Thursday, July 31, 2008

cheech & chong "light up america" tour: reunited after 25 years!

wow - or should i say "hey man" - cheech & chong are back together again! after an acrimonious split way back in 1985, the comic duo have finally reconciled and announced tour plans - which will bring them to the new york area in october!

looking fit and dapper at the press conference (hardly betraying their ages of 62 and 70, respectively), they looked no worse for the wear - if one believes they partied all those years apart. tommy chong did do time for selling bongs - of all things! but he did continue with standup comedy, find time to write a few books, and play "leo" on "that 70's show." cheech marin took a more mainstream path with movies and ongoing t.v. roles on "nash bridges" and "judging amy."

but together, their comedy work - including albums and movies - was incredibly successful. they won a grammy for best comedy album in 1973 for "los cochinos" and their first movie, "up in smoke" in 1978 was took in over $100 million at the box office! as a teenager, my friends and i went to see late shows of that, and their subsequent ones at the brighton beach theatre.

but the 70's are back in full swing again it seems. just last week mtv announced it would remake, for cable, "the rocky horror picture show." and as teenagers we took the brighton line into the city to catch midnight shows of that movie at the eighth street playhouse! i can just see the plans for the musical version already percolating out there!

in the meantime, i'm hoping to score tickets to this reunion tour. not sure if any of my friends or family will want to be seen with me for that one - ha!

update: check out tommy chong's appearance at the bryant park book reading.

3 comments:

Van 1- Hall said...

Dave's not here man...

I would like to enjoy the company of my father during one of their shows, he's a carbon copy of Tommy Chong back in his hayday.

I still laugh my butt off when I watch their movies!

rundangerously said...

john, that's a classic!

check out this link:
http://www.e-stoned.com/rec/26-Dave/

Fishmagic said...

It's really enjoyable watching my formative years come back to life.