Stoner comedy legend Tommy Chong is returning to the Ann Arbor Hash Bash. The 86-year-old comedian and actor who rose to fame in the 1970s and ‘80s as part of the “Cheech and Chong” duo is scheduled to speak at the 54th-annual marijuana rally on the University of Michigan Diag on Saturday, April 5.
“I’m excited about this year,” said Hash Bash organizer Jamie Lowell, noting it’s Chong’s first time returning in several years. “I’m just a huge fan of his.”
Chong, alongside comedian and actor Cheech Marin, has starred in several films such as “Up in Smoke” and “Still Smokin.”
Joey Marin, Cheech Marin’s son, is expected to accompany Chong at this year’s smoke fest in Ann Arbor, which traditionally kicks off at high noon on the Diag the first Saturday in April.
The crowd cheers stoner comedy legend Tommy Chong at the Ann Arbor Hash Bash marijuana festival on the University of Michigan Diag in April 1999.Lon Horwedel | Ann Arbor News archives courtesy of OldNews.AADL.org
Chong has made occasional appearances at Hash Bash over the decades. At age 77, he sang Ann Arbor’s praises at the 45th-annual edition of the festival in 2016 as cannabis activists still were rallying to legalize marijuana in Michigan, which happened with voter approval two years later.
“Ann Arbor was the first, the very first, to stand up and tell everybody there’s nothing wrong with this plant,” Chong told the crowd of thousands that year.
Though still illegal in many places, marijuana has been decriminalized in Ann Arbor since the 1970s.
Chong also spoke about his battles with prostate and rectal cancer at the 2016 Hash Bash and said marijuana, which he described as a magical plant, helped him get through it and gave him an appetite for food when he needed it.
“And the one thing that cannabis does, it gives you the munchies, and thank God for the munchies,” he said.
He also spoke at the 2015 Hash Bash, saying the event was still a protest of criminalization of marijuana, but it was turning into a celebration because “we are winning the war on drugs.”
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