In the “Wolf of Wall Street” Martin Scorsese depicted jail full of tennis courts, and relaxation. But, did you know that comedians were added to the luxury of Jordan Belfort’s (Lenoardo DiCaprio) stay in prison.
Jordan Belfort who wrote the memoir on which the movie was based, who, after being imprisoned for securities fraud and money laundering in 2003, ended serving 22 months in Taft, California. While he was there he was cellmates with Tommy Chong, who was doing nine months.
Tommy Chong told the story during a Howard Stern interview in 2004:
CHONG: I got a million jail stories for ya, man. Jordan Belfort – do you know Jordan? Remember the movie Boiler Room? The hotshot stock guy? Him. He was my cell mate.
STERN: What was he in jail for?
CHONG: For, uh, you know… financial things, you know. He had to pay back – they give you a sum of money that you have to pay the government back, his payback was higher than anybody’s has ever been. $100 million.
STERN: Wow.
ROBIN QUIVERS: And does he have it?
CHONG. Yeah. It was like, ‘what do you want, Mastercard? Visa?’ Anyway, he’s a little guy, he’s from New York. Great guy. He’s a genius. Young guy, about 42. We had the best time, man. He’s writing a book, so I’d help him write a book. And he’d tell me the best stories, man. It was an education, Howard. You couldn’t buy an education like I got.
STERN: So you had a good time.
CHONG: I had a wonderful time.
