Las Vegas Weekly

November 17, 2008 · 11:05 AM

Breaking News: Stars line up to fire barbs at Cheech & Chong roast at Caesars

By Robin Leach

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabik.com

A multi-talented lineup of nearly all-male stars are now set to roast ’70s comedy stoners Cheech & Chong during this Friday’s taped telecast of the Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace. The one-hour televised show will premiere on TBS on Nov. 30 right after Thanksgiving.

That gives the videotape editors a week to clean up any of the F-bombs and other scorching comedic obscenities guaranteed to fly at the roast!

TBS announced moments ago that the show at the Palace inside Caesars will be hosted by Brad Garrett, who already got into deep trouble over insults hurled at Pamela Anderson during the last acid-barbed show he performed here in Vegas.

TBS also announced that the other stars throwing adult humor will be our good pals Tom Arnold and Fox newsman Geraldo Riviera, plus Vegas headliners Penn & Teller, along with Wilmer Valderrama, Steve Carell, Andy Dick, Greg Giraldo, Tommy Chong’s actress-wife Shelby Chong and, maybe just to soften the XXX remarks, the Rev. Al Sharpton!

Cheech & Chong recently starred in their reunited “Light Up America” tour at the Palms. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong found fame with their drug-laced humor in comedy routines that then transferred to the movies Up in Smoke, Nice Dreams and Things Are Tough All Over. They split up for more than a decade to pursue their own solo careers and then reunited this summer.

Host Brad Garrett has won three Emmys for his work on Everybody Loves Raymond, and he’s become a weekend regular at The Mirage in recent months. Actor and standup comic Tom Arnold stars in the new, controversial film Gardens of the Night and was a regular guest star on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Geraldo Rivera, who hosts his own Geraldo at Large weekend show on Fox News, is a veteran, frontline, foreign correspondent who has won more than 170 awards.

Vegas hometown heroes Penn & Teller star nightly at the Rio and have numerous network TV magic specials and books to their credit, including their long-running Bullsh*t series on Showtime. Actor Wilmer Valderrama from That ’70s Show will star in the upcoming movie adaptation of the old CHiPs TV series. He is a Vegas regular and partner with Nicky Hilton in the new Company America Bistro at the Luxor.

Steve Carell is in the hit NBC sitcom The Office, and his film credits include Get Smart, Evan Almighty and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Cutting-edge comic Andy Dick co-starred on NewsRadio and Less Than Perfect before landing his own show. Provocative comedian Greg Giraldo is currently seen on Z Rock. The Rev. Sharpton, last in Vegas for the opening of Jay-Z’s 40-40 Club at the Palazzo, is a religious activist from New York City.

The Comedy Festival, with three nights of America’s funniest folks including Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Dane Cook and Jeff Dunham, starts Thursday and runs through Saturday night.

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