Cheech Marin Talks About “Born in East L.A.,” 25 Years Later

NBC Latino asked Cheech Marin about Born in East LA twenty years after its release.  The film was written, directed and starred Cheech shortly after his breakup from Tommy Chong.

After Still Smokin', Cheech Marin realized that the drug movie genre was getting old.  He wanted to make a non-drug-oriented film.  This was when Born in East LA was created.  It was a low-budget film, but generated 18 mill at the box office.

“I was sitting at my kitchen table, reading the LA Times — [an American] kid was caught in an immigration raid, and he was mistakenly sent to Mexico, and at the same time, ‘Born in USA’ came on the radio.”

 He says it was the success of the song, Born in East LA which made his movie being picked up by Universal Pictures a little easier.   His all-time favorite scene though was the “wass sappening boys,” where he has to teach non-Mexican immigrants English so they can fit in when they reach Los Angeles.

Cheech to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire

NEW YORK (August 28, 2012) – “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” known for its unpredictable fun and life-changing cash prizes, will debut its eleventh season in syndication on Monday, September 3, 2012. The hit game show is helmed by Emmy Award-winner Meredith Vieira, who has hosted over 1,800 episodes and given away more than $70 million to “Millionaire” contestants since the show debuted in 2002. Check local listings or go tohttp://www.millionairetv.com for time and channel.

You never know what will happen on “Millionaire”! Each weekday, contestants are given the extraordinary chance to turn their lives around and win $1-million by answering 14 general knowledge trivia questions. As America’s richest game show, “Millionaire” continues to be the only game show to offer a $1-million prize to each and every contestant. With its cleverly written trivia questions that reveal fun and entertaining facts, contestants and viewers alike are able to get a playful learning experience filled with dramatic suspense that keeps everyone on the edge of their seats.

Last season “Millionaire” hosted several celebrity contestants who won over one million dollars for various charities. The show will continue its tradition of giving by kicking off its 11th season with a brand new installment of “Celebrity Week” to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. The series will air September 17-21 in conjunction with World Alzheimer’s Day on Friday, September 21. Participating celebrities include OSCAR® and Golden Globe-winning actress Mo’Nique, America’s favorite cook and best-selling author, Paula Deen, comedian and actor Cheech Marin, television icon Jackée and Tony Dovolani from “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Millionaire” also will present several single episodes featuring famous faces from the entertainment industry. “Millionaire” will celebrate ABC’s “General Hospital” by hosting cast members who will play the game for charity. In return, Meredith Vieira will have a cameo on “GH,” leading up to the show’s 50^th anniversary on ABC in April, 2013. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz from History Channel’s “American Pickers” will play on “Millionaire” to benefit America’s VetDogs, an organization that provides assistance dogs and training to disabled veterans and active service members.

During “Millionaire’s” “Broadway Week,” contestants will have the chance to win tickets to see a Broadway show in addition to their “Millionaire” money. As part of the specialty week, cast members from “The Lion King” will play on “Millionaire” for charity and Meredith Vieira will make a cameo appearance at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre in “The Lion King’s” iconic opening number, “Circle of Life,” in celebration of the production’s 15^th anniversary. Contestants will be able to win a Disney Cruise Vacation during “Millionaire’s Cruise In and Win Week” and, during a separate vacation giveaway week, can win a Walt Disney World® Resort vacation to experience the new Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom® Park, opening in December.

Several popular themed weeks will be brought back this season, including “Movie Week,” featuring movie trivia buffs answering movie-themed questions, and “Double Your Money Week,” where contestants can win as much as $50,000 by doubling the money attached to any single randomly selected question in the first round of the game. “Double Your Money” episodes will air throughout the season, with inaugural episodes airing October 1-5.

“Millionaire” will continue the enormously popular format changes which were implemented in 2010, highlighted by the removal of the famed “hot seat,” the addition of “Jump the Question” lifelines and randomized questions with shuffled monetary values. From the very first question, viewers now see more strategy and unpredictability as a contestant’s hardest question can be worth as little as $100, while their easiest question can be worth as much as $25,000! For “Millionaire’s” 11th season, the show has moved to a brand new studio and will use a newly-constructed set with several updates that will modernize the look of the show to match its upbeat and energetic format.

