All About Me!
My Remarkable Life in Show Business
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3.8 • 8 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
AVAILABLE NOW - THE PERFECT GIFT FOR FATHER'S DAY
'Delightful. A great, fun read.' DAVID JASON
'Mel Brooks is the king of comedy.' DAVID BADDIEL
'Riotous' DAILY MAIL
'A jaunty romp across Brooks's career' THE TIMES
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At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words.
Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny.
From The Producers to Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein to Anxiety and more, All About Me! offers fans fascinating and hilarious insight into Mel Brooks's outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work. Filled with tales of struggle, achievement and camaraderie, Brooks shares riveting details about his upbringing, his career and his many close friendships and collaborations including those with Gene Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his love, Anne Bancroft.
'Not since the Bible have I read anything so powerful and poignant. And to boot - it's a lot funnier!' M. Brooks
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this laugh-a-minute memoir, actor and producer Brooks (Young Frankenstein) looks back at his rise through Hollywood, gleefully doling out punch lines along the way. He begins with his childhood in Brooklyn, where he lived with his older brothers and mother ("my first comic foil, and enabler") and at school slipped into comedy like a well-worn glove: "I ... allowed to hang around with the bigger kids because I made them laugh... you don't hit the kid that makes you laugh." Brooks recounts his early days as a writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows in the 1950s; appearing in 1962 on the very first Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he shared the stage with Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, and Tony Bennett; learning how to bend the truth, after he told producer Joe Levine that he cut a scene from the end of his Oscar-winning film The Producers ("On every movie... since then; I've often lied when the studio objected to something by saying, "It's out!"); and taking a giant leap forward as a director by writing "the greatest farting scene in cinematic history," in 1974's Blazing Saddles. Studded with snickering asides and rapid-fire jokes, Brooks's account of making it in show biz is just as sidesplitting as his movies.
Customer Reviews
It’s by Mel Brooks, so what’s keeping you?
Fascinating insight into his TV, movies and theatre life. Mel Brooks was such a huge part of my early life and he still is today.
This book is an incredible insight into his world and I simply couldn’t put it down.
I’m sure Mel also knows this but his book is jammed full of tips that could help writers, actors, directors and even song writers get a head start.
He knew what he needed to do, he surrounded himself with the right people and he was loyal to them. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.