DUO'S DRUG-LACED HUMOUR STILL POTENT

CHEECH & CHONG

When: Thursday

Where: Winspear Centre

"I think we're parked, man."

All it took was for Tommy Chong to deliver the classic line from the
famous "Pedro de Pacas" hitchhiker skit that opens Cheech & Chong's
stoner cult-classic Up In Smoke and, all of a sudden, it was 1978 all
over again.

The Winspear's soldout crowd erupted, and there it was: Cheech &
Chong were back.

The infamous comedy duo, reunited after an acrimonious split in 1985,
picked up where they had left off, chemistry seemingly intact as they
played off each other's lines with grin-inducing glee.

For 75 minutes, the Edmonton-born Chong and his old partner-in-crime,
Richard (Cheech) Marin, delivered a string of classics culled from a
long career built on pot humour and raunchy comedy.

Chong was particularly strong doing his old standup routine between
skits, whether talking about getting his cat stoned, or the time he
spent in jail after being busted for selling bongs on the Internet.

"Jail was a very good experience," Chong quipped. "They made me take
a drug education course. I ended up teaching it."

Though the wafts of marijuana smoke mostly remained outside the
Winspear Centre (except, perhaps, for one or two inconspicuous tokers
testing their luck near the end of the performance), the duo's
drug-laced humour remains particularly potent.

"Deep" comedy a la Steven Wright, this ain't. But then again, Cheech
& Chong were never known for doing things the subtle way.

Who would want them to, really?

Not surprisingly, old skits were peppered with current references,
including passing references about Edmonton and Alberta, to make
California-centred jokes feel more "at home."

Everyone -- from seasoned hippies to kids who weren't even born when
Cheech & Chong broke out -- left on a high note, humming the chorus
to Up In Smoke as they strolled out, sporting goofy smiles, into the cold.

Cheech & Chong will perform at the Winspear again on Sunday. The show
is sold out.