BIG TOKE PLAY ROLLS ALONG AS HUGHES PUSHES MESSAGE

Stage Door

MONTREAL -- Call it Geoff Hughes's reefer madness.

The Winnipeg actor pulled into Montreal late last week, the first stop
on an eight-stop fringe festival tour with his pro-cannabis show
called the Big Toke. In a scene out of the '60s, Hughes and the rest
of the Twisted Nipple Improv troupe arrived in a leaky '76 Dodge van,
dubbed the Sugar Shack, pulling a soggy trailer after a dope-fueled,
40-hour trip from Winnipeg.

"To me, this is the greatest summer of my life," said the 27-year son
of former CBC Radio host Lesley Hughes. "I'm packed in a van with my
buddies and going across the country doing what we love to do --
perform. And we are fighting the good fight to have marijuana
de-criminalized."

The only buzz about The Big Toke is the one Hughes and his fellow
Twisted Nipples -- Jon Paterson, Matt Boisvert, Scott Walters and
stage manager Matthew Aitken -- are getting off their own pot.

Hughes missed the deadline for getting into the Montreal Fringe
Festival. The company did perform in an East versus West improv
showdown (which they narrowly lost) last Thursday night and were
presenting some of their Big Toke material this past weekend on the
outdoor stage.

"This tour is meant to keep the issue alive," said Hughes, adding he
has been smoking marijuana for a decade.

"I hope we can break even. I'm paying the staff in weed. I don't deny
I smoke pot. I'm not ashamed of it. On any given day I can be busted.
I'd be screwed if we got busted in this town. Then again it would
bring us more attention."

Hughes is a longtime activist for the legalization of hemp, the plant
from which marijuana is produced. The Big Toke is a sketch comedy
piece seeking to counter the disinformation about giggle-weed as well
as poke fun at the nation's official hysteria about controlling
marijuana use.

His point is that thousands and thousands are being jailed for
marijuana possession and their lives are being ruined for nothing. He
plans to send his play to actor Woody Harrelson, a celebrated doper
who narrates the similar-themed indie movie called Grass.

Hughes expects to find a receptive audience on the fringe
circuit.

"The fringe is the freeest form of speech available to me," said
Hughes, who lives in the basement of his mother's Fort Richmond home.
"There's no censorship at the fringe, no one can stop me."

Many Big Toke patrons come expecting a Cheech and Chong movie, and the
Twisted Nipples will deliver a healthy dose of stoner humour during
stops in Ottawa, Toronto, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Victoria
and Vancouver.

The hour-long show, opening in Winnipeg July 24, includes tunes like
Hemp, a hopped version of The Beatles' Help. But he promises substance
in explaining Canada's traditional opposition to marijuana since it
was introduced into North America by migrant Mexican workers in 1912.

The worry is not to come across as excessively preachy and risk losing
the interest of mainstream audience members.

"I want people to know the reason pot was criminalized," said the
actor, who has worked at Celebrations dinner theatre on and off for
years. "The marijuana prohibition was not designed to protect people,
it was designed to protect profit."

"I'm not living any great lifestyle," Hughes said. "It looks like we
are out on a lark but we don't have any money. My mom taught me to
fight injustice, to fight for what I believe in. I see us as heroes."