New York (AP) — Leave it to Mel Brooks to promote his own memoirs.
With praise from Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Conan O’Brien and others, as “M. Brooks praising” All About Me! “”: “Since the Bible, I’ve read something so powerful and inspirational. Never. And start — it’s so funny! “
Landing on the bookshelf on Tuesday, “All About Me!” Is full of stories, anecdotes, and memories from the comedy masters of Bible proportions. Brooks, 95, spent much of his pandemic writing this book. It was a year that reminded me of everything from being attacked by Tin Lizzie at the age of eight in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to writing the musical version of “Producers” with Tom. Manhattan’s Madame Romaine Delyon’s Mihan over the omelet.
“Like everyone else, I’m almost stuck at home and tired of the same diet of information and food,” says Brooks. “Thank God. I was free to roam my heart.”
Brooks grew up in Williamsburg during the Great Depression (he cheerfully says “I loved the Great Depression!”), Joined the army during World War II, and all of him started in Borscht Belt. I wrote the story of the Great Depression on paper for the first time. , Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Show”, launched a 2000-year-old man with Carl Reiner, devised the greatest comic concept (“Producers”) in history, and the movie “Blazing”. I made “Saddle”. “Young Frankenstein”, “high anxiety”, etc. His wife Anne Bancroft, who died in 2005, and Reiner, who died last year, have a gentle chapter. There are jokes and omelets.
In a long, lively telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles, Brooks looked back on his life in his books and show business — “the most epic adventure humans have ever taken,” he said. say. “It’s an incredible world to be in the theater and make a movie. It’s wonderful.”
AP: What made you start writing memoirs?
Brooks: My son Max said: Why don’t you just write a memoir? Tell them what you said to me when I was growing up. You will have a big fat book. He made me start. He got me a publisher. good. That prevented me from getting angry.
AP: The childhood section of Williamsburg, Brooklyn is especially vividly and lovingly remembered. While many believe that life in comedy comes from pain and difficult childhood, you write it …
Brooks: I wanted to continue the party. I wanted to keep the explosion of happiness, joy and laughter no longer in our childhood, but in the dire part of our lives. I was once interviewed and the man said: “What was the happiest part of your life? Did you win an Academy Award? Did you marry Anne Bancroft?” No, I didn’t say at all. It was my childhood. From about 4, 5 and 9, it was the most exciting, happiest and most enjoyable life everyone could experience. The man said, “What happened at 9 o’clock?” I said “homework”. I realized that the world wants to get something back. To date, that’s still a bad thing. Homework is bad. It robs you of your childhood.
AP: Relying on laughter for happiness can lead to a lot of heartache. Were there any downsides to that need to be addressed?
Brooks: That’s right. When things go wrong. When you’re working hard on an idea or project and the audience just said: No, thank you. There was a lot of broken heart there. When I had a TV show like “Get Smart”, it was dropped after the first year. ABC said it wasn’t in its second year. There are ups and downs. I didn’t write a lot of down in the book. Why do you drop your readers when there are so many ups and downs to talk about?
AP: You say that you think most people are writers, even though they are filmmakers and producers. Was that always the case?
Brooks: Yes, always. It always started with an idea and many characters interacted with each other. That was the most interesting thing I could do in my life. I am a good reader, and a good reader is probably the basis for becoming a good writer.
AP: What kind of book were you reading?
Brooks: I met Mel Tolkin while writing the “Your Show of Show”. His name was actually Schmuel Torkinsky. He was a Russian Emigré who came to Canada at the age of 14. He was a kind of wise man. He introduced me to people like Nikolai Gogol. So when I started writing, my stakes were already high. I wanted to write like Gogol. I wanted to write like Tolstoy. I wanted to write like those guys. I fell in love with Dickens. I was very fortunate to meet Mel Tolkin. I learned that writing is not just writing. It may be a miracle. That may be great. It may be really interesting. I didn’t learn from the guy who just wrote the joke. I learned from the man who learned from the master.
AP: After a few years of sacred running with Sid Caesar, you begged him to join him off TV for a movie. You guys were very popular at that time. What attracted you to the movie?
Brooks: I knew. I was ahead of my time. I said: Harold Lloyd is still “Safety Last!” From 50 years, you have an hour and a half of incredible comedy that disappeared the moment they turned off the TV. It’s gone forever. He understood that, but he couldn’t turn down the offer they gave him. understood. I said, “Well continue but go to the movies You can do more, you have more time, and they last longer. They are around. I All the movies I’ve made so far are still around and showing somewhere. Maybe it’s a small art house in TCM or Des Moines, but it’s somewhere. Play. The movie is forever. ..
AP: A kind of classic gag in a book is a series of movie executives who give you a note that they are willing to accept only ignoring altogether.
Brooks: (laughs) I always agreed 100% with their faces. (Producer) When Joseph Levine said, “Get rid of this guy Gene Wilder in The Producers. Get rid of him. He looks weird. A more handsome guy with a higher quality star. You can get it. “Of course. He is out. You will never see him again. I haven’t changed things. They forget. As soon as money comes in, they simply forget.
AP: Did anything interesting to you change with age?
