
Tommy Chong: You know that you can.
00:55:01,485 --> 00:55:03,719
Tommy Chong: And he said, yeah, there is one, but I am
00:55:03,739 --> 00:55:04,160
Tommy Chong: not too.
00:55:04,682 --> 00:55:05,485
Tommy Chong: I said what's matter?
00:55:05,635 --> 00:55:06,618
Tommy Chong: He said, well, you know, a little
00:55:06,658 --> 00:55:07,341
Tommy Chong: detrimental.
00:55:08,716 --> 00:55:10,902
Tommy Chong: And he, he denied saying this conversation,
00:55:10,962 --> 00:55:11,363
Tommy Chong: by the way.
00:55:12,655 --> 00:55:14,598
Tommy Chong: And he says it's a little detrimental.
00:55:15,079 --> 00:55:18,946
Tommy Chong: But and the Chicano, the top Chicanos, had
00:55:19,006 --> 00:55:24,924
Tommy Chong: a meeting, the guy that, louis Spaldes, you
00:55:24,964 --> 00:55:30,642
Tommy Chong: know, the director, anyway, he, the, the
00:55:30,903 --> 00:55:33,567
Tommy Chong: intellectual Chicano community, did not
00:55:33,627 --> 00:55:35,917
Tommy Chong: like the character Cheech was portraying.
00:55:36,378 --> 00:55:39,144
Tommy Chong: You know which is why we never had no
00:55:39,164 --> 00:55:41,796
Tommy Chong: writers up until Cheech and we haven't
00:55:41,856 --> 00:55:44,783
Tommy Chong: really had a lowrider since, you know,
00:55:45,284 --> 00:55:46,006
Tommy Chong: because they.
00:55:46,467 --> 00:55:48,260
Marc Preston: I know y'all have done some things over the
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:49,103
Marc Preston: last few years.
00:55:49,475 --> 00:55:51,641
Marc Preston: Are y'all kind of contemplating ever doing
00:55:51,681 --> 00:55:55,205
Marc Preston: a project together, anything else?
00:55:55,225 --> 00:55:56,135
Tommy Chong: anytime soon.
00:55:56,175 --> 00:55:57,919
Tommy Chong: There's a movie out, there's a movie
00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:01,406
Tommy Chong: getting prepped now that they want us in
00:56:01,446 --> 00:56:03,699
Tommy Chong: there and Cheech will probably go for it.
00:56:04,935 --> 00:56:06,839
Tommy Chong: It's an older version of us, you know.
00:56:06,879 --> 00:56:08,403
Tommy Chong: It's now at our age.
00:56:08,503 --> 00:56:12,160
Tommy Chong: Now you know we'll have to see how it looks
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:15,099
Tommy Chong: in that We've got a documentary that's
00:56:15,159 --> 00:56:16,883
Tommy Chong: coming out, that's going to.
00:56:18,706 --> 00:56:20,877
Tommy Chong: It's a Cheech and Jung documentary.
00:56:21,298 --> 00:56:25,329
Tommy Chong: The backstory or the behind the scenes
00:56:25,349 --> 00:56:28,818
Tommy Chong: story is pretty funny because you know me,
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:32,486
Tommy Chong: I'm sort of spur of the moment kind of guy,
00:56:32,526 --> 00:56:32,726
Tommy Chong: you know.
00:56:33,935 --> 00:56:35,902
Tommy Chong: And so it's my daughter, robbie, and her
00:56:35,942 --> 00:56:36,564
Tommy Chong: guy, dave.
00:56:37,056 --> 00:56:40,524
Tommy Chong: Now Dave's a very talented movie maker,
00:56:41,955 --> 00:56:45,065
Tommy Chong: work with Jim Carrey and the Slingblade.
00:56:45,455 --> 00:56:48,062
Tommy Chong: He did Slingblade and he's been done.
00:56:49,535 --> 00:56:51,298
Tommy Chong: He is definitely a movie maker.
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:53,944
Tommy Chong: And they were doing a documentary on Cheech
00:56:53,984 --> 00:56:58,039
Tommy Chong: and Jung and it seemed like it was never
00:56:58,079 --> 00:56:59,043
Tommy Chong: going to get finished.
00:57:00,076 --> 00:57:04,305
Tommy Chong: And so one day I was driving home with a
00:57:04,926 --> 00:57:07,872
Tommy Chong: friend of mine, we did a golf tournament
00:57:08,193 --> 00:57:12,704
Tommy Chong: and I came up, I got high on one of my
00:57:12,965 --> 00:57:15,892
Tommy Chong: products and I came up with a great idea
00:57:15,973 --> 00:57:17,757
Tommy Chong: for the ending of a documentary.
00:57:18,057 --> 00:57:20,002
Tommy Chong: Because that's the way I kind of work, you
00:57:20,042 --> 00:57:24,438
Tommy Chong: know, if we got stuff to do, I'm an artist
00:57:24,498 --> 00:57:29,471
Tommy Chong: in a sense that if there's an empty canvas
00:57:30,032 --> 00:57:31,917
Tommy Chong: and people can't think of what to put on it.
00:57:32,438 --> 00:57:35,225
Marc Preston: I will eventually come up with an idea you
00:57:35,285 --> 00:57:37,779
Marc Preston: know, and so destination, and then you kind
00:57:37,819 --> 00:57:39,322
Marc Preston: of plot out the journey to get there.
00:57:39,382 --> 00:57:40,765
Tommy Chong: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:57:42,695 --> 00:57:44,300
Tommy Chong: Well, I came up with a real good ending for
00:57:44,340 --> 00:57:48,580
Tommy Chong: the documentary, To the point where I told
00:57:48,620 --> 00:57:51,707
Tommy Chong: my daughter I said listen, forget all this
00:57:51,787 --> 00:57:52,268
Tommy Chong: other stuff.
00:57:52,455 --> 00:57:53,358
Tommy Chong: I got an ending.
00:57:55,615 --> 00:57:56,819
Tommy Chong: The director comes back.
00:57:56,980 --> 00:58:01,398
Tommy Chong: Yeah, oh, my God, that got such a riot
00:58:01,458 --> 00:58:05,047
Tommy Chong: because I am the guy they're doing a thing.
00:58:05,335 --> 00:58:09,216
Tommy Chong: I do have the power if I wanted to and they
00:58:09,357 --> 00:58:11,941
Tommy Chong: freaked they actually drove all the way to
00:58:12,001 --> 00:58:15,032
Tommy Chong: San Francisco to talk to Cheech to make
00:58:15,112 --> 00:58:17,178
Tommy Chong: sure that Cheech would not go along with me,
00:58:17,439 --> 00:58:19,122
Tommy Chong: because if Cheech went along with me that
00:58:19,142 --> 00:58:20,145
Tommy Chong: would be the end of the day.
00:58:22,517 --> 00:58:24,483
Tommy Chong: Anyway, Cheech would definitely not go
00:58:24,503 --> 00:58:25,024
Tommy Chong: along with me.
00:58:25,735 --> 00:58:30,845
Tommy Chong: Cheech and I really haven't seen eye to eye
00:58:31,005 --> 00:58:31,667
Tommy Chong: on anything.
00:58:33,456 --> 00:58:35,661
Tommy Chong: I mean, we've been on going.
00:58:35,841 --> 00:58:37,304
Tommy Chong: You know, we've been doing our live act
00:58:37,344 --> 00:58:41,219
Tommy Chong: with Shelby in that, you know, ever since
00:58:41,780 --> 00:58:43,985
Tommy Chong: the 08, actually, as soon as I got out of
00:58:44,025 --> 00:58:44,246
Tommy Chong: jail.
00:58:44,935 --> 00:58:46,262
Tommy Chong: We were supposed to do a movie before I
00:58:46,302 --> 00:58:48,614
Tommy Chong: went to jail, but then I went to jail and
00:58:48,634 --> 00:58:49,859
Tommy Chong: that kind of screwed everything up.
00:58:50,795 --> 00:58:52,020
Tommy Chong: It wouldn't have happened anyway.
00:58:52,415 --> 00:58:53,540
Tommy Chong: You know I didn't.
00:58:54,535 --> 00:58:56,422
Tommy Chong: They've had people write movies for us and
00:58:57,024 --> 00:58:59,934
Tommy Chong: I look at the first couple of pages and
00:58:59,974 --> 00:59:02,301
Tommy Chong: know that you know you can't write for
00:59:02,341 --> 00:59:02,983
Tommy Chong: Cheech and John.
00:59:03,524 --> 00:59:04,897
Marc Preston: Yeah, I think a lot of people.
00:59:04,917 --> 00:59:06,722
Marc Preston: Probably they would come off as a parody,
00:59:06,802 --> 00:59:07,264
Marc Preston: almost.
00:59:07,324 --> 00:59:07,605
Marc Preston: You know.
