Still Smokin’

When Cheech & Chong reunited in 2005 at the Aspen Comedy Festival -- their first onstage performance in 20 years -- it didn’t go well. After Cheech performed “Mexican Americans,” Chong sang a stream-of-consciousness bit that dissed Cheech’s role on the TV show Nash Bridges. The tune was about getting stoned and watching a show on the Discovery Channel about two frogs fucking. One verse went like this: “You start thinking, ‘Gee, Cheech looks funny without his mustache, and who’s that frog fucking him? It looks like Don Johnson!” As you might imagine, Cheech didn’t appreciate the joke. Nonetheless, in March of this year the two met at Cheech’s house in Malibu to talk about working together again, according to Chong’s new book, Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography. That meeting also didn’t go well. Cheech called his old partner’s previous book, The I Chong, “lousy.” “As I listened to Cheech insult my ability as a writer,” Chong says at the end of the unauthorized autobiography, “I realized I could no longer work with the guy.” Well, they must have put their differences behind them because they’re scheduled to do a reunion tour later this year. In the meantime, Tommy Chong is flogging his new lousy book.
Tue., Aug. 19, 7 p.m., 2008