From the small screen to the big screen, most of us are suckers for reality TV, like "Dancing With the Stars" where former celebrities re-emerge into the spotlight to see if they can dance, to feel-good romantic comedies that tug at our heartstrings.
Yet there's another type of comedy that also gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling -- but not in the way you'd expect. It's stoner comedy, and it's making a unique comeback to the box office with the long-awaited, big-screen reunion of "Cheech and Chong," otherwise known as Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.
Mexico's most beloved comedic film star of all time, Cantinflas (played by Mario Moreno) was considered to be "the best comedian alive," according to the great Charlie Chaplin. Today, his influence continues to thrive not only with Pantelion Films' recent release of his biopic, "Cantinflas," but with modern-day Latino comedic actors, such as Cheech Marin who recalled meeting Moreno in a Latin Post exclusive interview.
Many people know comedic actor Cheech Marin for his stoner comedy "Cheech & Chong" films in the '70s and '80s, but he's also made his mark as a director, writer, musician and a Chicano advocate and art collector. He's starred in feature film comedies and animated movies and has made bestselling bilingual children's music albums.
Marin recently spoke to Latin Post about his role in the animated fantasy-adventure, "The Book of Life," directed by Jorge Gutierrez and produced by his longtime friend and Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro. During the Latin Post exclusive interview, Marin reminisced of his early days and recalled other Latino trailblazers in film, including renegade filmmaker and fellow Mexican-American, Robert Rodriguez.
If you are ever in need of a wing man and a singing entourage to help woo your true love, Cheech Marin is your man!
In "The Book of Life," Marin voices the hysterical role of Pancho Rodriguez, one of Manolo's (voiced by Diego Luna's hilarious mariachi friends, the "Rodriguez brothers" (also voiced by Gabriel Iglesias and Ricardo Sanchez "Mandril"). In the film, they try "fun, though hardly romantic versions of Rod Stewart's 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' and Biz Markie's 'Just a Friend' - the latter to the accompaniment of a toy piano."
