There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the past? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
This is Jane Pauley. Fifty years ago, Cheech Marin met Tommy Chong, and a legendary comedy duo was born. All these decades later, they're still making us laugh. Here's their conversation with our Tracy Smith. You know as if we were put here for a reason. Because there's a lot of stuff that's happening that technically should not have happened.
But somehow the planets aligned or something? Is that how you guys feel? Absolutely. It's exactly how we met. When we first met, we looked at each other and we both had the same thought. What is this guy? Is he a biker, Mongolian biker? When I looked at Cheech, he was hiding from the law anyway. And so he wasn't who he really was. It was an acting class, and we were all looking at teaching, trying to figure out what his nationality was. What do you think it was about the two of you that clicked?
We had the same frame of reference. things in our past, music-wise or experience-wise or being bicultural kind of thing. Have you found, as you guys have gotten older, that there's something to aging together that is special, going through this together. Well, I'm always comforted by the fact that he's eight years older than me. So whatever's going to happen to him is probably going to filter down to me at some era.
But on the other hand, I'm the guy with the good knees. Yeah. So I don't need a wheelchair. I got better knees now. New ones. New knees. New knees. But the connection really was is that We both would take chances. We love taking chances. We love to explore and love to go out there. And he's ready for anything and I was ready for everything. And so we just clicked.
can you explain i mean up in smoke was huge you were huge can you explain what it was like to be in the eye of that hurricane It was different when they knew who you were, they could see who you were, because before it was records, they could only hear who you were, and they didn't know who did what, it was just these two voices coming out of the speakers. When we got to movies, oh, that's Cheech and that's Chong.
And the movies were all over the world at the same time, translated or dubbed, whatever it was. And so it was an international phenomenon at the same time. And now they knew who we were. You know, we'd be driving down the freeway. But up in smoke was an anomaly. because it was shot for less than a mil and shot in less than a month.
And Warren Beatty actually came up to you, and what did he say? He said, you guys have no idea what you've done. And I said, thank you very much, Warren, and you're not as dumb as you look either. well it's funny that you bring up the dumb as you look thing because it does seem like in a way you two have been under Do you think that's fair to say? Oh, all the time. Well, we went against the protocol of movie making.
See, movie making is the art of writing a story that's good enough to get people with a lot of money to invest a lot of money and keep a lot of people employed for a long time as long as the money is coming in. Well, what we did, we eliminated a lot of the writing part, the script part, the director part, all these things. And we just... put the camera on us and we did our things and we got a movie. It was revolutionary. And we changed the world with our movie. And that was...
More serendipity than anything. That's what I look at it. Because come on, I'm literally a high school dropout. I couldn't make, I tried to get my GED when I was in prison. And they told me, just cheat, just put it down. How do you think you got in prison in the first place? Here I am with the GED, I cheated, I got in prison. And that's really going to help me in life. This is the thing.
You pretend, oh, I didn't even get my GED. You pretend that you don't have smarts, but the truth is, you've said it takes a lot of smarts to make a dumb joke. Oh, yeah, it does. The smart and luck and... We were meant to go down this path. We opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. We started a lot of careers and influenced so many people. In as much as, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance. He influenced me when I met him when he first came over.
My whole plan in life was to go to Venice Beach and work out at Gold's and write poetry. That was my aim and I did it for a couple of years. And I've met great people all my career, my whole life. I've had interactions with some really... super super famous great people and I just come to the conclusion that we're one of them. one of the great famous people. So there, na na na. The movie's titled Cheech and Chong's last movie. Yeah. Is it?
You never know. You never know. It could be Chi Chi Chiang's last movie, part one. Or it could be like Cher's goodbye tour. Yeah. It's a 14th annual goodbye tour. Who knows? Who knows? Do you look at the future? What does the future look like for you? So good. Closer than it did before. I got a Tesla. I drive a Tesla. So that gives you an idea where I'm at.
And I bought one of the first Teslas. So you're thinking about the planet. But as far as yourselves, what is the future? No, I'm thinking about a good car. I don't know the hell with the planet. But ourselves? Yeah. We'll stay together as long as, again, we try to break up. I try to, we got together and I tried to, I wrote him a note saying, nice to see you, but I don't want to work.
And my son intercepted it and put his own note in there and said, hey, I want to work with you. And next thing you know, we worked together again for another 20 years. Yeah. And so, just like this movie, my daughter Robbie and her guy Dave, you know, they came to us, what, eight, nine years ago and said, hey, we've got an idea for a documentary. You know, you guys, you want to do it? And we said, sure.
