Even without partner Cheech, Chong goes against the grain 

By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
May 18, 1990

Nepotism may be a dirty word in some circles, but to comedian-actor Tommy Chong, it spells clout.  When the credits roll listing the cast and crew of his latest film, “Far Out Man,” now playing at local theaters, it reads like a who’s who in the Chong clan.

Daughters Rae Dawn and Robbi, son Paris, wife Shelby and son-in-law C. Thomas Howell are featured prominently in the raunchy comedy that Chong wrote, directed and stars in.

“I guess it’s that Oriental thing about wanting to keep it all in the family,” joked Chong, who is half Chinese. “Actually, the plot revolves around this daughter trying to get on with her acting career while her hippie father keeps getting in her way. Who better to play the daughter than Rae Dawn?”

For Rae Dawn, who is a talented and successful actress in her own right, appearing in her father’s film could be looked upon as a favor. Neither she nor her husband, C. Thomas Howell, need Chong to write roles for them. But his wife, Shelby, half-jokingly told him the only way she’d get a starring role was for him to write a part for her. Chong did this, creating Tree, Far Out Man’s estranged wife.

“It was very easy doing the make out scenes with Shelby,” he said, laughing, during a promotional stopover in Chicago.

To viewers familiar with Chong’s comedic career as the latter half of Cheech and Chong, where many of the duo’s jokes revolved around drugs, “Far Out Man” would seem to be a parody of Chong’s own life.

“The film isn’t autobiographical,” said Chong, 52. “But there are elements of my life in there, since I wrote it and acted in it. They say that painters put a little bit of themselves into their paintings, and I guess the same holds true for other disciplines as well. I suppose I had as unorthodox a life as Far Out Man does.”

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, to a Chinese father who smoked marijuana with Chong and his friends, and a Scotch-Irish mother, Chong’s entree into show business came via music. From the age of 11, when he got his first guitar, Chong sang and played country-Western music and rhythm and blues. Quitting school to tour with the Shades, a short-lived R & B band, Chong moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he bought his own nightclub. Itching to play the guitar, he put together a house band called the Vancouvers.

Motown Records signed the Vancouvers to a recording deal in 1965. The group had a minor hit with “Does Your Mama Know About Me?”

Life on the road wasn’t as glamorous as he’d thought it’d be, but Chong met members of a comedy troupe who encouraged his gift for gab. Returning to Vancouver, he started his own improvisational comedy troupe, City Works.

In the late ’60s, Chong began working closer with one member of the troupe, Cheech Marin. The two relocated to Los Angeles, where they performed many of their early shows for free. Known primarily for their
drug humor and hippie image, the two hit stardom in the early ’70s.

Today, Chong says, “What I’m trying to do now is be a little against the grain, because there’s too much blandness in life. You can’t progress if you’re afraid of not fitting in.”