Mel Brooks

Author : Mel Brooks
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780593159118

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All About Me! by Mel Brooks Pdf

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now he shares his story for the first time in “a wonderful addition to a seminal career” (San Francisco Chronicle), “infused with nostalgia and his signature hilarity” (Parade). ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: New York Post • “Laugh-out-loud hilarious and always fascinating, from the great Mel Brooks. What else do you expect from the man who knew Jesus and dated Joan of Arc?”—Billy Crystal For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny. All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers’ room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’s stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers. All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft. Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history.

Author : Patrick McGilligan
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 772 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-19
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780062560964

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Funny Man by Patrick McGilligan Pdf

A deeply textured and compelling biography of comedy giant Mel Brooks, covering his rags-to-riches life and triumphant career in television, films, and theater, from Patrick McGilligan, the acclaimed author of Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane and Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy award–winner Mel Brooks was behind (and sometimes in front the camera too) of some of the most influential comedy hits of our time, including The 2,000 Year Old Man, Get Smart, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. But before this actor, writer, director, comedian, and composer entertained the world, his first audience was his family. The fourth and last child of Max and Kitty Kaminsky, Mel Brooks was born on his family’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926, and was not quite three-years-old when his father died of tuberculosis. Growing up in a household too poor to own a radio, Mel was short and homely, a mischievous child whose birth role was to make the family laugh. Beyond boyhood, after transforming himself into Mel Brooks, the laughs that came easily inside the Kaminsky family proved more elusive. His lifelong crusade to transform himself into a brand name of popular humor is at the center of master biographer Patrick McGilligan’s Funny Man. In this exhaustively researched and wonderfully novelistic look at Brooks’ personal and professional life, McGilligan lays bare the strengths and drawbacks that shaped Brooks’ psychology, his willpower, his persona, and his comedy. McGilligan insightfully navigates the epic ride that has been the famous funnyman’s life story, from Brooks’s childhood in Williamsburg tenements and breakthrough in early television—working alongside Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner—to Hollywood and Broadway peaks (and valleys). His book offers a meditation on the Jewish immigrant culture that influenced Brooks, snapshots of the golden age of comedy, behind the scenes revelations about the celebrated shows and films, and a telling look at the four-decade romantic partnership with actress Anne Bancroft that superseded Brooks’ troubled first marriage. Engrossing, nuanced and ultimately poignant, Funny Man delivers a great man’s unforgettable life story and an anatomy of the American dream of success. Funny Man includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert.

Author : Rick Mercer
Publisher : Doubleday Canada
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2021-11-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780385696234

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Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer Pdf

INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Canada's beloved comic genius tells his own story for the first time. What is Rick Mercer going to do now? That was the question on everyone's lips when the beloved comedian retired his hugely successful TV show after 15 seasons—and at the peak of its popularity. The answer came not long after, when he roared back in a new role as stand-up-comedian, playing to sold-out houses wherever he appeared. And then Covid-19 struck. And his legions of fans began asking again: What is Rick Mercer going to do now? Well, for one thing, he's been writing a comic masterpiece. For the first time, this most private of public figures has turned the spotlight on himself, in a memoir that's as revealing as it is hilarious. In riveting anecdotal style, Rick charts his rise from highly unpromising schoolboy (in his reports "the word 'disappointment' appeared a fair bit") to the heights of TV fame. Along the way came an amazing break when, not long out of his teens, his one-man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It. Or, Charles Lynch Must Die, became an overnight sensation—thanks in part to a bizarre ambush by its target, Charles Lynch himself. That's one story you won’t soon forget, and this book is full of them. There's a tale of how little Rick helped himself to a tree from the neighbours' garden that's set to become a new Christmas classic. There's Rick the aspiring actor, braving "the scariest thing I have ever done in my life" by performing with the Newfoundland Shakespeare Company; unforgettable scenes with politicians of every variety, from Jean Chretien to George W. Bush to Stockwell Day; and a wealth of behind-the-scenes revelations about the origins and making of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and Talking to Americans. All leading of course to the greenlighting of that mega-hit, Rick Mercer Report . . . It's a life so packed with incident (did we mention Bosnia and Kabul?) and laughter we can only hope that a future answer to "What is Rick Mercer going to do now?" is: "Write volume two."

