Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner interview (1997)

47 years ago one of the most loved comedy sketches of the modern era was discovered in the way most great things are by accident Carl Reiner was testing a tape recorder when he asked his friend Mel Brooks if it was true that he was at the crucifixion some 2000 years ago Mel Brooks improvised response led to a full routine which in turn led to some grammy-nominated albums and several books nearly a half-century later as we approach the next millennium it seemed only fitting that they resurrect their creation the 2000 year old man in the year 2000 is both a book and a CD and I'm pleased to have with the great names in comedy Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks right here at my table thank you very much it's our pleasure to be here Charlie what you late at night we can't sleep and watch you grilled people and we watch you with ask Michael eyes the very embarrassing questions about money yeah you ask him something like did you make 120 million dollars a year and he said Oh nowhere near that nowhere now hundred and seventeen because you really you you were nailing him you were asking him you know those corporate questions about why Ovitz was got such a wonderful departure package and and why Katzenberg is scratching trying to get back yeah suing so what do you think's gonna happen in that litigation I think they will settle they always settle they never go to court because they don't want that dirty laundry to come they don't want some lawyers thank you right what do we have here exactly let me see your book sir they open they don't want right you know I made a movie called producers my first moving my favorite movie of all the Jimmy and I thought say thank you say thank you thank you so much so I asked Joseph pilla veenu was company distributed the movie fqo I said you know I'd like to see the books John I haven't seen raises see so you open open I read them read them so I checked very carefully where we could the books were in Fairbanks Alaska Thanks you want to see the books I said the plane fare would wipe out whatever I'm gonna make 15 Josephine busy pictures kept their books in Fairbanks in Fairbanks Alaska all right let's talk about the 2000 year old man for a second for a minute or two even did this start the way the story goes yes actual around with a tape recorder well that's the way we set it one time but the actual thing which I've done it any times is it you know fellow named Jay Walter Thompson of course I mean that you know for advertising agents right dan Simo who was the president before that well you might be the president but a big company someday because he started out as a host of a show called we the people will speak he had a wonderful voice and I he actually said this and I heard him say it our watching television and he says here's a man who was actually in Stallions toilet and he heard the premier of the USSR say and a recreated voice said we going to blow up the world Thursday and I said I came to the office of the show shows and I said this is crazy the most irresponsible thing of if it's true tell the president that don't tell Truman don't it Mel was sitting on the couch 1950 I'll never forget it because he's sitting then I knew if you ask him a question you always get a good answer because he had done things in the office that made us roar and I said here's a man who was actually at the scene of the crucifixion 2000 years ago isn't that true sir Oh terrible you were there yeah of course who knew Jesus yes I did I did you know how much I like rice pudding yeah but my favorite thing is rice pudding couldn't eat it that night what are some of the crucifixion was that I was a fixture of estatic yes did you go we all went there was very little entertainment do not even consider that it I know it wasn't but it was an event yes was an event we always know it's fun I'm asking him questions now did you know him what'd he look like well he was a thin lad wore sandals had a lot of guys always hanging around like a baseball we have good men yeah 12 was about 12 them that crowded into my candy store they got out of the Sun they never bought anything long hair long it asked for water I gave them water they were very nice very nice guys you know and and I every once in a while when I was cleaning the contracts anybody kept my neck cream something a little and then every once in a while they'd be talking among themselves and I would say to them can I help you guys and I said this look this may be our last meeting we have alright I said if you do buy anything is it going to be separate Jackson just remembering something when you oh never mind I just remembered I once asked you about the did he really throw the moneylenders out of the church was you know because I saw this Jesus Christ Superstar and he was throwing over tables and throwing things around was that like Jesus it was a quiet lad you know a mullah boy he went as with his stick he would knock one over quietly as he kicked another one over with his sandal it wasn't he didn't make a big fuss we did it lightly and polite what'd he say he'd say now not near the shul not there the temple to go somewhere else this is not nice don't lend money over by the water fountain not over here not over here break it up break it up a nice way but did he talk about God not much no not much because you didn't want to get people scared I didn't want you know everybody say I'm the son of God no never he never claimed he never claimed that other people has said it buddy yes they said are you the son of God he star said it today he said that right but he said da West but I didn't but thou did you think like that they knew thousand these days and the mostly thousand was he speaking in England what was he speaking he was speaking in a Sumerian and break2 why did that sound like in the original mini enough - Ruth - Ruth - Ruth and her sister Jessie and all everybody in the