Pubdate: Fri, 09 Aug 2013
Source: Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY)
Copyright: 2013 Hudson Valley Media Group
Contact: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=READER08
Website: http://www.recordonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2544
Author: Barry Lewis

SMOKE SURVIVORS: CHEECH AND CHONG PRESS ON

Comedians Open Woodstock Anniversary Weekend

You get the feeling that had Cheech and Chong been at Woodstock in 
1969, not only would they have ignored the warning about the brown 
acid, they would have asked for seconds.

It might explain the irreverent genius behind the stoner comedy team 
whose offbeat sense of counterculture and lackadaisical lifestyle 
humor brought them iconic success in the '70s and '80s with a 
Grammy-winning album, box office movie hits and sold-out shows.

After years apart during which Richard "Cheech" Marin starred in 
movies and TV shows and Tommy Chong did TV and some time in federal 
prison for possession and the sale of drug paraphernalia, Cheech and 
Chong are back together. They'll be at Bethel Woods Center for the 
Arts on Thursday night, appropriately part of Woodstock anniversary 
weekend, with the bands War and Tower of Power teaming up for their 
"Up in Smoke" tour. Their show is part stand-up, part concert and 
part interview.

During a recent telephone interview, Marin said his success with 
Chong came from the free-flow of ideas.

Marin: We'd come into the recording studio with some idea, a 
situation, and say, "You be this guy and I'll be that guy, and go." 
We were musicians before comedians so we had a better sense of 
timing. We came out of improvisational theater. That was our method. 
Same thing shooting our movies. We had a premise. Not a script.

Is there a downside being the poster boys for smoking pot?

Marin: You get pigeonholed, but I don't mind. If you want to work 
your way out of that perception it's OK, and I did it. It's a process 
where you have to have people accept you in another image. But it 
could be done. My patron saint was people like Cher. How can you be 
anybody else when you're Sonny and Cher? But she did. She went on to 
win an Oscar and did all kinds of things, and I was doing the same thing.

Do you guys feel vindicated as states legalize smoking pot?

Marin: Absolutely. Tommy used to say when all this marijuana 
controversy came up that it's bad for you, "What if we're right? 
Think about it. What if we're right? Imagine that." And it came to 
pass. That cracked me up. If you can outwait them, you will be right.

You're a major collector of Chicano art.

Marin: I was turned on to art at a very early age. I was raised 
Catholic and I'd always look at the pictures on the ceilings and the 
frescos in the church and say, "Wow, this is really cool ... what 
stories are they telling?" So I started studying art at a very early 
age, going to the library taking out all the books, and I just fell 
in love with it. When I finally got enough money where I could 
actually buy art, it coincided with my reaching out to Chicano 
artists and helping them, which I still do. It enhances my life. I 
wanted to turn everyone else on to that.

How come you didn't go into a career as an art dealer?

Marin: You didn't get a lot of girls appreciating art. "Oh, come and 
see my etchings" will only get you a couple of girls. Not like having 
a guitar in your hands.

How do you rate your films?

Marin: The Los Angles County Museum of Art just showed "Up in Smoke" 
the other day. I hadn't seen the movie in a theater in a zillion 
years. That was a funny movie, man. I'll put the first 45 minutes of 
"Up in Smoke" up against any comedy ever made and I'll think we'll 
come up the victor.

You have die-hard fans.

Marin: It used to really freak me out ... people coming up to me with 
'Cheech and Chong' tattoos. I'm not talking a little heart - our 
whole faces as big as your outstretched hand on all kinds of parts of 
the body. That's commitment.

Years back you said a comedy team "requires so much compromise, so 
much intuitiveness to know what the other guy is doing. That's why 
it's so hard to do it." Is that still true?

Marin: Do you know of any comedy teams working now?

No

Marin: There's your answer. It's a hard thing to do.

[sidebar]

IF YOU GO!

What: Cheech and Chong, War and Tower of Power

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15

Where: Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road, Bethel

Price: $79.50, $65, $49, $35 and $18.50

Call: 866-781-2922

Visit: bethelwoodscenter.org
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