00:59:07,665 --> 00:59:09,980
Marc Preston: I think people kind of see it as which.
00:59:10,100 --> 00:59:11,784
Marc Preston: What y'all did was, like I said, the
00:59:11,804 --> 00:59:12,626
Marc Preston: physical comedy.
00:59:12,786 --> 00:59:13,808
Marc Preston: It gave you a chance.
00:59:13,895 --> 00:59:15,258
Marc Preston: I mean, like you sitting next to him in a
00:59:15,278 --> 00:59:18,725
Marc Preston: car just slowly eating everything that you
00:59:18,765 --> 00:59:19,967
Marc Preston: had I mean, what was that movie?
00:59:20,775 --> 00:59:21,898
Marc Preston: You were eating everything so that the cop
00:59:21,918 --> 00:59:23,403
Marc Preston: would say it's just, I couldn't take my
00:59:23,463 --> 00:59:24,004
Marc Preston: eyes off you.
00:59:25,942 --> 00:59:26,746
Tommy Chong: It's like wait a minute.
00:59:26,767 --> 00:59:27,993
Tommy Chong: He has no lines, but it's hilarious.
00:59:30,059 --> 00:59:31,463
Marc Preston: And so, in other words, y'all do you think
00:59:31,503 --> 00:59:32,786
Marc Preston: it's that I don't want to, it's not
00:59:32,886 --> 00:59:34,138
Marc Preston: friction, but do you think it's that
00:59:34,198 --> 00:59:37,272
Marc Preston: contrast that kind of gave y'all the fuel
00:59:37,312 --> 00:59:38,998
Marc Preston: to kind of create what y'all have?
00:59:39,038 --> 00:59:40,501
Marc Preston: You know, not necessarily seeing eye to eye
00:59:40,541 --> 00:59:42,266
Marc Preston: on stuff, Two things.
00:59:43,236 --> 00:59:48,475
Tommy Chong: First of all, we're exploring new territory.
00:59:49,742 --> 00:59:51,795
Tommy Chong: You see, we're not rehashing anything.
00:59:52,938 --> 00:59:54,863
Tommy Chong: See, most a lot of movies are rehash,
00:59:55,564 --> 00:59:58,191
Tommy Chong: remake, redo, redot.
00:59:58,231 --> 01:00:00,356
Tommy Chong: You know, because then you know who the
01:00:00,376 --> 01:00:02,984
Tommy Chong: guys are and results going to be.
01:00:03,535 --> 01:00:05,104
Marc Preston: And it's a safe choice for a lot of people
01:00:05,144 --> 01:00:05,526
Marc Preston: especially.
01:00:05,567 --> 01:00:07,196
Marc Preston: I mean just look at all the remakes there
01:00:07,256 --> 01:00:08,580
Marc Preston: are in movies these days yeah.
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:09,643
Tommy Chong: That's what I'm saying.
01:00:10,455 --> 01:00:11,077
Tommy Chong: I understand.
01:00:11,117 --> 01:00:13,423
Tommy Chong: You know all the moods, the dance and
01:00:13,443 --> 01:00:14,045
Tommy Chong: everything else.
01:00:14,915 --> 01:00:19,483
Tommy Chong: Cheech and I invented a new style of comedy
01:00:20,285 --> 01:00:22,448
Tommy Chong: that only Cheech and I can perform.
01:00:23,215 --> 01:00:25,241
Tommy Chong: You know, I can't do it with anybody else,
01:00:28,319 --> 01:00:30,184
Tommy Chong: and that's the special thing about Cheech
01:00:30,224 --> 01:00:30,625
Tommy Chong: and Chong.
01:00:31,155 --> 01:00:33,660
Tommy Chong: That's why Martin and Lewis had the same
01:00:33,700 --> 01:00:34,001
Tommy Chong: thing.
01:00:34,321 --> 01:00:34,943
Tommy Chong: Yeah.
01:00:35,243 --> 01:00:36,085
Announcer: Oh, yeah, yeah.
01:00:36,626 --> 01:00:39,218
Tommy Chong: It was very spontaneous, in fact, jerry
01:00:39,258 --> 01:00:41,164
Tommy Chong: Lewis gave me one of the best compliments
01:00:41,264 --> 01:00:41,465
Tommy Chong: ever.
01:00:41,595 --> 01:00:44,101
Tommy Chong: He said when they said you know they don't
01:00:44,161 --> 01:00:47,067
Tommy Chong: have comedy teams like you and Marc, you
01:00:47,128 --> 01:00:50,284
Tommy Chong: and Dino and Jerry said oh yeah, they do.
01:00:51,137 --> 01:00:52,280
Tommy Chong: He said Cheech and Chong.
01:00:53,123 --> 01:00:54,942
Marc Preston: Yeah, and the thing is, jerry Lewis, even
01:00:54,962 --> 01:00:57,193
Marc Preston: though he played the kind of the goofy guy,
01:00:57,294 --> 01:00:59,328
Marc Preston: he was the one really meticulously crafting
01:00:59,430 --> 01:01:01,730
Marc Preston: those acts and really Martin was the one to
01:01:01,833 --> 01:01:03,078
Marc Preston: show up and be Dean Martin.
01:01:03,138 --> 01:01:04,843
Marc Preston: You know that's right, that's right.
01:01:05,795 --> 01:01:07,420
Tommy Chong: He was the one to do the lines and do his
01:01:07,460 --> 01:01:09,045
Tommy Chong: things and be the handsome guy.
01:01:09,916 --> 01:01:13,105
Tommy Chong: No, I really respected Jerry's filmmaking.
01:01:13,575 --> 01:01:16,024
Tommy Chong: In fact, I used his technique.
01:01:16,055 --> 01:01:18,082
Tommy Chong: You know, he was the first to use video.
01:01:18,523 --> 01:01:20,460
Marc Preston: Yeah, he was the first one to kind of do
01:01:20,480 --> 01:01:22,085
Marc Preston: that, to kind of video monitor idea.
01:01:22,235 --> 01:01:25,316
Marc Preston: So he'd actually yeah, yeah, he was.
01:01:26,018 --> 01:01:27,864
Marc Preston: Isn't that crazy to think Jerry Lewis did
01:01:27,884 --> 01:01:28,045
Marc Preston: that.
01:01:28,115 --> 01:01:29,839
Marc Preston: I mean, it's like the most common thing now
01:01:29,879 --> 01:01:31,323
Marc Preston: that Jerry Lewis before him.
01:01:31,383 --> 01:01:32,105
Marc Preston: Nobody did that.
01:01:32,325 --> 01:01:36,379
Marc Preston: Yeah, I was the second I was the second to
01:01:36,419 --> 01:01:36,640
Marc Preston: do it?
01:01:36,660 --> 01:01:41,740
Tommy Chong: Yeah, because when we did the next movie, I
01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:48,488
Tommy Chong: hired a video guy and the DP, king Baggett,
01:01:48,568 --> 01:01:49,429
Tommy Chong: was pissed off.
01:01:50,010 --> 01:01:51,998
Tommy Chong: Oh, he did not, he didn't want the
01:01:52,058 --> 01:01:52,560
Tommy Chong: cameraman.
01:01:52,580 --> 01:01:53,996
Tommy Chong: You know, they're like dogs, they don't
01:01:54,016 --> 01:01:55,581
Tommy Chong: want any other dog on the set.
01:01:56,655 --> 01:01:58,359
Marc Preston: But you, if you're in a scene, you've got
01:01:58,379 --> 01:02:00,062
Marc Preston: to see playback to see if it worked.
01:02:00,303 --> 01:02:00,483
Marc Preston: Yeah.
01:02:00,503 --> 01:02:02,046
Tommy Chong: But guess what, guess what?
01:02:04,377 --> 01:02:08,785
Tommy Chong: King Baggett ended up almost marrying Eric
01:02:08,926 --> 01:02:10,348
Tommy Chong: Wooster, my video guy.
01:02:11,356 --> 01:02:13,581
Tommy Chong: I would go to see the scene and King
01:02:13,621 --> 01:02:15,265
Tommy Chong: Baggett would be in there first.
01:02:16,175 --> 01:02:18,045
Tommy Chong: King was in there late budget, because King
01:02:18,105 --> 01:02:18,467
Tommy Chong: is not.
01:02:18,608 --> 01:02:19,935
Marc Preston: he's not worried about the performance,
01:02:20,397 --> 01:02:21,962
Marc Preston: he's worried about the lighting, yeah,
01:02:22,735 --> 01:02:24,360
Marc Preston: lighting composition and all that stuff,
01:02:24,380 --> 01:02:24,621
Marc Preston: yeah.
01:02:25,876 --> 01:02:28,284
Tommy Chong: Oh, he King loved it after that.