family but many Roth is the phrase yes many rooms many little Sumerian a little bro could give us an example of a long sentence in Sumerian and you know these songs in Sumerian yeah oh yes only one I only can remember you know it was a long time ago guess teetsi it all sweet Georgie but I was that time you might know the Sun move side to side Sweet Georgia Brown you know that was the first song that ever existed that I thought it was a modern song no not sweet sweet sweet sweet oh they made it sweet you we don't know I'm a nun I know you saw this happen and then you began to be Shoji friends well actually we didn't actually see it happen what we did was entered and Mel entertained us and sometimes the writers room was get very dense with we'd get tired and we needed to laugh because making jokes is hard work but when we asked him questions we got we got things we couldn't do on the air and that was like were jamming we so Mel was available to anybody could ask him a question you get something good and then we started doing it at parties then I recorder of because I he what couldn't be with me all the time I'd say listen to what Mel did I had a little tape of her via tape recorder we never went to a party that somebody would say no the 2000 year old guy and we didn't mind doing because we laughed he made us fun we never did it for profit no profit there and we were very good when we did it for fun but we did it for profit we weren't as quite as good that's when we did it because we didn't mind fit he didn't mind failing no we were full of us when we were free and we were relaxed and and we weren't worried about any kind of boundaries or hurting people's feelings or getting letters or just entertained each other basically and then we were we were brought to our knees by capitalism well I think before that your knees now yeah well I mean Steve Allen yeah but before that I tell you we we started to be like command performances I remember when Joe fields invited us in New York and there was Harold Rome Lerner and Loewe I but Billy Rose was alive then and here we're doing this thing and they were we're saying we're making very important people laugh never thought of anything but you know like Mozart entertained in the salon he got paid a few bucks we didn't get paid we got a record that we got fed we got fed very expensive very lucky yeah right after that command performance another one in California we're both in California that's when it started with George Burns heard it and he said if you don't record that recorded I'm going to steal it yeah and then Steve Allen said put it on tape put it on tape and we did and we went to world Pacific Records we did a session and we said if we don't like it can we burn it it was in the contract and we got a lot of laughs so we we made our first few hours of ad-lib stuff cut down to 44 so I went to the library and got this album an LP 33 and tape recorder isn't that one so I could have it and listen to it I mean just if you were southern boy southern boy North Carolina Henderson I know and you're Doug see that's amazing that that to me that that would travel to Durham North Carolina or Henderson because we figured it was just like from Jews from Brooklyn you know pray traded as we that's why for ten years we wouldn't let it out because we said no people don't think we're being after semitic you know it's a man's doing a Jewish accent and wasn't too late after the war was nineteen fifty forty seven the war at forty five the war was over it slowly came back I think mel brought back the Jewish accent and made it as darling as it always was there was that famous television show with David Susskind you work what you on that with yes you and David Segal that's right George Sand greenberg who's a writer and some guy from the garment center who was very terrible for years people try to duplicate that they would say we can get five funny people around and we'll talk about it and it'll be great and nobody could ever do it you know there was a funniest moment was George was going to get up and ukulele play the banjo banjo and he didn't know that his I guess the the cord around his neck that was attached to the banjo was caught on something so he he stood up suddenly and nearly decapitated himself right on the show you were funnier than I've ever seen in your life you were hysterical on that show I don't remember what made me laugh but you you had his energy with you thought that you were doing your mother I don't know I was imitating my entire family that lived on the fourth floor you know today if you live on the top floor of any building you're paying the most rent I mean pH dependent in our day when you lived on the fifth floor of a tenement it was the cheapest opposed also walk up right and when you live to the back if you live to the front where you could see people and cats and things that was pretty amusing I mean you pay 2 4 dollars Moree rent but he always lived on the fifth floor in the back I mean I never remembered paying more than 16 or $18 a month and one day we had a council of war my brother Irving my father had died a couple years ago and Irving was the bread winner he was only 14 and 15 and he said I got a part-time job for mister Kulick and I'm delivering you know medicines and stuff and running telephone calls and I'm making $6 a week I said we moved to the front it was an amazing move is the greatest move across the tracks right and we look for the best from the back of the tenement where all we saw was wet wash everybody had a line in the back to actually to human beings the citizens to to peddlers cars running I haven't understood yeah it was so great it was like the Archaea world when did you two meet 1950 at the show shows yes who was first he was there in 1949 there was a thing called the Admiral Broadway revue there was a 13-week suit season and then the year after that the show of shows was invented we needed it we needed a great second banana we needed a great