All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

by Mel Brooks

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Humor, Audiobook, Autobiography, Comedy

480 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2021

About the author

Mel Brooks (born "Melvin Kaminsky") is an American multi-award winning director, writer, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer best known as a creator of broad film farces and comedy parodies.

Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is 1931, I am five years old, and my older brother Bernie takes me to see a movie called Frankenstein at the Republic Movie Theatre. Big mistake! That evening, even though it was a hot summer night, I closed the window next to my little bed. My mother hears it being closed and immediately comes into the bedroom and quickly opens it. “Mel,” she says, “we’re on the top floor and it’s a hundred degrees in here. It’s very hot. We have to keep the window open.” I counter with, “No, we must keep it closed! Because if we keep it open, Frankenstein will come up the fire escape and grab me by the throat and kill me and eat me!” (Even though it was the doctor who was named Frankenstein, all the kids called the monster Frankenstein because that was the title of the picture.) My mother, realizing that she could never win by demanding that the window stay open, decides to reason with her five-year-old baby boy. “Mel,” she says, “let’s say you are right. That Frankenstein wants to come here and kill you and eat you. But let’s look at all the trouble he’s going to have to get to Brooklyn. First of all, he lives in Transylvania. That’s somewhere in Romania. That’s in Europe. And that’s a long, long ways away. So even if he decides to come here, he has to get a bus or a train or hitchhike to somewhere he can get a boat to go to America. Believe me, nobody is going to pick him up. So let’s say he’s lucky enough to find a boat that would take him here. Okay, so he is here in New York City, but he really doesn’t know how the subways work. When he asks people they just run away! Finally, let’s say he figures out it’s not the IRT, it’s the BMT and he gets to Brooklyn. Then he’s got to figure out how to get to 365 South Third Street. Okay, it’s going to be a long walk. So let’s say he finally gets to Williamsburg and he finally finds our tenement. But remember, all the windows at 365 are going to be wide open and he’s had a long journey, so he must be very hungry. So if he has to kill and eat somebody, he probably would go through the first-floor window and eat all the Rothsteins who are living in apartment 1A. And once he’s full, there is no reason for him to go all the way up to the fifth floor and eat you.” The story made good sense to me. “Okay,” I said, “open the window. I’ll take a chance.” And that’s how my patient, loving mother solved only one of the many problems I would hand her each day."

I agree with other GR reviewers that the first part of the book is very strong. It remains important to Brooks to be grounded in his Brooklyn of that time, though it isn’t clear what he has passed on to his children. "I didn’t have to learn about pathos, loyalty, and a family that stuck together in order to weave that into my stories. I was raised and taught by my own childhood." After that period the focus is on his professional life.

Similarly, his early employment with Sid Caesar and the talented group of writers was his opportunity to learn and to shine. "Writing comedy with all those truly gifted comedy writers on Caesar’s Hour was like the thrill of jamming with great musicians. We made great comedy music in that room."

Perhaps, the following captures Brooks view of life: "If I cut my finger, that’s tragedy. Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die. Comedy is a very powerful component of life. It has the most to say about the human condition because if you laugh you can get by. You can struggle when things are bad if you have a sense of humor. Laughter is a protest scream against death, against the long goodbye. It’s a defense against unhappiness and depression."

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mel Brooks set out to write a book about his working life, not his personal life. I have loved most of his movies. Young Frankenstein is my favourite comedy ever and I’ve watched it countless times. The most enjoyable aspects of this memoir are the stories about how each of his movies was conceived and then the production and filming of them. It is very funny at times and I streamed a couple, The Producers and Blazing Saddles, that I hadn’t seen since I saw them at the movies and enjoyed them just as much as I did then. I hadn’t appreciated at the time that his aim was to satirise his favourite movie genres but it’s clear now and very clever.

Brooks set up a production company, Brooksfilms, so that he could make movies that weren’t directly associated with him. He wanted to make serious films and knew that if his name headlined, everyone would expect what he would call a laughter riot. I was surprised and very impressed to learn that he produced The Elephant Man, 84, Charing Cross Road and Frances, for example. These demonstrate a surprisingly serious and brilliant side to his abilities as a film maker.

If you love his movies, this book is definitely for you. If you want to know about his personal life, it isn’t. He talks about his wife, Anne Bancroft, of course and mentions his son, Max, but it’s not until a few pages from the end that he tells us he has four children and the only reference to his wife’s death is that Barack Obama asked him how he was getting along without her. I find this strange. How can you tell us about your first family dog and not tell us that you have another three children?! I recently read This Much is True, Miriam Margolyes’ autobiography. She talks about her seemingly zillions of close, very dear, or very good friends. Mel Brooks is the same. I don’t know how they keep up with them all but it can leave you feeling like Billy No Mates and just a tad inadequate!

