Some performers are so gifted that all they have to do is make noise and you laugh. George Carlin had the gift. Chico Marx had it. Bill Murray and Will Ferrell have it, too. No one, however, got more laughs out of me just from the sound of his voice than Tommy Chong.
Sometimes, when I want to giggle, I just think about Tommy Chong saying, "okay, man" and I'm done. What this says about me, I don't know. So imagine how hard it was for me to keep it together when I was talking to the dude on the phone!! And while he may not do as many "wow"s and "man"s on the phone, it still sounded just like him.
Below are some highlights of our conversation, the day Chong called to shill for his new DVD Cheech and Chong: Hey Watch This! which I have not watched.
Tommy Chong: Heeeeeeey, Jordan.
Jordan Hoffman: How many times a day does someone come up to you and say "Dave's Not Here?"
Tommy Chong: Oh, at least once.
Jordan Hoffman: Has it happened yet today?
Tommy Chong: Today? No, not today. Oh, wait, yeah, yeah, actually, we did some interviews earlier. "Hey, where's Dave?" "Dave's not here."
Jordan Hoffman: So you paid your service today, I won't make you do another one.
Tommy Chong: Okay, good, thank you.
Jordan Hoffman: So you have a new DVD and VOD and even limited theatrical release for Cheech and Chong: Hey Watch This — you are attacking on all levels.
Tommy Chong: Yeah, we have, uh, joined the Internet world.
Jordan Hoffman: This is a reunion concert tour film and extra sketches.
Tommy Chong: Yeah, with characters that didn't make it into the show. Cheech and I, we have over 100 characters, so when we did the live show, some got left out. And all these characters have personalities, and some were angry — so I figured we'd better write 'em in, so we wrote in Sister Mary Elephant, and Blind Melon Chitlin has a run-in with Alice Bowie. We have two gay reviewers Doug and Dougie — thumbs definitely up — and they are critiquing the show. It's almost like The Muppet Show with dope.
Jordan Hoffman: Cheech and Chong Up In Smoke - this was the one where we first saw you driving around to "Low Rider" by War, a song which has since become the National Anthem of marijuana. Was that already a pot anthem beforehand, or did you make so.
Tommy Chong: We made it. We made it our own. We did a live show with the guys driving — like in our new show. And our road manager at the time Jimmy Root, he was the sound effects guy, and he found that tune and it was great. We used that tune and, oh my God, it was a marriage made in heaven. [Chong commences to hum the famous "doo-ba-doo-ba-doo ba-doo riff.]
Jordan Hoffman: What's the big Cheech and Chong misconception?
Tommy Chong: That Cheech is a dumb Chicano and I'm a slow-witted hippie. I may be a slow-witted hippie but I still directed all the movies. And Cheech beat Anderson Cooper on Jeopardy!
Jordan Hoffman: One of the weirdest movies I ever saw starred your daughter as a Cro-Magnon or a Neanderthal or whatever it was in Quest for Fire. What was that like for you?
Tommy Chong: She told me how tough it was doing that — she was butt naked in the cold! They'd do a shot and the director would confer with the crew and she's be out there butt naked!
Jordan Hoffman: Did you see Avatar? 'Cause your daughter was painted blue in Quest for Fire and she leads a dullard, kinda, into a new world — you know, a great similarity between the two characters!
Tommy Chong: Yeah, you are right!
Jordan Hoffman: One of the last pairings you did with Cheech on film in the 1980s was in Martin Scorsese's After Hours. A terrific movie and then — outta nowhere — Cheech and Chong show up! How did happen, exactly?
Tommy Chong: Well, we had credibility in the industry for box office. Having Cheech & Chong in film would take it out of exclusively art film — cause it was an art movie — and get it to a wider audience to see the movie. That's how we got in there. But Martin Scorsese was a Cheech and Chong fan and so was the kid that produced and starred in it, Griffin Dunne.
Jordan Hoffman: Was that a case of the characters created specifically for you, and if they couldn't get you, then forget it?
