I Was Front-And-Center for Cheech & Chong! [GALLERY]

I was first introduced to Cheech & Chong when I was maybe 8 or 9. Definitely way too young by today's standards, but in the mid-80s it was ok! My parents were in my grandma's living room watching TV while my brother & I were in my uncle's room listening to Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit.

Friday night (5/11/18), I was front-and-center for Cheech & Chong's show at Grand Casino Hinckley. I had seen them a few years ago at the Orpheum in the cities, but was way up in the balcony for that show. This time, I was literally front-and-center!

Tommy Chong's wife Shelby opened the show with a few jokes and puns. She made sure not to overstay her welcome, and brought on the headliners after a few minutes.

Cheech & Chong - despite their age - were on point the entire night. The opening segment featured a sorta Question-and-Answer session, overseen by Shelby. The question, "Why did Cheech & Chong break up" was first. Chong's answer was classic Cheech & Chong: "We got rich, and (referring to Cheech) you can't make a rich Mexican work."

They performed classic bits ("Cruisin'", "Dave's Not Here", "Earache My Eye", etc) and classic songs ("Basketball Jones", "Earache My Eye", a latin-flavored version of "Born in East L.A"....but NOT "Up in Smoke"! WTF?!?!). The bits were slightly modernized, but still had the classic flavors.

Chong used a few ethnic slurs in his monologue, but not in a derogatory way; just reminiscing on the unfortunately-named band he was in at the time.

I made eye-contact with Chong during "Basketball Jones." He saw me singing along (probably really loud) and smiled. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Midway through their show, a fella stumbled up to the front of the stage with a lit joint and offered it to Cheech & Chong! I didn't get a picture because security was swift, but it was definitely dank weed!

It was a great show! Enjoy the pictures below! My phone camera kinda sucks.