[ WEEKEND ]
Besides being an actor and comedian, Tommy Chong runs his family business.
Tommy Chong
now a family act
His wife and 2 sons help him
present ‘vaudeville for stoners’
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comWith reality shows as popular as they are these days, it seemed appropriate to ask Tommy Chong if he thought the Chong household would be a good setting for one.
"An excellent one," Chong said, speaking Saturday on a cell phone somewhere between his home and a recording studio. "All my family (members) are actors, so we could go in and out of the reality situation. You wouldn't even know the difference. Ozzy's (show) is more like a freak show, and it's like an inside look at this rehabilitated druggie. Mine would be like the opposite. You think he's a stoner, but he ends up being a very healthy guy."
In other words, the real-life Tommy Chong is not necessarily as seen and heard on stage, records, and movies.
"In a lot of ways I am (a stoner), but not as naive -- as a lot of our ex-business managers found out."
Chong, his wife, Shelby, and two sons, Paris and Gilbran, are in town this weekend for two nights at Gussie L'Amour's. He and Shelby have been performing as a duo for the past three years. The larger band has Paris on bass and Gilbran on drums.
Chong describes the act as a variety show.
"We go from comedy to (being) sketch players, an improv group, to dancing, to music, all in one show. It's very eclectic. (Americans) live in such a short-attention-span era -- the MTV kind of slice-of-life -- and what we've done in kept up with the times that way. It's like a throwback to vaudeville -- vaudeville for stoners."
"My instincts are very good when it comes to an audience. I've been trained since I was 10 years old. I played with a fiddle player, and the first thing he taught me was to play what the people want. That's really been my criteria. During the '60s and '70s, that stoner crowd, that's what they responded to."
COURTESY OF MOSS PUBLIC RELATIONS
MUSIC TRIVIA experts know that Chong was into music long before he teamed up with Richard "Cheech" Marin (most notably as a member of Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers of "Does Your Mama Know About Me" fame). The music continued as Cheech & Chong spoke to the counter-culture generation. Known to many as stand-up comics and film stars, Cheech & Chong also hit the Hot 100 with a series of song parodies that included "Basketball Jones Featuring Tyrone Shoelaces," "Earache My Eye Featuring Alice Bowie," and "Bloat On Featuring the Bloaters."
Marin and Chong dissolved the act years ago but remain in touch.
"We're like Siamese twins," Chong says. "I always know what he's doing. He always knows what I'm doing."
Cheech went on to star in the TV series "Nash Bridges," with Don Johnson. For the last three years Chong's been working with his wife as Tommy Chong & Shelby. Add the boys and you've got the Family Stoned.
"If we weren't on the road, we'd be going on vacation, so this is like a working vacation, and they're the most fun. It's more fun to go somewhere and then bring home some money, and to get on stage and become somebody. To me that's fun, and my wife loves it too."
Chong doesn't sit at home doing nothing between his "working vacations." He connected with a new generation of fans through his role on "That '70s Show," runs Chong Glass (a family business that produces functional art and related merchandise), is working on a television show that he describes as a combination "cooking and stoner variety show on how to grow really good tomatoes," and is also writing a book about "the Cheech & Chong experience."
He says that a new Cheech & Chong movie is a possibility as well.
"There's a very good chance that we'll be doing a movie together very shortly. I'm working on the treatment right now, and it's the best treatment I've heard in (the) 15 years that we've been broke up. I'm very anxious to get a solid deal and then bring it to him."
Where: Gussie L'Amour's, 3251 N. Nimitz Highway Tommy Chong & The Family Stoned
When: 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Tickets: $20
Call: 926-3000
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