Tommy Chong: Yeah, I think so. And they let us write our own dialogue. Well, everything we do is our own dialogue.
Jordan Hoffman: A few weeks back you were guest hosts of WWE Raw.
Tommy Chong: Yeah! That was crazy!
Jordan Hoffman: Are you a wrestling fan?
Tommy Chong: When I was a kid — not so much now. Cheech & I had a big thrill. Some of the wrestlers were a little starstruck, to be honest. "Hey, I've got all your albums," you know? But it was like a big acting set, cause these guys are really great actors.
Jordan Hoffman: No, it's all real!
Tommy Chong: Oh, right, yeah, yeah, sorry.
Jordan Hoffman: What's next?
Tommy Chong: Animated DVD of all the classic Cheech and Chong bits, coming out in November. And continue to tour with Cheech. Casino tours, mostly — they pay the big money. And a new project, a new movie we're working on: Grumpy Old Stoners. I've been writing it and it's gonna be. . . .it's gonna be like an Avatar-like experience.
Jordan Hoffman: How will it be like an Avatar experience? In 3D?
Tommy Chong: No, no. Avatar was a lot about the environment and spiritual and mystical, and I'm dabbling with it. I always get inspired by, you know, what's out there, like. . . I got inspired by, oh, heck, what's that outer space movie. . .the one with Richard Dreyfus?
Jordan Hoffman: Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Tommy Chong: Close Encounters, right. So in Next Movie I had the aliens come down to get the pot?
Jordan Hoffman: Do you think we have we been visited by space aliens?
Tommy Chong: Personally, no, I don't think so. We do our space travelling in the spiritual mode, that's how we space travel.
Jordan Hoffman: I'll dig that. So, what are you listening to these days?
Tommy Chong: I'm a jazz guy, you know. And Norah Jones. And Joni Mitchell. But jazz, you know, John Coltrane, Miles and anything guitar. Wes Montgomery, Wes Montgomery is. . .Wes Montgomery is great especially when you are high.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: UGO.com
Author: Jordan Hoffman
Contact: UGO.com
Copyright: 2010 UGO.com
Website: Chat and Chong - An Interview with Tommy Chong
Sometimes, when I want to giggle, I just think about Tommy Chong saying, "okay, man" and I'm done. What this says about me, I don't know. So imagine how hard it was for me to keep it together when I was talking to the dude on the phone!! And while he may not do as many "wow"s and "man"s on the phone, it still sounded just like him.
Below are some highlights of our conversation, the day Chong called to shill for his new DVD Cheech and Chong: Hey Watch This! which I have not watched.
Tommy Chong: Heeeeeeey, Jordan.
Jordan Hoffman: How many times a day does someone come up to you and say "Dave's Not Here?"
Tommy Chong: Oh, at least once.
Jordan Hoffman: Has it happened yet today?
Tommy Chong: Today? No, not today. Oh, wait, yeah, yeah, actually, we did some interviews earlier. "Hey, where's Dave?" "Dave's not here."
Jordan Hoffman: So you paid your service today, I won't make you do another one.
Tommy Chong: Okay, good, thank you.
Jordan Hoffman: So you have a new DVD and VOD and even limited theatrical release for Cheech and Chong: Hey Watch This — you are attacking on all levels.
Tommy Chong: Yeah, we have, uh, joined the Internet world.
Jordan Hoffman: This is a reunion concert tour film and extra sketches.
Tommy Chong: Yeah, with characters that didn't make it into the show. Cheech and I, we have over 100 characters, so when we did the live show, some got left out. And all these characters have personalities, and some were angry — so I figured we'd better write 'em in, so we wrote in Sister Mary Elephant, and Blind Melon Chitlin has a run-in with Alice Bowie. We have two gay reviewers Doug and Dougie — thumbs definitely up — and they are critiquing the show. It's almost like The Muppet Show with dope.
Jordan Hoffman: Cheech and Chong Up In Smoke - this was the one where we first saw you driving around to "Low Rider" by War, a song which has since become the National Anthem of marijuana. Was that already a pot anthem beforehand, or did you make so.