And here we are. And it's about to be released. Trying to explain what we did. And it's good. That's bottom line. It's not something that needs any kind of... phony prompting. This is material that you can only see when you go to the movies. And it's about stuff that we forgot that we did and what we saw. So it's so good. archival, you know. He's a collector and he collects stuff, you know, that in a few years it'll be worse.
Quite a bit because it's a one-of-a-kind and that's what we are. We're one of a kind. You are one of a kind. Actually two of a kind. Or two of a kind. One time for two guys. One time for two guys. The both of us. Financially, you both have done really well. You made money and you held on to your money. It doesn't seem like you spent it too frivolously. No, I didn't spend it frivolously. I just got married a bunch.
No, he spread the wealth around. Yeah, he spread the wealth around. That's a good way to look at it. But the truth is, you both could retire. I mean, financially, you're well off. Yeah, but we don't want to retire. Everybody that I talked to that's retired, which they didn't.
You know, there's nothing to do. I sit around home all day and do nothing, and then the next day I do the same thing. They don't want to do that. They want to be lively. They want to get out. Sometimes it's harder to get out. They always want to do that. No, I do a lot of cameos where people come to me for advice about, and I tell everybody all the time, you know, enjoy your old age. There's perks. If they leave you alone, enjoy that.
Enjoy it. If you've got your own television set because you don't understand, you can't hear their television set, enjoy. Enjoy. You watch like with the pandemic and everything else, man. I got on YouTube and I got into some like sovereign citizen things and cops and all these weird things that the rest of my family would watch for two seconds. But me?
I can go there for days and just stare at it because we have time and we've earned the right to do that. You know, we've earned the right to sit on our butt and in the sun, you know. That's what Bob Hope did in the last of his years, you know. There's some friends of mine that have turned 50, or they're turning 50, and they go, what advice can you give me? I said, 50 is a perfect platform to stop and take a rest.
and look down the road from which you came that brought you to this place, 50. All the things that you did and linked together to arrive at 50. And be proud of yourself and take a little nap and then look up to the rest of the road that you have to go to the next 50 years. And they kind of all look at that. Next 50 years? You think you're going to make everything? Yeah. Well, I've always said I'm going to live to be 100, and now it's possible.
It totally is. It's possible, you know. Especially with the new knees. Yeah, with the new knees. I remember George Burns used to joke that when he turned 100, he was going to go on stage. And so when he turned 100, they asked if he was still going on stage, George said, F that. What are you two most proud of? Me? Yeah. I'll tell you, I'm really the most proud of my family. Radon Chong, the actress, Robbie Lynn Chong, the actress model.
Precious Chong, the comedian, Paris Chong, my manager, Gibran Chong, my kids, they're all beautiful. They're all named Chong? He's like Fraser, George Fraser named all his kids George. Yeah, yeah. They named all these kids Chong. Yeah, well, that's your last name. How about for the two of you, what the two of you did together? Well, I'm the most proud of the fact that he has a museum. in Riverside, California. And there's one trivia that is incredible.
Because to teach and for as long as we've been together he's got his art collection a three-story beautiful building in Riverside, California and picture or autograph of me and him together in that museum not one but there is one and It's worth a hundred thousand dollars if you can go to the museum and spot The Cheech and Chong pitcher that we're in, he's going to pay you $100,000. Like, where's Waldo? We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview after this break.
There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the past? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
What are you most proud of that the two of you have done together? That we've done together? That we've created this legacy that's very influential. I see all the rapper guys, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, they all were winged on Cheech and Chong. A lot of other comedians were winged. All the guys from Saturday Night Live were winged on Cheech and Chong.
while enjoying ourselves at the same time. I don't know how much this documentary shows up, but we had a great time together when we were on the road and making, not movies, making records. And we both quit cocaine together. That's good. And we held hands and we took a bottle away. You quit? Oh, wow. Didn't know that. Okay, I'm going to get a little woo-woo here, but if you could, tell me what you love about the guy. Do you want me to go first? Sure, go ahead. He used to be an altar boy.
That's what you love about me? I still am an altar boy. Is that how you say it? Yeah. Tommy is... You never know where he's going or what thought is going to occur to him. And he says a lot. And then all of a sudden he'll say something. Oh, wow, we could really do something with that. That's funny, man. Let's work on that, you know. And those surprises that are always coming up is like I've learned how to kind of not be thrown by them. You know, and they'll go, oh.
Because the first thing is always, no, that's crazy. And then, yeah, well, not crazy, but I think it could be funny if we worked on it, you know. And that's what, but that's always in process. the seeds of brilliance in there. So what are your hopes for this move? Oh, the investors make their money back. That's what I hope. And if they don't, it's cool because we got another idea. More money. Cheech and Chong's other last movie.