Tommy Chong's Debuts his Potcast

Tommy Chong's podcast, I mean Potcast, is now live.

Tommy Chong: Pot Cast #1 - Stoners Without Borders

Camping with Tommy Chong

Todd Glass interviewed Tommy Chong on his podcast.

A special camping episode from….Todd’s house! Todd, Daniel, Rory, Jordan, Blake, Chris, Eric, Mikey, Lynn, Katie, and special guest Tommy Chong sat around the fire and talked!

Tommy arrives at the 30 minute mark.

It's a good interview.  Tommy once again admits they stole most of their material from the comedy troupe, The Committee.  He also says Richard Pryor is the best comedian of all time and he would go to Kareem Abdul Jabbar's house to get weed.

Strawberry's House from Up in Smoke in Foreclosure

The house where Cheech's cousin, Strawberry (Tom Skerritt), lived in their 1978 film Up in Smoke is for sale.  Actually, it's in foreclosure.

It's located in Highland Park, California and it's pretty cool.  Remember, this is where June Fairchild's character snorted Ajax off the kitchen counter.

Unfortunately, the person that owned the house took some of the movie props, including statues and wrought iron doves. However, he didn't take the cannon.

Other than that, the house doesn't seem to have been updated at all.  Same old tacky wallpaper.

The 1906, two-story house comes with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, a laundry room, a fish pond, a patio, and a back house with a bathroom. Asking price is $344,900.

Fans Outside the House 2009

Fan Outside the House 2009

Rapid Fire Marketing Sponsors Release of HD Video Series of Cheryl Shuman's interview with Tommy Chong

LOS ANGELES and CARSON CITY, Nev., Aug. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapid Fire Marketing (Pink Sheets: RFMK) announced today the Company has posted a six -part in depth video series of Tommy Chong interviewed by Company Spokesperson Cheryl Shuman.

Tommy Chong, one-half of the marijuana-loving "Cheech and Chong" comedy duo, is battling prostate cancer as he announced in June on CNN. He first noticed symptoms in prison about eight years ago while serving time for selling drug paraphernalia. "I've got prostate cancer, and I'm treating it with cannabis oil," Chong told CNN's Don Lemon. "Legalizing marijuana means a lot more to me than just smoking a joint. I want to be able to use cannabis to treat my cancer without being arrested." He explained to CNN that he doesn't smoke marijuana and had quit about a year ago for health reasons.

Chong discusses 'Operation Pipe Dreams' and his incarceration at Taft Prison in an exclusive interview with Cheryl Shuman, herself a cancer survivor and medical marijuana activist. Cheryl, who has known Tommy for over 20 years in both in the entertainment and activism communities, reconnected with him after seeing the CNN piece and shared with him a new medical delivery system of cannabis oil called the CANNAcig by RFMK. "I reached out to Tommy after hearing about his diagnosis so I could share with him my experiences with cannabis oil in the treatment of my own cancer. At the end of the interview, I presented him with a CANNAcig and the same cannabis oil formula I learned to make from Rick Simpson of the Phoenix Tears Foundation," said Cheryl Shuman.

You can follow Tommy Chong's progress and latest news on Twitter @TommyChong or on his new podcast on iTunes.

Links to the exclusive video series can be seen at: http://rapid-fire-marketing.com/

Safe Harbor:

From time to time, the Company may issue news releases that contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material may contain statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statement provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any amendments thereto. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." "Forward-looking statements" are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated.

Cheech and Chong are Coming to Melbourne

On November 11th, the Cheech and Chong: Get It Legal tour is coming to the King Center in Melbourne, FL.

Tickets go on sale later this month via the Ticketmaster or Live Nation links above.

They haven't changed the tour much so if you've already seen them, it's probably not worth going back.

Cheech and Chong are Coming to Daytona Beach

On November 9th, the Cheech and Chong: Get It Legal tour is coming to the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, FL.

Tickets go on sale Monday, August 20th at 10:30am via the Ticketmaster or Live Nation links above.

They haven't changed the tour much so if you've already seen them, it's probably not worth going back.