01:02:28,695 --> 01:02:31,081
Tommy Chong: And now, in fact, you don't even use a film
01:02:31,121 --> 01:02:33,047
Tommy Chong: camera anymore, you just use video.
01:02:33,616 --> 01:02:35,743
Tommy Chong: You know it's all video now.
01:02:36,295 --> 01:02:39,984
Tommy Chong: No, jerry was was an innovator in that
01:02:40,025 --> 01:02:40,365
Tommy Chong: sense.
01:02:41,175 --> 01:02:43,825
Tommy Chong: And the thing is about and Jerry and Jerry
01:02:43,986 --> 01:02:44,528
Tommy Chong: knew too.
01:02:44,850 --> 01:02:46,856
Tommy Chong: See what happened with with Jerry and Dean
01:02:47,378 --> 01:02:51,696
Tommy Chong: Dean, jerry kind of took over and that's
01:02:51,736 --> 01:02:52,961
Tommy Chong: what happened with Cheech Night 2.
01:02:53,735 --> 01:02:55,820
Tommy Chong: Because once you become a film director,
01:02:56,943 --> 01:02:59,368
Tommy Chong: that's like being anointed, god.
01:02:59,769 --> 01:03:04,421
Tommy Chong: You know you, everything depends on what
01:03:04,522 --> 01:03:05,504
Tommy Chong: the director says.
01:03:05,885 --> 01:03:07,056
Marc Preston: Yeah, everything's sitting on your
01:03:07,076 --> 01:03:09,281
Marc Preston: shoulders as well, because if it, if
01:03:09,342 --> 01:03:10,605
Marc Preston: something fails, it's all on you.
01:03:10,785 --> 01:03:10,945
Marc Preston: Yeah.
01:03:12,155 --> 01:03:14,482
Tommy Chong: I got so hooked on that that that Cheech
01:03:16,176 --> 01:03:19,122
Tommy Chong: and I just well, when we started having
01:03:19,202 --> 01:03:22,949
Tommy Chong: separate dressing rooms, you know, because
01:03:23,049 --> 01:03:25,179
Tommy Chong: up into the up into them we always shared
01:03:25,199 --> 01:03:28,147
Tommy Chong: the dressing room, you know, and because
01:03:28,167 --> 01:03:30,643
Tommy Chong: when we're in the dressing room we could
01:03:30,683 --> 01:03:32,819
Tommy Chong: talk, we could write, and I could tell
01:03:33,080 --> 01:03:35,265
Tommy Chong: Cheech, you know, give him, cheech, you
01:03:35,285 --> 01:03:37,778
Tommy Chong: know, direction, because with with Cheech,
01:03:37,899 --> 01:03:39,843
Tommy Chong: all you have to do is just he's like a, a,
01:03:39,863 --> 01:03:44,242
Tommy Chong: a psychopedia, because he, he can memorize
01:03:44,282 --> 01:03:45,085
Tommy Chong: so many things.
01:03:45,495 --> 01:03:48,904
Tommy Chong: And so I, I just show Cheech a direction
01:03:49,024 --> 01:03:50,347
Tommy Chong: and Cheech gets it right away.
01:03:50,818 --> 01:03:52,676
Tommy Chong: Well, oh no, I know what you mean, I know
01:03:52,696 --> 01:03:53,098
Tommy Chong: what you mean.
01:03:53,855 --> 01:03:56,300
Tommy Chong: And so when we weren't see what happened
01:03:56,340 --> 01:03:59,287
Tommy Chong: with Lou Adler after Up and Smoke, we got,
01:04:00,055 --> 01:04:03,003
Tommy Chong: you know, I directed and wrote right up to
01:04:03,043 --> 01:04:03,485
Tommy Chong: the end.
01:04:04,195 --> 01:04:05,920
Tommy Chong: And then Lou Adler says, you know, because
01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:08,306
Tommy Chong: he's a director and and I found out now
01:04:08,326 --> 01:04:11,884
Tommy Chong: that he wanted to take, take, take all the
01:04:11,924 --> 01:04:12,425
Tommy Chong: money too.
01:04:13,075 --> 01:04:16,081
Tommy Chong: So he, at the end of Up and Smoke, he, he
01:04:16,462 --> 01:04:19,027
Tommy Chong: kind of barred me from the set, you know,
01:04:19,648 --> 01:04:20,717
Tommy Chong: and there's.
01:04:22,202 --> 01:04:23,124
Tommy Chong: I said, are you ready?
01:04:23,535 --> 01:04:25,803
Tommy Chong: And they said, no, no, we've already shot
01:04:25,843 --> 01:04:26,064
Tommy Chong: that.
01:04:26,235 --> 01:04:28,860
Tommy Chong: And I said, oh, because usually they call
01:04:28,900 --> 01:04:31,785
Tommy Chong: me in, you know, to make sure everything
01:04:31,825 --> 01:04:32,226
Tommy Chong: was right.
01:04:32,286 --> 01:04:33,709
Tommy Chong: You know, I was really the director.
01:04:34,175 --> 01:04:36,723
Tommy Chong: Then Lou took over to the point where Lou
01:04:36,784 --> 01:04:39,131
Tommy Chong: says, okay, I, I, I, yeah.
01:04:39,231 --> 01:04:42,802
Tommy Chong: I got a good idea of yeah, working on the
01:04:42,902 --> 01:04:43,203
Tommy Chong: ending.
01:04:43,483 --> 01:04:44,445
Tommy Chong: You know we got enough.
01:04:44,926 --> 01:04:47,571
Tommy Chong: Like like Lou was the kind of producer that
01:04:47,932 --> 01:04:50,364
Tommy Chong: we run out of money stop, stop everything
01:04:50,524 --> 01:04:51,367
Tommy Chong: and we're finished.
01:04:51,709 --> 01:04:52,010
Tommy Chong: You know.
01:04:55,941 --> 01:04:57,869
Marc Preston: It's kind of like money's done, okay, cut.
01:04:59,481 --> 01:05:00,003
Tommy Chong: We're done.
01:05:00,526 --> 01:05:00,807
Tommy Chong: So.
01:05:00,847 --> 01:05:01,731
Tommy Chong: So what happened I?
01:05:03,484 --> 01:05:06,844
Tommy Chong: So I backed around back down and and, and
01:05:06,864 --> 01:05:09,712
Tommy Chong: they do, they edited the movie, they being
01:05:09,772 --> 01:05:12,099
Tommy Chong: Lou and Lou Lombardo the editor, and that
01:05:12,119 --> 01:05:16,462
Tommy Chong: and Then they showed us the rough cut, or
01:05:16,503 --> 01:05:20,286
Tommy Chong: the first assembled Part, and they showed
01:05:20,720 --> 01:05:22,605
Tommy Chong: Paramount to the same time.
01:05:23,146 --> 01:05:25,732
Tommy Chong: It was the worst fucking ending of any
01:05:25,832 --> 01:05:26,982
Tommy Chong: movie I'd ever seen.
01:05:27,603 --> 01:05:28,565
Tommy Chong: It was so bad.
01:05:28,886 --> 01:05:30,529
Tommy Chong: Everything that we had done might as well
01:05:30,569 --> 01:05:32,654
Tommy Chong: be, you know, forgot about it.
01:05:33,081 --> 01:05:33,522
Tommy Chong: Really.
01:05:33,563 --> 01:05:36,705
Tommy Chong: The ending, was it what he, what he did?
01:05:36,765 --> 01:05:38,891
Tommy Chong: I'll tell you, you'll know, no one will
01:05:38,931 --> 01:05:41,266
Tommy Chong: ever see it, but but the ending was that
01:05:41,326 --> 01:05:43,754
Tommy Chong: Lou came up with was that it was all a
01:05:43,854 --> 01:05:48,069
Tommy Chong: dream and that that when we were at the,
01:05:49,181 --> 01:05:54,686
Tommy Chong: when we're stopped on the PCH, and and
01:05:54,726 --> 01:05:57,383
Tommy Chong: that's where everything, everything after
01:05:57,684 --> 01:06:01,684
Tommy Chong: the PCH, was a dream, and we were sort of
01:06:01,785 --> 01:06:06,011
Tommy Chong: somehow, and Stacy shows up as a uniform,
01:06:08,861 --> 01:06:12,211
Tommy Chong: stacy Keech, yeah, I mean, it was the.
01:06:13,041 --> 01:06:15,321
Tommy Chong: Really, it was like it was.
01:06:15,462 --> 01:06:16,564
Tommy Chong: You couldn't get I.
01:06:17,085 --> 01:06:19,630
Tommy Chong: I haven't really been able to have a
01:06:19,690 --> 01:06:23,684
Tommy Chong: conversation with Lou since Period period
01:06:23,845 --> 01:06:26,152
Tommy Chong: about anything you know other than hi,
01:06:26,192 --> 01:06:26,855
Tommy Chong: how's everything?