straight man Tom Avera who was a good singer was our straight man and he wore a trenchcoat and interviewed Sid and I said we need somebody splendid to chase you and and get the best out of you so we could do that the German professor and all those wonderful characters so we sources you do I forget what we say 54:30 there was a revue called a 54th Street review and you were so great so you would just come out of call me man I was yeah I was a I was a top banana vent on that show but on this show the top banana was so big and so tremendous that it was a pleasure to be a second banana sit Cesar was a bit of a the best banana ever ever and then when we got Karl things really clicked the comedy really did he bring to it well Karl brought as himself many voices many characters that other other interviewers could could not do probably do with the Italian movies is it almost as well as that was do a German movie you know that was interesting because Sid was that absolutely still is the best double talker in the history of double talkers his German French Italian Japanese are impeccable in my act I also did Italian German and French but not anywhere near as good as him and then the third years I said I'll never do it on this show because that and we got the idea to do movies I said well if he talking move so a max Liebman time every is noise what are you talking about movies and I got up an ad lib whatsit I sold him a cigarette package of cigarettes in double-talk and he bought in Dumbledore and that began so I I was like making my work for myself because I may never compete with them they spoke make-believe Italian and make-believe French and they believed German except for the punchline which was always in English and that would be it was always astounding and you never do when they were really going to arrive at it yeah I remember there was one we did called The Bicycle Thief yes or the stolen bicycle yeah and and you were a guy from out of town from Milano with a beautiful suit and knickers and a bicycle brand-new bison it opened but Sid wearing horse shoes because the horse had died nuts and and his daughter played by imaging coca saw the bicycle and so you come with the bicycle she fell and fell immediately in love with Carl and they began dancing and sit so that was another one that was the that was the cobblers daughter Oh in this one it was the bicycle thief he stole my bicycle while I his daughter is flirting with me yes well he said they stole a bicycle and then my bicycle disappeared I get a goal to get on it and there's no my sickle I look as if I think was gone and you're crying and then I was wonderful stuff but you know illustrative selling the book and like an Italian of friendship modular old opiate their children are Lily properly present appear on your basic Joomla and some ends summer of a jewelry Vania let let move overcook to levy someone we know who else was writing on your show of shows Simon yeah we had dark we thought whether youth for the original three well the original three I guess the head writer always that writer and then a great great ride it was Mel Tolkin came from Odessa who came from Odessa Montreal yeah from a desert to Montreal thing right and he would make jokes like she married a station beneath her he got off in a hundred twenty fifty and but he had a wonderful sense of you also rub music come on and step lightly and move brightly and see Broadway on you know that was token so Tolton was the head writer Lucille Callen had worked with him and Max they been in Tama mint and so she was all like our second to Canadians yeah top writer yeah and then I guess I came in yeah Mel I got something that was very young and Sid found oh yes when he find you under actually Sid worked in the mountains yeah and I was and divorced bed right you know and Sid had seen me do a routine that he thought was very funny I would do a routine about Jews dying and I would say you know how Jews die they too much sour cream right after lunch and then the sour cream they put chopped vegetables they put chopped turnips they put chopped radishes they put chopped cucumbers they put chopped peppers whatever they can chop that's in digestibility put in a sour cream and they ate a lot of it a lot of it and then they rock on the back porch and he says so that kills him no that's just the beginning I said what kills the Jews as they begin to sing dancing in the dark in the wrong key dancing in the dark should be something like this like the old 1928 Bing Crosby version dancing in the door till the tune ends waltzing in the dark at it soon as we could face the music together dancing is we're dancing in the dark that's caused me that's perfect that's as high as you can go the Jews don't know that here they go Thanks singing in the dark because they never started in a low enough key he liked that routine he hired me for fifty bucks a week and I was a sidekick I was his writer and wormed my way into the show of shows writing staff and then you'd sit there with Sid and you go over the routine and he would throw into ideas very very good walk out and do it yeah well there was a week of rehearsal a week of like Saturday Night Live yes Adonai but the writers I don't know how they work but the writers and the actors were always in the room together at once I said was their most we'd split up sometimes some people would do the professor some would do the movie some would we never wrote material and and slipped it under the door like the Jackie Gleason you know the Park Sheraton yeah and they the writers would write and they finish a sketch they'd slip it under the door Gleason would read it he'd opened the door to throw it out shredded you know meaning for them to slip another over and over what he accepted they rehearsed without him he never rehearse he came in on Saturday and the blocking was ever wherever he went if he that's why that around table he just walked around a table they followed him oh they want knocking