Tommy Chong: We made it. We made it our own. We did a live show with the guys driving — like in our new show. And our road manager at the time Jimmy Root, he was the sound effects guy, and he found that tune and it was great. We used that tune and, oh my God, it was a marriage made in heaven. [Chong commences to hum the famous "doo-ba-doo-ba-doo ba-doo riff.]
Jordan Hoffman: What's the big Cheech and Chong misconception?
Tommy Chong: That Cheech is a dumb Chicano and I'm a slow-witted hippie. I may be a slow-witted hippie but I still directed all the movies. And Cheech beat Anderson Cooper on Jeopardy!
Jordan Hoffman: One of the weirdest movies I ever saw starred your daughter as a Cro-Magnon or a Neanderthal or whatever it was in Quest for Fire. What was that like for you?
Tommy Chong: She told me how tough it was doing that — she was butt naked in the cold! They'd do a shot and the director would confer with the crew and she's be out there butt naked!
Jordan Hoffman: Did you see Avatar? 'Cause your daughter was painted blue in Quest for Fire and she leads a dullard, kinda, into a new world — you know, a great similarity between the two characters!
Tommy Chong: Yeah, you are right!
Jordan Hoffman: One of the last pairings you did with Cheech on film in the 1980s was in Martin Scorsese's After Hours. A terrific movie and then — outta nowhere — Cheech and Chong show up! How did happen, exactly?
Tommy Chong: Well, we had credibility in the industry for box office. Having Cheech & Chong in film would take it out of exclusively art film — cause it was an art movie — and get it to a wider audience to see the movie. That's how we got in there. But Martin Scorsese was a Cheech and Chong fan and so was the kid that produced and starred in it, Griffin Dunne.
Jordan Hoffman: Was that a case of the characters created specifically for you, and if they couldn't get you, then forget it?
Tommy Chong: Yeah, I think so. And they let us write our own dialogue. Well, everything we do is our own dialogue.
Jordan Hoffman: A few weeks back you were guest hosts of WWE Raw.
Tommy Chong: Yeah! That was crazy!
Jordan Hoffman: Are you a wrestling fan?
Tommy Chong: When I was a kid — not so much now. Cheech & I had a big thrill. Some of the wrestlers were a little starstruck, to be honest. "Hey, I've got all your albums," you know? But it was like a big acting set, cause these guys are really great actors.
Jordan Hoffman: No, it's all real!
Tommy Chong: Oh, right, yeah, yeah, sorry.
Jordan Hoffman: What's next?
Tommy Chong: Animated DVD of all the classic Cheech and Chong bits, coming out in November. And continue to tour with Cheech. Casino tours, mostly — they pay the big money. And a new project, a new movie we're working on: Grumpy Old Stoners. I've been writing it and it's gonna be. . . .it's gonna be like an Avatar-like experience.
Jordan Hoffman: How will it be like an Avatar experience? In 3D?
Tommy Chong: No, no. Avatar was a lot about the environment and spiritual and mystical, and I'm dabbling with it. I always get inspired by, you know, what's out there, like. . . I got inspired by, oh, heck, what's that outer space movie. . .the one with Richard Dreyfus?
Jordan Hoffman: Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Tommy Chong: Close Encounters, right. So in Next Movie I had the aliens come down to get the pot?
Jordan Hoffman: Do you think we have we been visited by space aliens?
Tommy Chong: Personally, no, I don't think so. We do our space travelling in the spiritual mode, that's how we space travel.
Jordan Hoffman: I'll dig that. So, what are you listening to these days?
Tommy Chong: I'm a jazz guy, you know. And Norah Jones. And Joni Mitchell. But jazz, you know, John Coltrane, Miles and anything guitar. Wes Montgomery, Wes Montgomery is. . .Wes Montgomery is great especially when you are high.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: UGO.com
Author: Jordan Hoffman
Contact: UGO.com
Copyright: 2010 UGO.com
Website: Chat and Chong - An Interview with Tommy Chong
