Friday, October 20, 8 p.m.
Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
Up in Smoke. Los Cochinos. “Dave's not here, man.” Ask any fan of classic comedy who those titles and that phrase bring to mind, and you'll be told “Cheech & Chong” – the legendary duo of Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong whose 2017 North American tour brings them to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino on October 20.
The duo met in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the late 1960s; Chong was a Canadian citizen, and Cheech had moved there from Southern California to avoid being drafted. Finding shared interests and insights in the era's hippie, free-love, and counterculture movements, the duo started performing standup together and eventually began recording comedy albums, with their self-titled 1971 debut charting at number 28 on the U.S. Billboard charts, 1972's Big Bambu reaching number two, and 1973's Los Cochinos earning them a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Their recording success in the early- and mid-1970s led to the release of Cheech & Chong's first co-starring roles in the 1978 comedy Up in Smoke, which quickly became a cult classic, grossing more than $44 million domestically off a reported $2 million budget. Among the numerous follow-ups to that hit were 1980's Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, 1981's Nice Dreams, and 1984's Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers, and the duo has been reunited on film and TV in works ranging from Martin Scorsese's After Hours to the animated South Park and The Simpsons. The duo's current “Light Up America & Canada” is one of the year's most successful comedy tours, and finds the pair appearing onstage with Tommy's wife, comedian and actress Shelby Chong.
Cheech & Chong take the Rhythm City Event Center stage at 8 p.m., tickets are $35-45, and more information and reservations are available by calling (877)677-3456 or visiting RhythmCityCasino.com.