Gleason all know the genius howdy we did that without any personal he was a hero hero of a comedy a great big year wonderful cause he could deliver the line perfectly because when he decided he was gonna do something he did it better than anybody in the world but Sid worked with us Sid was a creative guy loved to write love to create characters sat in the room worked with us and then would woodshed with us and he was right at the beginning of each scene and and knew once in a while the only errors we made where could be a maxim would change the running order so simply be dressed for a Roman toga thing you know for for the Roman court and he'd fly into a sketch and it'd be like a business table and a lot of guys in banker suits and here would be in a Roman toga and he never lost the beat he'd sit down he'd say those damn costume parties they end so late he just made up saying that all this was true were there's something like that historical its funnier well it's good yeah it's better now actually his dresser once put up the wrong clothes on him and he was sitting there with with gladiators right into it yeah was that Easter oh yeah that experience was as good as any creative experience either way it was college for me it was Liebman University Mac sleep in Missouri and every comedian who's there it was every writer there learned from the other writers we all learned well Neil Simon like to be a playwright there he became the playwright the because right I guess we didn't do one liners we did the character yeah well and then there was a later on when the show it shows left and we had people like Larry Gelbart who became Joe Stein who wrote Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba the Greek we had Mike Stewart there who wrote Hello Dolly and Bye Bye Birdie they were powerful God well figure out came in for a bit Woody Allen came in at the last year first we had Aaron Reuben who created the Gomer pile and did The Andy Griffith Show I mean there were people who could really we didn't know we didn't know every one of us would and then we've got a guy named Mel Brooks it was a little 20 year old guy and he became Mel Brooks and Brooks films this man is yes tell me if he came but that was it that was a college for all of us I we learned from each other and we were there was a lot of fighting there was a lot of kind of competition to get your stuff in yeah we were kind of a litter of scratchy but no great show whatever no got a great joke ever didn't get in when it was joke was really great nobody would all you ever sit sit at 15 different antenna any point he hear the joke he'd point to either Gary Bell killer Aaron Reuben whoever came up with that joke and point to Mike Stewart and we just do things monolithically but they would he'd say Stewart a joke didn't work he had an imaginary yeah Luzi and he would shoot it out of the air we thought it was a great experience it was a great experience we learned I guess everything that we learned later we based on things so well I made a whole life for myself with the Dick Van Dyke Show based on the fact I was in the writers room of the show of shows was about a guy idea cane yeah absolutely I was about it I was living in New Rochelle I'm going to work and that's exactly he lived dick lived in Rochelle and I I didn't work with seven writers was too expensive of pay seven right so I wrote with more he wrote with more and Rosie Dick Van Dyke the three of them wrote that Alan Brady show whatever and one of my most successful movies as Brooks films not as Belle Brooks I produce you know you know yeah exactly and one of them was my favorite year was which is based on our days when we'd have crazy wacko guests that we had a watch and make sure that you know plenty how to take out because they were afraid to get drunk yeah yeah yeah we we got to take out our Errol Flynn was one of our guests and and like max Liebman said stay with him 24 hours don't want to get into trouble with too many girls make sure they doesn't drink too much bring him in yeah well I mean I was like Hallie Morris in in there and they sketch with cities I was like stuck onto his leg he was trying to shake me off I'd end up in the store Club in places I never were in my life and I'm the drinking margaritas and things and he had these two Cuban girls twins they ended up in the towers of the Waldorf Astoria trying to keep him sober and get him back to the show and learn his love what lines and he actually said that that great mine that's in the movie I am NOT an actor I'm a movie star you know I've got no look how what he got from it and look what Neil Simon got left on the 23rd floor yeah based on the writers room of the which was on Broadway what about three or four years ago yeah yes yes it was very good Van Dyke Show he got you know God but we also got an appreciation for different kinds of humor everybody had a different kind of sense of humor all appreciating each other but there are different senses of humor and we were the court justice for all of them when everybody was low and and and I would say I would interview moment I would say I understand so that you you are a submarine captain you're out of uniform now but you're I'd say that yeah we become one we've got to get can there we've got to get more air and candid what I've come up with a can listen to this Perry air I'm gonna can it I'm gonna take it down in the summary I'm gonna keep it in my own locker and every once in a while when you hitch that's gonna be my perry air yes but i'm sick and tired of breathing the bilge and then but as the captain aren't you supposed to be in charge of the health of all in captain I'm also in charge of my own life my own happen it's the same thing that happens in in a submarine you know you'll get down with the ship I mean well no no if I shove submarine is depth charge and at its heart if something goes wrong then the captain is supposed to be the last one to go up with the ship yes see but I I usually