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Okay, now, we're all warmed up.

We're ready to party, okay?

The greatest thing
about partying

is that you don't have
to go nowhere to party,

and nowhere's a cool place to be

because you're already there.

You're-you're going nowhere.

This is going nowhere.

Who you are depends on
where you're going.

So when you have
to go somewhere,

bring someone along
that knows where they're going.

There are certain things
you can't do on television.

And we made a list of them.
We're gonna do them all.

Cheech & Chong started

the whole hard-rock
comedy craze.

They've set an all-time record
for comedy records sold.

And now it's time

for America's favorite
daytime fun show,

Let's Make a Dope Deal.

I got to
ask you about the drugs,

because I know both of you
experimented very heavily.

It's not hard to see
what drugs do to you.

- You know...
- Make you rich.

Well, you-- yeah.

You heard about

the new death penalty
in California?

You have to stand
between Cheech & Chong

for half an hour.

You have been busted.

We got busted for obscenity.

-You did?
-Yeah.

Cheech & Chong
were just honored

as the Comedy Team
of the Decade.

Their films have earned
close to $200 million.

How many movies do you have
planned for the future?

Seventeen.

Are you a one-joke team?

No, we're two-joke.

Yeah.

Do you have
any views on politics?

We're not into sick humor, actually.

No.

Do you ever argue?

- No. No.
- Yeah. Yeah.

- No, we just...
- Yes.

- We don't argue, you know?
- We argue.

- We discuss.
- We argue.

We don't argue. We discuss.

Don't you feel
that you're contributing

to something illegal
in this film?

Uh, I certainly hope so.

We like to contribute
to the growth of America

and the stunting
of the growth of America.

Cheech,
how'd you guys get together?

Hey, man, roll them bigger
than this, man.

It's all seeds, man.

I-I think we got ripped off.

- Uh, gentlemen?
- Oh.

Uh, well, we got together...

Tommy, what is it about Cheech
that you most admire?

Cheech, he's very up to date.
He's like a,

a TV set I can tune into
at any time

and find out what's going on.

He's like a wife
that, thank God,

I don't have to go
to bed with. -

Okay, Cheech.

What is it you most admire
about Tommy?

He always surprises me,
you know.

He always knows more
than I think he knows.

He has this
real Gemini personality,

so he's real right on the track
and then he's off in the stars.

It's fun to follow him
both places.

You never know
what it's gonna be.

"Oh, well, follow this train
for a little while,

see where it goes."

Where in the desert, Tommy?

I don't know, man.
He just said "the desert."

Well, the desert's
a big place, man.

Did he say any particular spot
in the desert?

Dave told me.

- Well, what did he told you?
- He told me

- "in the desert."
- Not a name? Not a town?

Not a place? Not anything?

No, he said something about
a joint. I remember that.

A joint?

Well...

Do you got a joint?

Are you two what people
think you are?

- From...
- Dopers?

Well, that's not what I mean.

We won't-- we'll get
into that later.

But, I mean, people think
you're two crazy, you know...

- Uh...
- But you're not. You...

- No, no.
- I saw you backstage.

What are,
what are you really like?

We're very serious-minded.

- Very serious?
- Yes.

It's quite an unlikely pairing

because Cheech, you are Mexican
American, born in Watts?

- Mm-hmm.
- And you are Chinese Canadian,

- raised in...
- Well, half, half Chinese.

How in the world
did you ever get together?

It was a mix-up

at the Green Card office.

Shit, I had a joint.
What did I do with it?

Come on, you must have

old joints in the--
in your pocket.

Are you fucking with me?
You've got a joint.

- You always got weed, man.
- I never have the joint.

I always smoke the weed
that you have.

That's how it works.

So, no joint?

I can't believe we're
in the desert without any weed.

Don't worry.
Things will work out, man.

They always do.

Something will happen.

That's what I'm afraid of.

Are you satirizing

- the drug culture?
-Whatever.

Well, if you're satirizing it,

does that imply that you can
see something's wrong with it?

- All we do is-is generally...
- Well...

...just portray it as it is,
you know?

See, there's no set rules,
because you never know.

Like a lot of people say,
"It was wrong

"for this guy to go to jail,
but yet he wrote

a great novel
while he was in there."

Because people's
experiences, man,

how can you say they're
right or wrong, you know?

People go through
what they need to go through

in order to be--
in order to get some use

of living on Earth.

So how can you make
any judgment?

I can't.

All we can do is, uh...

is just be funny.

My whole being, my success,

my life, dates back
to my earliest memories.

One day, my brother and I were
walking down a dirt road,

and a car pulled up.

It was a carload
of missionaries.

And they said, "Hey,
you boys want to go to camp?"

And I immediately,
"Yeah, I do. What's camp?"

It was a Bible camp,
Christian Bible camp.

First thing they did was
they taught us how to pray,

'cause if you learn how to pray,
you pray for wisdom,

'cause that's one thing
that can be granted.

My mother had TB,
and so we all got checked out,

and I had a little spot
on my lung.

I ended up in the hospital.

I became an observer,

because I couldn't participate,
but I could watch and learn.

How tough was it

growing up in Canada?

I never knew I lived in poverty

until someone told me about it
years later, you know,

'cause when I was there,

everybody was in
the same boat, so...

We lived in between
the country and the city,

and we had none of
the conveniences of the city,

but we had none of
the luxuries of the country.

My dad was Chinese.

My mother, Scotch-Irish descent.

The Chinese were considered
not human.

Interracial marriage
was very dangerous.

You could go to jail.

Mom taught me early on,
"You're different.

"And by being different,
people will notice you.

So you better be your best."

They had a little birthday party

for this girl across the alley,

and I was specifically
not invited

because I was half Chinese.

But I could see the bonfire
from my window in my bedroom.

The kids gathered around,
all my friends.

It makes you sad,

but it also makes you...
it gives you knowledge.

You know? You go, "Oh."

"Oh, that's
what they think of me."

I'm digging this, man.
I love the desert.

I love the desert, too.

I just like to know
where I'm going sometimes.

And apparently, they have
no weed in the desert.

You'll see. Weed will appear.

Okay.

The thing that I remember most

about South Central is that
it was extremely violent.

I saw three murders
right in front of my eyes

by the time I was seven.

It was 99.9% Black.

All my friends, everybody
that I knew was Black,

and I was one
of the only Chicanos.

Uh, there was a few Asians

and some lost white people.

But that was it--
it was all Black.

So I thought that was normal,
you know, "Okay."

And I was just like one of them.

My friend Junior lived
right across the street

from the school, and his mama
did Bobo Brazil's laundry.

Bobo Brazil was a big wrestler
of the time, and he had

a white Cadillac convertible
with zebra upholstery.

And he used to come
and pick up his laundry,

and he'd pull up
in front of the school.

And the whole school knew
that Bobo Brazil was here.

And then when he came out,

I saw the reaction
that he caused among the kids.

He was on TV
every Wednesday night

wrestling Killer Kowalski
and Mr. Moto

and Sándor Szabó
and all these great wrestlers.

Bobo Brazil!

That was really show business
for my neighborhood.

We were a real typical
middle-class family.

The mother who would stay home
and take care of the kids

and did all the housework

and provide
all the emotional comfort.

And my dad was the worker
and the stern,

authoritarian father.

A neighbor once said, "Oscar,

"you're the most even-tempered
man I've ever met.

Always mad."

And so, that kind of
described my dad.

He was a tough guy.

LAPD, on the force for 30 years.

It was a shit job, man.

You just saw the worst aspects
of humanity every day.

It affects how you interact
with people

and your view of people.

So he kind of assumed
that whenever he was asking me

a question about,
"Where were you?

What are you doing?
What did you do?"

that I was lying to him.

He was right most of the time.

I just learned to be
a better liar, I guess.

That was
my first role as an actor.

If I could get by my dad
with a story,

well, "That was a pretty good
story. I-I told it well."

You still won't grow
your mustache back.

You've made such an imprint
with that character,

and then to have you
not doing that?

You know, it-it-it's
really hard to accept it.

So, your mustache
is so, uh, important

- for the Cheech character.
- Yeah.

That's your-your trademark,
and you-you refuse to do it.

I didn't want to wear a mustache

because I was doing other roles.

And also, it made me look older,

and I didn't want to look
older. -Well, yeah.

- Y-You're not Cheech.
- Yeah.

Of Cheech & Chong.

- I'm Cheech of Cheech Marin.
- Yeah, well,

that's the difference.
That's the difference.

Nothing lasts forever, Tommy.

You know? Nothing lasts forever.

The youngsters,

aged from 14 to 18,
come from all walks of life.

All members
of the Army Cadet Force

come once a year
for a week under canvas

with ex-Army officers.

Army Cadets in Canada

was like a vacation
for the poor.

I learned how to shoot a rifle,

and I learned how to smoke,
and I learned how to drink.

I learned how to play guitar.

We would play all night,

go to bed, wake up and reach
over and start playing again.

I got turned on to Ornette
Coleman and pot the same night.

I would go down to
the jazz club with my guitar

because it got me in for free.

One night, this bass player
gave me a joint.

I smoked up my first toke

and listened to Ornette Coleman
play "The Lonely Woman."

It's the most beautiful
turn-on in the world.

The next day,
I quit school immediately

because I knew in my heart

all I wanted to do
was play blues and smoke pot.

That's all I wanted to do.

I think the goal

in moving the family
out of South Central

to Granada Hills
is that they wanted

to move us to a safer place.

The air was different
and the sun was different

and all the houses
were brand-new,

and it was like you just got
transported to Oz.

I discovered I was creative,
like, right away.

I remember in grade school,
I was a singer.

I had the ability to sing
in tune at a very young age.

I would make up
harmonies in class,

and the teacher
would look at me,

"Well, how did you learn that?"

"I-I didn't learn it.
I just did it."

The biggest adjustment is not
seeing any Black people.

I remember the first day
of school,

I went out to play
at recess and I said,

"Oh, tetherball. I know that."

So I sat on the bench
and waited for my turn.

These two kids
walked towards me.

The one bigger kid
pushes me off the bench,

and he goes, "Hey, blackie,
get to the back."

What?

From South Central, I learned
to get in the first punch.

The kids were bigger
in the Valley,

so I learned to be funny.

I experienced the racism

in Granada Hills
at the very, very beginning.

And I got over that real quick

because I shifted
from public school

to Catholic school.

And they didn't play that shit.

They didn't play no
blackie/whitey shit.

They just played straight-up
corporal punishment.

You know, when you walk
into class, there's a cross

with a guy nailed on it,

uh, uh, so y-you get
what the deal is.

Every kid that goes
to Catholic school

is convinced that they want
to be a priest or a nun

at some point

because they cram that
into you every day.

It's called a vocation.
And eventually,

if they repeat it enough,
then you get a vocation.

So I was going to be a priest,

accepted to the junior seminary.

And then I started going
to parties,

and the girls liked me,

especially the white girls
named Debbie.

I was exotic to them,

and they were exotic to me.

Then I realized no girls
whatsoever in priesthood.

I-I don't know about that one.

♪ Let's go, let's go,
let's go. ♪

♪ Well, do you wanna dance
and hold my hand... ♪

I started a band,

and we called ourselves
The Shades,

because we were all
different colors.

♪ Do you wanna dance?

Trying to fit into
the white world,

I was an outsider.

When I discovered Black culture,

my life changed so beautifully.

♪ Hey!

I was accepted into
the hippest culture

on the planet,

and fell in love with the music

and this gorgeous
15-year-old, Maxine,

at the same time.

When I saw her, I said, "Whoa."