For kids who might not know, you know, maybe they know the name Cheech and Chong, but they don't know what you all are about. A kid like that does not have a cell phone. There's no such thing. There's no such thing in this world unless you go to a third world country. And even those guys, they'll reach in their camel gear and pull out a phone, iPhone. So now this whole generation.
I heard a conversation between two young ladies, and one was a little bit older than her, and she said, talking about Cheech and Chong, and she says, what was that? That was a comedy show or something? Well, it's the comedy show. I like the other one that he's getting on the elevator and this lady in a cane, she's getting on the elevator, looks up and she goes, what'd she say? I used to go out with you. That's as far as I'm gonna explain that one.
And I always get, you know, I do signings at the Comic-Con. You know, I was just in Gettysburg, and I had, you know, signed the autographs. Yeah, I get some old people, you know, my grandmother loved you. Then they're old already. How does that feel? It feels good. We're still around. Kids relate to us. And like I said, enjoy your old age. Like me, I don't have a big appetite like I used to have.
And so I can go on a tasting spree, you know, whatever, you know, there's no restrictions now. You know, because what's the worst going to happen? So you can enjoy life, especially if you can move when there's a fire in your neighborhood. Run for your life! Here we go. I'm running for my life. Cheech, you mentioned legacy. What is the legacy of Cheech and Chong?
Part of our legacy is that we have joined the kind of immortal comedy teams, you know, with Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis and all those guys. We are part of that legacy. The Smothers Brothers. The Smothers Brothers, yeah. And we're proud to be in that, you know, because that's who we grew up with, you know. became our contemporaries and now we're were the people that other people grew up with, you know, so there's a certain pride in that.
And we're the old farts that just won't go away. We linger. The great thing is that weed unites everybody. There's no classification of humanity. that weed does not come in there at one time or another. Weed unites everybody. Yeah, it does. Absolutely. Have you found that in your travels? Absolutely. Absolutely. Weed, that was the burning bush Moses talk. talking to in the Bible. No, I got on AI and I asked AI about the Bible and AI told me, he said, Moses.
Yeah, that was God talking to Moses. But that brings up an interesting point, that weed unites everybody. Do you think that Cheech and Chong kind of... United everybody? They're one and the same, you know. We did a survey when we were doing this and of our work and we found out that Maybe 5% of all our work that we've done with the records and movies had to do with weed. 5%? 5% of the whole, especially in the records. But we were always the weed guys.
Fine. But they enjoyed all the other stuff. But, you know, a little bit goes a long way, I think. So you two still fully believe in the power of weed. Oh, totally. We're both clean. I'm not an alcoholic. He's not an alcoholic. My wife? No. One drink a night. One drink at a time, you know. But we're health nuts more than anything. And we always have been. Like my whole thing, like I said, was going to Gold's Gym and, you know, becoming...
At least healthy. Yeah, that's the thing. I think people have this vision of you guys partying all the time. But the truth is, when you weren't on stage, you're in the gym. We belong to the YMCA. Yeah. And they got a Y everywhere. First time we went to New York. We did a, oh, with Belushi, but I'm not saying that he gave us a Coke, but we got high and we did a show, and it was the worst show we'd ever done.
Because we were high thinking we're in LA, but we're in New York and New York people they don't like comedians that don't know where they are. And so our show, our first show was so bad that we were arguing before we got off the stage. And that was the last time we ever did coke. That was it. This is messing up our act. See you later. So how long do you think Cheech and Chong will go on? Twenty minutes to twelve now. Longer than that. Not much, but longer enough.
Until we get the guy that's driving and his wife says, oh, there's Cheech and Chong. Where? Is that that comedy show? I love that. This documentary is going straight to theaters, not streaming. What do you envision as people are sitting there watching this film? What do you hope? I hope that they enjoy the experience of going to a theater to see a movie and enjoy it communally. And that's the big deal, communally. We're literally responsible for bringing families together.
Because the only way you could see a Cheech and Chong movie, you had to be with an adult. We brought families together. So parents would take their kids. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Do you hope parents take their kids to this? Yes. Oh, for sure. Kids will be taking their parents. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, their parents and their grandparents and their great-grandparents. And that will be our legacy. Yeah, we go back. Brought them together in the theater over a tub of popcorn.
that's not a bad legacy that's not a bad legacy but make sure it's not medicated yeah because they have that you know i missed a birthday party one time because they ate a whole bag of medicated popcorn yeah That was last week. Was that before or after the chocolate with the mushrooms? Oh, the mushrooms. Yeah, this is my... My mushroom shirt. But don't miss the, what is it? It's Cheech and Chung's last movie. Cheech and Chung's last movie. Don't forget it.
I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.
I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here? And maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.