Blast From The Past: Cheech and Chong

"Cheech and Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their stand-up routines, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug culture movements, most notably their love for cannabis.

Their early success culminated with the release of their first feature-length movie, Up in Smoke, in 1978. It became something of a cult classic.

In 1985 the duo released their album Get Out of My Room. Immediately following the release of the album, Cheech Marin separated himself from teh pair's drug-inspired act by working on a solo career. After their contentious parting in the 1980s, the duo had a less-than-stellar friendship.

On July 30, 2008, the team reunited to publicly announce thier fall comedy tour, titled "Cheech and Chong Light Up America/Canada". Ottawa was the first city worldwide on September 5, 2008.

The split between Cheech & Chong was particularly devastating to Chong. To him, Cheech Marin was 'closer than a wife. The only thing we didn't do was have sex." Of their split, he says, 'It was like a death in the family.' Chong was a recurring character and later a regular character as the hippie "Leo" during the second, third, fourth, seventh and eighth seasons of That '70s Show.

After he and Tommy went thier separate ways, Cheech starred in a number of films as a solo actor, most notably Born in East L.A., Tin Cup and Once Upon a Time in Mexico."

He also had a cameo as the father to Jorge Garcia's Hurley in the smash show Lost.

In my high school grad comments I wrote that one of my ambitions in life was to own two red bulldogs named Cheech and Chong. I kid you not. So, when I found out that the duo were going to be in Montreal for the Just for Laughs comedy tour, I was very excited to try and meet them.

After following Pamela Anderson to her hotel, we were fortunate enough to see Cheech arrive roughly a half an hour later. We called out to him to stop and sign, but he gave a quick look and walked into the hotel. Not a great start.

A while later, Tommy Chong returned for the evening. He was totally cool. He signed around 11 photos for Steve who knew that he was a racker. He then signed three photos for myself and stopped for a picture. He saw that he was the first signing the pictures, so he asked if Cheech was back yet. We told him that we was but that he didn't sign. Tommy said that it might have been because he was with his wife.

I must say that Tommy Chong was the guy we would end up seeing the most on the trip. The next day we say him heading out into old Montreal with his family to do some sightseeing.

Later that day, the two headed out. They each had seperate Escalades provided by the comedy festival. We were able to finally grab some autographs from Cheech. He was a pretty cool guy also when he wasn't with his wife.

I finished getting my photos signed by Cheech and he posed for a quick photo. I asked him what he thought about the ending of Lost. He said that he actually really enjoyed it.

Another blast from the past....Cheech and Chong.