What was originally supposed to be an article promoting the Simon & Schuster book The I Chong: Meditations From The Joint, turned into a full-fledged article regarding the on again/off again Cheech and Chong reunion.
This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly also discusses the reasons for the original break-up, including new and old quotes from Cheech and Tommy. The explanation of what caused the break-ups seems to change depending on when and where you ask Cheech and Tommy.
The EW article is fantastic.
When they were still together...According to Cheech and Tommy, Tommy (the director) would come up with the plots and Cheech would tell him which of those ideas would work. Cheech eventually wanted to do drug-free films. That's why they decided to do The Corsican Brothers. Even though the film is great, it didn't do well at the box office. Shortly thereafter, they broke up, partly because Cheech was "resentful of Chong's increasing dominance."
According to Tommy's book, Tommy says they broke up because Chong's family did such a great job in the Corsican Brothers and Cheech realized he wasn't essential for the film to succeed. Based on what we've heard, we here at Cheech and Chong Dot Com find this reasoning hard to believe. The book goes on to say that each of their egos is responsible for their split.
The reunion...While in jail, Cheech and the director, Larry Charles, met with Tommy. Both Cheech and Tommy agreed to pen a script together. However, after he was released Tommy took it upon himself to write the script on his own. Tommy wrote the script, but Cheech refused to read it because he didn't want to be "subservient" to Tommy.
Soon, a war of words erupted after Tommy told a New York newspaper that Cheech was a "professional Mexican." Looking back at that quote, Cheech told EW that ''Tommy can be a real flaming a -- hole. He's like the world's humblest megalomaniac.''
Chong says there's a possibility of a reunion, but it would be like Grumpy Old Stoners because they're older now. Cheech has been contacting Tommy through his manager about doing a musical thing together. Tommy isn't interested because he's not a "backup guitar player."
Fans have informed us that Tommy still makes jokes about Cheech during his stand-up act. Nothing too bad, just the occasionally fun poke.
As it stands now, each is writing an Up In Smoke play. Upon completion, they will most likely combine the best of both plays. Tommy says the reunion isn't happening anytime soon, but Cheech is optimistic.
We here at Cheech and Chong Dot Com don't think the play would be a success. C & C fans would rather see them doing stand-up together or seeing them in a movie. To prove our point look at Latino-Logues (directed by Cheech) and Marijuana-Logues (starring Tommy). Both were hysterical, well done plays. However, each play had low attendance except for weekends.
It wasn't until Marijuana-Logues was taken on the road that it became successful. In fact, nearly each show was sold out.
We don't have any details on this, but Tommy says he's now working on "one of the biggest-grossing movies ever in the history of the world." Hopefully, he's not referring to Evil Bong, a low budget film which he stars in. It's in post-production.
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2 comments:
Please Please tell me when the Los Angeles shows are going to be and where. You know L.A. fans can fill a any arena in the county, So please don't forget old school fans.
SamSFV
i love these guys, they were part of my life. i turned them on to a joint before the there show at the great southeastern music hall, atlanta georgia in 1970something, i was playing around the corner at another club that night but got to catch there first show before i had to go, after we got through with our show i kooked out in crowd and there they were checking us out. HEY MANNNN!!! remember ERIC QUINCY TATE, check us out at www.ericquincytate.com thanks
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