This is an enjoyable memoir and one to keep on my bookshelf for reference when I’m about to watch one of his great movies. I would just have liked to know more about the man himself.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You hoo, all you Mel Brooks fans – I know you're out there. Do yourself a favor, put down the bagel and pick up this book. Mel spent his downtime in 2020 (at age 94) writing about all the great movies and shows he created. It's a chance to revisit your favorites from his zany point of view.

In true memoir fashion, it goes chronologically from his boyhood in Brooklyn through his whole productive life. Once he gets into show biz the chapter headings are each one of his accomplished products, either TV shows, movies or Broadway. (One chapter is entitled 'Brooksfilms', his movie production company. Did you know he was responsible for movies such as 'The Elephant Man (starring John Hurt)', ''Frances' (the Frances Farmer biopic with Jessica Lange) and 'My Favorite Year' (a thinly disguised Sid Caesar show with Peter O'Toole playing the guest star))? Neither did I.

Mel sprinkles funny bits of dialogue from the various shows throughout. He seems to have been blessed with assembling a cadre of professionals he could count on over and over (starting with Gene Wilder and Kenneth Mars in 'The Producers').

I'm giving this four starts rather than five because of some technical issues: It appears that Mel really wrote this; it sounds like him, and he makes rookie writing mistakes of repeating himself and overusing phrases. (People always “hit the floor” when they laugh, and he constantly mentions a topic only to cut it off with “but more about that later”).

But he's Mel Brooks: he's always ad-libbing and exaggerating for effect. It seems that everyone he worked with was wonderful and became a dear friend (OK, nobody's THAT perfect). However, the long relationships with many of his colleagues would indicate that people loved to work with him and couldn't turn him down when he came back to them again.

What's also clear is how much he loved his late wife, Anne Bancroft. I remember seeing an interview with her, when the interviewer asked her why she married this guy, who's short and kind of funny looking. Mel summarizes it in the book, but the answer I remember Bancroft giving was this:

“In the evening, when I heard his key hit the lock I knew the party was about to begin”.

That's Mel. Always on, always funny, always generous.

What a mensch. Enjoy the book.

[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter O'Toole as Alan Swann in My Favorite Year - a film produced by Mel Brooks and a fictional rendering of his experiences as a young writer on Your Show of Shows in the 1950's: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard."
This might be considered as a variation on the old comedian's adage: "I was dying out there tonight." On the other hand, it says something about the differences between comedy and drama. For myself, there are many, many dramatic actors whom I enjoy watching, while there are a lot fewer people who can make me laugh. I have respect dramatic for actors, but I wouldn't trade Richard Pryor for a hundred Laurence Oliviers or the Marx Brothers for a hundred Meryl Streeps. Comedy isn't easy.

One difference between comedians and the rest of us is that most people try to maintain a certain amount of dignity. In general, comedians do not.
An obituary for Bob Carroll Jr., one of the co-writers for I Love Lucy, gave his recounting of working with Lucille Ball:

"Happily for the writers, few ideas were off limits. Most weeks, they approached Ms. Ball to ask her some variation on the following:
Can we tie you to a chair? Roll you in a rug? Hang you out the window? Put you on stilts? Put four dozen eggs down your blouse? Will you bark like a seal? Sing to a sheep?
Can we dip you in chocolate? Coat you in clay? Splatter you with mud? Will you fight with a woman in a vat full of grapes? Work on an out-of-control conveyor belt in a candy factory? Can we put you in handcuffs? Blacken your teeth? Set your nose on fire?

Ms. Ball, resilient, agreed to everything."

Dignity be damned. Laughter was what was important.

Or consider Mel Brooks' telling of his first encounter with Anne Bancroft, the woman he was married with for over forty years, until her death in 2005:

"So I tagged along. When we get to the Ziegfeld Theatre they're doing a dress rehearsal. After a few minutes the guest star, Anne Bancroft, takes the stage.
I'd never seen anything like it. She was wearing a stunning white dress and she was singing in a sultry voice a Gertrude Niesen favorite, 'I Wanna Get Married.' She was just incredibly beautiful.
When the song was over, I leapt to my feet, applauded madly, and shouted, 'Anne Bancroft, I love you.'"

I'll ask the few of you reading this to raise your hand If you can imagine doing that. Those of you with raised hands may have a future in comedy. Or you may just be run of the mill wackos. You'll have to find that out for yourselves.