When I brought Maxine home,

my dad took me
in the other room and says,

"Son, she's Black."

I said, "Pop, you're Chinese."

Maxine and I always had a bond.

That's why, when Maxine was
ready to get married,

we got married.

Because Maxine really was
wife material.

We moved to Vancouver,
I found a house,

and that's where
I spent my time,

raising kids and being happy.

Oh, you know what?

I think I dropped some gummies
a couple of days ago.

Where?

It's in this seat over here.

Well, get down. Come on.

The Shades broke up,

and the new group was called
Little Daddy and the Bachelors,

even though we were all married.

It was perfect.

You're sure you had 'em, huh?

I had 'em, man, I had 'em.
I know I had 'em.

And so we were playing a gig,

and I was standing outside
of the venue

when this beautiful
young blonde, Shelby,

comes walking up.

She said, "Take us
to the Harlem Nocturne."

And I thought, "Oh, this
snotty-nosed little bitch."

Take-- Get, get... Okay.

So we drove to
the Harlem Nocturne,

and she gets out
of the back seat,

and she gives me
the nicest kiss.

I was like, "Whoa!"

And then she turned
and walked away into the club.

- Hey, was that...
-No!

Got 'em.
I knew they were here, man.

What the hell?

My Chinese friends built

this club called
The Shanghai Junk.

They were on the verge
of going under,

so they offered the club
to me and my brother

to see if we could
do anything with it.

We changed it into a strip bar

and started making the rent.

Around that time, I found
this incredible singer,

Bobby Taylor.

♪ When I found you, dear

Bobby was very ambitious.

♪ I found something new,
dear... ♪

We would play as many
as five sets a night.

The club started making money,
and we started buying houses.

I ended up moving
next door to Shelby.

It was total coincidence.

Mind you, I was very
happily married to Maxine.

We had a beautiful family,

but I, um...

discovered acid.

And that was when I learned
when you do acid with a lady,

prepare to spend the rest
of your life with her.

I got the gummies.

Well, open them up.

Okay, I'll tell you what.

I'll give you a gummy,
you take half,

and you give me the other half.

- Okay?
- Okay.

That way, I won't lead you
down the wrong path.

- Okay? Just take half.
- Okay. Just take half.

You took it all.

No, I didn't. Here.

I don't want it after
being in your mouth.

Oh, you don't want it? Okay.

I'll do my own half,

and...

two.

- Good gummy.
- Yeah?

You know, these are loaded.

I hope so.

I've built up a resistance.

So, what are we supposed to be
looking for?

Dave said to look for a sign.

- A sign?
- Yeah.

What is the sign
supposed to look like?

Don't worry, you'll know it
when you see it.

Ah.

- Look for a sign.
- Okay.

No sign here.

How is the fact that

your father was a cop
affect your youth?

I learned to duck real quick.

You got into
physical fights with him.

Yeah, he used to beat me.

I was his punching bag,
you know.

And I was just a wiseass, man.

Just a motormouth, you know.

Whatever he had to say,
I had, you know,

ten wise answers
for it, you know?

And he used to smack you up

- by the third or something?
- Yeah.

Did it get to a point
where he had to catch you?

- I mean, you ran?
- Yeah.

Well, that's exactly what it was

is that, like,
when I got to be about 12,

I could run faster
than he could.

- Mm-hmm.
- I was really fast.

And so I-I had this, like,
little radar thing going.

I could only stay
a certain distance from him

and be wise, you know?

'Cause I knew I could
outrun him from that distance.

But he used to chase me
through the house,

out through the yard,
over the fence

and down the alley.

My relationship with my dad

was always contentious. Always.

We fought a battle
our whole lives.

I left home because one of us
was gonna get hurt.

And I told him that
if he ever hit me again,

I was gonna do something
about it.

College, man, that was,
like, the big melting pot.

There was kids from all over.

You could voice
your opinion in college,

and everybody had
a different opinion.

Catholic school, you go,
"Uh, God told me,

and now I'm telling you."

I was in line trying
to register for class,

and this really cute girl says,

"Oh, I just signed up
for pottery.

You should take it with me."

I threw my first wad of clay
on the wheel,

and that was it.

I was gonna be a potter.

My recessive Mexican
pottery genes

came jumping out, said,

"Hey, vato, where you been,
man? Come on."

And that coincided with
the first time I smoked a joint.

I came home one night,

and all my roommates
were having a party.

One of them handed me
this hand-rolled cigarette,

and I go, "Wh-What's this?"

I took a hit.

The only thing I remember
was thinking,

"And what else have they
been lying about?"

♪ You don't want me
running around... ♪

Everything was rapidly changing,

and there was
a growing recognition

that we were a big generation
with a lot of power.

And we started exercising
that power.

Never has this
dissent been as emotional,

as intense as is the dissent
against the war in Vietnam.

The Vietnam war was starting

to really rage at that time.

And they were drafting
college-age kids.

I was exempt because
I was in college,

but all these other kids
were going and going and going.

I had this conversation
with my dad, who was

a Navy World War II vet,
and he said,

"I don't believe in what
they're doing over there,

but if they called me,
I would go."

Well, that was the difference
between us, you know.

Uh, I-I-I did question
authority,

and I didn't like
the answers I was getting,

if I ever got an answer.

We are not only opposed
to the war in Vietnam.

We're opposed to the draft
of anybody, Black or white.

We had tons of influential,

radical speakers.

David Harris, my favorite,

he was the one that
influenced me the most.

The assumption
that Selective Service

makes about us,
and the assumption

that the American states
makes about

the young people of this country

comes into a fundamental
contradiction

with the way we understand
our own lives.

The concept of the
draft resistance movement was

refuse at every step.

If you were not registered,
don't register.

If you registered to vote
and they called you up

for a physical,
don't go to the physical.

Use the bureaucracy
against itself.

And that's what I decided to do,

and I was, uh, active
in the... in the chapter.

♪ And I'm free,
oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪

♪ Free, free spirit.

Wow.

Look at the desert now.

It actually reflects
off the clouds.

And it gives a nice glow.

- Uh-huh.
- Mm.

So, how much was in
these gummies?

Whoa.

Ho-ho!

Shit.

We're gigging around town

when we got discovered
by The Supremes.

Diana Ross saw us,
loved us, called Berry Gordy.

Berry Gordy got on a plane,
flew to Vancouver,

and he signed us.

And we ended up in Detroit.

♪ Where is your love going?

Shelby got pregnant
that acid night.

She got pregnant
and decided to come with me.

Maxine knew about Shelby,
and Shelby, of course,

knew about Maxine.

They were pretty cool about it,
you know, considering.

In fact, everybody was
pretty cool about it.

I wouldn't say
I was cool about it.

But I had two kids,
and I loved him.

- You okay?
- Huh?

Why?

Am I driving okay?

I spent my time
recording the record

and trying to support
my two families.

♪ I'm a guy...

Bobby Taylor was a legend
with Motown.

Whenever we appeared live,
which was quite often

because Berry loved
to show us off,

all of Motown that was in town
would come to see us

and just marvel
at Bobby Taylor's voice.

♪ You know you're
Little Miss Sweetness ♪

♪ Sweetest girl
in the world, now... ♪

You're songwriters, right?

- What'd you write?
- I wrote uh,

uh, "Does Your Mama
Know About Me?"

For Bobby Taylor
and the Vancouvers?

- Yeah.
- Oh, he's a great talent.

- Yeah, really. You know Bobby?
- Of course I know Bobby.

♪ Does your mama know
about me? ♪

♪ Does she know
just what I am? ♪

I was always writing.

I-I write to this day.
I'm a compulsive writer.

And I wrote a poem.

How'd you get inspiration
for a song like, uh,

"Does Your Mama Know About Me?"

I used to sort of hang out
with the Black set,

so to speak, you know,
and I used to watch

a lot of friends of mine
like Bobby Taylor

take out white girls, you know?

- Uh-oh.
- And drop 'em off.

Cut... cut that part out,
please. -

And now a word from Artra. Uh...

"Does Your Mama Know About Me?"

was my first taste of being
a songwriter.

General Lewis Hershey,

the crusty 74-year-old
head of Selective Service,

has told draft boards
across the country

to take away the deferments
of registrants

who take actions
interfering with

Selective Service procedures.

General Hershey issued

a directive that anybody
who turned their draft card in

or-or burned their draft card
or anything that we were doing

would be immediately
reclassified 1-A

and sent to the front lines
of Vietnam.

Totally illegal.

Your critics say that you're

stifling dissent
in this country.

If it stifles dissent
to get people

to obey the laws, I'm guilty.

People were freaking out.

People were being sentenced
to eight years in prison.

My pottery teacher, who knew
of my circumstance, said,

"I have this student
who's in Canada right now

and maybe could use
an assistant."

That's all I needed.
I was on a Greyhound bus

and on my way to Canada
to be a potter.

It's entirely possible

for a draft dodger,
posing as a visitor

or a student,
to cross the border

and simply disappear.

I had never been in a place

where it was snowing before.

I had never seen snow.

It was the purest time
in my life.

I was meditating every day,
going down to the river

for my water,

chopping wood
and working as a potter.

I was in heaven.

The funny thing was, is I moved
to the exact location

that Tommy Chong was born
and raised in.

My mother and I would write
every once in a while

just to let her know
that I was okay.

I'd never talk to my father
all the time I was in Canada.

I didn't communicate
with him ever.

No phone calls, no letters,
no nothing.

Just goodbye.

Hey, man.

Why do you always drive?

San Francisco was
a happening place.

We had a gig at Big Al's
on Broadway,

and I had a whole week
to explore that area.

At night, we had nothing to do,
so I'd wander around the clubs,

and everybody that was anybody
was playing.

Lenny Bruce was at the Hungry I.

I couldn't afford
to go in to see him,

but I sat out in the alley
and listened to him.

I wandered around,
and I stumbled into a theater

where The Committee
were playing.

It was an improvisational group.

That night, they did a bit

where the whole cast
became little dogs,

and one's taking a dump,

another one's sniffing
the other one's butt.

And then crawled off the stage,

but just seeing human beings
taking a little doggie poop

on the stage
just made me laugh so hard

I literally fell out of my seat.

I had never laughed so hard
at anything.

I was sick of the blues by then.

I wanted to see acting.
I couldn't get enough of them.

So I would go down every night
if I could and-and see them.

I got a job at
a ski resort being a fry cook.

At that time,
I had very little to do,

and I learned how to ski.

Sort of.

In the process
of learning how to ski,

I learned how to break
my leg in half.

I had a compound fracture,

and I was in the hospital
for a month,

and then I was in a full-length
cast for six months.

This girl I knew said,

"You can stay here
while you recuperate," so...

while she went to work
during the day,

I would hobble around the house.

She only had one record album
in the whole place.

And it was this
Diana Ross and The Supremes

Love Child album.

And on this Love Child album,
there was a song called

"Does Your Mama Know About Me?"

And I would listen to it
every day.

♪ Does your mama know
about me? ♪

And the lyrics were right on

about what was happening
at the time.

And so one day, I said,

"But what brother
wrote this song?"

And I turned over the album,
and it said,

"Lyrics by T. Chong."

What kind of name is
T. Chong for a brother?

We were playing
the Regal Theater

in the heart
of the Chicago ghetto.

Everybody played
the Regal Theater.

And there was a group called
The Jackson Five Plus Johnny.

♪ I know you told me...

When we first heard
Michael sing,

it was a revelation.

He was the most talented
little guy I'd ever seen.

And so Bobby Taylor
convinced Joe Jackson

and the family
to come to Detroit.

