Mel Brooks -- Serious Jibber-Jabber with Conan O'Brien

hello I'm Conan O'Brien welcome to serious jibber-jabber and I am sitting here with one of the funniest men on the planet Earth ever let me amend that looking funny looking one of the funniest looking looking man ever mr. Mel Brooks he's written and directed numerous classic comedy films including the producers Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein he single-handedly changed Broadway with the theater production of the producers and he co-created one of my all-time favorite television shows Get Smart Mel this is a dream for me thanks for being here wake up wake up now yeah wake up now this is you know you're a pleasure you're easy I want to apologize for for coming on your show with my white jacket they don't like that on television my black shirt my white jacket bring you out my own folding chair uh-huh and being on the right you're not used to you settling but I loved it it was different I love it when someone changes it up you came out I said Ron I'm sorry if and you said I don't want to sit on this side I always have to sit on that somebody to a talk show and you sat on that side yeah and it made me use a different part of my brain yeah it has never been used I don't think since childhood but you know it was nice about that night is we get a young audience you walk out standing ovations amazing amazing is now not amazing I I knew that you know what happened yeah but your work and what you've done endures you have these kids that they don't know so much they don't know who Jimmy Carter is they love your work that's how the times it it's very nice I go into like I don't know a young young area like the mall and you know the Promenade in Santa Monica and it'd be a bunch of young kids and they sometimes they scream spaceball rules honey you know is that it's it's very nice you know Spaceballs my son Beckett who's seven loves Star Wars and I showed him Spaceballs I'm you could cry and in he never stopped laughing at the Rick Moranis giant Darth Vader helmet which is a sight gag that works every time I mean I'm an adult Rick leaves frame I've seen it I've laughed he comes back in with the helmet I'm laughing again it's such a stupid idea and it's so brilliant was it was a funny big dumb funny idea and it worked it was it was kid stuff let me ask you uh you know it's you you when you for when you come on the show we were talking a little bit about growing up in Brooklyn and we didn't get to talk about this but when you were a kid I've heard that you fought comedy was Jewish I did you thought comedy was Jewish you didn't think a Gentile could be funny I don't think they got it yeah I thought that they were I thought Gentiles were were nice more or less I mean the whole area that I grew up in Williamsburg um tenements Stoops was all full of Jews it was just Jews everywhere I mean you take a wrong step you step on a Jew it was really it was terrible these are things you can say that I can't say yeah I can't walk into a rat into a neighborhood and go Jews everywhere yeah right I get in trouble you get to say it right but they spot you but no cuz no to eyes right here in his tall yeah yeah but you know and every once in a while some Italians are Irish is some weird creature you know would would drift why and and you'd hear an old Jewish woman say give them something help them you know because they were so gentle it was so would they were so strange yeah it was they were they were you know aliens and I was like a unicorn - you walk through if you saw a Gentile a strange creature yeah really I mean Wickenburg was totally Jewish so did you I grew up one of six kids in an Irish Catholic family I grew up in the early years thinking comedy was Irish until I learned the truth yes is that some of us are funny it's mostly the juice ah me there's a you guys have done well you've done well between just just between Juno and the paycock or the Sean O'Casey yeah just between Beckett and and maybe Yates's I mean when I discovered that these were all Irish writers yeah James Joyce the best writers in the world and they were not not one of them was a Jew I just I had a nervous breakdown I mean I I cried for about a month you know yeah I was gonna be stored by um I don't know when they told me Modigliani was a choice at all great it's a great Pedro thank you for that you know it's my it's like Sandy Koufax yeah juice no juice you know it's so silly but they do they know you know Zero Mostel knew all the all the Jewish Italian painter's you know he knew he knew his kind yeah you know it's kind were funny family what did you come I'm a naturally funny family I was the youngest of four um yeah kind of good-natured my mother my father died when I was only two my mother raised four boys I mean if there's a heaven she got there she raised four little boys from like two to ten single mom yeah single mom my aunt Sadie helped out a great deal she brought homework homework you know like bathing suits ashes and the big bags of them and my mother would from about 10:00 at night when she put us when we were sleeping Tibet she would reverse with a steel rod I don't know if this makes any sense these thin snake like sash satin sashes that was stitched on the wrong side and he'd get him on the right side she'd turn him over turn him over turn and she'd refill the bags with the correct stitching hidden in the bathing suits ashes then said he would take him back the next day to her factory where they were used do you know in the sheet what did you grow up thinking this is what I'm gonna be doing this why I knew I always lived in 365 South third Street which is one of the tenements in Williamsburg and South Williamsburg North became very chic recently but I knew I was headed for the garment center I just knew I was like it was destiny everybody in those tenements it was it was it was like a sci-fi movie we were all robotic lis destined to end up on 7th Avenue either cutters or shipping clerks or sometimes salesmen but we were all heading for the we are for the garment Center which was the real