Mel Brooks is a very funny guy and All About Me is a very funny book. Some examples:

Writing about his first job as a busboy at a Catskill resort in charge of the large basin of sour cream at meals:

"For some reason, the Jews in the Borscht Belt had this strange affinity for sour cream. They loved it on their blintzes. They loved it on their potato pancakes. They loved it on their chopped crunchy vegetables like radishes, celery, carrots, etc. And if nobody was looking, they gobbled it down all by itself with nothing but a huge tablespoon. Sour cream, unfortunately, was loaded with cholesterol. The normal cholesterol levels for healthy people should be between 150 and 200. I would say that the average cholesterol of the sour-cream-loving Jews who came to the Borscht Belt was probably 1500 - 2000."

From the film, The Producers:

Bialystock: How could a producer make more money with a flop than with a hit?

Bloom: It's simply a matter of creative accounting.
Let us assume, just for the moment, that you are a dishonest man.

Bialystock: Assume away.


Mel Brooks as the 2000 Year Old Man explaining the difference between comedy and tragedy: "If I cut my finger, that's tragedy. Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die."


From Spaceballs - a film produced and co-written by Mel Brooks:

PRINCESS VESPA: I am Princess Vespa, daughter of Roland, King of the Druids.

LONE STARR: Oh Great. That's All We Needed. A Druish princess.

BARF: Funny, she doesn't look Druish.


An anecdote from on onstage tour later in Mel Brooks' life:

"Toward the end of the evening Kevin (his producer) would ask the audience for questions and sometimes I would get really lucky with an answer that would bring down the house.
For instance, I remember one night an audience member shouted out: 'Mel! What do you wear - boxers or briefs?'
I shouted back - 'DEPENDS!'"

All About Me is a very funny book. I kept reading and the laughs kept coming. My only complaint is the All part. The book was somewhat long and too inclusive. I didn't need to read everything about Mel Brooks' life. In the end, though, what I'll remember are the laughs. And I need to laugh more than ever these days.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic autobiography by this incredible human we get to experience during our lifetimes. 10 of 10 stars!

[Peter Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll never forget the first time I saw Blazing Saddles. It was on a Friday night slot on Irish television called The Last Picture Show, in which the host Brian Reddin would provide an intro to a classic movie, and then let it play in all its glory. The Mel Brooks western was one of those and it bowled me over. Not only was it flat-out hilarious, it did things I didn't know a film a could do, like the famous fight scene where the Sheriff and the Waco Kid are pursued through the Warner Brothers backlot. So I always wanted to learn more about the comedy genius behind it all.

In this lively autobiography, Brooks takes us on a journey through his life and career, starting off with his childhood in New York City. His father died when he was two, and the family lived in tenement housing, but he has happy memories of his upbringing. He was the youngest of four brothers, all of whom served in the military during World War II. When he was nine, his Uncle Joe brought him to see a Broadway musical, and from that moment on he knew his future lay in showbusiness. Brooks started off working as an entertainer at resorts in the Borscht Belt, but eventually began writing jokes for TV, earning himself a steady job on Your Show of Shows. In the 60s he created the hit series Get Smart, and that gave him the clout to start his film career.

And this is a fascinating aspect of the book, as Brooks takes us behind the scenes of his most famous movies. He talks about his struggle to get The Producers made, and his joy at the rapturous reviews it received. He speaks glowingly of the actors he worked with, like Gene Wilder, who became a good friend and went on to star in Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. And he also talks candidly about his efforts as a producer, making acclaimed films like The Elephant Man, and having to take his name off the credits in case the audience might think they were about to see a madcap comedy.

But I think the thing I liked most about the book was the way he spoke about his wife Anne Bancroft. The moment Brooks saw her rehearsing on stage he knew she was the one, and when she had finished singing, he stood up and shouted out: "Anne Bancroft! I love you!" She laughed and he was amazed that she already knew who he was, having heard the comedy album he recorded with his best pal Carl Reiner. He found ways to show up to whatever party or restaurant she was going to. She got wise to this and jokingly accused him of stalking her, daring him to ask her on a date, which he did. And that was the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Bancroft once spoke about their marriage on the Today Show: "When I hear his key in the lock at night my heart starts to beat faster. I'm just so happy he's coming home. We have so much fun." Talk about relationship goals!

