Raunchy and irreverent, Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong captured the spirit of early 1970s counterculture with an authenticity that only a handful of comedy acts could muster. This is the untold truth of Cheech and Chong.
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00:00Bronchi and Irreverent, Richard Cheech Marin, and Tommy Chong captured the spirit of the
00:0570s counterculture with an authenticity that couldn't be denied. Keep watching to discover
00:09the untold truth of this iconic duo.
00:12Richard Anthony Cheech Marin was born on July 13th, 1946, in South Central Los Angeles.
00:19His father, Oscar, was an officer with the LAPD while his mother, Elsa, worked as a secretary.
00:24He received the nickname Cheech from an uncle who joked that baby Richard looked like a
00:28fried pork rind — chicharron in Spanish. While still a child, Marin moved with his
00:32parents to the suburb of Granada Hills, where he attended a Catholic high school. He had
00:36musical aspirations and performed in bands with his friends. He was a straight-A student,
00:41but he also had a reputation as a class clown, which frequently landed him in hot water.
00:47After high school, Marin attended California State University at Northridge, where he tried
00:50marijuana for the first time. Upon taking his first puff, the formerly straight-laced
00:55Marin was transformed. Dismissing the propaganda that adults had fed him about the drug, he
01:00mused,
01:01"'What else have they been lying to me about?'
01:04Marin also became active in anti-war and draft resistance movements while in college. With
01:08draft resisters being imprisoned, he escaped to Canada with the help of his pottery teacher.
01:13He then worked as an apprentice to a famous potter and settled down to rustic life in
01:17a secluded log cabin in the Canadian wilderness.
01:20Thomas Chong was born on May 24, 1938, to Dad Stanley, a Chinese immigrant who worked
01:26as a truck driver, and Mom, Lorna Jean, a Canadian waitress. He grew up in Calgary,
01:30Alberta, as the product of an interracial marriage, learning hard lessons about racism
01:35from an early age. In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he opened up about his childhood
01:39in his conservative hometown. While recalling his exclusion from a friend's birthday party,
01:44he noted,
01:45"...I just looked out of the window of the second story and could see my friends gathering
01:48around the fire. I was uninvited cause the girl's father was worried she might end up
01:53with a colored guy or Chinese guy."
01:56At the age of 16, Chong dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music. A talented
02:00guitarist, he landed a gig with The Shades, a multiracial soul group out of Calgary. Changing
02:05their name to Little Daddy and The Bachelors, the band moved to Vancouver, where they released
02:09a single and built a small following. They would reach their pinnacle when they became
02:13known as Bobby Taylor and the Vancouver's. Recommended to Berry Gordy by Diana Ross and
02:18The Supremes, the band signed with Motown and recorded the Top 40 hit, "'Does Your Mama
02:22Know About Me?" Co-written by Chong and Bobby Taylor, the touching ballad about an interracial
02:27couple peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made it to the Top 5 on the R&B charts.
02:33Chong was ultimately fired from his band, so he pocketed a $5,000 severance check and
02:38made his way back to Vancouver. While on the road, his parents had converted one of the
02:42night spots he owned into the Shanghai Junk, Vancouver's first topless club. During his
02:47time with Bobby Taylor and the Vancouver's, Chong had been exposed to the comedy of Chicago's
02:52Second City. He found renewed purpose in improv, and the Shanghai Junk was the perfect venue
02:57to hone his chops. Recruiting four topless dancers, a mime, and a classical guitarist,
03:02he was going to reinvent burlesque for the hippie generation.
03:05Meanwhile, Cheech had migrated to Vancouver and found work as a part-time writer for a
03:09local music magazine. His editor suggested that he meet Chong. The unconventional pair
03:14hit it off, and Cheech was brought on as a writer.
03:17The duo's famous act came about by accident when Chong and his new music group were scheduled
03:21to play their first show. To warm up the crowd beforehand, Cheech and Chong came out to tell
03:25some jokes. The audience was doubled over with laughter as one hilarious bit led into
03:30another. The act ultimately went on so long that there was no time for the band to play.