01:06:26,895 --> 01:06:29,041
Tommy Chong: Yeah, nice, the house of kids, how's that?
01:06:29,342 --> 01:06:31,669
Tommy Chong: You know before that he was always
01:06:31,729 --> 01:06:32,491
Tommy Chong: interested in.
01:06:32,631 --> 01:06:35,453
Tommy Chong: You know, what do you want to shoot now or
01:06:35,534 --> 01:06:36,340
Tommy Chong: what should we do now?
01:06:37,463 --> 01:06:38,686
Marc Preston: And I was the one where y'all had that
01:06:38,726 --> 01:06:41,032
Marc Preston: little van that had the marijuana sprayed
01:06:41,092 --> 01:06:43,980
Marc Preston: on the side of it and the exhaust pipe was
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:45,583
Marc Preston: too Hot and yeah, I didn't get everything
01:06:45,603 --> 01:06:48,349
Marc Preston: about, okay, I, because I forgot that was
01:06:48,409 --> 01:06:50,173
Marc Preston: up in smoke or the next movie, yeah.
01:06:50,844 --> 01:06:52,015
Tommy Chong: Yeah, well, he wanted to be.
01:06:52,035 --> 01:06:55,535
Tommy Chong: I Mean his idea to save money was to.
01:06:55,776 --> 01:06:58,446
Tommy Chong: It was all a dream and it was the biggest
01:06:58,506 --> 01:06:59,590
Tommy Chong: fucking insult ever.
01:07:00,112 --> 01:07:02,600
Tommy Chong: And so then I told, I said that was the end.
01:07:03,562 --> 01:07:05,246
Tommy Chong: And so I thought I told everybody, as we
01:07:05,286 --> 01:07:07,511
Tommy Chong: got to reshoot the ending I'm directing,
01:07:08,212 --> 01:07:10,143
Tommy Chong: and that was it, and how much of it did you
01:07:10,303 --> 01:07:10,383
Tommy Chong: do?
01:07:10,444 --> 01:07:13,170
Marc Preston: how much of the of the final print?
01:07:13,210 --> 01:07:14,753
Marc Preston: How much of that did you end up directing
01:07:15,382 --> 01:07:16,228
Marc Preston: the ending?
01:07:17,921 --> 01:07:21,033
Tommy Chong: The ending where I mean I wrote and
01:07:21,294 --> 01:07:22,860
Tommy Chong: basically showed them what to do.
01:07:24,724 --> 01:07:25,786
Tommy Chong: You know, I mean, you know I actually
01:07:25,826 --> 01:07:28,051
Tommy Chong: directed the whole movie when it came right
01:07:28,092 --> 01:07:28,613
Tommy Chong: down to it.
01:07:28,673 --> 01:07:31,326
Tommy Chong: You know, the only thing I gotta give I'll
01:07:31,346 --> 01:07:33,492
Tommy Chong: give Lou and everybody credit for is that
01:07:33,974 --> 01:07:36,000
Tommy Chong: Stacey wrote his own lines.
01:07:36,963 --> 01:07:37,103
Tommy Chong: I.
01:07:37,524 --> 01:07:40,071
Tommy Chong: I give him an idea of what we wanted to do.
01:07:40,553 --> 01:07:42,659
Tommy Chong: Strother Martin, you know, you get a job by
01:07:42,739 --> 01:07:43,140
Tommy Chong: sundown.
01:07:43,563 --> 01:07:46,200
Tommy Chong: Oh, that was all Strother Martin ad lib.
01:07:47,102 --> 01:07:50,449
Tommy Chong: He wrote every bit of that, that monologue.
01:07:50,669 --> 01:07:52,954
Tommy Chong: That was Strother Martin and he never got
01:07:52,994 --> 01:07:55,945
Tommy Chong: credit for the Ajax ladies and ordnance.
01:07:56,005 --> 01:07:57,950
Tommy Chong: That was all her stuff, you know.
01:07:58,110 --> 01:08:01,082
Tommy Chong: And so what I would do, I would Get
01:08:01,122 --> 01:08:03,108
Tommy Chong: gathered this stuff and teach a story,
01:08:03,208 --> 01:08:06,825
Tommy Chong: teach painting the hamper, teach All the.
01:08:09,564 --> 01:08:11,131
Tommy Chong: I love the keeping the beers in the fish
01:08:11,191 --> 01:08:11,412
Tommy Chong: tank.
01:08:11,453 --> 01:08:12,497
Marc Preston: That just made sense to me.
01:08:12,517 --> 01:08:13,200
Marc Preston: You know, it's like that was me.
01:08:13,240 --> 01:08:13,822
Marc Preston: That was me.
01:08:15,620 --> 01:08:17,223
Tommy Chong: I was like that makes for a good cooler,
01:08:17,284 --> 01:08:17,624
Tommy Chong: you know.
01:08:18,526 --> 01:08:20,971
Tommy Chong: And washing, washing no, that was next
01:08:20,991 --> 01:08:22,894
Tommy Chong: movie, but that that was yeah.
01:08:24,160 --> 01:08:28,506
Marc Preston: So next movie really was me, me and she,
01:08:29,047 --> 01:08:31,350
Marc Preston: and it's the best title for a sequel ever,
01:08:31,431 --> 01:08:34,375
Marc Preston: because it is the Cheech and Chong's next
01:08:34,435 --> 01:08:34,835
Marc Preston: movie.
01:08:34,895 --> 01:08:37,385
Marc Preston: Is that Easy to remember, you know?
01:08:37,545 --> 01:08:39,449
Marc Preston: Yeah, this, this trip down memory lane, is
01:08:39,469 --> 01:08:41,032
Marc Preston: so much fun and I really think that.
01:08:41,453 --> 01:08:45,624
Marc Preston: Have you noticed, like Jin Z, millennials,
01:08:45,905 --> 01:08:47,368
Marc Preston: have they rediscovered your movies?
01:08:47,468 --> 01:08:49,413
Marc Preston: Have you had any feedback for people that
01:08:49,453 --> 01:08:51,747
Marc Preston: have Kind of started finding your stuff
01:08:51,767 --> 01:08:51,968
Marc Preston: going?
01:08:52,209 --> 01:08:53,855
Marc Preston: Oh yeah, I know it's like Tommy Chong is
01:08:54,277 --> 01:08:55,903
Marc Preston: he's the weed guy, but it's like no,
01:08:55,923 --> 01:08:56,865
Marc Preston: there's a thing.
01:08:56,945 --> 01:09:00,595
Tommy Chong: Yeah, they, they know me from that sub
01:09:00,656 --> 01:09:01,137
Tommy Chong: addition.
01:09:01,859 --> 01:09:04,404
Tommy Chong: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they know me because,
01:09:04,444 --> 01:09:06,768
Tommy Chong: see it, that's an extension of that
01:09:06,829 --> 01:09:07,309
Tommy Chong: character.
01:09:07,770 --> 01:09:08,231
Tommy Chong: That's what.
01:09:08,432 --> 01:09:11,863
Tommy Chong: That's what I was trying to Get through, to
01:09:11,924 --> 01:09:15,462
Tommy Chong: teach you know, which I never did Was the
01:09:15,522 --> 01:09:19,330
Tommy Chong: fact that those iconic characters can live
01:09:19,410 --> 01:09:21,354
Tommy Chong: forever, will live forever.
01:09:22,541 --> 01:09:25,691
Tommy Chong: You can't kill him and and you can only,
01:09:26,661 --> 01:09:29,007
Tommy Chong: you can only live off him, and I did that
01:09:29,047 --> 01:09:31,172
Tommy Chong: with that, with my character.
01:09:31,421 --> 01:09:38,865
Tommy Chong: See I, there was more To making the movies.
01:09:39,306 --> 01:09:42,153
Tommy Chong: I wanted to put a message out to the world
01:09:43,181 --> 01:09:48,109
Tommy Chong: number one If you can smoke, dope and still
01:09:48,189 --> 01:09:51,540
Tommy Chong: be healthy and still still work out.
01:09:51,780 --> 01:09:53,785
Marc Preston: Oh, you've always been a really great shape.
01:09:53,846 --> 01:09:55,830
Marc Preston: I mean, working out and lifting has always
01:09:55,871 --> 01:09:56,632
Marc Preston: been a big thing with you.
01:09:57,061 --> 01:09:57,563
Tommy Chong: That's it.
01:09:57,724 --> 01:10:01,537
Tommy Chong: I mean, and to this day now I'm selling CBD
01:10:01,577 --> 01:10:02,360
Tommy Chong: that it's good for you.