So why only three stars? Well I think Brooks has a tendency to gloss over some the low points of his career and it's all a rather rose-tinted view. He talks up notorious flops like Life Stinks and Solarbabies, conveniently ignoring the critical mauling and box-office disasters that they were. He's not afraid to blow his own trumpet either, as he goes on about the success of The Producers on Broadway. And he often quotes favourite lines from his movies, which takes up large sections of the book. I'm looking for insight Mel, not half of a script I already know! Maybe I'm being picky, but I just get the sense he's not telling us the whole story. I'm happy to read all about the good times, but I want to know about the struggles too. But it's an enjoyable read overall - Brooks comes across as a likeable, funny guy, and fans will be entertained by his colourful anecdotes.

[Richard Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing

Mel Brooks is a legend, a creative genius, and an international treasure. For those reasons, I was looking forward to this deep dive into his life.

But with the exception of the beginning few chapters about his upbringing, military service, and early career, the book was a chronicle of each of his movies, in painful detail, from actors (all perfect), to funders (the same), on to the next success. It became an anthology rather than memoir, in need of a good edit. I couldn’t wait until the end.

Brooks has got perfect comedic timing and has given many of us lives full of laughter. Regrettably, on this one he missed.

[Darren Richman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It would be hard to imagine there are many bigger fans of Mel Brooks. I've seen every film many times over, listened to the albums ad infinitum and seen him live on both occasions he performed in London. He is one of my heroes and that's what made this book such a disappointment.

Much like Woody Allen's Apropos of Nothing was, in fact, apropos of something, it appears this book has been written in response to Patrick McGilligan's Funny Man, a biography that depicts Brooks as a petty, selfish and vain man who treated his first wife abysmally. Is he the loveable, avuncular figure of popular consciousness or a nasty piece of work? The truth exists, as it tends to, somewhere in the middle. At 95, Mel has decided to have the last word.

This is in no way a proper book. It feels like first draft stuff that has been dictated and jotted down unedited. The chapters on the films read like a combination of Wikipedia and IMDB, with our hero simply recounting the plot and cast members before copying and pasting huge chunks of dialogue that most of us already know by heart.

The subtitle, "My Remarkable Life in Show Business", tells its own story. This is the Facebook feed of memoirs, focusing solely on the good stuff. No introspection, no demons, no self-analysis. The death of Mel's father, the key moment of his youth (life?) is referenced only in passing. Similarly, Anne Bancroft's passing is tossed away in a line and almost hidden amongst pages and pages focused on the success of The Producers on Broadway. The failure of that first marriage barely warrants a mention. Even the disappointments towards the end of his film career are given a positive slant and most stories feel as though they could easily end with the Alan Partridge failsafe, "Needless to say, I had the last laugh".

The most frustrating aspect of all this is that there's a good book hidden amongst the 450 pages. Mel has some great stories (most of which he's told better elsewhere, admittedly) but he has this annoying habit of apologising for digressing each and every time he veers away from giving us the plot synopsis et al of one of his movies. It's a memoir! Digress! Open up!

By the end of the book, the author is literally repeating some of the famous bits from his films that he's already described in excruciating detail. There's hardly a person referenced who Mel doesn't claim is one of his closest friends to this day and one such man is super agent Jonny Geller. Geller claims he's simply the most recent person to ask MB to write a book and, on this occasion, instead of resisting, he said yes. Maybe that's because of the Funny Man biography, maybe he was simply bored in lockdown or maybe, as he approaches a century on earth, perhaps the funniest man of the 20th Century simply believes history is written by the winners and wants this to be the primary source for future historians. Whatever his reasons, this fan can't help but wish he'd said no one last time.

[Jonathan K (Max Outlier) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a well known fact that laughter heals, raises spirits and is helpful for those who suffer with ailments. As with all things in life, what appeals to one may not another, but where comedy is concerned, some have a calling that can't be denied. Such is the case with Melvin Kaminsky, aka Mel Brooks.

Born early in the 20th century in Brooklyn, Mel grew up around 'old school' comedy shows which like classic literature, built his 'comic' foundation. "Your Show of Shows" starring Sid Caesar a popular 50's TV show required writers to create sketches of all types. Mel was blessed to join a group that included Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart and his lifelong friend, Carl Reiner. Mel and Carl loved to improvise together when working on sketches and it was here that "The 2000 Year Old Man" was born and became the best selling comedy record of all time.

As with all artists, Mel's life was filled with ups and downs though his love for theater never waned nor did a procession of 'coincidental meetings'. During one such meeting with a theatrical producer, he overheard someone mention that a Broadway flop could make more money than a hit which then became the basis for his Oscar winning screenplay,"The Producers". Zero Mostel was cast as the questionable producer, Max Bialystock and Gene Wilder as the weak accountant, Leo Bloom. Mel won the Oscar for his script and the movie went on to win the BAFTA award for Best Picture. Remarkable that a Catskill comedian wins an Academy award for his first script!