03:35We always approached comedy as music. It had a certain rhythm to it, you know, it had a
03:39certain beat, you knew when to come in, when to not come in.
03:42An energized Cheech and Chong eventually headed for the comedy capital of the world, Los Angeles.
03:48They landed a gig at an open mic night, but they struggled financially and were forced
03:52to move in with Chong's estranged wife, making for a living situation that quickly became
03:56untenable. Circumstances became especially dire when dwindling profits forced Chong's
04:01Vancouver nightclubs to close. Slowly, Cheech and Chong began performing regular gigs at
04:06several Southern California clubs. After one disastrous show, they decided that they just
04:11weren't connecting with their audience. They then mined the peace, love, and dope ethos
04:15of the era for material to develop their Pedro and Man characters.
04:19The audience response was immediate. The lovable stoners were comedy gold, which led to sold-out
04:24shows, better venues, and a deal to make their first comedy record when music producer Lou
04:29Adler caught their act. With $2,000, a tape recorder, and a rehearsal space at A&M Records,
04:35Cheech and Chong crafted a comedy masterpiece that showcased their wit, razor-sharp timing,
04:39and brilliant characterizations. Released in August 1971, their self-titled debut album
04:44connected with critics and audiences alike, eventually peaking at No. 28 on the Billboard
04:49charts and earning the duo what would be the first of six Grammy nominations for Best Comedy
04:54Recording.
04:55In 1978, Cheech and Chong set their sights on conquering Hollywood with their first feature
05:00film, Up in Smoke. Although they originally conceived the movie as a compilation of the
05:05best bits from their albums and live shows, they ultimately decided to concentrate on
05:08their Pedro and Man characters. As Cheech explains to Rolling Stone in 2018,
05:13"...it was a day in the life of Pedro and Man, which was more interesting than a plot.
05:18It's two guys meet, they decide to form a band together, but first they need a joint.
05:22Therein lies your plot."
05:23With no formal script, Up in Smoke was largely improvised. With Lou Adler at the helm, Cheech
05:28and Chong had free reign to experiment. Nonetheless, the movie faced its share of obstacles on
05:32its journey to the screen. Upon seeing a rough cut of the film, then-Paramount president
05:37Michael Eisner pulled the plug on the picture. Adler bought the film back from the studio,
05:41using his own money to complete it. After witnessing a test audience's reaction, Eisner
05:46relented and Paramount bought the film back. Budgeted at just under $2 million, Up in Smoke
05:51wound up making $20 million in its first month of release.
05:55Cheech and Chong followed Up in Smoke with Cheech and Chong's next movie in 1980 and
05:59Nice Dreams in 1981. Sticking to their patented drug humor, the new movies failed to live
06:04up to the high standards set by the first film, but they were still filled with classic
06:08moments and turned a tidy profit against their relatively low budgets.
06:12The duo's next film, 1982's Things Are Tough All Over, featured Cheech and Chong temporarily
06:17putting down their giant spliffs for a more story-oriented comedy. The following year,
06:22they returned with Still Smokin', a loose collection of sketches and concert footage
06:25that finds the stoners in Amsterdam for a film festival. Critics weren't kind, though
06:30fans stood by the duo and their bawdy, juvenile humor. However, their next project, a radical
06:35departure from their tried-and-true formula, left even the most loyal Cheech and Chong
06:39devotees wondering what the pair were smoking.
06:42Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers, released in 1984, cast the comedy legends
06:46in a spoof of Alexandre Dumas' classic story of brothers who can feel each other's physical
06:51pain. Reviews were generally dismissive, and audiences took a pass as well. Failing to
06:56make back even half of its $10 million budget, The Corsican Brothers would be Cheech and
07:00Chong's final feature.
07:02In 1985, Cheech and Chong released the album and home video Get Out of My Room. It would
07:07be their final release before an acrimonious split. After nearly two decades, ego and creative
07:12differences had soured their friendship. Although they'd soldiered on through their differences,
07:17never allowing their animosity toward each other to affect their working relationship,
07:20tensions between the two eventually became unbearable.