01:10:02,761 --> 01:10:05,506
Tommy Chong: See, I don't want to do anything or even
01:10:05,767 --> 01:10:08,472
Tommy Chong: leave the people down the wrong path with a
01:10:08,512 --> 01:10:12,249
Tommy Chong: character, even If my, if a carry, I refuse
01:10:12,470 --> 01:10:14,878
Tommy Chong: because I know the effect that I have on
01:10:14,938 --> 01:10:15,420
Tommy Chong: people there.
01:10:15,921 --> 01:10:18,788
Tommy Chong: They listen to me, you know, and and and
01:10:18,808 --> 01:10:19,209
Tommy Chong: they read.
01:10:19,289 --> 01:10:21,624
Tommy Chong: They not only listen to me, but they, they
01:10:21,664 --> 01:10:23,471
Tommy Chong: will repeat what I would.
01:10:23,572 --> 01:10:26,041
Tommy Chong: I do what I say, you know, like with the
01:10:26,081 --> 01:10:29,729
Tommy Chong: CBD that I'm selling now, you know, that's
01:10:29,789 --> 01:10:34,365
Tommy Chong: going crazy as far as people like in it and
01:10:34,846 --> 01:10:36,811
Tommy Chong: and it's good for you, and that's the thing
01:10:36,851 --> 01:10:37,353
Tommy Chong: about weed.
01:10:38,762 --> 01:10:41,349
Tommy Chong: That's that's why I'd never promote any
01:10:41,389 --> 01:10:44,305
Tommy Chong: kind of smoking, cigarettes, you know, a
01:10:44,626 --> 01:10:47,440
Tommy Chong: tobacco or or alcohol.
01:10:48,408 --> 01:10:51,244
Tommy Chong: I had a chance to, you know, to do a Beer
01:10:51,885 --> 01:10:54,031
Tommy Chong: and and I went to, even right to the
01:10:54,071 --> 01:10:56,658
Tommy Chong: brewery because I wanted to check it all
01:10:56,799 --> 01:10:57,260
Tommy Chong: out, you know.
01:10:57,802 --> 01:11:00,771
Tommy Chong: And then I then I had a flash of you know,
01:11:02,302 --> 01:11:05,670
Tommy Chong: of a car wreck, with Chong beer scattered
01:11:05,731 --> 01:11:10,569
Tommy Chong: around, you know, and and I said, no, I
01:11:10,589 --> 01:11:12,293
Tommy Chong: don't want to be, I don't want that tag.
01:11:13,082 --> 01:11:15,290
Tommy Chong: You can be the nicest guy all your life,
01:11:16,123 --> 01:11:20,166
Tommy Chong: but you mess up one time, man, you're done
01:11:21,451 --> 01:11:23,398
Tommy Chong: you know it's funny because I was talking
01:11:23,479 --> 01:11:23,840
Tommy Chong: with my kids.
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:25,878
Marc Preston: My daughter is at college right now.
01:11:25,920 --> 01:11:27,056
Marc Preston: She's gonna be a sophomore.
01:11:27,139 --> 01:11:28,907
Marc Preston: My son's going to the same school next year
01:11:28,990 --> 01:11:29,678
Marc Preston: as a freshman.
01:11:30,082 --> 01:11:31,496
Marc Preston: And I was telling them I was trying to find
01:11:31,516 --> 01:11:34,011
Marc Preston: a way to put it there's so much mischief
01:11:34,071 --> 01:11:35,358
Marc Preston: going on, people spiking, drinks and all
01:11:35,378 --> 01:11:35,519
Marc Preston: that is.
01:11:35,539 --> 01:11:39,174
Marc Preston: Like, you know, if you were in a room and
01:11:39,194 --> 01:11:40,018
Marc Preston: you and your girlfriends show up and
01:11:40,038 --> 01:11:42,051
Marc Preston: there's some guys or you know, have a
01:11:42,071 --> 01:11:43,198
Marc Preston: little get together and they're all just
01:11:43,218 --> 01:11:45,310
Marc Preston: blackout drunk, they're just drinking, I
01:11:45,330 --> 01:11:46,436
Marc Preston: said in a way, I would rather than be in a
01:11:46,456 --> 01:11:47,140
Marc Preston: room with some guys.
01:11:47,543 --> 01:11:48,715
Marc Preston: I've been smoking and that's it.
01:11:48,735 --> 01:11:51,726
Marc Preston: That's the only thing, because I think it's
01:11:52,127 --> 01:11:55,558
Marc Preston: ultimately, I feel like it's safer for them
01:11:55,598 --> 01:11:56,200
Marc Preston: being that scenario.
01:11:57,065 --> 01:11:58,253
Marc Preston: Then, with the guys that have been, you
01:11:58,293 --> 01:11:59,379
Marc Preston: know, college and just drinking and all
01:11:59,399 --> 01:12:01,350
Marc Preston: that I mean, I mean you know you're a
01:12:01,430 --> 01:12:02,536
Marc Preston: parent, you know it's your job to worry
01:12:02,557 --> 01:12:04,526
Marc Preston: about your kids all the time, no matter how
01:12:04,546 --> 01:12:07,177
Marc Preston: they are, and but it's like I'm not
01:12:07,197 --> 01:12:09,386
Marc Preston: advocating it necessarily, but I'm saying
01:12:09,427 --> 01:12:12,218
Marc Preston: listen, the reality is the people that that
01:12:12,238 --> 01:12:12,800
Marc Preston: are gonna sit back and smoke.
01:12:13,222 --> 01:12:15,252
Marc Preston: They're, they're, they got a different
01:12:15,272 --> 01:12:16,338
Marc Preston: mentality and people just pounding beers
01:12:16,358 --> 01:12:18,748
Marc Preston: and you know alcohol, yeah, and and one
01:12:18,928 --> 01:12:19,471
Marc Preston: thing, that's poison.
01:12:19,551 --> 01:12:20,997
Marc Preston: I mean you really think about it.
01:12:21,037 --> 01:12:24,518
Marc Preston: I mean it's you know it takes a toll on you
01:12:24,538 --> 01:12:24,800
Marc Preston: after a while.
01:12:26,445 --> 01:12:30,098
Tommy Chong: Well, the best way is by example.
01:12:30,118 --> 01:12:32,753
Tommy Chong: You know, and that's what I've done all my
01:12:32,773 --> 01:12:32,914
Tommy Chong: life.
01:12:32,995 --> 01:12:33,579
Tommy Chong: It's just by example.
01:12:36,068 --> 01:12:37,673
Tommy Chong: Now, you know, what I found out is that
01:12:38,054 --> 01:12:38,556
Tommy Chong: they would, they will.
01:12:38,576 --> 01:12:40,281
Tommy Chong: If you're doing something right, if you're
01:12:40,301 --> 01:12:42,446
Tommy Chong: doing something right, they people will
01:12:42,466 --> 01:12:44,751
Tommy Chong: pick up on it and they will copy you.
01:12:44,931 --> 01:12:46,355
Tommy Chong: And I've had that happen.
01:12:46,395 --> 01:12:51,323
Tommy Chong: You know, I've had people you know Not
01:12:51,383 --> 01:12:55,091
Tommy Chong: exactly what I do, and to me it's, it's a,
01:12:56,133 --> 01:12:58,718
Tommy Chong: it's a beautiful thing, like if someone
01:12:59,079 --> 01:13:01,447
Tommy Chong: does teaching Chong bits, I don't get
01:13:01,487 --> 01:13:04,680
Tommy Chong: offended, I take that, I'm very proud of
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:04,800
Tommy Chong: that.
01:13:06,767 --> 01:13:08,312
Marc Preston: They're keeping it alive, and I think
01:13:08,332 --> 01:13:09,777
Marc Preston: that's that's right.
01:13:09,957 --> 01:13:10,720
Marc Preston: They're paying no much to me.
01:13:12,085 --> 01:13:14,314
Marc Preston: I certainly appreciate, and I just want to
01:13:14,354 --> 01:13:15,037
Marc Preston: wrap up real quick.
01:13:15,057 --> 01:13:15,800
Marc Preston: I got a quick seven questions for you.
01:13:16,907 --> 01:13:18,337
Marc Preston: These are just my fun questions.
01:13:18,357 --> 01:13:18,800
Marc Preston: These are just okay.
01:13:20,425 --> 01:13:21,789
Marc Preston: I always wrap up every interview with.
01:13:21,809 --> 01:13:24,115
Marc Preston: The first one is what is your favorite
01:13:24,717 --> 01:13:25,038
Marc Preston: comfort food?
01:13:25,058 --> 01:13:26,922
Marc Preston: That thing that's like you love Snack an
01:13:26,942 --> 01:13:27,263
Marc Preston: honor.
01:13:27,283 --> 01:13:28,165
Marc Preston: You just kind of go to it.
01:13:28,225 --> 01:13:30,229
Marc Preston: It's just you know you always have to have
01:13:30,249 --> 01:13:30,890
Marc Preston: it around the house.