Where predictability is concerned, few would have expected a mad-capped comedian to marry the stunning, Oscar winning actor Anne Bancroft, but it was a match made in heaven and lasted for decades. Known for her role as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate", Annie was Mel's biggest supporter, best friend and mother to their children

Mel's story is unique, fun filled and packed with details those like myself found intriguing and perfect for trivia games as well. Unless you've lived in a cave or on the moon, you couldn't avoid hearing about "Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein or Spaceballs" Mel loved to spoof popular films but after writing, directing and producing many, decided to launch Brooksfilms whose first movie was the award winner "The Elephant Man" and numerous others followed.

The other element that adds to the engagement is the use of character quotes from most of the movies and many are laugh out loud!

Whether you like Mel Brooks are not, there's no getting around the fact that watching any of his films will bring smiles, belly laughs and joy. And reading his story is identical. Add this amazing autobiography to your list and 'enter laughing'.

[Jaksen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gem, a giant, a genius. Yes, I've followed and loved Mel Brooks since the early 70's, when I was still a teenager...

And when 'Blazing Saddles' came out, was smitten. I've seen most of the movies which followed in the theater. Saw 'The Producers' on the stage in Boston with my husband and two adult daughters. We laughed so hard we almost cried...

So yeah I'm a fan and prejudiced in his favor. Mr. Brooks is comic and comedian, actor and director, producer, writer, songwriter, and can I add dancer? He's just everything, and such a great, kind, decent human being. He's worked with the greats - in his younger years with many of the enduring talents from the so-called 'Golden Age' of Hollywood and theater, and then as he grew older, with many of the foremost artists of TV, movies, and on the stage. He's known them all! And most he has called friends...

I marvel at his versatility, his talent, the way he can tear down dictators and ingrained prejudice with just a few jokes. What better way to destroy a tyrant than by humiliating them? I love it, love it, love it. I think I've seen every one of his pictures, or movies, and many several times, so much so I know the dialogue even before it's said.

And this book? Golden. I pre-bought it so it would arrive on my doorstep the day it was released, November 30, 2021, and I just finished reading it now, December 4. It was a birthday present to myself - December 1 - and I think I'll prob. re-read it somewhere down the line...

What's it about? It's about Mel, his talent, his work and all the people who worked alongside him. What else would it be about? He's one of only of a few artists who's got an EGOT - Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony; and his re-imagining and production of 'The Producers' on stage has won more Tony awards than any other production, ever. (It's won twelve! 'Hamilton' came close, with eleven.)

Five amazing stars.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I was isolating and curled up reading books during the pandemic, Mel Brooks decided to write one. The guy’s in his mid-90s but never stops working. I “read” his memoir in audiobook form, which was a good idea because as soon as I heard his voice I was smiling.

Brooks starts out with describing his personal life because, after all, who starts out from birth having a professional life? He’s a Brooklynite and has great descriptions of his family and growing up in an apartment building during the Depression. He was young when he saw his first Broadway show, Anything Goes, and that was it for him. He wanted to be in show business. After his WW2 service, he started writing comedy, with his first big break coming with getting a job with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.

Once Brooks starts describing his professional life, he says very little about his personal life. He very briefly describes the end of his first marriage. He talks a little about his kids. He has a few sweet stories about meeting and falling in love with Anne Bancroft and their life together. He can only bring himself to describe her death in a short paragraph. So this is not a book for somebody looking for a tell-all type of memoir. But if you want to hear the inside stories on how Brooks made his movies and Broadway shows, this is a good one.

I could criticize Brooks for including a little too much of “I’d like to thank” moments and calling so many people a “dear friend,” but it’s not a serious problem. And anyway, in exchange you do get to hear a lot of entertaining backstage stories.

An enjoyable memoir, best experienced in the author’s voice.

[Len · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a quotation from Mel Brooks, not from this book: “I've been accused of vulgarity. I say that's bullshit.”

No. Watching the farting scene in Blazing Saddles and laughing uncontrollably all the way through – that's vulgarity.

Inventing the farting scene in Blazing Saddles, understanding how it will work, convincing a group of actors to stop giggling like schoolkids for five minutes, organizing the cameras and the sound, bringing it all together and incorporating it into a movie – that's genius.

All praise to Mel Brooks. Five stars for the book. Ten stars for the movies. A constellation for a lifetime of achievement.