♪ Well, you didn't

♪ You didn't want me around,
baby, yeah... ♪

Bobby had him audition
for Berry.

♪ Love me no more

He signed them immediately.

♪ But I want to know
something, yeah... ♪

Bobby Taylor quit the band
and went solo.

He ended up producing at least
their first record for sure.

♪ I just want to say, yeah,
I just want to say, yeah... ♪

And that was the last band
that I was in.

- ♪ I've been a fool ♪
- ♪ Oh-oh, whoa

♪ I've been a fool
for you, baby, yeah... ♪

The clubs got into
a little bit of trouble,

so I had to go back
to Vancouver.

I started working
in the light booth,

doing the lights
for the girls' show,

and then I saw how
uninteresting the show was.

They needed some kind
of new direction.

It's a typical
Canadian floor show.

And the girls come out
one at a time,

and here's Candy
and here's Lotty

and here's Maryland.

And that was
the end of the show.

Well, no one watched it.

These drunks would come in
and get drunk

and pass out,
kind of look up there,

and it never interrupted
their conversation.

But I-I wanted to see
something happen, you know?

So I-I, I used all these people
as an improv group.

At the end of the season,

my roommate says,

"Well, I'm going
back to Vancouver.

Come with me.
We'll live in Vancouver."

Sounds great. I had never been
to Vancouver before.

So away we went to Vancouver.

This is Canada's Haight-Ashbury,

an area of Vancouver that houses

Canada's largest
hippie population.

Vancouver in the late '60s

was the San Francisco of Canada.

Bands were coming out of there.

Culture was coming out of there.

It was like the hippies

without the political
aspect of it.

Out of the blue, I ran into
a high school friend of mine,

and he was writing for
the Western Canadian version

of Rolling Stone.

We hooked up and he said,

"Hey, I-I remember you were
a writer from high school.

"Want to write some articles

or do some reviews
for this magazine?"

I had no experience
interviewing people,

but I said I did.

One day, I met with
the publisher, and he says,

"There's this guy
I want you to meet.

"His name is Tommy Chong,
and he has this weird thing.

"It's an improvisational
theater company

in a topless bar in Chinatown."

A friend of mine
that owned a magazine,

he knew of a guy that would fit
the show really well.

Funny little guy named Richard,
and I should meet him.

It was the first time
I'd ever seen a Mexican.

And I said, "Oh, you're sort
of like a... Hindu." "No."

"Are you a rug rider or what?"
You know?

"I don't know. What is he?

You know, he-he's something."

And then someone said,
"He's Mexican."

I'd never met a Mexican before.

That's the same opinion
I had of him

'cause he was Chinese,
but not Chinese,

or he was, like, Mongolian
or something, you know.

I gave him this line of bull

that I was this great
improv actor and writer.

And so he says, "But you should
come down to the club

tomorrow night and see us."

It was a little sketchy,
you know.

The club was up
on the second floor.

It was dark and a lot
of bikers and loggers

and hockey players and pimps.

And there was a lot of girls

that you could tell
they were working.

We were backstage,

and I was looking
through the curtains,

and Cheech was with
this gorgeous brunette

wearing a full-length mink coat.

Tommy always said
she had this mink coat on.

She never saw mink in her life.

It was some rabbit fur deal,
but to him, it was a mink coat.

Soon as I saw that,

I said, "Well, he's hired."

They came out.

It was the weirdest thing
I'd ever seen.

They had a classical guitarist.

They had a mime,
a mime in a strip bar.

And these girls dancing
kind of in chiffon see-through.

And they would take that off,
and so I was like,

"What is this?"

In the middle of that
comes this guy, David Graham,

Tommy's original partner,
and he starts singing...

♪ I dream of Brownie
in the light blue jeans ♪

♪ She is just as neat
as licorice jelly beans. ♪

And out comes Tommy,
and he goes,

"What kind
of fucking song is that?"

And starts beating him
with this newspaper.

And it just cracked me up.

I just thought,

"Oh, this is really
off the wall, man.

Okay, I'll-I'll work
with these guys."

When I got hired by Tommy,

I got hired as a writer
for the group.

Every day, we would have
little rehearsals

and I would throw out
new little bits we could use.

And so very quickly, I started
writing bits for myself.

One, zero.

It was around the time
we landed on the moon.

And so one
of the first bits he did

was about being shot into space.

And then, when he's in space,

he's looking around
and there's no one around,

so he starts masturbating.

Cheech came out of college,
and he had...

you know, I mean,
he was a singer.

He used to sing
like Johnny Mathis,

and he had short hair
and he'd meditate.

You know, everybody would be
smoking dope, and we'd go,

"Is he a narc?"

They thought I was a narc

- for the longest time, yeah.
-Yeah.

And Cheech is sitting there
like a little...

Mahavishnu bass player.

He had this beautiful energy.

I never met anybody
quite like him.

I've always done the,
the next thing to come along.

This came along cool.

Improv strippers.
Yeah, I could do that.

The City Works
was real street theater.

Anything was possible

'cause you never knew
what was going to work.

The show went two hours a night.

In the first hour,
we'd do our show,

and then we'd take suggestions
from the audience

for the second show.

You know,
everybody else viewed this

as like this temporary lark
they were doing.

Tommy was the one
that was most serious

about making a real go of it
and proved to be very astute.

He's a very funny guy

in seeing what's really obvious
that nobody else sees.

There was
a garbage strike in Vancouver,

and this hippie Strawberry
was sitting on a pile

of plastic garbage bags
in the rain.

And he was on acid.

And I found out
that he was homeless.

So I said,

"Well, I got a nightclub,
and you can stay there."

He said, "Oh, okay."

Strawberry was, like,
perpetually stoned.

That's where I got the...
that "Hey, man."

That was Strawberry.

And we needed someone
to work the lights.

So Strawberry became
our light man

and our biggest critic.

"Hey, man. Oh, hey. That last
act really sucked, man.

"Hey, but you were,
you were really good.

But it really sucked, you know?"

"Whoa. Whoa.

That was horrible, man."

And Strawberry would be late
with the blackout sometimes,

and we'd be frozen in position
and Cheech would go,

"Strawberry.
Blackout, Strawberry."

It got to the point where

we were causing
a little bit of noise,

and they sent the theater critic

from the Vancouver Sun.

He thought he was going to see

some avant-garde
theater company,

kind of like Living Theatre
out of New York.

What he got was
hippie burlesque.

The crowd went
from 20, uh, drunk bikers

that would throw money around

to a couple of hundred
theatergoers

who would count their change.

And so we ended up, uh,
being fired.

My brother wanted
to take the club back

to the old stripper format,

and we had run our course
as an improvisational group.

And so the group broke up.

The girls went back stripping.

David had a family,

and he wasn't interested
in going anywhere.

The mime artist wanted
to go to the woods

to get his head together.

I'd been to the woods.
My head was together.

We were the last two
left standing.

Tommy called me up.

Said, "I-I got what we can do.

"We'll form a group, me and you.

"I'm a guitar player,
you're a singer,

"and we'll do music
like a lounge act,

and we'll do these skits."

And we were gonna do

a battle of the bands
in Vancouver.

A big, big event.

There was about

maybe a thousand young kids
there, you know,

ready to hear music.

But we were gonna
start out with comedy,

and then we were
going to go into music.

And the band's
all ready to play.

So we did one bit,

got attention.

People shut up

and started coming
to the front of the stage.

We did another bit.
They were with us.

So we did a third bit.
Yeah, big standing ovation.

Right after we got off stage,

the bass player said,

"So, when's our next gig, boss?"

Knowing very well

there was no gig
'cause they never played a note.

We're driving home that night
'cause I had my dad's car,

and the windshield wipers
didn't work.

Vancouver is notorious
for the rain.

And the rain was
coming down really hard.

So Cheech and I were
taking turns

leaning out the car window
with a coat hanger.

We were saying, "Wow, let's
look at you and me, bud."

We're all buzzed
about having won

the battle of the bands.

We got to go to America.
We got to go to the U.S.

And then we got to do this,
we got to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This was fun.

What do we call ourselves?

'Cause he wanted his name
to be on whatever he was in.

He was a Shade.

He was a Bachelor.

He was a Vancouver.

Whatever is gonna be next,
he's gonna have his name on it.

So I said, "Yeah. Me, too.
I want my name on it.

So, how are we gonna do this?"

Richard and Tommy? No.

Chong and Marin?
Nah, that's not exciting.

How about Dick and Tommy? No.

Tommy and Dick? No.

How about, uh, Marin and Chong?

Sounds like a "se habla español"
law firm, man, you know.

And I said,
"Do you have a nickname?"

Well, my name
in my family is Cheech.

Uh, it's short for "chicharrón,"

which is a...
a deep-fried pigskin.

It's like Mexican potato chips.

When I was a little baby,
my uncle looked in the crib

and said, "Ay, parece
un chicharrón.

Looks just like
a little chicharrón."

Cheech.

Cheech & Chong. Cheech & Chong.

The musician in both
of our heads heard that,

'cause it had this rhythm.
Cheech & Chong.

It was never Chong and Cheech

'cause it had nothing to do
about billing.

It had to do about the sound

of how those two names
sounded together.

That was it. That was the name.

Cheech & Chong!

We went across
the Georgia Narrows Bridge.

There was a sign that said,
"Proceed at your own risk."

And we're going "Yeah, yeah,
we're gonna be big, man.

"We're gonna, we're gonna be
the biggest names

in comedy, right?"

As we float off into the fog,
"Cheech & Chong,

Cheech & Chong, Cheech & Chong."

It was almost like a train.
"Yeah, here we go.

Big time, here we come."

♪ Na, na-na, na-na

♪ Na-na, na-na,
na-na-na, na-na-na ♪

♪ Na-na, na-na, yeah

♪ Na, na-na, na-na

♪ Na-na, na-na,
na-na-na, na-na-na... ♪

We got two choices,
New York or Los Angeles,

and L.A. is a lot warmer.

It's a little warmer. Yeah.

It's easier to starve in L.A.
than it is in New York.

Is that a period

that you had to go through
is starving in L.A.?

Sure, everybody
has to go through it.

In L.A., I mean, show business
capital of the world,

you, you have to know someone
to get an audition.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you just can't, uh,
to even play a free gig,

you can't just get up and do it.

You have to know somebody.

Who did you know?

Well, nobody. We...

We immediately went
to Maxine's apartment.

I showed up with a Mexican.

I wasn't a musician anymore.

And now I'm looking

for a gig as a comedian.

Tommy says, "Hey, Maxine,

this is my partner Cheech,
and we need to stay with you."

And to her everlasting credit,

Maxine said, "Okay,"
and let us in.

I slept on the couch, which was
all right at nighttime,

but in the morning,

Rae Dawn and Robbi would
get up and watch cartoons

and eat their cereal
and give me that glare, like,

"Who the hell are you?
What are you doing here?"

And so I just rolled over
and went back to sleep.

Basically,
we were broke, both of us.

And I started phoning around

looking for a gig
for us to play.

And I found the Red Fox club.

Cheech & Chong.

We hadn't
figured out what to do

when we first walked out.

There was no routine.
He'd talk, I'd talk.

We overlapped each other,
so very quickly we figured out

that I would disappear
and get ready

for the first character
that I was gonna do.

And Tommy would start to
develop this standup routine.

Here was a club that
we could play every night,

work on our act every night.

It was like going to the gym.

The more you went to the gym,
the stronger you got.

Any Chicanos here
tonight, maybe?

They smuggle any of you in?

Anyways, it's really hip
being Chicano nowadays.

I'm really glad it came around.

I was really having a tough time

faking being Filipino,
you know, so...