01:13:31,632 --> 01:13:35,964
Tommy Chong: Well, no, I guess.
01:13:36,164 --> 01:13:40,447
Tommy Chong: Croissants, croissants, toast it, toast it
01:13:40,527 --> 01:13:43,619
Tommy Chong: croissant is my, my favorite favorite.
01:13:44,301 --> 01:13:45,764
Marc Preston: Yeah, my oldest daughter loves those.
01:13:45,784 --> 01:13:47,388
Marc Preston: Yeah, those are tasty.
01:13:47,408 --> 01:13:49,332
Marc Preston: Little butter, little little few calories
01:13:49,372 --> 01:13:49,593
Marc Preston: in there.
01:13:50,482 --> 01:13:51,164
Marc Preston: Oh, toast it.
01:13:51,486 --> 01:13:52,248
Marc Preston: Oh, I love it.
01:13:53,243 --> 01:13:54,451
Marc Preston: Now, if you're gonna sit down, next
01:13:54,511 --> 01:13:55,136
Marc Preston: question three people.
01:13:55,176 --> 01:13:55,780
Marc Preston: You can have a cup of coffee.
01:13:56,406 --> 01:13:57,800
Marc Preston: You're gonna be talking story for a while.
01:13:58,342 --> 01:14:01,091
Marc Preston: Who would those three people be living or
01:14:01,151 --> 01:14:01,392
Marc Preston: not?
01:14:01,593 --> 01:14:03,399
Marc Preston: You know, if you could sit down and have
01:14:03,419 --> 01:14:05,606
Marc Preston: spent a few hours Is talking about life of
01:14:05,626 --> 01:14:06,589
Marc Preston: three people, who would it be?
01:14:08,583 --> 01:14:11,051
Tommy Chong: What's his name that's kept was messed up.
01:14:11,272 --> 01:14:15,847
Tommy Chong: The In the wheelchair can hardly talk.
01:14:16,208 --> 01:14:16,308
Tommy Chong: Oh.
01:14:19,081 --> 01:14:20,143
Marc Preston: The doctor from England.
01:14:20,604 --> 01:14:22,389
Tommy Chong: These the after-fifth this, that was a.
01:14:22,409 --> 01:14:22,710
Tommy Chong: That's him.
01:14:24,844 --> 01:14:25,647
Marc Preston: Oh, not see a thing.
01:14:25,667 --> 01:14:27,093
Marc Preston: When I try to remember somebody's name,
01:14:27,133 --> 01:14:28,780
Marc Preston: that's my brain goes nope, not gonna do it.
01:14:29,421 --> 01:14:31,487
Tommy Chong: Yeah, hawking, stephen Hawking, hawking,
01:14:31,527 --> 01:14:35,507
Tommy Chong: Stephen Hawking, stephen Hawking, moses.
01:14:35,527 --> 01:14:41,151
Tommy Chong: I really identify with Moses and Just
01:14:42,822 --> 01:14:45,148
Tommy Chong: Because he was so influential, still
01:14:45,229 --> 01:14:48,216
Tommy Chong: influential in my life is Jesus, uh-huh
01:14:48,737 --> 01:14:49,559
Tommy Chong: very good, very good.
01:14:49,579 --> 01:14:49,619
Marc Preston: So.
01:14:50,181 --> 01:14:52,668
Marc Preston: So next question, like when you're young,
01:14:53,450 --> 01:14:56,385
Marc Preston: who is your Celebrity crush?
01:14:56,686 --> 01:14:58,673
Marc Preston: The first one you know, maybe your teenager
01:14:58,874 --> 01:15:00,178
Marc Preston: late, you know somebody who's like ah,
01:15:00,258 --> 01:15:01,749
Marc Preston: first time it came, they came on your radar.
01:15:01,790 --> 01:15:04,005
Marc Preston: You're just like all about him, besides
01:15:04,085 --> 01:15:04,788
Marc Preston: Shelby, of course.
01:15:05,542 --> 01:15:06,846
Tommy Chong: Marilyn, marilyn Monroe.
01:15:06,926 --> 01:15:10,115
Tommy Chong: I gotta say I've always loved Marilyn
01:15:10,135 --> 01:15:10,456
Tommy Chong: Monroe.
01:15:10,476 --> 01:15:11,720
Tommy Chong: Oh my god.
01:15:13,605 --> 01:15:14,748
Marc Preston: Now, if you're gonna be living next
01:15:14,809 --> 01:15:16,995
Marc Preston: question on an island a year, you and
01:15:17,035 --> 01:15:18,078
Marc Preston: Shelby hanging out.
01:15:18,258 --> 01:15:19,402
Marc Preston: It's a beautiful island you have, but
01:15:19,422 --> 01:15:20,908
Marc Preston: there's no streaming, there's no internet
01:15:20,928 --> 01:15:22,696
Marc Preston: and you can only bring one DVD of a movie
01:15:22,736 --> 01:15:23,780
Marc Preston: and you can only bring one album with you.
01:15:24,782 --> 01:15:26,606
Marc Preston: What would that DVD and what would that
01:15:26,646 --> 01:15:27,107
Marc Preston: album be?
01:15:27,769 --> 01:15:31,302
Tommy Chong: Okay, the album would be kind of blue by
01:15:31,362 --> 01:15:32,908
Tommy Chong: tear by tyranny Sutton.
01:15:34,041 --> 01:15:35,366
Tommy Chong: That's, that's my album.
01:15:35,989 --> 01:15:40,659
Tommy Chong: The movie would be badlands by Terrence
01:15:40,699 --> 01:15:40,800
Tommy Chong: Malek.
01:15:43,465 --> 01:15:45,529
Tommy Chong: Terrence Malek and Martin Sheen.
01:15:46,131 --> 01:15:47,133
Tommy Chong: That, that's a movie.
01:15:47,353 --> 01:15:48,535
Marc Preston: That's going back right there.
01:15:48,555 --> 01:15:51,409
Marc Preston: Yeah, what a great actor, martin Sheen.
01:15:51,730 --> 01:15:52,332
Announcer: Everything is in.
01:15:54,022 --> 01:15:56,588
Marc Preston: Now, if you were to define a perfect day?
01:15:56,608 --> 01:15:58,872
Marc Preston: You know, stem to stern, from time you get
01:15:58,912 --> 01:16:00,716
Marc Preston: up, to time you put your head on the pillow.
01:16:01,303 --> 01:16:03,236
Marc Preston: You know what are the component parts of
01:16:03,276 --> 01:16:03,800
Marc Preston: just a killer day for you.
01:16:06,227 --> 01:16:11,147
Tommy Chong: Oh killer day, I guess.
01:16:12,230 --> 01:16:16,449
Tommy Chong: Finishing Something that I've always meant
01:16:16,509 --> 01:16:18,635
Tommy Chong: to do but never got around to doing it
01:16:21,286 --> 01:16:22,732
Tommy Chong: Rearranging my garage.
01:16:24,586 --> 01:16:26,412
Marc Preston: It's a small things like that yeah.
01:16:27,948 --> 01:16:29,538
Tommy Chong: That would that would be a killer day.
01:16:29,558 --> 01:16:29,800
Tommy Chong: I started it.
01:16:30,262 --> 01:16:35,065
Tommy Chong: I started it and I'm part way there, but,
01:16:35,286 --> 01:16:36,430
Tommy Chong: but I got to finish it.
01:16:36,631 --> 01:16:38,459
Tommy Chong: I got a thing I'm a professional
01:16:38,499 --> 01:16:38,780
Tommy Chong: procrastinator.
01:16:39,943 --> 01:16:41,407
Marc Preston: And it's time for the May meeting of the
01:16:41,448 --> 01:16:43,473
Marc Preston: professional procrastinators association.
01:16:43,534 --> 01:16:47,679
Tommy Chong: Yeah, we're gonna put it off till next
01:16:47,699 --> 01:16:47,800
Tommy Chong: month.
01:16:48,101 --> 01:16:48,785
Tommy Chong: Now, if you weren't, if you?
01:16:48,926 --> 01:16:51,559
Marc Preston: weren't doing this for a living, if you
01:16:51,579 --> 01:16:57,396
Marc Preston: weren't Acting, doing comedy, doing, you
01:16:57,416 --> 01:16:58,599
Marc Preston: know, being an, at being a cannabis
01:16:58,619 --> 01:16:58,780
Marc Preston: advocate.
01:16:58,800 --> 01:17:01,639
Marc Preston: What would your vocation be?
01:17:02,384 --> 01:17:03,471
Marc Preston: I would like to be a teacher.
01:17:06,669 --> 01:17:08,679
Tommy Chong: A teacher to see a philosophy.
01:17:08,840 --> 01:17:11,313
Tommy Chong: Yeah, a philosophy teacher.
