Last modified: Sunday, January 4, 2009 6:33 PM EST Comedians Cheech Marin, right, and Tommy Chong (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) Cheech and Chong still smokin' as they return to the road BY STEPHEN PETERSON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF UNCASVILLE, Conn. - Long before Saturday Night Live's Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's "Wayne's World" depicted the stoner lifestyle, there was Cheech and Chong. They had widespread success in the 1970s and '80s with their comedy albums and films, and now Cheech and Chong are returning to their comedy roots. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong hit Mohegan Sun Arena's stage Friday night for their "Light Up America" U.S. tour - the first time they hit the road in over 25 years. Although even the title of the nostalgic tour alludes to marijuana, the center of many of their jokes, their irreverent and satirical comedy hits on other topics. That included a few jabs at President Bush, who Chong, 70, the ageless hippie and symbol of the drug counterculture, partially blames for his arrest in 2003 for his involvement in a business his son ran that shipped bongs. The well-known advocate of the legalization of pot has contended he was made an example of in the government's war against drugs. "I was a big hero. For nine months all I did was sign autographs and pose for pictures," Chong said, joking he ended up teaching the drug education counseling classes in the "joint." Cheech and Chong started off the show acting out the start of their first film, "Up In Smoke," which begins with Cheech, 62, driving his "Love Machine" low rider car and picking up a hitchhiking and headband-wearing Chong. It was not the easiest thing to pull off, just sitting on stage filling their roles with only sparse video and sound effects, but the duo did an admirable job. Chong a guitarist playing Motown tunes in western Canada when he first met a draft-dodging Marin, performed one of his most well-known skits, that of Blind Melon Chitlin,' a blind blues guitarist. Marin, a Mexican-American who grew up in Los Angeles, played the role of a guitar-singing musician of that race, with his songs "Mexican-American" and "Born in East L.A." There were also skits of Cheech and Chong acting as dogs, and taking in an X-rated movie at a theater, as well as the end of "Up In Smoke." The show ended with a sing-along of the movie's title track. Opening up the show was Chong's longtime wife Shelby, who comically told of her husband's arrest, her own experiences with reefer and acid. The show was quite a trip without having to indulge in drugs.