Funny Man: Mel Brooks – A Biography of the EGOT Winner's Journey from Brooklyn to Comedy Icon and Cultural Legacy - Softcover

McGilligan, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062560956 ISBN 13: 9780062560957

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2020

Synopsis

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celebrated shows and films, and a telling look at the four-decade romantic partnership with actress Anne Bancroft that superseded Brooks’ troubled first marriage.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.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; George Cukor: A Double Life; the life stories of the directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux; and the biographies of the actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle) Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

From the Back Cover

A deeply textured and compelling portrait of comedy giant Mel Brooks, covering his rags-to-riches life and triumphant career in television, film, and theater, from one of our greatest film biographers, Patrick McGilligan

Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award–winner Mel Brooks was behind the camera (and sometimes in front of it) on some of the most influential comedy hits of our time, including The 2000 Year Old Man, Get Smart, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs. But before this actor, writer, director, comedian, and composer entertained the world, his first audience was his family.

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on his family’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926. Growing up in a household too poor to own a radio, Mel was a mischievous child whose role was to make the family laugh. But beyond boyhood, and after he reinvented himself as Mel Brooks, the laughs that came easily inside the Kaminsky home proved more elusive.

Brooks’s lifelong crusade to become a brand name of popular humor is at the center of this exhaustively researched and wonderfully novelistic look at Brooks’s personal and professional life. McGilligan insightfully navigates the epic ride that has been the famous funny-man’s life story, from his childhood in Williamsburg tenements to his breakthrough in early television—working alongside Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner—to Hollywood and Broadway peaks (and valleys).

Funny Man 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’s troubled first marriage. In Funny Man, McGilligan lays bare the strengths and drawbacks that shaped Brooks’s psychology, his willpower, his persona, and his comedy, delivering to us a great man’s unforgettable life story and an anatomy of the American dream of success.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062560956
• ISBN 13: 9780062560957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 656