Cheech & Chong at age 62 & 70

Cheech & Chong
PALACE THEATRE, 34 W. BROAD ST. (614-431-3600, 1-800-745-3000, WWW.TICKETMASTER.COM)
SHOWTIME 8 p.m. Saturday
TICKETS $39.50 and $59.50

After more than two decades, Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong are lighting up audiences again. The counterculture comedians, among the most popular funnymen of the 1970s and '80s, made eight movies (the first: Up in Smoke in 1978) and nine albums -- including the best-selling Big Bambu (1972) and the Grammy-winning Los Cochinos (1973). In 1985, the two parted ways: Marin acted on television and as characters in animated films, while Chong moved into stand-up comedy and appeared on various TV series. The duo reunited late last year for a tour, "Cheech & Chong Light Up America and Canada" -- which was recently sold out at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Why did Cheech, 62, and Chong, 70, take so long to get rolling again? "Oh, you know, because we're both cranky old stoners," Marin said recently from a tour stop in Hammond, Ind. "We never liked each other enough at the same time to do it." One big holdup in 2003: Chong served nine months in prison for selling bongs on the Internet. After his release, the pair decided to reunite. Knocking the rust off their comedic timing was a snap. "It took, like, about five minutes," Marin said. "Really, it was the easiest thing we'd ever done. It felt like we'd been off 30 seconds, not 30 years." His biggest surprise: In terms of age, the audiences don't resemble him or his partner. "Eighty percent of our audience is between 30 and 40," he said, meaning that most of it doesn't remember Cheech & Chong from their heyday. "So it was like 'Wow, how did we get these people?' " A mix of old and new material is being performed. "We're doing a lot of music that we've never done before, and even all the old bits are revamped," Marin said. "We're doing a lot of music; we're doing dance. It's like our own version of Bollywood."

From The Columbus Dispatch