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A review by madmooney
All about Me: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks
5.0
"I think it’s important to fail, especially between the ages of twenty and thirty. Success is like sugar. It’s too good. It’s too sweet. It’s too wonderful and it burns up very quickly. Failure is like corned beef hash. It takes a while to eat. It takes a while to digest. But it stays with you. Failure may not feel good when it happens, but it will always sharpen your mind. You’ll always ask yourself, “Where did I go wrong? Why didn’t this joke or this sketch work?” And there will always be reasons. You can’t just say, “Well, it’s not funny.” You have to ask yourself, “Why is it not funny?”"
My persona is modeled after the small set of uncles who sit on a pantheon which has influenced and informed my adult self. The "FUNcle of Comedy" is the one who introduced me to the Mount Rushmore of comic influences (and when each of these statuesque meet their maker, I find myself truly shaken to the core).
Mel Brooks is one of these Atlases who hold up the sky for me, and it was truly a treat to read this memoir.
All About Me switches between chapters devoted specific phases of his life, and chapters devoted to specific movies (each of the main greats gets covered in here).
One caveat about this read is that it is written by a 94 year old man with a 7 decade career, which means there is a possible chance where stories can stray into embellisment - embellishment which cannot be corroborated by the peers he is citing. Old men like to stretch tales to make themselves look like heroic beings who are better than they actually were. I do not think this is happening here overtly, but it was always in the back of my mind as I read this book. There is a little 'warts and all' in some of the stories he is telling, but I am pretty sure the was also come choice editing.
One example of this possible editing - at a particular stressful time in his life, he mentions his divorce - however he previously had not mentioned ever got married in the first place. In addition, while he mentions his son's many successes as a writer ([b:The Essential Max Brooks: World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide|13135342|The Essential Max Brooks World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide|Max Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322714713l/13135342._SX50_.jpg|21494818]), there is only a brief mention that he had 3 children prior to Max with this unnamed wife. It is very clear that All About Me is a very selective look into the parts of his life he wants to share.
But for the parts he does share, it is everything that I would have wanted in a Mel Brooks memoir.
Early on (1947) he describes going to an interview for a PA position for a Mr Benjamin Kutcher, finding himself in a 'down-on-their-heels Broadway producer’s office, replete with shabby furniture' with 'underwear and socks from a hastily strung clothesline stretched across his office'.
Any fan of Mel Brooks immediately knows which character this experience will inspire and it is such a treat to see this interaction, even though the fruits of this early discovery will not be realized for another 20 years of Mel's life (when The Producers arrives on the silver screen).
I truly appreciated the in-depth look on his work with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows (and have found myself hunting for episodes online to experience it directly) as well as the development and running of Brooksfilms - even with full stories of his lemons (like Solarbabies).
I think the only criticism I would have on this (and I have to dig deep for this - as I gave it 5 stars) is that there is not enough balance between him telling about his life. While many chapters focus on the behind the scenes look at his film production (which is sort of a memoir), I wish I could have had a bit more about the man himself.
My persona is modeled after the small set of uncles who sit on a pantheon which has influenced and informed my adult self. The "FUNcle of Comedy" is the one who introduced me to the Mount Rushmore of comic influences (and when each of these statuesque meet their maker, I find myself truly shaken to the core).
Mel Brooks is one of these Atlases who hold up the sky for me, and it was truly a treat to read this memoir.
All About Me switches between chapters devoted specific phases of his life, and chapters devoted to specific movies (each of the main greats gets covered in here).
One caveat about this read is that it is written by a 94 year old man with a 7 decade career, which means there is a possible chance where stories can stray into embellisment - embellishment which cannot be corroborated by the peers he is citing. Old men like to stretch tales to make themselves look like heroic beings who are better than they actually were. I do not think this is happening here overtly, but it was always in the back of my mind as I read this book. There is a little 'warts and all' in some of the stories he is telling, but I am pretty sure the was also come choice editing.
One example of this possible editing - at a particular stressful time in his life, he mentions his divorce - however he previously had not mentioned ever got married in the first place. In addition, while he mentions his son's many successes as a writer ([b:The Essential Max Brooks: World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide|13135342|The Essential Max Brooks World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide|Max Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322714713l/13135342._SX50_.jpg|21494818]), there is only a brief mention that he had 3 children prior to Max with this unnamed wife. It is very clear that All About Me is a very selective look into the parts of his life he wants to share.
But for the parts he does share, it is everything that I would have wanted in a Mel Brooks memoir.
Early on (1947) he describes going to an interview for a PA position for a Mr Benjamin Kutcher, finding himself in a 'down-on-their-heels Broadway producer’s office, replete with shabby furniture' with 'underwear and socks from a hastily strung clothesline stretched across his office'.
Any fan of Mel Brooks immediately knows which character this experience will inspire and it is such a treat to see this interaction, even though the fruits of this early discovery will not be realized for another 20 years of Mel's life (when The Producers arrives on the silver screen).
I truly appreciated the in-depth look on his work with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows (and have found myself hunting for episodes online to experience it directly) as well as the development and running of Brooksfilms - even with full stories of his lemons (like Solarbabies).
I think the only criticism I would have on this (and I have to dig deep for this - as I gave it 5 stars) is that there is not enough balance between him telling about his life. While many chapters focus on the behind the scenes look at his film production (which is sort of a memoir), I wish I could have had a bit more about the man himself.