Author : James Robert Parish
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2008-02-26
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780470225264

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It's Good to Be the King by James Robert Parish Pdf

Discusses the personal life and professional career of comedy writer/actor/filmmaker Mel Brooks.

Author : Hal Niedzviecki
Publisher : Cormorant Books
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-20
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781770866355

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The Lost Expert by Hal Niedzviecki Pdf

When Chris, an unambitious young waiter, walks through the park on his way home from work, he stumbles onto the set of a Hollywood film — and is promptly mistaken for the missing lead actor. Corralled into filming a scene for The Lost Expert — director Bryant Reed’s last-ditch effort to restore his reputation — Chris assumes the identity of international action star Thomson Holmes, and disconnects from his real life. He falls deeply into his newfound identity as Holmes and as his character in the film, a struggling young man who has the ability to find lost people and things. Tensions mount as Chris gradually learns of the real Thomson Holmes’ scandals and accusations of sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, the real Thomson Holmes has disappeared and Chris has reason to fear he’ll be next. As he tries to figure out what happened to the actor, he grapples with his role as imposter and whether he can — or even should — extricate himself from reinvention.

Author : Robert Alan Crick
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2015-06-14
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781476612287

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The Big Screen Comedies of Mel Brooks by Robert Alan Crick Pdf

Mel Brooks is often regarded as one of Hollywood’s funniest men, thanks to such highly successful films as The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. His films do have a tendency to turn out much like the jokes that comprise them—hit-or-miss, one minute shoot-the-moon brilliant and the next minute well short of laughs. This work provides a thorough synopsis and thematic analysis for each of his twelve films along with complete cast and production credits: The Producers (1968), The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World—Part 1 (1981), To Be or Not to Be (1983), Spaceballs (1987), Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

Author : Mel Brooks
Publisher : Hal Leonard
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2020-10-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781705124819

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The Mel Brooks Songbook by Mel Brooks Pdf

(P/V/G Composer Collection). Twenty-three songs from the brilliant career of Mel Brooks in arrangements for piano, voice and guitar. Songs are included from the following Broadway musicals and movies: Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, The Producers, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Spaceballs, To Be or Not to Be, The Twelve Chairs, Young Frankenstein.

Author : University Press
Publisher : Independently Published
Page : 60 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-18
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9798769438639

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Mel Brooks Book by University Press Pdf

University Press returns with another short and captivating biography of one of history's most compelling figures, Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks is the most successful comedian-actor-director of the 20th and 21st centuries. He created iconic film comedy classics like Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Spaceballs (1987), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and he now joins an elite pantheon of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) winners - the veritable "grand slam" of show business. Melvin Kaminsky was born to Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York on June 28, 1926. He had three older brothers, lost his 34-year-old father to kidney disease at the age of two, grew up in tenement housing, was small and sickly and bullied by his classmates, saw his first Broadway show at the age of nine, announced his decision to pursue a career in show business, became a teenage comedian, legally changed his name to Mel Brooks, graduated from high school, got drafted into the United States Army during World War II, defused land mines as the Allies advanced into Germany, returned to civilian life, started comedy writing, became a Hollywood director, and the rest is history. This short book tells the intensely human story of a man who is changing the world in a way that no one else can.

Author : Peter Mansbridge
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2023-04-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781982169640

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Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge Pdf

INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER A candid look into the life and career of one of Canada’s most trusted journalists, in his own words. Today, Peter Mansbridge is often recognized for his distinctive deep voice, which calmly delivered the news for over fifty years. Even though he never considered becoming a broadcaster, in some ways he had been preparing for a life as a newscaster from an early age. Every night around the dinner table, his family would discuss the latest news stories, from Cold War scandals to the Beatles. So in 1968, when a CBC radio manager in Churchill, Manitoba, offered him a spot hosting the local late-night music program, Peter embraced the opportunity. Without a teacher, he tuned into broadcasts from across the world to learn the basic skills of a journalist, and he eventually parlayed his position into his first news job. Twenty years later, he became the chief correspondent and anchor of The National. With humour and heart, Peter shares behind-the-scenes stories from his distinguished career, including reporting on the fall of the Berlin Wall, walking the beaches of Normandy with Tom Brokaw, and talking with Canadian prime ministers from John Diefenbaker to Justin Trudeau. But it’s not all serious. Peter also writes about finding the “cure” for baldness in China and landing the role of Peter Moosebridge in Disney’s Zootopia. After years of interviewing others, Peter turns the lens on himself, reflecting on the people and places that have shaped his life and career.