industry in New York so how did you get from you're headed to the garment industry into show business what when did you know when did you get the bug when did you know this is what I have to do I know comedy it was kind of like a giant mistake you know that happened we had in our neighborhood we had a celebrity we had an actor his name was dawn Appel he later wrote this too shall pass a wonderful play about racial prejudice and he also produced on television the Vaughn Munro show racing with a moon you've never heard you're too young for Vaughn Munro but I'll catch up yeah you want to know more about Vaughn 1 Munro you got a look at mom he was he wasn't a bad singer he wasn't great but you know but dawn was it but dawn was in a play on Broadway called native son with a great actor called Canada Lee who was a and it was a really it was a beautiful play and don was one of the stars Donna bell of native son on Broadway and he'd come home every night and a few of us two or three of us would stay up and wait for him he didn't get there till 11:30 - you know sometimes midnight and we'd be and mr. Shamus that was the grocery man's milk box waiting for because we knew he'd show up at the milk box to tell us what happened that night if somebody died in the audience of coughed or whatever yeah and he'd regaled us with stories of makeup and backstage and who put out which which chorus girl you know he would tie he would tell her you're feds attend to everything and we were just we were thrilled and then and with only two of us Joe Joey Joe commander and me and we decided that's where we're gone we're going backstage we're gonna be we're gonna put on makeup we're gonna we're gonna entertain well Don Appel was also in the summertime a social director and he worked at the Avon Lodge sit Caesar was one of the musicians he played a tenor sax right and dawn when they weren't playing they were kidding around and Don spotted the the latent nascent comedy in Sid Caesar and you know brought him along and anyway he got me a job at I don't think every every place in the mountains in the borscht belt on the mountains or the Catskills was coal Lodge but I kind of I got me a job he worked at the Avon Lodge and he got me a job at the butler Lodge Robo tender busboy and utility actor in case somebody died really got very sick if the guy who's meeting the robo guy yeah I called it I call the kid is doing the rowboats so they did once they said you know the district attorney the guy's playing you district attorney you know we were doing a play up etat with large called Uncle Harry I think it's a British play and there was a DA Uncle Harry has killed somebody and the DA played by Bert Reed a very very good actor but for somebody he fell in a hole this is the trophy was walking he didn't see the hole no but Ellen really falls into a felon hole look buddy and he felt how it banged himself up and he couldn't do the show that night so they called me now the district attorney Bert was about I don't know 28 or 30 and the dictator's folks will be about 70 and I was about 14 and a half maybe 15 and they said do you think you could do it I said they're there Harry please sit down relax have a glass of water and tell me in your own words what exactly do you remember I knew every line in every play that you still know it every single line Wow never forget so they said D he knows it he's too young but the kid he knows it put him on well he'll need a lot of makeup well do it do it so they put a white wig on me they put a mustache they they they wrinkle they put wrinkles they put black lines all over I said they said no no you know no that's Parkinson's don't all right all right said I'll do whatever then I mean he came in how he came in you know lights are you I entered you know there's an audience in Wow oh I said they're there Harry I think I was talking for those who delivers have a seat they tell me in your own words well you whatever you can remember everything here have a glass of water it slipped the water slip fell out of my hands crashed in front of him on the desk stub thousand shards hush from the audience hush from Harry hutch from me silence in the middle of his play Mel Brooks walks down to the footlights takes off his wig it was buzz is is I'm 14 I've never done this before I get enormous laughter yeah enormous of course I think the directors well you got a half a scissor and was trying to kill me yeah but I knew then okay that's it you got that laugh and that's a chemical reaction that's it it said you were meant not for the garment Center but to make people laugh go forth from this place Elvin and make people happy make them laugh and you'll get a lot more money than their garments something that's the voice I heard yeah that's a very wise voice somebody Jew also a Jewish voice uh you know what's funny to me your start and show business your first big laugh is you breaking the fourth wall yeah and that is something that you did so brilliantly in several of your movies breaking the fourth wall and I'm when you did it in Blazing Saddles it just broke people's minds in a great way I mean it really blew people away but it is always been something that you've liked to do it was the first laugh you got and it was something that you had you kind of dropping the other shoe or telling the ultimate truth or you know yeah it works it way it works the audience knows that that essentially it's making they know it's make-believe and you just join them in that a given points you know and it works what were you who are you watching who was funny to you when you were a kid that's that's a good question I don't know if I want to answer it at this point in our relationship okay how about our awesome good wine I can yeah okay I give you a little wine maybe yeah but what about what did you drink with Marty short just have straight Irish whiskey no no I don't know we had we had wine we should have had really ski we should I was sure we should have had whiskey they were arrested there were Irish whiskey's you know are there yeah I don't know this stuff yeah no one tells