Didn't have a gold tooth
and it was all, um...

I used to get nervous
before I went on stage

in the early days.

And Tommy didn't
make it any easier

when he would announce

that I was dodging the draft
and wanted by the FBI.

He thought it was funny.

I didn't think it was so funny.

Comedians back in the day,

they were treated like dirt.

They weren't respected.

They respected the stripper
that brought in the people,

but they never had no respect
for a guy

that was trying
to make everybody laugh.

When you first start off
with comedy, you write a set.

Six months later,
y-you need a new set.

And it never stops.

And you just keep digging
and digging and digging.

It's like working
in a coal mine.

Well, y-you shit your pants
or something?

Yeah, yeah,
I shit my pants, man.

Well, why the hell
don't you go home

and change them,
for Christ's sake?

I'm not done yet, man.

Drama is cumulative
and pays off at the end.

Comedy is joke by joke.

It's like playing
the slot machines.

One nickel in, two nickels out.

I had been through
the Chitlin' Circuit

with a Motown band.

It's a very hard life.

But being a comedian
was such a huge step.

We weren't going to give up.

The only mode
of transportation we had

was Tommy's Honda 90.

So, to go to a gig,

we would take
all of our costumes

and put them on
at the same time,

three or four coats,
couple pairs of pants,

tie shoes around our neck,

have three or four hats on
at the same time,

and tool around
from L.A. to Pasadena,

Santa Monica to Hermosa Beach.

"Oh, it's those two guys
on the Honda 90."

They never had
comedy clubs then.

It was just the soul clubs.

We opened for
every major Black act

that came through L.A.

The Isley Brothers.

Ray Charles. Edwin Starr.

The Chi-Lites. The Delfonics.

Our act became
very Black at the time,

but it was half Black,
half marijuana,

which was half Black anyways.

Hey, give me some more of that.

I don't feel nothing, man.

Hey, neither do I, man.

Takes a lot
to get me stoned, man.

Hey, why don't you
turn on the radio?

It's been on, man.

Right away, as soon as we did

our first drug joke, we know,
hey, these people get this.

This is what they
really laugh at.

So we said, "Oh, let's kind of
do some more of that."

You go first.

Hello, ladies.

We're doing the Playboy
interview.

Let's speak
a bit about influence, okay?

- Influences. Okay.
- We have two.

Sex and drugs.

Sex and drugs.

What about The Committee?

Oh. Love 'em.

-Yeah.
- I love 'em.

They hated us,
but I love them to death.

Wh-Why? They said that you

took their routines
or something?

- We did. We sure did.
-We took everybody's.

I-I took, borrowed
some of the bits

that they used to do.

Even though I can
remember everything,

we had to do it, you know,

Mexican/Chinese style, you know?

And so they changed and we just
added our own characters,

but we used
their situations, you know?

Because when you're
out there performing,

you'll use anything, you know?
Pryor...

Yeah, Richard Pryor
used to do Bill Cosby.

Bill Cosby routines, you know?

You start... you start
somewhere, you know?

And so, uh, but what happened
with The Committee

is that they just stayed in
this one little, uh, theater

and they never ventured out.

So, when we started
venturing around,

- their bits become our bits.
-Right.

So, two things happened.

They got really bugged
at the fact

that we were doing their bits.

And then they got more bugged
when they found out

that they couldn't
do them anymore

because everybody
thought they were doing

- Cheech & Chong bits.
- Yeah.

So they really didn't
like us very much.

Herbie!

- Hey, how are you?
- How are you?

- Hey, you're looking good, man.
- Hey.

Hey, I like your haircut.
That's a nice one.

Oh, you like it?
It's a Farrah Fawcett, man.

How's it look?

I mean,
the dogs was an exercise

out of An Actor Improvises.

Be a leaf or a strip of bacon
or an animal.

And they were just basic stuff.

When we did it,
we created characters

for those... for those dogs
and the things they were doing.

And we weren't afraid
to get gross with them.

Comedians are
very touchy about bits.

But a good joke is shared,
you know, it's passed on.

And so no one really cares
about the pedigree

of the material,
as long as it's funny.

I'd like to congratulate you
on your new show.

I want-- I want to wish you
every luck on your jokes.

Every Friday night,
all the luck in the world.

Well, thank you. That depends
on your jokes Wednesday night.

Every standup comedian

has a rivalry with every
other standup comedian.

If you're talking about
the same subjects,

they're gonna obviously overlap.

What you do, eventually,
is you evolve your own voice.

The only thing you have
as an artist is what you see.

Which is different
from everybody else.

I started working
on this character,

then all of a sudden,
my mind clicked into a guy

that picked me up hitchhiking.

And I just remembered
his rap, he says,

"Yeah, man, I work
like a donkey, you know?"

"Hey, man, I don't
have to graduate.

I can go in the service,
you know?"

And that was his attitude.

In the middle of a sentence,
he'd be looking,

"Ooh, look at that chick, ooh.

Saw too much."

And the essence of his character

was cruising
and looking at chicks,

and it was easy from there.

Chinga, chinga, chinga,
chinga, chinga.

Chinga, chinga,
chinga, chinga, chinga.

Chinga, cabrón, cabrón, cabrón,

cabrón, cabrón, cabrón,
cabrón, cabrón.

Cabrón.

Puta, puta, puta, puta, puta,
puta, puta, puta, puta, puta.

So few Latins make it
into show business,

into the mainstream.

Do you ever feel any heat

because the character
is a negative character?

He's not a negative character.

He's a very positive character,
actually.

People would say
he's a negative character

because he gets loaded,
likes chicks, cruises around,

but anybody who doesn't see that

as what's happening
in the streets

got their head in the sand.

Why he gets by
is because he's innocent.

God protects fools and children.

And he's both.

The thing about
roasting a chicken

is if you know exactly what
temperature your oven is at,

well, then you can come out
with a chicken

that's like chicken marbella.

You make it with olives,
capers, onions, prunes.

Yeah. Chill.
Well, just think about it.

I was running myself ragged
between two families.

Scooting back and forth
from my soul family

to my white family.

One night, coming home
to Maxine's house,

I found my wallet was missing.

I had been pickpocketed.

Maxine had enough of me by then.

It was just too much for her,
and she told me,

"Just go. Just-just go."
You know?

"It's not working."
And it wasn't working.

That's where my life
with Shelby officially began.

Now, tell me about your lady.

Are you ever gonna get
married to this lady?

Well, she told me she'd marry me

when she turns 40
or I become a millionaire.

Well, I think the wedding bells
are ringing, my dear.

No. Not according
to our accountant.

No, what it is,
it'll be when I get a million.

Because I don't think
she'll ever turn 40.

I don't think
she ever will, either.

Living with you
will keep her young.

- You guys drove right by me!
- What?

Shit.

We didn't see you, honey.

Oh, you're stoned.

You're stoned.

Now you're gonna

- fuck things up with Dave.
- Whoa.

Well, look how beautiful
you look.

Whoa.

The old stoned charmer.

Yeah. Wow.

Where we going?

Hootenanny Night was
an invention by the white clubs

to get you to play for free.

The first six acts
that were there

when the club opened at 6:00

could go on that night
in reverse order.

The funniest thing
is the government,

the changes they go through
trying to find out

who junkies are, man.

And that's the easiest thing
in the world in the Army.

All you have to do
is take roll call.

"Johnson." "Sir!"

"Henderson." "Sir!"

"Rodriguez." "Right here, man."

"Here."

We take you now inside Vietnam.

"All right, men, huddle up.

"Huddle up, boys.

"You been complaining,
haven't had a change

"of underwear in six months?

"We'll take care
of that right now.

"Johnson, you change
with Gonzalez.

"Henderson,
you change with Smith.

All right? All right."

After the show
at the Troubadour,

some woman came up and said,

"Lou Adler was in
the crowd tonight

and he wants to meet you guys
at his office."

I told Tommy. He didn't know
who Lou Adler was.

No, I had no idea
who Lou Adler...

And of course Cheech
schooled me.

Lou Adler.

Lou Adler is one of the world's
great record producers.

At the time, he was the biggest
record producer in the world.

He was a big deal and he was
well known in the business.

He grew up in Boyle Heights,

which was the Jewish section
of East L.A.

And he recognized the
characters that we were doing.

Cheech said
he's the guy that produced

that record you love, the
Carole King Tapestry album.

And I said "whoa" right there.

And then he told me

that Lou produced
the Mamas & the Papas

and he had, uh, Sam Cooke and...

He was like one of the top...

He owned his own record company.

That's how... how big Lou was.

We go in there
and there's, like, gold records

everywhere on the walls.

He says, "Well, what do
you guys want to do?"

"Well, make a record, I guess."

"Well, what kind?"

"Um, gold, uh, seems to be
what you make,

so let's make a gold record."

He was very nice,
he said he enjoyed the show,

but he was very quiet.
He hardly spoke.

And so he said, "Okay,
well, what do you need?"

I said, "$1,000," and Lou was
ready to write the check.

And I go,
"Wait a minute, Mr. Adler.

Uh, there's two of us,
so we'll need $2,000."

And I said, "I want
a little tape recorder."

We got the tape recorder
and the money...

And signed a deal right then.

The first time
we went into the studio,

we didn't have
any idea how to do it

or what we were gonna do.

And we said, "Well, we'll just
set up a couple chairs

"and set up some mics
and we'll do our thing,

and it'll be fine."

And it was a bomb.

It was like nothing,
no reaction,

there was nobody to react to.

And so we didn't...
"Ugh, that was terrible."

What we had to learn was how
to make things sound funny.

'Cause we were a visual act.
We could look funny

and make faces and...

...and act it out,

but that didn't
translate to record.

So, we used this
little mixdown room

to rehearse in.

And we created
our-our first record.

By accident.

Creativity is
inherently fraught

with conflict and tension.

Especially if you're
talking about two guys.

What I think is funny
and what you think is funny

and-and what the audience
thinks is funny

and... but we're in the studio,
we had no audience,

so we had to finally kind of
come together to agree

on what was funny,
and the criterion was

it had to make us laugh.

Cheech put on all his costume.

He was a very method actor.

And he went outside.

He was gonna play a dope dealer,

and he was gonna
knock on the door,

and I was gonna let him in.

Then we were gonna improv a,
you know, a dope deal bit.

It was like 110 degrees outside.

It was in the middle of August.

And I'm inside,
and it's air-conditioned.

It's beautiful.

And I got the little
tape recorder set up.

And then Cheech knocked.

And when he knocked, my eyes
immediately went to the door.

And so I couldn't see
if the needle moved or not.

No answer.

And so now I'm looking
at the tape recorder

wondering,
"Did that record or not?"

He knocks again.

And I saw the needle jump.

So, "Oh, it's recording."

And so I said, "Who is it?"

"Who... who is it?"

You're not supposed to say,
"Who is it?"

You're supposed to say,
"Come in."

I went into character.
I-I just started improv-ing.

I go, "It's me, Dave."

And I go, "Dave?"
And he goes, "Yeah, Dave."

He thinks I'm gonna
open up the door.

And then I said,

"Dave's not here."

So now I realize I can
torture the shit out of Cheech

by keeping him outside
as long as I could.

And so I just sat there
until he knocked again.

"No, it's me, Dave. D-A-V-E.

Open the door. I got the stuff."

"Come on, quit fucking around.

It's hot out here, man."
He's banging on the door.

And finally he opens the door,
and he's laughing his ass off.

And he was really angry.

I thought he was gonna
attack me or something.

So I said,
"Listen, listen, listen."

We both cracked up.
We both cracked up.

