That Funny ‘ ‘70s’ Dude Still Having a High Time

Last season, the producers of Fox’s “That ‘70s Show” needed someone to play the small part of Leo, the quintessential, laid-back hippie doper dude. They didn’t have to look far.

Who better than Tommy Chong, who virtually holds the patent on laid-back pothead characters as the bearded half of the iconic, ‘70s doper comedy team known as Cheech and Chong?

Indeed, the studio audience went wild when Chong made his first entrance. But the comedian, who has carved out a successful solo career in stand-up comedy over the past decade, wasn’t surprised by the whoops of instant recognition.

“No, because I’d been working live, so I knew the effect I had on an audience,” said Chong, who has made a handful of repeat appearances on the nostalgic sitcom. “In ‘That ‘70s Show,’ I’m really the only authentic guy there, so it’s like having Elvis sit in with the band.”

Or Jerry Garcia.

“Most of my people will sit at home and have a Cheech and Chong film festival, and then they’ll come and see me,” Chong said of his stand-up appearances. “I’m like the Grateful Dead of comedy. I’ve got Chongheads.”

He said some fans, just like Deadheads, follow him around from gig to gig--and then complain that they saw the same show.

“I love that--like Jerry changed his show.”

Chongheads can gas up their VW buses and low-riders, and head to the Brea Improv, where the comedian begins a five-night engagement Wednesday.

Fans who haven’t seen Chong since he and Cheech were searching for “good grass” in their “Up in Smoke” glory days will be pleased to know that Tommy Chong, at 62, remains fit and in good health.

“I owe it all to smoking the magic weed, the magic herb,” he said from his home in Pacific Palisades. “That’s the fountain of youth.”

Chong’s recurring role as Leo in “That ‘70s Show” is paying career dividends, including landing him on the cover of the June issue of--what else?--High Times magazine. (“A career built on an affinity for cannabis hasn’t stopped Tommy Chong.”)

“Since I’ve been doing the ‘ ‘70s Show,’ I’ve got more gigs than I can handle; everybody wants me now,” he said. “That’s good and it’s bad. I like the lazy sort of ‘work when you feel like it’ [approach to life]. But then again, I like the attention.”

As a potent--not to mention pungent--symbol of the ‘70s counterculture, Chong has received more than his share of attention.

The Canadian-born comedian met L.A. native Richard “Cheech” Marin in 1969 in Vancouver, where Chong owned a strip club. He had formed an improv group, having turned the club’s strippers into actors to liven up the entertainment.

“I was looking for a straight man, and Cheech was hired,” Chong recalled. “And he was straight too: He was Richard and had a short cop haircut.”

The pair went on to record six gold comedy albums and starred in seven films, from “Up in Smoke” (1978) to “Cheech & Chong’s ‘The Corsican Brothers’ ” (1984), most of which Chong co-wrote and directed.

But the team split up in 1986 when Cheech went his own way in films and television. Chong began his solo stand-up career in 1991, admitting at the time that going on stage alone, a Cheechless Chong, was a frightening prospect.

Chong has proved to be a solo success over the past decade, but in January he officially teamed with a new partner: Shelby Chong, his actress wife, who had small parts in several Cheech and Chong movies, including the blond bodybuilder in “Nice Dreams.”

Chong said Shelby began working with him on stage about five years ago, serving first as emcee. In the comedy club pecking order, she’s now progressed to middle act, doing about 20 minutes on her own before teaming with Chong for the last half of his act.

“She’s becoming a fine comedian,” said Chong, who described their partnership as “the George and Gracie of the Stoner Age.”

They talk about their children--at one point Shelby tells the audience that Tommy’s got the boys into “farming,” but it’s not a big farm--”just the size of a closet.”

Their act also includes skits, salsa dancing, and some old Cheech and Chong songs. Music is supplied by Chong and the Family Stoned Band, featuring Chong on lead guitar, son Paris, 25, on bass guitar, son Boo (Gilbran), 19, on drums, and non-family member Gary Swan on keyboards.

But for all the new elements to the show--a new partner, his sons, the dancing--Chong laughingly describes his stand-up act as “SOS”--sanitized translation: Same Old Stuff.

Doing Comedy Isn’t

About the Money

There are, he said, two kinds of comedians: the ones who work clean and the ones who work dirty. “I’m sort of the dirty doper, really anti-establishment.”

Of course, if he worked clean, he said, he could cash in on a lucrative sideline for name stand-up comics: performing at conventions.

But doing comedy, for him, is not about money.

“If it was about money, I would have been Nash Bridges,” he said, a not-so-subtle jab at his ex-partner, Marin, who co-stars with Don Johnson on the CBS-TV detective show.

Chong actually did a guest shot on “Nash Bridges” three years ago, playing what he calls “a Nash Bridges-type accountant for the mob.”

But it was the closest he’s come to a professional reunion with Marin; Cheech and Chong do not stay in touch with one another.

“You know, a guy asked me the other day, a good friend of both of ours, ‘What happened between you and Cheech?’ I thought about it and it’s very simple: He grew up and I never did.”

So, who’s better off?

“Well, I think I am because I still own my soul,” Chong said with a slight chuckle. “I mean, when you sell out, you sell out. Selling out means everything you stood for, you only did it for the money. So now the money’s over here and you’re over here.”

At the end of his comedy shows, the Chongs stick around to meet and greet fans.

“We have a little paraphernalia stuff we sell, T-shirts and incense burners,” Chong said, “and I sign autographs and talk and pose for pictures. A lot of the attraction when you’re on television is people want to talk to you and tell you how much they enjoy you. It’s something Cheech and I never did. And, boy, I realize what we lost by not doing that.”

* Tommy Chong, Brea Improv, 945 E. Birch St., Brea, Wednesday and Thursday, 8:30 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8 p.m. $10-$12. (714) 529-7878.