Cheech & Chong face old age with ‘gravitas’ — and signature weed

Cheech Marin agrees we can’t be very far from seeing Grateful Dead posters replace Grandma-type doilies in assisted living centers. “The Grateful Dead started out old,” he says.

But that day isn’t quite here yet, so Marin approaches 70 with the new status symbols of his generation: Signature label Mezcal and name-branded weed.

“I think that 70 is much more prestigious than 69. It’s a whole other plateau. It has more gravitas,” he says of the milestone coming up July 13. But he follows the word “gravitas” with that familiar Cheech laugh, like the one he used when he played his cousin Red in “Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie.”

Stage partner Tommy Chong was first to market with a signature marijuana, Chong’s Choice. But Marin thinks Cheech’s Private Stash is a better name.

The comic duo has been synonymous with weed since their debut comedy album in 1971. But celebrity weed is a bigger challenge than being a “brand ambassador” for Tres Papalote Mezcal.

“Every state’s different because you can’t transfer weed from one state to the other. You have to be locally grown and locally sold,” Marin explains. “So we’re making those relationships wherever we go.

“We’ve put a lot of work into the organization and the supply route. It takes a long time. When you go into a dispensary and want Cheech’s Private Stash, it has to be there. A lot of celebrity endorsers haven’t accomplished that, and we’ve worked very hard to accomplish it.”

Cheech & Chong are holding off on a product that carries the imprimatur of their combined names, perhaps until marijuana is legal in all states.

“It’s like a lava flow. You can stand in front of it, but I just wouldn’t recommend it,” he says of the legalization movement. Federal laws that conflict with state legalization “forces the industry to be an all-cash business, which is counter-productive and dangerous,” he adds.

But wait. Hasn’t Marin been on the record as not smoking nearly as much weed as he used to?

“Well, I don’t think anybody is. Except Tommy. And you know what happened there,” he says, with that laugh again.

The 78-year-old Chong’s so-far successful cancer battle has been the only setback to a reunion that’s continued for more than eight years. Marin credits the explosion of tribal casinos around the country.

“There’s more Indian casinos now than there were Indians when Columbus landed. We go around and play them all,” he says. Friday, however, will find them at the non-tribal Treasure Island.

He says the duo would love some type of Las Vegas residency, as they were pioneers of that idea back in 1977. “We did it every month for three days,” he says of shows at 2:30 a.m. in the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts (now the Axis at Planet Hollywood).

“They were just starting to get used to hippies in Las Vegas. They would take a look at you as you would enter the casino. ‘OK, Cheech & Chong, that way, Paul Anka, that way.’ ”

But this was still the era of “Fear and Loathing” and the “Casino” movie, with the Aladdin heavily investigated for organized crime control. “It was astonishing that we were in Vegas,” Marin agrees.

“They wanted to discourage us until they found out we had money. Then they wanted to encourage us.”

Nowadays that sort of counterculture seems to live on among Bernie Sanders’ supporters.

“It’s a kind of Counterculture Light,” Marin says. “Hopefully his (principles) will be integrated into the Democratic platform, and then Hillary will come and defeat, uh, whatever his name is. That other guy, whose name I will not speak.”

Sanders is 74, right in between the ages of Cheech and Chong. So this really is the year of old hippies.

“We used to play old men; now we are old men. We don’t have to play it anymore; we just have to speak,” he says. “They can’t kill us yet.” Then he adds in a cartoon voice, familiar to both old stoners and young viewers of cartoon animation: “I’m not dead yet — don’t bury me!”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.