[Don Siegrist · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing book. Absolutely no insights into Mel as a person just a catalogue of his achievements. The writing is dull; along the lines of "this happened and then this happened and then...". Never gets into the intricacies of TV or filmmaking, just how wonderful the cast was and what fun they all had. Everyone ends up being a "dear friend". I lost count after 12; how many dear friends can one person have? The end of the book is a travelogue of all the fancy hotels and restaurants he's been to, along with the obligatory name dropping of all of his "dear friends".
The only funny parts were the occasional dialogue from some of his TV shows and movies.
A book you can easily skip.

[Merry · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say about this book. Enjoyable but I wanted more....I didn't expect anything salacious but maybe a few more tales about the stars he worked with. I ended up skimming parts and I would say the book was an OK book. If not for Mel reading it, I would not have enjoyed it.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

What a delight! Behind the scenes of some of my favorite movies.

[Eli - Bookworm & Vine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great autobiography, this book definitely made me laugh out loud a few times.

[Savasandir · Rating 4 out of 5]

"È il 1931, io ho cinque anni e Bernie, mio fratello maggiore, mi porta al Republic Movie Theatre a vedere un film intitolato Frankenstein. Che grosso sbaglio!"


L'infanzia indigente, la gavetta nell'avanspettacolo, il successo cinematografico, il suo essere sia attore che regista che sceneggiatore che compositore, i gustosi aneddoti con le celebrità; sarò matto io, ma a me è sembrato di leggere la parodia dell'autobiografia di Charlie Chaplin! Laddove l'alter ego di Charlot puntava sul pietismo, Mel colpisce duro con la sua irresistibile comicità.

A quasi cent’anni Mel Brooks, a quanto pare, non ha ancora perso la voglia di far ridere il suo pubblico e nel 2020, impossibilitato come tutti dal muoversi, si è messo all'opera e ha steso le sue memorie (una delle poche cose per cui dobbiamo essere grati alla pandemia); una cavalcata lunga novant’anni in cui il genio della risata si racconta e attraverso la sua vita restituisce il ritratto dell'America d'un tempo: la Brooklyn prebellica, la II Guerra Mondiale, il fenomeno di costume che rappresentò la televisione nel dopoguerra, gli sfavillanti spettacoli di Broadway e, ovviamente tanto, tanto cinema. Il suo cinema.

Con fare divertito snocciola aneddoti, curiosità, retroscena, dietro le quinte delle sue grandi produzioni (non solo parodie, produsse e portò al successo anche Lynch e Cronemberg, non dimentichiamolo), ma più di tutto Mel Brooks racconta la sua poetica, i suoi intenti, il segreto del suo successo: ogni suo film è al tempo stesso parodia e omaggio a un intero genere cinematografico (prima di girare Alta tensione e Balle Spaziali fece leggere le sceneggiature rispettivamente a Hitchcock e a Lucas, per avere il loro benestare), la recitazione deve essere seriosa e sostenuta, quasi drammatica: più gli attori dicono seriamente le battute e più le risate saranno fragorose; infine, la pellicola parodica deve saper vivere di vita propria ed essere apprezzata e compresa anche da chi non ha mai visto i film che essa ridicolizza.

Lui non lo dice mai apertamente, ma fra le righe pare abbastanza chiaro che il cinema parodico contemporaneo non lo soddisfi (e come dargli torto!). Ha avuto tanti figliastri, ma nessun vero erede.

Sul fronte privato, come spesso capita con le autobiografie delle celebrità, Mel glissa su quasi ogni aspetto doloroso della propria esistenza, ricorda con piacere i vecchi amici di un tempo e dedica delicatissime pagine ad Anne Bancroft, il suo grande e indimenticato amore.

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up watching Mel Brooks' films. When I was in elementary school, my friend took me to see Dracula: Dead and Loving it. It remains one of my favorite films. After that, I saw Robin Hood: Men in Tights because I was obsessed with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. And... finally, I watched The Producers, which is one of my top 10 notable films (and also brought my appreciation for Zero Mostel into my life).

Mel Brooks was implored to write a book by his son because his son Max said that he had heard these stories so often that other people should hear them too. Mel Books is up there in the years so, thankfully, he penned this book out during lockdown and its what you see before you.

The way this book is old is that you can hear him narrating it / saying it while reading it. If you have it on audiobook, it probably sounds exactly how you pictured it. This is one of those really good examples of a autobiography because he doesn't really skip around in his life. His childhood and WWII are well documented and bits and pieces are used in his films.