Author : Mel Brooks
Publisher : Dramatic Publishing
Page : 116 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 1962-12
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0871293129

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All American by Mel Brooks Pdf

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Chronicle Books
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : Photography
ISBN : 9781452131955

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Comic Genius by Anonim Pdf

This star-studded tribute to the kings and queens of comedy draws together such legendary names as Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, and many more. Granted extraordinary access, photographer Matt Hoyle has captured his subjects in portraits that are works of art in themselves—by turns zany and deadpan, laugh-out-loud and contemplative. Accompanying them are first-person reflections from each of the comedians on life and laughter that always cut straight to the heart of comedy: it's funny because it's true. Page after sidesplitting page in Comic Genius offers prose as engaging as each portrait is memorable. Here, in one handsome package, is the gift of laughter itself. Comic Genius is proud to support Save The Children.

Author : Jeremy Dauber
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2023-03-07
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780300244274

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Mel Brooks by Jeremy Dauber Pdf

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century. Having won almost every entertainment award there is, Brooks has straddled the line between outsider and insider, obedient and rebellious, throughout his career, making out-of-bounds comedy the American mainstream. Jeremy Dauber argues that throughout Brooks's extensive body of work--from Your Show of Shows to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to Spaceballs--the comedian has seen the most success when he found a balance between his unflagging, subversive, manic energy and the constraints imposed by comedic partners, the Hollywood system, and American cultural mores. Dauber also explores how Brooks's American Jewish humor went from being solely for niche audiences to an essential part of the American mainstream, paving the way for generations of Jewish (and other) comedians to come.

Author : Samuel Boerboom,Beth E. Bonnstetter
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2019-06-07
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781498586719

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The Political Mel Brooks by Samuel Boerboom,Beth E. Bonnstetter Pdf

The Political Mel Brooks analyzes both Mel Brooks’s more popular films and his lesser known work to explore how his use of parody and satire, his keen sense of the history of Jewish comedic conventions, and his deep awareness of social issues encompasses a political project that, while often implicit, nonetheless speaks to the enduring political and social impact of his films. Brooks’s work often employs a nuanced political style that acts as a social commentary against those in power and in favor of oppressed and misunderstood persons. This volume emphasizes Brooks’s political legacy and his masterful use of parody and satire to craft sophisticated political critiques of dominant culture. Contributors illustrate in a practical and accessible way how to explore how comedic films and television series can employ parody and satire not just to mock generic conventions, but also dominant political ideologies. Scholars of media, film, pop culture, political science, and communication studies will find this volume especially useful.

Author : Alex Symons
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2012-08-06
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780748664481

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Mel Brooks in the Cultural Industries by Alex Symons Pdf

Which strategies has Mel Brooks used to survive, adapt and thrive in the cultural industries? How has he gained his reputation as a multimedia survivor? Alex Symons takes a unique, artist-focused approach in order to systematically identify the range of Brooks's adaptation strategies across the Hollywood film, Broadway theatre and American television industries.By combining a cultural industries approach together with that of adaptation studies, this book also identifies an important new industrial practice employed by Brooks - defined here as 'prolonged adaptation'. More significantly, Symons also employs this method to explain the so far neglected way that Brooks's adaptations have contributed towards changing production trends, changes in critical attitudes, and towards the ongoing integration of the cultural industries today. An essential read for film students and scholars researching adaptation, this refreshing new approach will also be valued by everyone studying the cultural industries.

Author : Gale, Cengage Learning
Publisher : Gale, Cengage Learning
Page : 21 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781410355966

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A Study Guide for Mel Brooks's "The Producers" by Gale, Cengage Learning Pdf

A Study Guide for Mel Brooks's "The Producers," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.