Tommy Chong gets a laugh by sounding as though nothing requires immediate attention. His deep, relaxed voice is an effective comic tool, especially in supporting parts; the limitation is how often the character arrives ready-made.
Fi1m perspective
Listen to how little hurry there is in Tommy Chong’s voice. The deep, relaxed delivery makes a small part recognisable and gives a director a dependable comic presence. We like him in small doses, particularly when the surrounding film supplies some friction. Left to carry too much, the familiar stoner persona can spare both actor and audience the trouble of discovering a character.
His partnership with Cheech Marin established that persona, with Up in Smoke (1978) providing their breakthrough. The films that followed through the early 1980s kept returning to it, with diminishing rewards. That is the reservation about Chong: recognition can do too much of the work. His recurring Leo in That '70s Show (1998–2006) brought the hippie persona to a new generation, without requiring much reinvention.
After Hours (1985) offers a better reason to return to him. Martin Scorsese’s unnerving comedy casts him as Pepe, alongside Marin, and makes good use of the relaxed timing that can become repetitive elsewhere. Against the film’s restless camera and Griffin Dunne’s mounting predicament, that lack of hurry is funny rather than merely familiar. We recommend the film with reservations about how its women are used, but Chong fits a supporting cast that keeps the anxiety comic. It is a useful setting for an actor whose manner needs little explanation.
We laughed at Yax in Zootopia (2016) because Chong sounds so comfortably unhurried in a police comedy. As the voice of the laid-back yak, he needs no elaborate introduction; the low, relaxed delivery does the character work. Byron Howard and Rich Moore have a whole city to explore, and Chong is one of its smaller pleasures, rather than the reason to visit. We recommend the film despite reservations about using predators and prey to explain human prejudice. Start with these two supporting performances if the prospect of a whole evening of Cheech & Chong sounds a little too much.
Biography
Tommy Chong is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician and activist. Born Thomas Bing Kin Chong on 24 May 1938 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he started in music before forming the comedy duo Cheech & Chong with Cheech Marin.
Chong is known for the marijuana-themed comedy films with Marin, including Up in Smoke (1978), which he co-wrote and directed, and for the recurring role of Leo on the television series That '70s Show (1998). He voiced Yax in the animated film Zootopia (2016) and appeared as Pepe in Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985).
