How Cheech & Chong ‘Enjoyed Our Brownness,’ Pushed Comedy Boundaries: ‘We Could Do Things Nobody Else Could’ (Exclusive)

• Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong first met in Vancouver in 1969
• The story of their meteoric rise to success is the subject of Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie, directed by David Bushell and produced by Robbi Chong
• The duo recently chatted with PEOPLE about their humble beginnings and rise to fame

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have traveled a long road together.

The comedic duo, known as Cheech & Chong, take a new road trip back in time as they look at their storied career in the new documentary Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie.

Speaking with PEOPLE about the film, the duo remember their early days after they became members of the same improv group and performed at a Vancouver strip club called ‘Shanghai Junk,’ which slowly morphed into a topless improv comedy club described as “hippie burlesque.”

“You learn how to duck — people throwing s— at you,” Cheech, 78, says with a laugh. “It was an interesting way to come up, because it was a tough audience. I mean, they wanted to see naked women, not long-haired guys talking to them, and so you had to get over that.”

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Cheech, who grew up in East Los Angeles with Mexican parents, had been making his way through Canada when he met up with Chong, a Canuck with a Scottish and Irish mother and Chinese father. He was transitioning to comedy after years as a musician.

“I really liked being a comedian because I’d been a guitar player, and that can be very stressful, carrying amplifiers around, guitars, and being treated like a third-class citizen. But when you became a comedian, everybody did the work for you,” Chong, 86, says.

“You had a roadie come out and fix a microphone and carry all your crap around with you,” he continues. “You don’t have to do anything. You’re a star. So I was really meant to be a star. I was not meant to be a sideman.”

When they moved on from improv, the two decided to stick together and began working on their act as a duo.

“When we first started, we played this club called the Climax Club, and on stage live every night you could see Ralph Mathis, who was Johnny Mathis’s look-alike brother, who sang all his songs,” Cheech recalls. “You could see this up-and-coming new hippie comedy team, Cheech & Chong, and this brand new band they were just putting together called Earth, Wind & Fire. And that was live every night at the Climax Club.”

They quickly found a rhythm and developed a popular and influential brand of “stoner” comedy. “We just enjoyed our brownness,” Chong says. “We always did. And it was great. We could do things that nobody else could do because we were Cheech & Chong, and we sort of set the bar and we went from there. And we got a lot of fans because of that.”

“But really, when we met [music mogul] Lou Adler, that’s when everything changed,” Chong remembers. “It was a struggle right up until we met Lou, and then we met Lou and we became record stars.”

Cheech says that Adler’s own background growing up in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights made all the difference. He understood the material in ways others didn’t.

“Lou really understood Cheech & Chong,” Chong says. “The rest of the industry, they were afraid of us because we look like who we are, and people were a little wary of that.”

He continues, “But Lou understood us, and he also understood the record business, and so when we hooked up with Lou, then everything got crazy.” They had a series of hit albums and singles, including 1974’s “Earache My Eye,” which hit No. 8 on Billboard‘s Hot 100. Movies eventually followed, beginning with 1978’s Up in Smoke, which Adler directed.

“Once we became vinyl heroes, then our lives changed forever and we haven’t looked back,” Chong adds. “We’ve been on top ever since.”

Director David Bushell teamed up with Chong’s daughter Robbi to bring their story to life in a way that’s “a little more than a documentary,” Chong explains.

“It didn’t come together overnight. It was eight, nine years of digging in our past and finding the footage and everything else and then putting it all together. They had so much to choose from,” he says.

“To put it together the way they did in a movie — it’s a little more than a documentary. It’s a movie, and a respected movie. And because there’s a lot of elements in there that only Dave Bushell, the director, could bring with all his experience. And Robbi, my daughter, whew. Now here we are.”

Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie is now playing in theaters.