LIFE STILL A BONG TO TOMMY CHONG

Comedian Heads to Port Charlotte for Shows

Tommy Chong sounds clearheaded on the phone.

Even so, there's no mistaking that ... er ... relaxed voice coming
from his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home.

Most people know Chong as the other half of the hippie stoner comedy
duo Cheech & Chong.

Chong, 70, has no shame he made smoking pot the material for a
lifelong comedy career.

"I'm a big pot advocate," Chong said in an interview. "I believe pot
is a medicine more than a drug."

"That's the basis of my whole life, actually."

But then, not much is taboo for Chong.

He'll fuel crowds with laughter using druggie humor and his 2003
arrest when he performs Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Port
Charlotte. Comedian and wife Shelby Chong will open the show.

That arrest and nine-month stint in prison changed Chong, he said.
But maybe not in the way law enforcement intended.

"(Jail) turned me from a pot humorist to a pot activist," he said.

The change began when the Drug Enforcement Agency raided Chong's home
and arrested him on charges of conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia
through his water pipe business.

It was part of a nationwide crackdown on bongs led by then-U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft. He dubbed it Operation Pipe Dreams.

Hey man, doesn't that name sound similar to Chong's third movie,
1981's "Nice Dreams?"

Yep.

The U.S. Justice Department was using Chong as an example, Chong and
other critics said at the time. Prosecutors countered that Chong
made his career extolling drug use and belittling law enforcement.

Chong said they're right.

"I thought freedom of speech was legal," he said.

"I was just one of the casualties of the Bush administration."

The writer, director and actor said serving time was exciting,
terrifying and eye-opening.

"Once you have your freedoms taken away, there are some very, very
dark moments," he said.

Chong said he learned in prison to play bocce ball and to appreciate sunsets.

"I would miss meals just to practice," he said. "Then I would watch
every sunset for three months. I was going for a record."

Now Chong is on the advisory board for the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He wrote a book on his meditations
during prison: "The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint."

Despite their shared pro-pot stance, Chong said he is not similar to
the zoned-out character he plays.

"Night and day," he said firmly. "The opposite."

But it was that druggie character that prompted Cheech Marin to veer
from the duo's act in 1985 and play straight characters.

"Cheech and I, that was a bone of contention between us," Chong said.
"He didn't want to be that dummy anymore."

Part of the reason their early characters resonated with the public
is that watching the two tripped-out loser-types made audiences feel
good about themselves.

Viewers couldn't help but feel superior, Chong said. And Cheech &
Chong couldn't help but bank on it.

The pair recorded six Gold comedy albums and starred in seven films.

Now more than 20 years later, Cheech & Chong will reunite in
September for their first comedy tour since separating. They have
more than 30 dates booked so far in the United States and Australia.
Cameras will shoot the tour for a movie.

During that time, the country will choose a new president. Chong
knows who he'll pick.

"Obama is my man," he said. "Hybrids are in."

Like many North Americans, Chong is a mixture of ethnicities himself.

Chong was born in Canada to a Chinese father and a Scots-Irish
mother. He has five children, one child he took under his wing and
two grandchildren.

Shelby Chong is his second wife. They met at a high school dance when
she was 16 and he was 28.

Besides sharing a love for stand-up comedy, they share a passion for
salsa dancing.

"Now I'm learning tango," he said. "I tell my sons this all the time.
'There's no man more powerful than a tango dancer. He's probably the
sexiest man on the planet.'

"Dancing tango is a form of sex that is legal and understood."

Hmmm ... legal?