He’s still working. He’s still making audiences laugh. He’s still Mel Brooks — comic legend, writer, director, producer, and actor. As a trending topic on Twitter, many feared bad news. But, no. Today, the funnyman is celebrating his 90th birthday.
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” — Mel Brooks
It’s an achievement few of us will ever accomplish. Reaching 90 is a feat; still touring and cracking jokes at that age is a true triumph, although he can count Jerry Lewis and Don Rickles as friends in the same club. They’re all 90.
Brooks is also part of an elite group of EGOT winners, meaning they earned all four major entertainment prizes – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Right now, he’s doing what he loves best — theater. He’s traveling with a show called “Mel Brooks: Back in the Saddle Again,” a nod to one of his most beloved works of all, 1974’s “Blazing Saddles.” The tour will wrap up on Sept. 1 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Brooks, never one to bow to political correctness, has said that “Blazing Saddles,” a spoof of westerns centered around a black sheriff, would likely never get made in this current PC climate.
“You know, the NAACP would stop a great movie that would do such a great service to black people because of the N-word,” Brooks told Yahoo not long ago. “You’ve got to really examine these things and see what’s right and what’s wrong. Politically correct is absolutely wrong. Because it inhibits the freedom of thought. I’m so lucky that they weren’t so strong then and that the people that let things happen on the screen weren’t so powerful then. I was very lucky.”
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He still considers himself lucky to be doing what makes him happy.
“These personal appearances bring me back to my first love, which is live theater,” Brooks told Tabletmag.com in a recent interview about the tour.
It’s in his blood. He started on the Borscht Belt in the late 1940s as a drummer and pianist, part of a musical review. Then he did plays, always writing sketches. “I still get goosebumps when a Broadway orchestra strikes up. I am energized by what I do.”
He also gets energized by Ovaltine. It’s part of his pre-show routine, along with a half a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and seedless raspberry jelly, he told Tablet.
Brooks won his first Oscar in 1964 for writing and narrating the animated short “The Critic” and his second for the screenplay of his first feature film, “The Producers,” in 1968.
The show is pure Mel, on stage cracking jokes and telling stories. He’s got a lot to tell from his storied career — much of it about his classic beloved movies which include “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “Spaceballs” (1987), and his famous parody of Hitler in “The Producers,” the 1967 film that became a hit Broadway music in 2002. And we can’t forget 1993’s “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
His television career is equally as impressive. He started writing for the classic “Your Show of Shows,” moving on to long-running “Get Smart” and continuing through appearances he made on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
He teamed with Carl Reiner to write the Grammy-winning “2000 Year Old Man” comedy albums and books.
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In 2005, Brooks was devastated by the death of his famous actress wife Anne Bancroft, who passed away after a battle with uterine cancer. The two had been married for more than 40 years.
“I wasn’t able to cope. I was just … shattered,” he said. “She was my soulmate. We were glued together. What helped were my four children, and two grandchildren, and every one of them came to my side along with dear friends like Carl Reiner. I was able to stand up straight and march forward.”
Keep marching, Mel.
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