Cheech & Chong: Light Up America Tour Kicks Off In Philly

Beaners! Beaners! Sorry, I can't get that song out of my head.

On Friday night, the Cheech & Chong: Light Up America tour kicked off at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, PA (just outside Philadelphia). It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was my lifelong dream to see Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong perform live and I was glad to have played a part in getting them to reunite.

The show begins with a brilliantly produced video showing the history of Cheech & Chong. It features a stoner rolling a joint and lighting up while old photos of Cheech & Chong are shown. It's really cool and funny and the Big Green Van theme from Up In Smoke plays in the background. Whomever created this should win an award.

Shelby Chong (Tommy's wife) was the opener. She performed for twenty plus minutes. Her set was solid. Most of the jokes were new, others you may have heard if you had seen her and Tommy's stand-up act. All the jokes were funny and she was dressed-to-kill.

Then, Cheech & Chong came out and performed some of their greatest hits, as well as new bits. They did minor rewrites to some of their bits to make them fresher. Tommy provided a nice segway between bits by telling jokes from his stand-up act, as well as providing some history on the bit they were about to perform.

We don't want to give away too much, but they did perform Old Man In The Park which is only available on their 2 CD Anthology.

For the encore, Cheech & Chong performed a few songs and had a sing-a-long. Shelby Chong came out to dance the salsa with Tommy during one of the songs.

After the show, I hung out with Cheech, Tommy, Shelby and their awesome tour manager, Jimmy. They met fans, friends and a radio station contest winner during this meet and greet. Steve Bloom, from High Times and author of the book Pot Culture, was also there.


Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are comic geniuses. They have unbelievable chemistry on stage. They didn't disappoint. They were both having a lot of fun out there. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If there are any tickets left at a venue even remotely near you, make sure you go. Also, pick up the VIP Upgrade package when it becomes available for the show you are attending (click pre-sale link above). It's reasonably priced being you get a goodie bag with nice stuff in it (beanie, rolling papers and more).

-The Weedmaster

Fans waiting to meet Cheech & Chong outside.