07:24During a conversation with Talks at Google in 2017, Cheech noted,
07:28"...there was always a contentious conversation between Tommy and I because we were very strong
07:33personalities, but it was the irritant that produced the pearl."
07:37He also insisted that the cause of the breakup came down to Chong's inflated ego.
07:41"...As we went along and got more success, Tommy wanted to be everything. He wanted to
07:46be the director and the sole writer."
07:48Chong's refusal to participate in the recording of the song Born in East L.A. was the final
07:53straw for Maron. Decades later, a humbler Tommy Chong agrees with his partner's assessment
07:58of their breakup. During a radio appearance in 2020, he admitted,
08:01"...I was really, really hurt. Although it was probably my fault why we broke up, you
08:05know? I got to be a bit of a megalomaniac when it came to the movies, because I ended
08:09up directing them. Once you become a director, your word's God, and it's hard to lose that."
08:14"...When he first went on his own, I felt, like, really, um, betrayed."
08:20The song Born in East L.A., a parody of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, was credited
08:25to both Cheech and Chong, even though it was actually by Cheech on his own. It was a huge
08:29hit, which led to Universal executive Frank Price suggesting to Cheech that the story
08:33of a hapless Mexican-American man's misadventures after being mistakenly deported would make
08:38for a great comedy feature. Cheech jumped at the opportunity as he wrote, directed,
08:43and starred in his first major project without Tommy Chong.
08:46Released in 1987, Born in East L.A. established Cheech as a creative force on his own. With
08:51a knack for creating characters through accents and dialects, the newly liberated Cheech became
08:55an in-demand voice actor, as he would go on to show up in the likes of Oliver & Company
09:00and The Lion King. He also got the chance to show off a subtler side of his comedic
09:05skills in the 1996 rom-com Tin Cup.
09:08By the late 90s, Cheech had put the drug-addled comedy of his past mostly behind him. A new
09:13generation of fans would come to know him not as the perennially wasted Pedro, but as
09:17San Francisco special investigator Joe Dominguez on the CBS cop show Nash Bridges. He also
09:24became a familiar face in director Robert Rodriguez's action movies and kids' comedies.
09:29In 2012, Tommy Chong let the public in on his health struggles by announcing that he'd
09:34been diagnosed with prostate cancer. A longtime advocate for marijuana legalization and the
09:39medical use of cannabis, he turned to the plant as part of his treatment.
09:42But now that I found out that the hemp oil will help the prostate, hey, I'm back, man.
09:49Less than a year later, Chong announced that with a combination of hash oil and dietary
09:53supplements he had, quote, kicked cancer's ass. Unfortunately, he would face another
09:57health setback in 2015 when he announced that although his prostate cancer was in remission,
10:02he was now under treatment for rectal cancer.
10:05In typical Chong style, he took the news with optimism and humor. He told Us Weekly,
10:10I'm using cannabis like crazy now, more so than ever before. I'm in treatment now. Either
10:15I get healed or I don't, but either way, I'm going to make sure I get a little edge off
10:19— or put up.
10:20A Cheech and Chong reunion has been in the works since 2003, with the iconic comedy duo
10:24planning a new movie. But when Chong served a prison sentence for drug paraphernalia charges
10:29that year, it derailed their big-screen plans. But eventually, to the delight of their legions
10:33of fans, the duo finally re-teamed for a 2008 nationwide comedy tour. Onstage together for
10:39the first time in 25 years, Cheech and Chong found that the old magic was as vibrant as
10:44ever. As Cheech told NPR,
10:46When we came back last year to start doing this, we didn't really even rehearse. We just
10:50kind of talked over what we were going to do and then went on stage and did it. It was
10:54like we've been apart 25 seconds, not 25 years.
10:58Over a decade into their reunion, the pair continue to pack theaters for their sold-out
11:01live shows. Even though Cheech is now in his 70s and Chong is in his 80s, they're still
11:06smoking in the 21st century.