Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Melvin James Brooksis an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, composer, songwriter and veteran. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit, The 2000 Year Old Man. He also created, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series, Get Smart,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth28 June 1926
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
When you come to Germany as a Jew you have an uneasy feeling, but I've always felt okay in Berlin.
If Ivan the Terrible had been kissed and loved between zero and three, he probably would have become Ivan Not So Terrible. If you're Jewish, you have a small smile on your face. Because you know the rest are wrong and you don't want to hurt their feelings.
Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.
I kept leaning on him and I finally said, 'Mel, this isn't fair.' So I asked him to come on board as a co-writer with credit. And he was happy to do it.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.
There's no lightning. There's blood, sweat and tears. There's a good idea and there's 18 months of due diligence, hard work, day and night.
On directing movies: anybody can direct. There are only 11 good write
Anybody can direct. There are only 11 good writers.
I've never been happier than when I was writing the musical score of The Producers. One song after another tumbled out of my head in what was the most soul-satisfying experience of my career. And in my less than humble opinion, I must say that it turned out to be surprisingly good.
I was going to do the book and the music and the lyrics,
I wouldn't have done this show without Nathan Lane, because he's God's gift to Broadway, ... And Matthew's a surprising find -- I didn't know he could sing and dance.
It's always been a love letter to Broadway, and now its time has come,
When we did 'Young Frankenstein,' we knew we could get the college crowd. They loved the Mary Shelley novel. If you didn't get the references, you couldn't enjoy my movies.
In the movie, I wrote the line 'We might have a position for you.' ... And Tom added, 'We might have several positions for you.'