We played it again,
cracked up even more.

We took it to Lou,
and Lou heard it and he goes,

"Okay, we're recording
that tonight."

Lou took the recording
and shipped it

to all these radio stations.

And so the next morning,
L.A. woke up to...

Who is it?

It's-it's Dave, man.

Will you open up?
I got the stuff with me.

-Who?
-Dave, man.

- Open up.
-Dave?

Yeah, Dave.
Come on, man. Open up.

- I think the cops saw me.
-Dave's not here.

You sure
we're going the right way?

- Oh, I know where we are.
- Where?

We're in the middle
of fucking nowhere.

No, we're southwest
of fucking nowhere.

We're not in the middle yet.

Oh, hey, let's ask this guy.

Excuse me. Hello.

Can you tell us
how to get to the joint?

- Lou!
- What the--

Tommy, Cheech. How are you guys?

We're good.
What are you doing out here?

- I'm taking a walk.
- Oh.

- Well, get in, man. Get in.
- Oh.

- Let-let's talk, man.
- We'll give you a ride. Lou!

I thought it was a mirage.

Okay.

Damn, boy.

Lou knows how much to produce

and how much not to produce.

He helped us creatively
by giving approval

over what we were doing

'cause we were making up
this method

as we were going along.

Cheech and I
would show up at the studio,

and we'd look at each other,
and one of us

would say, "You hungry?"
"Yeah, let's go have lunch."

We'd come back after
a long lunch and light a joint.

Next thing you know,
an idea would come in our head.

♪ No stems, no seeds
that you don't need ♪

♪ Acapulco Gold is

♪ Badass weed.

Cut.

How'd that sound to you?

Hey, man, that was far out, man.

We got a cut, man.

Yeah, that-that sounded
pretty good to me.

I think we could wrap it up.

Oh, hey, no, man.

No, I want to do it again, man.

- Again?
- Yeah, man.

Like, I had a thing to do.

You know, when you talk, man.
When a cat talks, I want to--

I got a thing to say, man.

I was gonna say it,
but I forgot it, man.

- You want to do it again?
- Yeah, man.

Let's do it again.

Okay. All right.

Hold it. Give me a joint, man.
Give me another joint.

All right, far out, man. Okay.

We'll get it right
this time, man. -Yeah, okay.

All right,
let's try it again, huh?

- Okay.
- Ready?

Yeah.

"Acapulco Gold Filters,"
take 403.

We spent
all our time in the studio

recording the first album.

Once it came out, we went
on the road immediately.

Lou Adler got us
visibility immediately.

He had the balls
to go to the limit.

And Cheech & Chong, in return,

gave him
the products to work with.

♪ Black Lassie

♪ Fat and sassy

♪ She was poor,
but now she's rich... ♪

He really became
the pillar of our success.

It was a beautiful marriage.

Lou very carefully crafted

our public image
so people knew the flavor

of what they were gonna get.

You're about to meet the first
Chinese American comedy team

in history.

I don't know
which one is Chinese.

Will you welcome Cheech & Kong!

It's Cheech & Chong, first.

Chong.

Hey, man, what's happening?

Hey, man, this your amigo
Sanchez de San Fernando

saying come on down
to Wide Track Town

here in Wilmington, ese, man.

We got some out-of-sight chorts
here for you to look at, man.

Look at this chort
over here, man.

Now, that's a '53 Chevy

with pink and purple
tuck and roll, man.

- Are you Chinese?
- No, I'm Mexican.

You're Mexican. You're Chinese?

- No... Uh, yeah, I'm Chinese.
- There...

Listen, there's something
a little wrong in your bio.

- What-what is your nationality?
- Chinese.

You really are?

- Canadian Chinese.
- Canadian Chinese.

My father married a white woman.

That is really funny.

Already on
the Billboard charts,

the new single
from Cheech & Chong.

We were aware of our hit status

right at the beginning
because we were

on the radio all the time.

Wherever we went,
the album preceded us

by about a week, so there
was this growing awareness

of this act
that was very different.

Please welcome Cheech & Chong!

We got up,
we went to the airport,

got on a plane, did the show,

went to the next city
and did the same thing.

It was just nonstop.

We wanted our albums to be funny

but conceptual at the same time.

Everything we did
with the record,

you could enjoy
with your imagination.

Hey, man, two more cars
and we're there, man.

- Tell those guys to be quiet.
-Hey, you guys,

be quiet, man.

We're almost
at the ticket thing.

Come on, let's hear it
for Sister Mary Elephant.

Here she is.

CHEECH [high-pitched voice]:
Class.

Class!

Shut up! Thank you.

The U.S. Open
National Masturbation Champion

three years in a row,
Harry Palms.

Come on out, Harry!

Tell us, how does it feel?

Sore. Oh.

Well, you get
a little fucker about that big.

You get it?

Hey, Margaret,
did you see that?

Ah, yow.

That was the greatest.

Two guys with a bag of Goodwill
clothes and one roadie,

making as much as big bands

with no overhead.

We were in that
rock and roll life.

It was
the Waikiki Bowl in Hawaii.

You're confusing the two.

No, no. -We never
played it another time.

The only time we played it
was once. -We...

No, we played it
about three times.

- Uh, three times now?
- Maybe four.

Maybe four times.

- Four times we played it?
- Yeah.

- We only played it once.
- You only remember one.

I-I remember everything.

You don't. I wish you did,
but you don't.

Oh, now you wish I did.

How do you know
that we played it four times?

I was there.

If they were
always getting along,

one of them
wouldn't be necessary.

Tommy and Cheech were the first
rock and roll comedians.

No doubt about it.

They opened
for the Rolling Stones

in front of 20,000 people,
doing comedy.

It was at a little venue,

and then we came back
to, uh, Waikiki.

What did you say, Lou?

- Uh, nothing, guys.
- Okay.

And then, uh, we played
the, uh, HIC again.

We sold out two shows there,
remember, that one night?

Cheech & Chong

on Eyewitness News.

In the lifestyle
of each generation,

there's often a very close
correlation between

its humor and its drugs.

Well, for these two comedians,
Cheech & Chong,

their humor revolves
around marijuana.

Their first album has now won
a coveted Gold Record award.

Their new album
is called Big Bambú,

and you don't even have
to hear the album

to know its contents.

I asked if money and success
might spoil them.

No, there's a lot of hippies
in Los Angeles.

They pay to see us, and they
support us, you know, so...

There's nothing wrong
with money, you know?

- It's just how you use it.
- Yeah.

Nothing, nothing greater
than a rich hippie.

The only complaint
they'd had about the album was

that the giant rolling paper
inside has no gum on the edge.

Someone said if it did,

they could roll
two and a half ounces.

Roger?

♪ They're busting folks
in New York City ♪

♪ But not the evil bastards
that they should ♪

♪ They're busting
the dope smoking hippies ♪

♪ Along with the brothers
and the others in the hood ♪

♪ Got to get it legal

♪ Get marijuana legal now

♪ Let's get it legal

♪ And I don't care how.

We weren't political,
by any means.

We didn't advocate
one party over the other.

We were just kind of like
street hippies that were like,

"Hey, we should have
the right to get high, man."

And that's kind of
about how deep

our political philosophy went.

My stance on weed legalization:

It should not only be legal.

It should be mandatory
in some cases.

That's the way I look at it.

There should be some people that

should be forced
to smoke a ton of pot.

All you people
are all lit up, man.

You're usually
lit up in the dark.

They said, you know,
we've got to cut our dope bits,

you know, so, um...

So, I mean, you know, really,
seriously speaking, man.

I mean, how many... how many
people here smoke grass?

How many?

About six.

That's a government survey.

Anybody here on acid tonight?

Drugs were really
our off-duty hours.

But when we're off hours
and we want to get high,

maybe think
of something funny...

Oh, I can do that tomorrow
when I have to go to work

and be straight about it
but act high.

May I have your name and age?

- May I have your name and age?
- Oh, hi, hey.

Uh, uh...

What?

It always astounded me,

why isn't everybody
doing dope jokes?

They're smoking dope.

I guess for some of those
comedians, it was too obvious.

It was too "Yeah, well,
everybody's doing that."

Well, in fact,
nobody was doing that.

So we were the first ones,
and we, in effect,

stole home plate.

Would I be blowing your cover

if I told everyone that you

really aren't into drugs,
that you're both athletes

and that drugs are just
something that you joke about

that you don't do very much of?

No we, we, um... -No, no,
we-we do drugs all the time.

We mainline seeds and stems,
um... and, um...

We don't lift weights
or anything.

No, we don't run
all the time or, you know,

tai chi or nothing.

But the fact is
both Cheech Marin

and Tommy Chong
are straighter than most.

And I spent long hours
with both of them

running along one of the few
remaining Malibu beaches

that still hasn't
been turned into asphalt.

We were just California guys

and we worked out, but we smoked

as much dope as anybody else.

There was this interesting
dichotomy that we revealed.

What about the first time

you did other drugs, like acid?

Yeah, it was about '68.
I remember.

It was, it was when it was
called "try this," you know.

- Try this, yeah.
-As a matter of fact,

I was just
with Timothy Leary last night,

and-and they laid some acid
on me.

And this is real acid.

Oh, that's good acid, too.
Blue Blotter.

And you only need a little bit.

I still take acid occasionally,
about every six months or so.

It's like a cosmic colonic.

You know? No, I'm...
I'm being very serious now,

because I-I take it
every once in a while

just to kind of--
you need something to jolt you

out of wherever you are.

We advocate the friendly drugs,
you know,

like, uh, when you say
"turn on" somebody,

that's sort of
a-a positive thing.

And you want to say "get high."

That's another uplifting,
positive thing.

And it's a recreational drug,
which is also positive.

And we've done our own
independent drug research.

- Which is ongoing, you know.
- Yes.

We got a, we got a grant
from Colombia. -Yeah.

We think we're right.

Only time will tell.

Yes.

There's more verses, but
I can't remember 'em right now.

In the category
of Best Comedy Recordings,

the nominees are

Lily Tomlin,

Bill Cosby, Cheech & Chong.

"Basketball Jones."

A-one, two, three, four.

♪ Yes, I'm the victim
of a Basketball Jones ♪

♪ Ever since I was
a little baby ♪

♪ I always be dribblin'

♪ In fact, I was
the baddest dribbler ♪

♪ In the whole neighborhood...

"Basketball Jones."

That started off as a fun ride

with, uh, Jack Nicholson
to the Laker game.

Lou invited us,

and Jack Nicholson's
an out-of-control driver.

He's got his own rules.

When Cheech gets nervous,
he starts singing.

This song comes on the radio

called "Love Jones."

I started going...
♪ Basketball Jones

♪ I got a Basketball Jones.

I immediately
start writing the lyrics.

The next day, Tommy said,
"Let's record that."

We showed Lou.

He said, "Let's do it."

We always use
what's in front of us,

and because of Lou Adler,
we got access

to the best musicians
in the world.

It just so happens,

in the next studio
was George Harrison,

Billy Preston and Carole King.

So Lou goes over there,
"Hey, George, can you come over

and-and play on this record?"

"Ooh, I'd be glad to."

♪ Basketball Jones

♪ I got a Basketball Jones

♪ I got a Basketball Jones,
oh, baby, ooh ♪

♪ Basketball Jones...

When Lou Adler did anything,

he did it first-class
all the way.

He was a big part of our lives
in so many ways.

He showed us class.

He showed us style.

And he took Cheech & Chong

right to the very, very top
of the heap.

♪ Basketball Jones

♪ I got a Basketball Jones

♪ Oh, baby, ooh.