used to get up there first just to make sure that everything was calm on the top of the ocean and my men could swim I say how to say it up there it's called the captain's hatch yes captain's hatch it's in my toilet troubling you I broke two little valves and boom I be I'd be on top of the ocean and pleasure that doesn't seem fair oh it's the fair it's for the good of my men so it's heroic it did that we see from this is something I asked him about 20 years ago I never got these answers there's no perfect script this is every time you ask the question you go and that's one of the reasons in the book area I insisted on it making him tell me about his wives because every time I asked about his favorite wife he give me a different favor so this time he gave me I made him give me ten favored wives in them and the one that was his most favored was interesting was Bernie Bernie Zola Tov Bernie zelicah yeah was it very tab it was it turned out to be a very tragic and bitter what did you love his heaven sure we loved each other well what was the problem for a nice solid of happened to turn out to be Bernie's oh my goodness and how did you find out well I mean I didn't find out during the kissing the kissing was perfect it was good kissing Oh like I burned a million little kisses on the lips and that we undressed to go to bed you could feel something anyway and you can feel something I felt I did feel something very wrong in your heart and not in my heart below way below I call the cop Oh what happened what I told him he had to go I said to him it's in the Bible it's in the tour it's in the Talmud it's in all the religious books no man shall intertwine with another yes sure and so what happened so he left he left was it said that he was just a crying did he tried he said that he said I'll do Windows he said everything I said Barney it's no good it's no good and you felt bad about it awesome but what did you learn from that experience how to kiss based on what Bernie taught you right I never called it foreplay what did you call it replay replay replay I see it four players are any complicated you can pick up a basement this is where the hummingbird phenomenal come yes yes what was your favorite my wife Genovia no what was yeah what was about with his own OB it's not in this book she's out of that book no but she's in another Janis did you by the way did you ever love Troy I married her sister Janice true when Ellen used to hang around the house what was she like she would seem to be half naked all the time Ellen how you doing you know she was wonderful Janet she did I'm a face so beautiful that could launch a thousand so it was true Paula shoes and her sisters Bueller system beautiful shot of face could watch a for a canoe I could go on forever the 2000 year old man in the year 2000 this is the book and this is the CD this came about because some genius at William Morris said it was dance drone at the Morris office who got the idea that be a Duke University graduate I graduated I graduated that's all this person that tomorrow's office he got the idea that a book should be done about the 2000 year old man in the mood for the millennium and HarperCollins a girl named Diane Reverend thought it was a great idea she made an offer he and I couldn't refuse and then but we did refuse and then George Shapiro our manager said if you guys having trouble at the book why don't you do a record first you'll get into the swing was tough it was tough really we sat down we looked at each other which we do often Karl asked me a question I give him an answer Karl would say you know you're not even you don't even in the accent of the guy I said why it's a book for the accent you can't see the accent what I'd say taurine and I thought so it was pulling teeth we could not write the book and then Georgia Pierrot who is my manager Android and Seinfeld executive producer named Adam bringing guy say out here is no meet in person all right it's a dual record because that's what you know how to do and from the record you'll get material enough to do the book and we said okay we tried so on Feb 21st 1997 at the complex studios in Hollywood we did a record there were about a hundred people and it took a while for me to get the accent and they get the rhythm and to be free enough to do it there so long assimilated and finally it worked it worked and then we did another session March 21st 1997 and we had about 200 people there and they are all on you could hear them laughing you can hear Alan Alda screaming and Rob Reiner Reiner and they're a dick Van Patten I mean all our friends there are you you're getting a lot of celebrity laughing you on that singing dikes in the foot road what was throwing about it what was good about it was like from the word go it flowed yeah the questions and then there was so much material we had enough not only for the record but we had more material that we wanted to develop so we started writing the book and they both came out rather well I think and we do we don't tell people because people couldn't hear is action we do tell them that they'll enjoy the book better if they can read it with a Jewish accent and any problem listen to the record and getting reconstituted thank you both great pleasure oh thank you yes sir thank you it was great always a pleasure charlie we watch you you know we like we do a little walk under coat we see you we see you we see you late at night on the coast you keep it's not that late it's 11 o'clock we have no snow not there but your interviews are informative and and penetrating and sometimes very embarrassing you know it's nice it's nice than when you grill a big shot I like that thank you great to see you great to see you we'll be right back stay with us

Channel: Manufacturing Intellect

Views: 212,787

Rating: 4.8130841 out of 5

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Id: ovKJbf5dWBg

Length: 33min 40sec (2020 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 24 2016