01:17:11,353 --> 01:17:14,205
Marc Preston: Very good, I think you definitely, you
01:17:14,225 --> 01:17:15,850
Marc Preston: definitely have the street cred for it,
01:17:15,890 --> 01:17:17,295
Marc Preston: without a doubt, I think you, I think
01:17:17,355 --> 01:17:22,569
Marc Preston: you're still, in a way, I think you've
01:17:22,609 --> 01:17:23,532
Marc Preston: already been doing that.
01:17:23,712 --> 01:17:24,093
Marc Preston: You know.
01:17:24,173 --> 01:17:24,915
Marc Preston: No, I have, I have.
01:17:25,236 --> 01:17:26,198
Tommy Chong: I've been writing too.
01:17:26,218 --> 01:17:30,549
Tommy Chong: I write down a lot of Philosophy.
01:17:31,111 --> 01:17:33,236
Tommy Chong: I was very lucky I got turned on to the
01:17:33,256 --> 01:17:38,049
Tommy Chong: spiritual world by a jazz musician Many,
01:17:38,130 --> 01:17:41,238
Tommy Chong: many, many, many years ago, and I have Yet.
01:17:41,921 --> 01:17:45,338
Tommy Chong: You know, I've got books that I always
01:17:45,358 --> 01:17:49,434
Tommy Chong: refer people to Trying to see it.
01:17:49,595 --> 01:17:50,519
Tommy Chong: No, I guess it's in the other room.
01:17:50,539 --> 01:17:55,091
Tommy Chong: But yeah, I'm, I'm on that road yeah.
01:17:55,151 --> 01:17:57,376
Marc Preston: I was a fan of you remember Alan Watts, by
01:17:57,396 --> 01:17:57,838
Marc Preston: any chance.
01:17:57,878 --> 01:17:58,800
Announcer: Yes, yes, I love Alan Watts, that's.
01:18:01,707 --> 01:18:02,008
Marc Preston: I still.
01:18:02,148 --> 01:18:03,873
Marc Preston: I said when I used to work on I worked on
01:18:03,893 --> 01:18:05,276
Marc Preston: the radio briefly in LA and I lived in San
01:18:05,296 --> 01:18:07,401
Marc Preston: Diego and in San Diego and in San I was
01:18:08,304 --> 01:18:08,765
Marc Preston: driving.
01:18:08,885 --> 01:18:09,567
Marc Preston: I would always drive.
01:18:09,707 --> 01:18:11,391
Marc Preston: I go get my shake at the In-N-Out Burger
01:18:11,432 --> 01:18:14,038
Marc Preston: Drive South, head back to San Diego and
01:18:14,319 --> 01:18:14,760
Marc Preston: listen Alan Watts on.
01:18:15,403 --> 01:18:16,971
Marc Preston: There was a radio Pacifica or something
01:18:16,991 --> 01:18:17,353
Marc Preston: like that.
01:18:17,574 --> 01:18:20,185
Marc Preston: Yeah, now, last question now, if you, we
01:18:20,205 --> 01:18:22,089
Marc Preston: could jump into a DeLorean and you could go
01:18:22,129 --> 01:18:24,233
Marc Preston: back in time, got a couple minutes with 16
01:18:24,253 --> 01:18:27,411
Marc Preston: year old Tommy Chaw, what piece of advice
01:18:27,491 --> 01:18:28,458
Marc Preston: would you want to give yourself to get you
01:18:28,478 --> 01:18:28,800
Marc Preston: on a better road?
01:18:29,661 --> 01:18:31,302
Marc Preston: Maybe bring more joy to your life in that
01:18:31,362 --> 01:18:33,063
Marc Preston: moment, just what piece of advice do you
01:18:33,103 --> 01:18:35,124
Marc Preston: think would be essential to share with 16
01:18:35,164 --> 01:18:35,645
Marc Preston: year old you?
01:18:59,143 --> 01:19:00,163
Tommy Chong: Yeah, I don't know.
01:19:00,423 --> 01:19:04,206
Tommy Chong: Yeah, I'm so, I just really love my life.
01:19:33,026 --> 01:19:53,565
Marc Preston: Yeah, yeah, I can be sure, because I know
01:19:53,585 --> 01:19:56,571
Marc Preston: somebody's because, I mean, there are going
01:19:56,591 --> 01:19:57,808
Marc Preston: to be people listening that are going to
01:19:57,829 --> 01:19:58,760
Marc Preston: want to know the answer to that question
01:19:59,141 --> 01:20:00,968
Marc Preston: and I feel like if I don't ask it, then you
01:20:01,008 --> 01:20:01,148
Marc Preston: know.
01:20:01,881 --> 01:20:03,848
Marc Preston: But who is that person and what's that
01:20:03,908 --> 01:20:04,169
Marc Preston: strain?
01:20:04,662 --> 01:20:05,305
Tommy Chong: Well, it's a.
01:20:05,567 --> 01:20:08,239
Tommy Chong: It was a guy that I, that I almost smoked
01:20:08,259 --> 01:20:10,686
Tommy Chong: with, but he was having immigration
01:20:10,767 --> 01:20:12,532
Tommy Chong: problems at the time.
01:20:12,962 --> 01:20:16,436
Tommy Chong: I walked into a room one time to light up a
01:20:16,517 --> 01:20:17,199
Tommy Chong: joint, which I did.
01:20:17,440 --> 01:20:21,510
Tommy Chong: I lit up this beautiful Mexican sativa, I
01:20:21,551 --> 01:20:25,701
Tommy Chong: guess it was, and it was pretty stinky and
01:20:25,761 --> 01:20:26,403
Tommy Chong: I'm smoking.
01:20:26,463 --> 01:20:29,582
Tommy Chong: I look down and there's John Lennon sitting
01:20:29,663 --> 01:20:33,547
Tommy Chong: on the floor and I looked at the joint to
01:20:33,587 --> 01:20:35,091
Tommy Chong: see am I hallucinating?
01:20:35,885 --> 01:20:39,327
Tommy Chong: That's John Lennon, and it was John Lennon.
01:20:40,401 --> 01:20:43,790
Tommy Chong: And so I walked over and I handed him the
01:20:43,850 --> 01:20:45,887
Tommy Chong: joint and he refused it.
01:20:46,040 --> 01:20:48,989
Tommy Chong: He goes I'm sorry, Nate, can't do it, you
01:20:49,029 --> 01:20:51,086
Tommy Chong: can't do it, I've got immigration problems.
01:20:52,660 --> 01:20:55,408
Tommy Chong: I would love to go back in that time and
01:20:55,629 --> 01:20:58,645
Tommy Chong: tell John John, forget the immigration,
01:21:00,089 --> 01:21:01,853
Tommy Chong: smoke, smoke this shit.
01:21:02,583 --> 01:21:03,011
Marc Preston: Oh God.
01:21:03,052 --> 01:21:04,584
Marc Preston: I can't even, I can't even imagine what
01:21:04,604 --> 01:21:05,346
Marc Preston: that would have been like.
01:21:06,780 --> 01:21:09,068
Marc Preston: But yeah, you know, and hey, feel free to
01:21:09,108 --> 01:21:09,650
Marc Preston: promote man.
01:21:09,740 --> 01:21:13,090
Marc Preston: I mean, you know, what do you think is the
01:21:13,391 --> 01:21:15,546
Marc Preston: strain that your favorite tire top strain?
01:21:16,580 --> 01:21:18,326
Marc Preston: And you've got your own line out now, don't
01:21:18,346 --> 01:21:18,466
Marc Preston: you?
01:21:19,048 --> 01:21:20,904
Tommy Chong: We do Cheech and Chong we got.
01:21:20,944 --> 01:21:23,646
Tommy Chong: Cheech and Chong pot we got Tommy Chong pot
01:21:24,160 --> 01:21:24,641
Tommy Chong: we got.
01:21:25,464 --> 01:21:30,622
Tommy Chong: Yeah, my favorite thing really is the these
01:21:32,086 --> 01:21:36,396
Tommy Chong: CBD nice strain just helps you sleep.
01:21:37,080 --> 01:21:39,729
Tommy Chong: But advice, they say, put it down to your
01:21:39,789 --> 01:21:39,990
Tommy Chong: tongue.
01:21:40,160 --> 01:21:40,501
Tommy Chong: I don't.
01:21:41,003 --> 01:21:42,969
Tommy Chong: It kind of messes with my teeth somehow.
01:21:43,340 --> 01:21:45,286
Tommy Chong: The only thing I would say is put it right
01:21:45,326 --> 01:21:45,928
Tommy Chong: down the throat.
01:21:46,660 --> 01:21:48,887
Tommy Chong: You know, don't mess with under the tongue.
01:21:49,529 --> 01:21:49,930
Tommy Chong: It works.