Brooks: You never know what’s interesting to you until it hits you, and you say, “Hey, it’s interesting!” Being a positive surprise has always been exciting to me. May Bialystock and Bloom have plans for the flop and instead have incredible hits. There is some crazy secret in my writing that I didn’t realize until I read the book myself. In this world, I seem to know that it is either love or money. Both cannot occur at the same time. I don’t know if I learned from Russian literature, from Mel Tawkin, or from life. But it’s money or love and I go for love.
AP: Are you still thinking of a 2000 year old man’s joke?
Brooks: Well, without Karl, who I loved so much and was a very nice, deep and important part of my life, I wouldn’t think much about a 2,000 year old man. Occasionally, I think about something, too bad Karl isn’t alive, and we were able to nail that idea. But you meet people. You meet Carl Reiners, Tom Meehans and Anne Bancrofts. You meet people. And if you like and have kids you like, you’re lucky. I was lucky in many departments.
AP: Do you remember your last conversation with Reiner before you died last year?
Brooks: Yeah. The day he died, I said, “Karl, you are eating two hot dogs.” He said, “They aren’t going to bother me. I love hot dogs and hot dogs love me.” But that wasn’t true. By that night, the hot dog had done him. He lived a long, beautiful, affectionate, giving and happy life. I was very lucky because he was my beloved friend.
AP: What did he think of the book?
Brooks: I think he would have liked it. He probably said, “Why did you stop there? There was more left behind!” Karl was never enough. He just wanted more joy and more comedy.
AP: He was your regular movie partner. What are you looking at without a liner?
Brooks: I haven’t seen many movies. I watch a small TV. I used to watch game shows. I’m not looking at them anymore because he’s gone. I like old movies. I like Turner Classic. I sometimes watch old movies and actually enjoy them. “That was a good joke,” he says. Like “High Anxiety,” I’m very excited when Barry Levinson stabs me in a rolled-up newspaper after opening the curtain — I play Janet Leigh. Of course, every shot imitates “psycho”. The one shot I couldn’t imitate was a knife and blood. It was too terrible. Then I discovered that the newspaper paper of the newspaper was dripping and looked like blood. When he saw it, I stabbed my ribs from Hitchcock.
AP: 19-year-old Dave Chappelle made his movie debut in your “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”. What did you see from him?
Brooks: There were about 6 or 7 children who came to the audition. The moment he started reading, I said, “It’s a kid-a skinny little kid.” His rhythm was very perfect.
AP: Some comedians, including Chapel, whose jokes about transgender people in the last stand-up comedy caused a backlash, lament that today’s viewers are too sensitive. What do you think of these cultural battles in comedy as those who often push the boundaries of what is acceptable?
Brooks: You need to be careful. When things drive people to great emotions, I avoid it. I’m very careful and stay away from them. Everyone is right, so I will never be on my side. The person who makes fun of what you shouldn’t make fun of is right. And those who are hurt by throwing something very important to them in the trash are right. They are ok. return Please. Please stay away.
AP: But I wasn’t timid about what was considered off-limits, such as ridiculing Hitler and the Nazis with the words “producers” and “brazing saddles.”
Brooks: I was lucky. I was politically wrong and didn’t know it. I didn’t know that, so I did a lot of great things. Then it became politically inaccurate, like the N-word of “Blazing Saddle”. Richard Pryor wrote with me. He liked to use N-words because it was all true — the bad guys used it against blacks. We didn’t think anything was wrong until later. Maybe I have to say it’s overused. Anyway, we were kids, and it worked. It worked when it worked. I don’t think that kind of scene can be done with today’s “Blazing Saddle”. I think I couldn’t escape with it. I think it will offend too many people.
AP: Are you thinking about your heritage at all?
Brooks: Oh, I’m not thinking about that. I just think: buy another book.
AP: Many may say that you played a major role in mainstreaming Jewish culture and comedy.
Brooks: Much of what is called the Jewish comedy is actually New York, New York’s drum beats, and the struggle of immigrants who made New York one of the greatest cities in the world. It’s a New York comedy, a street corner comedy. See the world from the streets of Brooklyn and always create the right pronusiament. This is crazy, but it’s always right.
AP: What made you decide to help create Part 2 of “History of the World” for the Hulu series?
BROOKS: I’m working with Wanda Sykes and Nick Kroll and I’m really enjoying it. They came up with the idea, and I said, “OK, count me.” There is a lot of history that we do not cover. There is always history. You come up with an idea. The other day, I heard a lot of whistling winds, and I thought that the screen would get darker and darker. And a big announcement: “Dust Bowl”. And, “Hey, where are you?” “I’m by the fence!” “I can’t see the fence!”
AP: In a great sketch of the 1980s, you created a coin-operated tombstone for yourself and gave a videotape message that “I was Mel Brooks, one of the weirdest little Jews walking the globe.” I played it. Do you think about death?
Brooks: No. After thinking 60 times, I gave up. Then I was thinking about it all the time. So I don’t think much about it. When and when it happens, it will be a sad day — for anyone but me. (Laughs) I enjoy living. I want to do as much as I can.
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Follow AP film writer Jake Coil on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Q & A: 95-year-old Mel Brooks is still riffing | WGN Radio 720
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