Touring was just nonstop,

and we needed a rest,

so I moved to
the farthest part of Malibu

to get away from all
the influences in Hollywood.

It would take three days
for the world to stop spinning.

I just wanted to sit
in my living room,

look out the window.

I was married to Rikki,
and she was very supportive,

but it was hard
when we had to travel.

Sometimes, we were absent
from the house

for long periods of time, so
that's always hard on a family.

Tommy and I always
lived close to each other.

It was essential
to our process because

there was this
constant conversation

going on about the act.

Sitting in a studio

and making up funny bits,
it was so much fun.

And after a while,
it became a job,

and then
we couldn't do it anymore.

We ran out of
that record energy.

We told Lou that we were gonna

take time off and write a movie

'cause we wanted
to do movies next.

He took a deep breath.

"Okay, well,
I'll try to find you a deal."

♪ They're gonna put me
in the movies ♪

♪ Oh, they're gonna make
a big star out of me ♪

♪ They're gonna make a scene

♪ About a man
that's sad and lonely ♪

♪ And all I got to do
is act naturally. ♪

The first pass of the script
was called

"Cheech & Chong's
Greatest Hits."

We handed Lou the script
without any kind of

traditional first, second,
third act structure.

We were gonna make
this "day in the life" movies,

and that was far more
interesting than plot.

What we very soon realized,

it really had to center
on two characters from the act,

and the most obvious ones
were Pedro and Man.

We took off a year
at the height of our success,

and at the end of the year,

the deal for the movie
didn't come together,

and Lou said,
"I can't convince the studios

to see this vision,"

even though he had produced
a couple movies.

The fact that you were

so successful
with Rocky Horror,

did that help you
get people to...

The success of one film

doesn't necessarily give you
the total financial backing

for another film.

I actually financed the film.

That's one way to get around it.

♪ All my friends

♪ Know the low rider

♪ Yeah

♪ The low rider

♪ Is a little higher

♪ Yeah...

At some point in the process,

Lou explained to me that

he'd always wanted
to direct a movie,

and this was his chance.

The only thing
that was important to me

is that Tommy and I worked
together to do the scenes.

I didn't care
who the director said he was.

We knew that,

when we got in front
of the cameras,

we were gonna do
what we had to do, what we did.

We were Cheech & Chong.
We're just gonna be funny.

Oh, what's that?
She's hitchhiking.

Hey, watch out.
Coming over. Geronimo!

Hey, Dubble Bubble.

Come on, baby,
I'll give you a ride. Let's go.

- Hey, you ain't a chick.
- Yeah, I know,

but listen, that's the only way
I can get anybody to stop, man.

Hey, that's false advertising,
that, man.

Oh, wow, I... Hey,
I really like your car, man.

Those two guys,
they belong together.

And from the time
Man hopped into Pedro's car,

they were together.

Led Zeppelin, ooh.

Hey, be careful
with that shit, man.

Oh, is it heavy stuff, man?

Will it blow me away?

Better put your seat belt on,
man, I'll tell you that much.

Shit, I've been smoking
since I was born, man.

I could smoke anything, man.

Like, I smoked
that Michoacán, man,

Acapulco Gold, man.

I even smoked that tied stick,
you know?

Tied stick?

Yeah. You know, that stuff

that's tied to a stick,
you know?

- Oh, Thai stick.
- Yeah.

Yeah, that didn't even
do nothing to me, man.

I could probably smoke
this whole joint, man,

and still walk away, man.

Wouldn't be no problem
at all, man.

Toke, toke it up, man.

Kind of grabs you
by the boo-boo, don't it?

Our success depended upon

an uninterrupted conversation
between the two of us.

Lou was getting in our way
when he tried to assume control

of the creative direction
of the movie.

Tommy was very indignant
'cause that was his position.

Lou had a lot of talents.

Directing a movie
isn't one of them.

And we had a lot of talents,

and directing our own movies
is one of them.

-Who lives here, man?
-That's my cousin

Strawberry, man.
He's always got the best smoke.

When you make your first movie,

especially for comedians,
you're gonna use everything

that you've ever learned or
ever tried up until that point.

And that's what we did,
plus more.

STRAWBERRY [over speaker]:
Who is it?

- It's me, Pedro, man.
-Pedro's not here.

No, I'm Pedro, man. Open up.

We improvised inside the scene,

being spontaneous
in front of the camera.

Just be cool.

How long you guys
been in Mexico?

A week.

I mean, a-a day.

Which one is it,
a week or a day?

A weekday.

You got any narcotics
or marijuana in here?

Uh, not anymore.

There was one day
at lunch, we were talking about

different roommates
we've had over the years,

and Zane Buzby told this story
about this girl

that she roomed with that had
this boyfriend named Alex,

and every time they made love,
she would call out his name.

Tommy says, "Let's film that."

I go, "What do you mean?"
"Uh, right after lunch."

And she'd start going
like a motorboat, you know?

Fu-u-u-u-u-u-u-uck

me-e-e-e-e-e-e.

Fuck me, Alex. Fuck me, Alex.

Fuck me, Alex.
Fuck me, Alex.

- Fuck me, Alex.
-Oh, I got a cramp.

- Oh, oh, I got a cramp.
- Yeah!

- Ow. Ow. Ow.
- Yeah! Yeah!

Oh, yeah, oh!

No. No!

It was one of the funniest

scenes in the movie, and
it took a half hour to shoot.

Every single bit of that scene
was improvised.

I didn't know
your name was Alex, man.

Oh, I got a cramp.

Shit, I'd have a cramp
there, too, man. Whoo!

What's going on out here?

I really felt comfortable

shooting movies,

and it didn't matter to me
who directed,

as long as I had a big say
in the process.

This is where I get out.

We had finished filming,

and now it was in Lou's hands
to edit it,

and he wouldn't let us
in the editing room.

- You ready, Tom?
-Yeah.

The question was,

is this a Lou Adler film,

or is this
a Cheech & Chong film?

♪ Up in smoke

♪ That's where
my money goes... ♪

The movie comes out,
and it's a giant hit. Giant.

Nobody thought Up in Smoke

was gonna be anything
but a bust.

But the problem was,
we had a hit movie,

and both Cheech and I were
literally broke, cash poor.

Our income depended upon
our live performances.

And all the time we shot
Up in Smoke,

we stopped touring on the road.

We had no income.

We started looking very closely

at the contract that we had
signed without a lawyer.

Ah...

That was a huge,
horrible deal for us.

A 90-10 split Lou's way.

So how much did your film cost?

Under two. It was probably
a million and a half.

And how much did it gross?

They're talking
$104 million worldwide.

Who knows?

We got a pair of lime green
shoes out of the deal.

How did you...

- $100.
- And $100 and...

A crispy bill.

Out of the
$104 million, seriously,

what was your original deal,
if you don't mind my asking?

- We get, uh...
- $50,000.

- $50,000 to split.
- To split.

$25,000 each.

-$20,000?
- Dollars.

-For writing...
- To write...

- direct, star and promote.
- and direct and to star.

- And promote.
- And promote.

So, you guys made a great deal.

- Yeah.
- Oh, beautiful deal.

- And we had...
- And a jar of Vaseline.

No, we had ten percent
of the back end.

Was it ten percent
or five percent? -Ten percent.

Ten? -Ten percent of some
vaguely defined 100%.

And we were committed to
Paramount for six other movies.

Lou never took a penny
as our manager.

He wasn't a ten-percenter
or twenty-percenter.

He owned the record company.
That was enough for him.

Everything he did to manage us
was really on his dime.

And I now realize that

nothing's more expensive
than a free lunch.

Lou, Tommy, and I
were really tight.

That was a big hit,
and it affected me emotionally

for a long time.

We never had a lawyer,
and he had years of expertise

doing these kind of deals.

We thought what would be fair
is if we split it

a third, a third, a third,

and we would go on
and make other movies

under that formula.

He... chose not
to take that deal.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome
those two fabulous furry

freaks of frivolity,

Cheech & Chong.

- How's everybody?
- Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Oh. We're movie stars now,
you know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

So, we really don't
have to do this shit, you know?

You know that?

But then again,
considering the deal we got,

we're gonna have to do
a lot more of this.

But I'm not, you know, I'm not
bitter about the deal we got.

Fuck no.

We had a Comedy Store

in the city
that we could perform at.

Every big-name act in Hollywood
came down to see us.

- What?
- The paranoids.

- The paranoids are out there.
- They're out there.

Oh, shit. Give me a Valium.

Never mind the Valium.
Where's your gun?

- Oh, I forgot it.
- Well, here, use one of mine.

Okay.

- Where are they?
- Okay.

- Oh, there's one over there.
- Where?

- Click. Click.
- Where?

- Click.
- Wh-What's the matter?

Oh, the damn gun won't work.

Click. Click.

Well, take off
the safety, stupid.

Oh, yeah, right.

- There they are. Cum.
- Cum.

Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum.

- Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum.
- Cum. Can't.

- Can't. Can't.
- Cum.

- What's the matter?
- I can't cum.

Can't. Can't.

- Well, reload.
- Oh, right.

Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum.
Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum. Cum.

- We've overcome. They've gone.
- Yay!

Cum. Cum. Cum.

We were tied up.

We couldn't do another movie

without Lou Adler's, uh,
permission and involvement.

In the meantime,
we met Howard Brown.

I met them.

There was some sort
of a problem with

the chap they did
Up in Smoke with.

So, they were
out of the movie business,

and all they were allowed
to do is tour

because of the legalities
of the problem.

And I saw them
at The Comedy Store,

and I said,
"They belong in the movies,

and-and so I've got to do
something about it."

Howard Brown was a real
fast-talking New Yorker,

and he wanted
to be, uh, in show business.

I didn't like
Howard Brown that much

'cause he was just so sleazy.

Tommy liked him
'cause he liked those kind of

sleazy street guys.
They were more up his alley.

In retrospect,
you looked at him,

and he was perfect
for Hollywood.

Howard was like a bona fide

Jewish gangster from New York.

He dressed like a gangster.

He kind of talked
like a gangster.

He had that New York
sensibility.

There's always
a way to do things.

I-I loved the man. He was...

Him and I got along really good.

They have a problem
with Lou, and, uh,

I said,
"If I can solve the problem,

then I'd like to produce
the-the Cheech & Chong movies."

Howard says, "First of all,

we got to get you out
of the Lou Adler contract."

It took a while, but he did it.

Then he says, "What would
you guys be comfortable with?"

I said, "Well, you know, get us
a million bucks, uh, uh, fee,

and we'll be happy."

With me directing.

That was the only thing
I told Howard,

that I had to be the director.

So, big meeting
you had this morning, huh?

Yeah, we're trying to-to settle
all the small problems.

I mean, the big problems,
you know,

were settled like that,
you know, when it came down to

who's gonna do what, who's
gonna be director, producer.

We have no script. That's okay.

Give us a few million,
we'll make it.

Don't worry about it.

Got them the highest paid, uh,
amount up front,

you know, as a fee
that was ever done

in the history of the business.
No problems.

And Howard phoned me,
and he says...

The meeting only took
a half hour at Universal.

So I called up Columbia.

"You're gonna
tell them three stories.

"They're gonna pick two,

and you're gonna do
two movies for them."

We got a three-picture deal
with two studios

in one day.

In the great
Hollywood tradition,

everyone loves a winner.

In contrast to the $25,000
they both received

for their first movie,
Cheech & Chong were both paid

a million dollars in advance
for their next movie.

- Just be cool, man.
- I'm cool. You be cool.

I'm cool. You just be cool.

How do you like directing?

I love directing.

Is it new to you?