01:21:50,240 --> 01:21:50,883
Marc Preston: What's the name of it?
01:21:50,923 --> 01:21:55,269
Tommy Chong: again it's a CBD, but it's called nice
01:21:55,349 --> 01:21:58,526
Tommy Chong: dreams, nice dreams, tommy Chong's nice
01:21:58,566 --> 01:21:58,947
Tommy Chong: dreams.
01:22:00,121 --> 01:22:01,927
Marc Preston: I am going to try and find some of that
01:22:01,967 --> 01:22:02,609
Marc Preston: down this way.
01:22:05,060 --> 01:22:06,666
Tommy Chong: Walmart was carrying somewhere.
01:22:07,268 --> 01:22:09,428
Tommy Chong: You know, that's how popular they are.
01:22:09,500 --> 01:22:12,421
Tommy Chong: Yeah, it's a Tommy Chong CBD product and
01:22:12,461 --> 01:22:13,506
Tommy Chong: you can go online too.
01:22:13,701 --> 01:22:17,160
Tommy Chong: I think it's hate Tommy Chong or something,
01:22:17,280 --> 01:22:19,307
Tommy Chong: but Tommy Chong CBD, you'll find it.
01:22:19,668 --> 01:22:20,009
Marc Preston: Very good.
01:22:20,500 --> 01:22:21,282
Marc Preston: And what strain?
01:22:21,402 --> 01:22:23,206
Marc Preston: What strain are you recommending right now,
01:22:23,286 --> 01:22:23,887
Marc Preston: as as?
01:22:24,048 --> 01:22:24,108
Tommy Chong: a.
01:22:24,148 --> 01:22:26,753
Tommy Chong: Well, there's a.
01:22:29,460 --> 01:22:31,107
Tommy Chong: We got a strain called Labrador.
01:22:32,380 --> 01:22:34,986
Tommy Chong: It was from our, one of our bits.
01:22:36,891 --> 01:22:38,750
Tommy Chong: Yeah, what kind of what am I smoking?
01:22:38,981 --> 01:22:40,647
Tommy Chong: Oh, labrador man, my dog.
01:22:41,502 --> 01:22:42,266
Marc Preston: I can't remember that.
01:22:43,686 --> 01:22:46,127
Tommy Chong: Yeah, so we got a strain called Labrador.
01:22:46,962 --> 01:22:48,488
Marc Preston: Oh, wasn't it because the dog pooped or
01:22:48,528 --> 01:22:50,466
Marc Preston: something and the weed was in the poop.
01:22:51,200 --> 01:22:53,047
Tommy Chong: No, the dog ate my stash.
01:22:53,500 --> 01:22:54,243
Tommy Chong: It took me a.
01:22:54,524 --> 01:22:55,869
Tommy Chong: I had to follow him around for a month
01:22:55,940 --> 01:22:56,942
Tommy Chong: before I got it back.
01:22:57,183 --> 01:22:57,805
Tommy Chong: Oh man.
01:23:01,080 --> 01:23:03,023
Marc Preston: Well, tommy man, thank you, this has been a
01:23:03,204 --> 01:23:03,425
Marc Preston: this.
01:23:04,147 --> 01:23:06,205
Marc Preston: I know my, my 13 year old self is going
01:23:06,266 --> 01:23:06,466
Marc Preston: dude.
01:23:06,486 --> 01:23:07,269
Marc Preston: This is awesome.
01:23:07,340 --> 01:23:09,006
Marc Preston: You know, it's such a pleasure to sit down
01:23:09,026 --> 01:23:09,287
Marc Preston: with you.
01:23:09,507 --> 01:23:09,949
Tommy Chong: I'm glad.
01:23:10,340 --> 01:23:12,067
Marc Preston: Give, give Paris a hug for me.
01:23:12,120 --> 01:23:14,888
Marc Preston: What a, what a man she is and I I will.
01:23:15,634 --> 01:23:17,002
Marc Preston: My friend, you have a great, have yourself
01:23:17,022 --> 01:23:18,621
Marc Preston: a great rest your weekend, weekend and I,
01:23:18,661 --> 01:23:19,986
Marc Preston: hopefully we'll catch up down the line.
01:23:20,521 --> 01:23:22,305
Tommy Chong: I really enjoyed talking to you, dude.
01:23:24,571 --> 01:23:27,345
Marc Preston: Well, there you go, Tommy Chong, a legend
01:23:27,987 --> 01:23:30,102
Marc Preston: and a really cool guy to sit down and talk
01:23:30,162 --> 01:23:30,785
Marc Preston: story with.
01:23:30,920 --> 01:23:31,322
Marc Preston: What a what?
01:23:31,342 --> 01:23:34,183
Marc Preston: a really cool career he's had and some cool
01:23:34,263 --> 01:23:36,230
Marc Preston: insights, some some things I didn't even
01:23:36,290 --> 01:23:38,687
Marc Preston: know about teaching Chong and kind of how
01:23:38,707 --> 01:23:39,489
Marc Preston: that came together.
01:23:40,020 --> 01:23:42,702
Marc Preston: And I tell you this was fun for me and my
01:23:42,762 --> 01:23:44,067
Marc Preston: inner 13 year old self.
01:23:44,340 --> 01:23:46,046
Marc Preston: Hopefully it was a lot of fun for you as
01:23:46,127 --> 01:23:46,327
Marc Preston: well.
01:23:46,840 --> 01:23:50,390
Marc Preston: Don't forget story and craft podcom.
01:23:50,980 --> 01:23:51,985
Marc Preston: That is the website.
01:23:52,260 --> 01:23:54,045
Marc Preston: Everything about the show is at
01:23:54,085 --> 01:23:56,491
Marc Preston: storyandcraftpod.com.
01:23:57,360 --> 01:23:59,087
Marc Preston: Thank you very much again.
01:23:59,160 --> 01:24:02,661
Marc Preston: I want to extend my warmest, fuzziest, big,
01:24:02,701 --> 01:24:03,162
Marc Preston: big hug.
01:24:03,202 --> 01:24:05,409
Marc Preston: Heartfelt thanks for checking out the show.
01:24:06,120 --> 01:24:07,306
Marc Preston: Just make sure to subscribe.
01:24:07,360 --> 01:24:08,785
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01:24:11,180 --> 01:24:13,087
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01:24:13,147 --> 01:24:13,208
Marc Preston: up.
01:24:13,600 --> 01:24:15,166
Marc Preston: All right, have a great rest of your week
01:24:15,326 --> 01:24:17,844
Marc Preston: or the weekend, a great morning maybe
01:24:17,884 --> 01:24:19,841
Marc Preston: you're doing something in the afternoon or
01:24:20,343 --> 01:24:21,106
Marc Preston: just a great evening.
01:24:21,460 --> 01:24:23,683
Marc Preston: Wherever you are listening and whenever you
01:24:23,723 --> 01:24:26,105
Marc Preston: are listening, I hope you make it a really,
01:24:26,365 --> 01:24:27,128
Marc Preston: really cool day.
01:24:27,620 --> 01:24:29,141
Marc Preston: All right, I'll talk to you next time right
01:24:29,161 --> 01:24:30,967
Marc Preston: here on story and craft.
01:24:31,320 --> 01:24:33,447
Announcer: That's it for this episode of story and
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Announcer: craft.
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Announcer: Join Marc next week for more conversation
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Comedian | Actor | Writer | Director | Entrepreneur | Cannabis Advocate
Grammy Award winning comedian Tommy Chong is legendary for his invaluable contribution to American counter-culture as part of the iconic comedy duo Cheech & Chong. During their reign, the twosome recorded six gold comedy albums, including the 1973 Grammy winner “Los Cochinos,” and starred in eight films, most of which Chong co-wrote and directed. The first, Up In Smoke, was the highest grossing comedy of 1978, topping $100 million at the box office. Others were Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980), Nice Dreams (1981), Things Are Tough All Over (1982), Cheech and Chong: Still Smoking (1983), and The Corsican Brothers (1984). Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Tommy began his entertainment career as a musician in a Canadian-based rhythm and blues band. Eventually, he landed a gig with the “Vancouvers”” and co-wrote the band’s 1960’s hit, “Does Your Mama Know About Me.”” From here, Chong eventually turned towards the life as an actor. The first step was forming “City Works,” an improvisational group where he consequently met his future comedic partner, Richard “Cheech” Marin. Throughout the 1970’s Cheech & Chong earned a massive following until eventually, the duo had run its lengthy and prosperous course and they both embarked on solo careers. Tommy has appeared in several films including 1990’s “Far Out, Man!”” and “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip” (1995). Chong has also starred, most notably, as “Leo” on Fox’s “That 70’s Show,” and has guest starred on ABC’s “Dharma & Greg” and “The George Lopez Show.” Chong recently released his new book entitled Cheech and … Read More