If you love comedy memoirs or if you're a fan of Mel Brooks' films, you got to read this book.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

When the book is entitled ALL ABOUT ME you do expect it to be a funny ego trip or maybe a joke, but it is an ego trip with occasional funny. The best parts are Mel's telling about his childhood, striving to get laughs at Catskills resorts, his army stint in Europe during WWII, and a chapter on Carl Reiner. However, the rest of this read is a practical retelling of every joke or incident in his life at home or at work that he told on every talk show for he last 30 plus years. Chapters are dedicated to each of his films and instead of getting some new interesting trivia or behind the scene tales or insight, the reader gets Mel replicating entire script dialogue from the movies and basically telling you the entire plot. Mel, also, likes to tell you how brilliant he is and how he can't walk down the street without people yelling lines from his movies. In fact, he says this about 4 times with each chapter on a movie. Oddly, he sends more time on his thoughts on loss of his friend Carl Reiner than he does on his beloved wife Anne Bancroft. The book is great if you want to just relive all the movies and hear how smart, inventive, and what a brilliant man he is in discovering new talent. It gets tedious as it goes on and on and on, but it is a piece of history in some ways from a funny man, though really just a few hundred pages of shtick. I just don't think I'd like to run in to him at a party. He'd tell the same stories over and over again..

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed spending more than half a day of my life listening to Mel's stories. The historian in me might "kvetch" that he glosses over certain parts of his life, such as his entire first marriage barring the names and successes of the children he had as part of it, but ultimately we're dealing with a nonagenarian entertainment legend who wanted to look back on his life and career on his own terms. And funny and engaging terms they are, with spurts of pride in his many accomplishments tempered with the right proportion of self-deprecation and recognition of the people who helped him along the way.



I definitely recommend to anyone who has enjoyed Mel's pioneering TV and film work down the decades.

AUDIOBOOK NOTE: Hearing these tales in the author's own, inimitable voice enriched the experience tremendously, he is clearly as sharp and lucid at the age 0f 95 as ever. We should all be so lucky!

[McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how to put into words how wonderful this book was.

I didn’t even look at the page count before I picked up my ordered copy and couldn’t believe it was 450+ pages, but I easily could have read a few hundred more.

The phrase, “Always like to keep my audience riveted,” comes to mind when describing Brooks’ storytelling abilities. I could not put this down.

Hearing Mel talk about meeting Anne nearly had me in tears… in public. I laughed aloud more times than I know.

From the first act to the final curtain, this story was perfection.

[Jennifer Lafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this memoir. It's even better than I thought it would be. "All About Me!" is filled with funny, entertaining and often heart-warming stories. Mel Brooks is a great storyteller and does an amazing job narrating the book. I'm so glad I listened to the audiobook instead of reading the print version. This is truly a feel-good book, that I looked forward to listening to every day. It's like the book version of comfort food.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel Brooks is a great raconteur and has 2,000 years worth of anecdotes about his long career. Each chapter covers a project, so casual listeners might skip any movies they aren’t that interested in but they’d miss some fun stuff.

PRO-TIP: if you listen to Brooks’s narration at x1.50 the seasoned 95 year-old sounds eerily like “classic” Mel Brooks

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mel Brooks, in his 90s, took advantage of his downtime during the pandemic to write this book, and I'm glad he did. He reads the audiobook, and the informal style of the writing and his voice make it feel like he's there with you telling these stories. They're fun and informative. He goes through films like The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History of the World Part 1, To Be or Not To Be, Spaceballs, Robin Hood Men in Tights, Life Stinks, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It as well as the stage version of The Producers meticulously, sometimes quoting scenes and describing the plot in detail. If you haven't seen these movies, maybe skip ahead because there are definitely spoilers.

According to Mel, the only way to make a proper egg cream is with U-Bet chocolate syrup, so I ordered some from Amazon. It is pretty good, slightly different from Hershey's. My kids now call it "Mel Brooks syrup."

The end of the book is slightly self-congratulatory, but if you're reading this book, it is likely you're a fan so you won't mind too much. I didn't. He deserves all the accolades he receives.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite thing about Celeb Memoirs is when they hit the part of their life where they get famous and they’re like ok done with the memoir!!! this is probably at least in part because they don’t wanna turn it into a Celeb Gossip Tell-All but I like to think that it’s also because honest to god that’s the thing that’s taking up 95% of their brain space. “what was your life like when you were making Young Frankenstein” “mostly it was like talking a lot to the actors in Young Frankenstein about how Young Frankenstein should be” well damn that sounds nice. I read this over Thanksgiving and I really don’t think anyone should read it at any time of year except a family holiday. my zeyde grew up in rural Iowa two years too young and also too colorblind to fight in any wars and then became an accountant who never said a word aloud that he didn’t have to, and Mel Brooks grew up in the densest part of Brooklyn and invaded Germany and then became Mel Brooks, and when I asked my mom if she liked this book she was like “I think it’s really nice to learn what my dad’s life was like before I was born…” [not remotely sarcastic] SO true. I hope that someday I find true love for my old age like he did (watching movies where they say “Secure the perimeter” every night with Carl Reiner)

[MicheleReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melvin Kaminsky, born in 1926, was the youngest of four sons raised by his mother Kate. His father died when he was very young. While trying his hand as a drummer, his stage name Melvin Brookman (his mother’s maiden name) didn’t fit on the drums so he shortened it to Brooks. Mel thankfully found his calling. Comedy. And we now have this delightful autobiography detailing his journey from the Borscht Belt to receiving the highest honors given in entertainment and the arts.