Film directing is new.
You know, I've...

We've only... I've only been
in two pictures,

and I directed half of one
and all of the other.

At first,
I was a little in awe, but...

but it's like riding a horse.

You got to get on and hang on.

Cheech said
that between the two of you,

you've always been the director.

Yeah. Yeah.

He-he directs me.

You know, he-he has an opinion.

The great thing
about Cheech & Chong is

that using improv techniques,

you're always wide open
for somebody else's opinion.

That's why it's important
as to who we're around

before we shoot
or when we shoot,

because anybody around us,
or any words, or television,

anything can affect us.

You got taken to the cleaner
so bad last time.

I don't think so. I really...

I think it was a wash.
I think it was even Steven.

I mean, we had a chance

to show... show the coach
what we could do.

And, uh, so we didn't get paid
for that game,

but we're starters from now on.

So, I-I never look back,
but, you know,

I look back and think
of how beautiful it was.

On the next movie,

I hired a first-time cameraman.

It was a good move

because he was so fired up
to make his mark.

The first day, we did 42 setups,

and there was no warming up.

It was like, we went balls-out.

I was always concentrating
on making the scene funny

between Tommy and I.

♪ Mexican Americans

♪ Don't like to just
get into gang fights ♪

♪ They like flowers and music

♪ And white girls
named Debbie, too ♪

♪ Mexican Americans
are named Chata and Chella ♪

♪ And Chemma and have
a son-in-law named Jeff ♪

♪ Mexican Americans don't like

♪ To get up early
in the morning ♪

♪ But they have to,
so they do it real slow ♪

♪ Mexican Americans
love education ♪

♪ So they go to night school

♪ And they take Spanish
and get a B. ♪

Yeah, leave that in.

And that's all I got.
How do you like it?

Oh, that's good. Uh, yeah.

It's like a protest tune, man.

- Yeah, I-I dig that, man.
- Yeah.

Even though we didn't have

a lot of things
that other movies have--

the car crashes
and all that other stuff--

I was more interested in
getting the human side

and getting the humor
and getting the real, uh,

uh, nitty-gritty.

- You got a light, man?
- Huh?

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Hey, I don't think you better
light it in here, man.

- Why?
- Oh, these gas fumes, man.

- Oh, man.
- Well...

Cheech & Chong are
two sharp L.A. comics

who take old,
tried-and-true material

and zing it right
into their audience.

The drug culture.

Kids who are either
too young or too wrecked

to know it's all been done
before... better.

♪ Hey, homes,
why don't you come along... ♪

The funniest sequence
is so off-color,

I can't even begin
to describe it.

Weird, anarchistic,
anti-authority,

sophomoric, gross,
bordering on repulsive,

and sometimes real funny.

When they were starting out,
I was a kid,

and I thought Cheech & Chong
were terrific.

I've grown up. They haven't.

Hmm. Maybe they know something.

-♪ Business on
the other side... ♪

You know, you two
are really carrying on

the tradition
of the Laurel and Hardy

and the Martin and Lewis
and the Abbott and Costello,

the comed-- the male comedy team

in feature-length
motion pictures.

Are you aware of that?
I mean, is that...

- No.
- No?

Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh.

Oh, that. Yeah.

♪ On the other side...

Our relationship
with the press,

right from the beginning,
was always

a love-hate relationship.

They didn't see
the intelligence it took

to make a really dumb joke.

Once in a while, one of
the highest-class critics

would give us a rave review,

like Pauline Kael
in The New Yorker.

"Okay, well,
somebody's getting it."

Everything worked in our favor.

And if you didn't like us,
that was your problem,

and if you liked us,
that was also your problem.

♪ Business on
the other side... ♪

You've got the money.

You're-you're living
quite nicely.

Is this what the counterculture
is coming to?

We found out that
"counterculture" means "poor."

Yeah, we're no longer
in the counterculture.

We're, uh, across
the counterculture.

You know, they give five bucks
across the counter,

and then we give them
a record or a movie or...

something like that.

You think of George Carlin,

you think, uh, Richard Pryor.

Is it fair to ask you
how you think

you stack up to them as a comic?

When they say "comics,"

they don't even mention
Cheech & Chong.

They always say,
"Oh, they're something else."

So we'll take that.
We're "something else."

- Can you define it?
- Nope.

♪ Nice dreams

♪ Hmm, little girl.

Do you realize how long
we've been doing this?

A long time.

Uh, it blows my mind
when I think about it.

Look how far we've come.

I know. Way out in the desert.

And where is Dave
in this whole deal?

Dave's not here.

I've been dying to say that.

That cracks me up, man.

So, is this
a documentary or a movie?

I don't know, man.

Well, is there a script?

Are you serious?

Well, yeah, I'm serious.

You always say
"we never had a script,"

and I wrote the script
that we "never had."

I didn't write
anybody's dialogue,

but I wrote the premise
of the movie,

which a movie company needs.

In order to make a movie,

they got to know
where to set the cameras.

If you wrote it,
how did I improvise

all the stuff that I did?

Or you did or we did together?

I never said I wrote every line.

I said I wrote the outline.

So, like, "Joke goes here."
You wrote that?

- I mean, all right, h-here...
- No, see, see, you get,

you get insulted when it comes
to that. -I do get insulted.

But here's the perfect example.

Okay? We were making
Nice Dreams. -Yeah.

And, uh, we were
in the insane asylum...

♪ Save the whales

♪ Hey, funky mama,
save those whales... ♪

In all my endeavors,

I never called myself
a leader of anything.

I would organize the band,
but I was never the best singer

or the best musician.

But I had
an organizational sense.

It just came to me naturally.

At the beginning,

there was a younger brother/
older brother dynamic going on

because he had more experience,
he was eight years older.

But I was learning a lot
every movie.

Tommy kind of saw my ideas as
an affront to his directorship.

No, man, I'm just trying
to make the movie better.

There's an age-old,

tried-and-true formula
for making movies:

the director calls the shots.

It's movie etiquette.

When you have a vision,
it's your vision.

Cheech wanted more say
in what we were doing,

and it was like,

"No, this is what
we're going to do."

Hey!

My balls itch!

I was glad to listen
to Tommy creatively

because we had the same process.

If I thought it was funnier
or that I could make it funny,

I would do it.

His direction was very general:

"You have a padded cell.
Be funny."

The essential part of knowing
when something is funny

never changed.

Hey!

The thing that started
to slowly change was

who was in charge
of knowing everything.

Yeah. Marissa,
bring me some tea,

and get me Howard Brown. Thanks.

We're gonna do a bit here.
Cheech is really excited.

You know, "Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen."

Then we'll pull back and we'll
see about four or five...

- Oh, okay. Okay.
- ...bored people there.

HB, tell me some good news.

Well, the good news--
You want the good news?

Good news is we're partners
with them in the movie.

They want to protect the movie
from any injunction

- or enjoinment or lawsuit...
- Bullshit.

They're gambling
that I'm a nice guy

that won't give them
any problems,

which I already have been,
for the whole shoot, right?

Right, right. -Well,
I'm gambling the other way.

I'm gambling that-that
we're popular enough

that if they don't
see it our way,

then we're gonna--
we're not gonna feel

very good about
working for them again.

That's right, you're one
of the most important,

- if not the most important...
- That's right.

So why don't they beat up
the other schmuck

and leave me alone?

Well, if it's that...

Howard Brown had a lot to do

with the tension between us
because he would tell

each of us different things.

"Oh, well, Tommy,
you're-you're the star,

you're this or this,"
you know, "this is all you,"

and he would come out to me
and tell me the same,

"Oh, Cheech, you know,
y-you're really the star.

"And that Tommy, we-- he needs
you, and blah, blah, blah,

and so you got to do this
for him, blah, blah,"

and he was just a lying...

You know, and it was like...
Ay...

-CHONG: I found
a real doctor, man.

- Says he can help us.
- Do you have the key?

I've got the key right here.

Oh, thank God.

Stick out your tongue.

There's the key.

You have
Dr. Timothy Leary in the film.

-Yeah.
-And Dr. Leary offered

some interestingly
convoluted explanations

of your work and your art.

I do not understand
how he has likened your art

as film comedian
to the work of Bruegel.

- Do you, Tommy?
- I don't know who Bruegel is.

- Do you, Richard?
- Yeah. Uh-huh.

Could you explain that for...?

Well, Bruegel,
if you look at his paintings,

are very close
to Hieronymus Bosch

in that there's a lot
of things going-- it's...

His canvases
were heaven and hell.

You know?
And this particular picture,

more than anything else,
was heaven and hell.

Hey, man, I ain't bullshitting
with you... -Hey!

Hey, man, give me
my money back, man!

All these things
happening together

that the eye cannot take in
all at once.

But once you start studying,
you see the complexity of life

in one canvas,
and he makes it work.

What are you doing?

Well, they say
the original screenplay

for Cheech & Chong's
Nice Dreams is written

on the back of an envelope.

Must have been a small envelope.

My suggestion for the title

of Cheech & Chong's
next movie is

Cheech & Chong Go
to the Drug Detoxification

and Rehabilitation Center,

Deal with Dope-Induced
Brain Damage and Paranoia

and Learn to Make
Funny Comedies.

What, do you think that's
too long for a theater marquee?

Well, it might have been
a better film than this one.

I'll tell you, this is, uh,
this is bad stuff.

There. Got it.

Do you ever get on

one another's nerves
to the point where you get mad

and you don't speak for a while?

- Not Cheech & Chong.
- Oh, come on.

- No. Yeah, yeah.
- Really?

Yeah, Tommy's saying,
Tommy's saying, "Uh-huh."

No, we get along just great.

Don't we, Tommy?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh...

It's been, um...

brewing from the last picture
that I directed.

'Cause I kept
being taken away

from Cheech, you know?
And, uh...

So that's why the next movie
we're gonna do, uh,

we're gonna get a director in
to direct,

'cause now we got
the confidence,

you know, we can do that.

We finished Nice Dreams,

and then we went into
Things Are Tough All Over.

On the other movies,
I would write,

Cheech would go on vacation,
Howard would make the deal,

and then we'd come in and shoot.

But this time, Cheech wanted
to be involved in everything,

and he didn't want me to direct.

I want to go back to the desert!

Tom Avildsen was the editor.

I said, "Okay, Tom, you direct.

"You will go down as
the director, I don't care,

but I'll actually be
the director."

Jesus Christ, Chong.

It was this kind of replacement.

"I'll just promote Tom,
the editor,

because I'm not the director,"
but he was.

Well, that was
a great fucking idea.

Thanks.

Hey!

Hey!

¡Come mierda, pendejo!

We're gonna die of
heat frustration out here.

Play something else,
will you, please?

That's desert music, man.

- Come on, mellow out, man.
- Oh, "desert music."

Man, we're gonna die out here.

Hey, man, let's do that song
we were writing in Chicago.

What song?

You know,
that "Me and My Old Lady."

I don't know how it goes.

Come on, sure you do.
You wrote it.

- I don't remember it, man.
- Well, let's try it.

♪ Me

- ♪ And my old lady
- ♪ My old lady

There you go.

♪ We like,
we like-like to, like ♪

♪ We like to, like-like,
get outside ♪

Uh...

♪ But sometimes

♪ People space us out...

Me and Tommy have been together

longer than I've ever
been with any woman.

And you get these points that
you got to just talk it out,

and it's very painful sometimes,

but you just do it 'cause
you want that relationship

to go on, other than
the fame and the money,

'cause it's really a lot of fun.

I mean, he's my best friend,
you know?

It's yin and yang,

you know, Cheech & Chong.

