High on 'Marijuana-Logues'

The Star Ledger ^ | Friday, March 31, 2006 | BY CLAUDIA PERRY

[MRMEAN]

STAGE

Tommy Chong is one busy stoner.

At least that's what the comedic counter-culture icon, who is fresh off probation, likes to say.

Chong, who was in Jacksonville last week with the play, "The Marijuana-Logues," pointed out that you can't be stoned all the time and actually accomplish anything.

Chong, 57, will bring the play to New Jersey for three performances starting at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood. He then takes the show, which is similar to the "Vagina Monologues," to the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank at 7 p.m. April 9. The last Jersey show is at 8 p.m. May 5 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.

Chong says the three-actor play is "partially autobiographical. It's definitely fun and games."

Chong was arrested in 2003 with 54 others in the Drug Enforcement Administration's "Operation Pipe Dreams." Chong was selling bongs and pipes on the Internet as Nice Dreams Enterprises. He was the only one of the 55 arrested to serve jail time. Chong recently got off probation on the charges, which has enabled him to travel with the show.

"I got out of jail with the weed icon thing," Chong says. "I was sort of like looking for a way to make a living. I was on probation and they offered me the play. I thought, 'This is a way to do what I do in play form.'

"We went to New York and we did the play for two weeks, and it was fantastic. We started the tour, but it got cut short because I was on probation. I'm picking up where I left off."

Chong also does standup with his wife, Shelby, when he's not acting. "We do standup, we dance,...

[yeff]

I got a kick out of Tommy Chong's Tonight show interview two days after his release.

Three excerpts below...

In his monologue, Leno announced, "Tommy Chong is here. He flew in on the red eye."

and...

Chong said when police came to his door, they asked if he had pot. "Of course I do. I'm Tommy Chong," was the reply.

and...

Describing his experience behind bars... "Federal time was hell, man. There was like a two-hour wait for the tennis courts."

I'm glad that he perseveres. Imagine that, the only one of 55 to serve jail time.

[robertpaulsen]

"Imagine that, the only one of 55 to serve jail time."

The only one to serve federal jail time. Others were sentenced to prison.

“It’s inaccurate for him to state that he was singled out,” she says, “because what’s different about the Chong case are that his charges were by ‘information’ – which means that the matter wasn’t presented to a grand jury. Thomas Chong waived indictment to the grand jury and pleaded guilty to the charges. So he came forward and admitted his guilt.”

So much for being a nice guy. Even Chong now admits it was a mistake to plead guilty. “They really ambushed me,” says Chong. “Had I known that I was gonna get jail time, I would have fought it.