Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong aka Cheech And Chong are headed down under with their latest show, 'Up In Smoke – The Greatest Hits Tour'.
It's not the first time the iconic, stoner comedians have been to Australia. But for some unknown reason, Cheech can't seem to remember how many times they've toured here now. “I think it will be the fourth tour or fifth tour? I don't know. It makes me dizzy,” Cheech laughs.
One thing Cheech certainly hasn't forgotten is when police raided their live performance the last time they were in the country. “That was the last time. It was in Sydney. We were there for like four or five nights or something and the police showed up with dogs, just trying to intimidate everybody you know, like anybody got any dope?”
In the end, the police raid proved to be excessive, only uncovering a handful of people with a small amount of cannabis and the show went on without a hitch. “It was kinda lame. We went on with it and everybody laughed and had a good time,” Cheech says.
This time around, Cheech and Chong will be harking back to their early days, giving Australian audiences a taste of the songs that first made them famous more than 40 years ago. “We're gonna be doing a lot of music in this show, there's a lot of music, 'cause you know our roots are in music. We started out as musicians and there's a lot of music in our catalogue, so we're going to do some of those for the first time on stage,” Cheech says.
As well as digging out some of their old favourites, Cheech and Chong will be getting their groove on, with Chong to bust out moves he learned during last year's US version of 'Dancing With The Stars'. “Tommy and I are gonna do a bit of dancing. I don't know if you've got it down there but there's a show called 'Dancing With The Stars', he was a big deal here last season and he made it to the semi finals. It was a big deal, and he's ooooold, you know.”
Gangster rap fans probably think of the famous Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre 2000 concert when they hear the term 'Up In Smoke”, and Cheech says he's still waiting for his royalties from Snoop Dogg. “Well you know I would have loved some royalties,” Cheech laughs. “I talked to him about it the other day when we were on Snoop Dogg's show and we were like yeah man, what about our royalties? He said 'oh I must've missed that'. But you know 'up in smoke' is such a generic term now, but it refers back to us which we dig. We've kind of claimed it so that's good.”
Fans of Cheech and Chong can rejoice at the announcement that a new movie is in the pipeline, directed by Super Troopers director Jay Chandrasekhar. “We're working on it right now. We're in the writing process of it now. It will be nice, it certainly looks like it's happening.”
Cheech isn't giving away any details about when the film is coming out though, fans will just have to wait patiently and see. “In the future. That's about as exact as I can get,” Cheech says.
Written by Matthew Sales
Cheech And Chong Tour Dates
Thu 18 Jun - Eatons Hill Hotel (Brisbane)Fri 19 Jun - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 20 Jun - Palais Theatre (Melbourne)
Sun 21 Jun - Thebarton Theatre (Adelaide)
Mon 22 Jun - Perth Concert Hall