There are some sweet stories of his early life in Brooklyn and lots of fascinating ones about the early days of television and being a writer for Sid Caesar. He writes of Anne Bancroft with such admiration and adoration that it is easy to understand how theirs was one of the most enduring marriages in Hollywood. Once Mel began his career in movies, the true hilarity starts. My favorite parts were about the making of his comedy classics The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The inclusion of some of its funniest lines will remind you of his true brilliance.

All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business is a quick, fun read. If you enjoy insider stories about the world of entertainment and you’re a fan of Mel Brooks, put this memoir on your list.

Rated 4.25 stars.

Review posted on MicheleReader.com.

[Naomi]

Listen, I grew up on Mel Brooks movies, and their jokes continue to be a shared language between me and my family. My dad and I got each other copies of this book for Christmas, without planning on it. So of course I'm looking on it fondly.

And it's basically what one would expect, and what the subtitle promises. It talks a little bit about Mel's early life, and it talks a lot about his career. A little about his personal life - mostly about Anne Bancroft, and I was thoroughly startled when Mel mentions divorcing his first wife without, I think, having ever mentioned meeting or marrying her in the first place? He drops more names than the old-school phone book. And it is very old school. Failures are looked on through the rosiest lens possible, triumphs are luxuriated in.

And honestly, all of that is fine. It's like sitting at your funniest oldest relative's knee and having them tell you all their best stories. I loved it and now I want to go watch all of Mel's movies, some of them for the umpteenth time.

[David Allwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Any fan of Mel Brooks’ genius will start this book with an enormous amount of goodwill. Unfortunately, the goodwill of the reader will be quickly squandered by the author in this poorly written, superficial autobiography. With much more hubris than humility, Mel Brooks briefly describes his early life and then merely recounts each of his movies and other output. There are no real insights offered other than boasting that every producer, director, writer and actor he has ever worked with is the best, including himself. The book gushes about his success which quickly becomes repetitive and boring. Based on the genius of his decades of work, surely Mel Brooks is far better than this tedious book?

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shallow, anecdoteless, too much concern about money.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, nostalgic look back on one helluva career, although definitely aimed at people my age or even older, who grew up watching "Get Smart" on TV and actually saw most of Brooks' movies in theaters when they first came out, (although the WWII stuff and early years with Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner predate even me!).

Like many such memoirs, this one is at least 50 pages too long, and by the end gets repetitive and a bit self-congratulatory with lists of awards and great reviews, (as well as even longer lists of "associates" - agents, producers, writers, lighting and set guys, etc., etc. - which really add nothing to the overall story). But cut the man some slack - he is a true legend/genius, and kudos for waiting until he was well into his 90's before deciding to write any of this down, (and only then because he was bored in the middle of COVID).

Reading this, I also rewatched what movies are on the various streaming services - not all are available, but the ones I could find are a real mixed bag! Brooks' brand of cornball Catskill humor just doesn't exist anymore (or at least it probably shouldn't), but films like "Young Frankenstein," "Blazing Saddles" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" all hold up surprisingly well (Madeleine Kahn's rendition of "I'm Tired" in "Saddles" never gets old; and the scenes in "Robin Hood" where the blind servant Blinken thinks he's sword-fighting are among my favorite Brooks moments - can find both on YouTube). And of course, all three versions of "The Producers" - both movies and the Broadway musical - are timeless, gut-busting classics. But then "Spaceballs" is literally unwatchable today (it frankly wasn't very good when it came out); "History of the World: Part I" doesn't fare much better; and - Peter McNichols aside - "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" should have a stake driven through ITS heart. (That said, "To Be Or Not To Be" - which came out between "History" and "Spaceballs" and which I had somehow never seen before - was also a delightful surprise…I guess there's just something about parodying Hitler that brings out the absolute best in Brooks.)

Solid recommend for "people of a certain age;" although anyone much younger (including my sons) probably know Brooks best as the father of the guy who wrote World War Z.