I'm passive,
he's, uh, very aggressive,

and it works perfectly.

We complement each other.
That's why we're together.

Did the egos get in the way

of your work
when you were directing?

Yeah. Yeah, it-it's a...
it's a strange--

There was a learning process
for both of us, you know?

And, uh, the nature of our
act is I'm-- I-I always will,

you know, I'm the senior member
of the partnership,

and so I can make some,
some crucial decisions.

But then again, if-if
I'm off on the wrong path,

he-he'll tell me about it.

And, uh,
it's a very touchy thing,

you know,
especially with movies.

You know, i-if you know
anything about movies,

uh, that's the first thing
that happens:

friendships dissolve, you know.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

What happens in movies is

your ego gets quite large.

Tommy's ego was always

quite large, which is great.

You have to have a big ego
to be in show business

'cause what you're saying is,
"Look at me," you know?

I'm doing wonderful things.
You should laugh,

or you should love us,
or whatever it is

that's necessary.

He got an ego

out of proportion
to his actual talent.

Beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...

When I became the director,

that really drove a wedge
between Cheech and I.

We were no longer partners.

I was the director,
and Cheech was the actor.

Hey, listen, man, turn those
mics down. Turn 'em down.

I think Cheech really wanted

to be equal in every way,

and you can't, because
even though I directed,

he was the star
of all the movies.

...zero.

The movie was focused on him.

And I did that purposely

because it-it was a trade-off.

He didn't put me anywhere.

I was in the same position I was

since we started the act.

I was Cheech
from Cheech & Chong.

And that came with
its own thing.

If you weren't gonna be
recognized

as the acting star,
you wanted to be recognized

as the director--
I understand that.

So you think that
I-I directed because,

uh, it was a job
that I could do?

Instead of being the star,
I could be the director?

Well, you always were
the director.

It wasn't like...

And you got to earn it.
You can't just say,

oh, because I was there with
the other guy that directed,

I should be a director.

Did I direct as much as you did
in the movies?

- Huh?
- Did I direct as much

- as you did in the movies?
- No.

All right, then.

- No, you never...
- See, that's a lie.

That's a lie?

Yeah. Well, of course
it's a lie.

I directed just as much
as you did in the movies.

- You know?
- Okay.

When we had to re--

This isn't really worth
going into.

Mine. Mine.

Mine, mine, mine.

- Mine, mine.
- Ow!

Cheech said,

"No more stoner movies.

I want to do a movie
without dope."

I said, "No problem."

You know, it's like doing
a comedy show clean.

You know, work clean.
And I-I love the challenge.

So I said, "Yeah, let's do it."

There's a lot of irony
in The Corsican Brothers

because it's a movie about
feeling each other's pain.

Who are you,
and what are you doing here?

I'm your brother Luis.

You're lying.
My brother wasn't Mexican.

Look, it's me.

Ow!

There was a lot of meaning

in that movie.

Ah, Luis, Luis!

I didn't want to make
amiable messes anymore.

I wanted to make
more fully concentrated

and focused movies.

Tommy said, "I'm gonna write
Corsican Brothers.

"I don't want any
interference from you,

"and if you don't like it,
give back the money

you received as an advance
for the movie."

He wanted to cut me out
of the process that was

the lifeblood of Cheech & Chong.

Wow, you know, people do have
different memories of--

different experiences
of the same event.

And so I have
to respect that, you know?

If that's what he feels
that's what happened,

that's what, that--
in his world,

that's what happened.

But not in my world.

Give me that!

Ow!

Cheech wasn't interested

in the hard part of
directing a movie.

You know, the nuts and bolts.

He wasn't interested.

He just wanted to perform.

You know, "Turn on the camera
and I'll perform."

He wanted some kind of control
over The Corsican Brothers,

which he never got.

After we wrapped
Corsican Brothers,

I went back to Los Angeles.

My marriage to Rikki
was unraveling at that point.

really pulled away from me.

He was in a very transitional
time of his life.

Tommy was content to go--

I think he lived in France
for three or four years.

I didn't know how
he was gonna be relevant

to the U.S. audience
by living in Paris,

but he wanted to bask
in the South of France

and, uh... and exalt in
his worldwide renown

as this comic genius director.

And I was just-- I was lost.

I went home, smoked dope
and played guitar.

And then one day, I looked up
and I saw this brand-new thing.

I thought, "This is perfect
for Cheech & Chong."

We're musicians,
we're filmmakers,

and we're comedians.

We can make video albums.

So I figured I would
write these tunes

and direct the videos,

and he would direct
the mockumentary

that wrapped around it.

And we'll do this together
and it'll be great.

Come on, man,
let's do a video, man.

I don't want to do
a video, all right?

Don't want to do it.

All right,
then I'll do it myself.

Good, do it yourself.

I'll do a lot of videos.

Well, good. Good for you.

I'll be a vidiot. Ha-ha.

You are already a vidiot.

Forget you.

I needed one more tune

for the package, and I was
reading this article

in the L.A. Times
about this young

Mexican kid who got
caught in a raid

and got deported,
but he was American.

At the same time,
Bruce Springsteen's record

was playing on the radio:

♪ Born in the USA.
So I started singing,

♪ I was born in East L.A.

♪ Man, I was born in East L.A.

Oh, yeah, you were born
in East L.A.

Well, let's see
your Green Card, huh?

Green Card?

♪ I'm from East L.A.

I showed up for everything
you ever wanted, right?

There wasn't anything
you asked me to do

that I didn't do.

- I asked you one thing.
- To be an extra.

No, it's not an extra.

It was the vital part of
the middle of the song.

It was... it wasn't.

All right, all you mojados
down here,

I want y'all to hit the floor.

A cop, of all things.

Not even my character.
It's a cop.

You wanted me to be a cop.

Where were you born, man?

Huh?

The Chong character
doesn't do bit parts.

I protect my character.

Hey, are you one of those dudes
that do horoscopes, man?

Hey, I'm a Cancer
with a bad moon rising.

Look here, el vago.
Watch my lips.

Where were you born?

And that's what it was.

- Well, that's the way you...
- It was a fucking insult.

That's the way you perceived it
because I was in charge of...

That's the way it was.

Born in East L.A. comes out.

It was a huge hit.

The head of Universal said,
"I saw this video,

"I think that it's brilliant,

"and I think there's
a movie there.

"But only for you.

"It's not
a Cheech & Chong movie,

"it's a Cheech movie,

and I'm-I'm ready to do it
right now."

At some point in the process,

the younger brother
got old enough.

You weren't in the record.
You weren't in the video.

The video prompted the film.

You weren't in it.

In my mind, I tried
everything I-I could

to appease you.

I was tired of being excluded,
and I...

But you never wrote
for Cheech & Chong.

You wrote for Cheech.

Yeah. Okay.

Now, let's get
the record straight.

You and Tommy Chong are
no longer working together?

Well, just not right now.

We're taking a little hiatus,
and we're doing

individual projects
we've wanted to do

for a little while,
and we'll probably

get back together again
and do something,

you know, after a while.

And that's what happens
when you break,

when you break the thing
like that, it's broken.

I told you when you walked away

that, hey, I still want to make
Cheech & Chong movies, but...

- Oh, that's bullshit.
- I'm sorry...

I said I'm sorry...

That is bullshit, man.

You're really stretching it now.

I... Oh, please, Tommy.

Tommy Chong has had
the limousines

and the millions
that go with them,

but the gold mine
that created them all,

the Cheech & Chong team,
is no longer his team.

We're sort of in the middle
of the divorce,

and I don't have
another woman yet.

As far as a career goes.

Well, you were mad
because I-I... I didn't want to

try to keep our career going.

No, I... -I didn't want
to keep you directing.

I didn't want to keep doing
Cheech & Chong movies.

I'm going to do the--

By the way,
when I finish this one,

I still want to go back
and do Cheech & Chong movies.

Do other members of a band
go off and do solo albums,

then come back and do the band?

- Well, we're not a band.
- Yes, we are.

- No, we're not.
- We're absolutely a band.

Cheech, that "nice people
on both sides" argument

does not work with us.

And Chong doesn't work
as an extra, you know?

I'm not doing this anymore.

Cheech. Cheech.
Get back in the car.

How you get
the hell off this trailer?

Hey.

You got to be kidding me.

What the hell
you think you're doing?

- Ever hear of safety?
- We just...

I've been listening
to you guys all day long,

and I don't care who you are,
I want you off my trailer.

I'll-- Okay, okay, I'll--

How-how do you get the fuck
off of this?

- Oh, fuck.
- What's the matter?

My knee, my knee.

How'd you do that?

Shit. Jumping off that rig.

Well, what did you do that for?

-You okay?
Here, put your... Here.

Come here.
Put your weight on me.

- All right, just shake it out.
- Yeah, that's better.

There you go.

You okay now?

It's better, it's better.

- It's better now? You okay?
- It's good.

- Yeah.
- You can make it?

Yeah, I can make it. Yeah.

All that stuff that happened...

- Yeah.
- Years ago, man.

I mean, why-why are we
dwelling on it?

Why don't we just let it go?

Yeah, I know what you're saying.

I don't want
to do this shit, either,

but just, you drive me nuts!

No, but seriously,

we got to put all that bullshit
behind us.

Okay.

Because we've got a whole
beautiful life

ahead of us, you know?

Yeah.

Hey, Cheech.

What?

The Joint.

Yeah.

How's your knee?

My knee's good.

Hey, you know
what I was thinking?

-Hmm?
-That idea you had

about the marijuana wind farm?

Yeah?

How would that work?

Well, it's a great idea
because the wind is free.

Yeah. We could work on that.

How much you think we can grow?

-Thousands of acres.
-Yeah?

I mean, sky's the limit.

Everything's changing.

We got to prepare
for the future.

Well, okay.

Will you grow
your mustache back?

No.

No, seriously.

No.

Is that Dave's bike?

I don't know.

Is it true that you

once opened for Cheech & Chong?

- I did.
- Where was that?

People forget,
but Cheech & Chong were huge.

Oh, sure. Yeah.

Huge at the time.

Hey, man, it's Dave.
Open up, man.

Dave's not here, man.

The guy's so high,

he doesn't even know
that's Dave.

Homer. Homer?

Homer's not here, man.

-Cheech.
- What is Camelot?

- Yes. Cheech.
- What is a baster?

Yes. You're the winner today.

Your charity will get $50,000,

and Aisha and Anderson's
charities $25,000 each.

♪ I got the Rollie on my arm
and I'm pourin' Chandon ♪

♪ And I roll the best
'cause I got it goin' on ♪

♪ I'm a gangsta...

You do need a paint job, man.

Anything you want.

You know, like a flame job.

- No, thanks.
- Maybe ghost flames.

You like old-school pinstriping?

Von Dutch style, huh?

- Whoa.
- Oh!

-Om...
- Hello? Hello?

- Hmm?
- Hello. My name is...

Oh, you know,
I'm gonna hit the pause button

right there,
'cause we're all good on

Bunny Scout cookies.

From marijuana movie
icon to patron of the arts,

Cheech Marin's massive
collection

of Chicano art and culture
has toured the world

and now has a permanent home.

Tommy Chong was sentenced

to nine months in federal prison

for selling bongs
on the Internet.

Lou Adler, man, is a treasure,

and hopefully
we'll be up here one day

accepting an award for being

the first rock and roll
comedians

to be indicted into--
oh, indicted

- into the Hall of Fame.
- "Indicted."

We should indict Lou Adler

to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.

What do you say?

Cheech & Chong,
ladies and gentlemen,

Cheech & Chong!

Weren't they great?
Cheech & Chong.