me what kind of wine do you remember the wine you had Cabernet I think was a Pinot Noir Pinot Noir yeah Pinot Noir is a burgundy by the way just more I have a wine cellar really would you like some I would I would like to go live there can I live there hey that let's do another one of these in your wine side and we'll just drink and and I'll sleep therefore let me get back to the first thing I remembered I think was Charlie Chaplin yeah at that there was a place in Coney Island Joe Heller told me he was born a block away from it golf Feldman's on surf Avenue and Feldman's was like nathan's but a place a restaurant that you could sit down and have a hamburger frankfurter or whatever you know was there Oh oka Rondon and but they had silent movies so I always begged my mom not to go to Nathan's but to go to Feldman so I could see Buster Keaton or I could see Charlie Chaplin I and because it was it was so magical when so thrilling and and all of us really left I remember the first thing I ever saw was Charlie Chaplin in a boxing ring hitting the guy getting behind the referee in Cairo it's just it was an amazing thing it was amazing phenomena amazing performance and I said well that's it's really comedy that is really comedy and I never forgot it did you like the Marx Brothers I love them because when I see the Marx Brothers there's something about what they're doing that always has felt evocative to me about you which is anarchy anarchy and relentless yes relentless you are relentless you know Chaplin can be measured and sometimes it's a ballet you you are relentless in the way that the Marx Brothers are relentless you don't you when I was doing history of the world part one and it was this beautiful courtesan somebody and I was the King and she's bending over to pick up flower I just banged into her I said I said what I'm doing I'm doing Harpo Marx without you know he just listened to his body rhythms if there was a woman around he was just bang into her you know he'd great I mean I mean the freedom that they had the and and the the kind of vocal ping-pong that he'd play with Chieko and it was just it was just absolutely thrilling I also like the Ritz brothers nobody knows yes the thing is I don't know the work of the Ritz brothers they were here about the Ritz brothers but I don't know their work were they they were sensationally they danced in unison perfectly they sang Harry Ritz well yeah we which had your first everybody when you watch Jerry Jerry Lewis yeah Jerry Lewis or Sid Caesar or countless great physical comics dare do we keep doing Harry would like wouldn't take I'll tell you the truth it's Harry right Harry rich the center of the Ritz brothers I used him in silent movie he went to purchase a suit the one that was in the window was a display of the tailor's prowess with canvas yeah and with paper and what stitching he bought that soon yeah yet that would be so great so he did is an agent would say do it and you know and I think that humor I think if I may wax this is for waxing that's what we do here is why intellectually I think it comes from hundreds of years of Jewish humor in villages staples or villages because I don't think the Jews were allowed to to to do their stuff in cities actually but there I think their comedy was based on misfortune hmm I think if there was a hunchback or a [ __ ] he was its grist for the mill you know how age of us is getting awkward and the youth they used it and they got big left they didn't give a you know that it was in questionable taste you know so and the rich Harry Ritz just got it from from that school of comedy did it not because the Marx Brothers have lived on because of the films I mean Duck Soup is a classic good the Ritz brothers not did not get through on film or do you think it did get to is there a reason why people don't know the Ritz brothers the way they know the Marx Brothers you've said profoundly without realizing cuz you're not that smart but I was a high sümbül no stumble I stumble thing right but it is what perpetuates our feeling about people is their longevity there's very little or no longevity if 20th Century Fox doesn't reissue Sonia any movies yeah in which the Ritz brothers were the comic relief you know the comedy relief and roughly a lot of the Sonia Annie you know Chu she was she was I know yeah she was like you know an Olympic star yeah they made movies with her usually starring John pain occasionally Don Ameche but the rich brothers were always the comedy relief in those pictures you know and and then if well at least they were in movies let me tell you a story may I yeah it'd one of your favorite people sit Cesar yeah so it's the second year second year we've done the Admiral Broadway review we have done the first year that was 48 to 49 are you write is this I'm writing you're writing for Sid I'm writing I was his Stooges yeah yelling yelling ideas and jokes and then formally writing the first year of the show of shows a bit of a genius by the name of Pat Weaver worked at NBC and he thought of this two and a half hour evening of comedy Jack Carter with one hour from 8 to 9 from Chicago and Sid Caesar at the international theater in Columbus Circle for an hour and a half under the leadership of max Liebman nuprin literally put on a Broadway revue did nicely-nicely even knew him from the Army didn't he didn't he found him in tars and spars yeah yeah in the Coast Guard but after max Liebman found him in the Coast Guard and used him you know immediately on his show knew he had a big time right yeah so anyway Sid I met I met said because of Donna Bell there again Donna Bell brought me to the Copacabana because he said you know one of the guys and my shows in the mountains as has made it as a comic so I said oh Sid Caesar I saw tars and spars so he introduced me to sin we hit it off and I I entertained Sid and after his stint at the Copacabana he worked at the Roxy theater and he said I mean I'm the stage show I'm the comic relief in the stage show the movie is forever amber it'll probably be there a couple of weeks it was there for close to a year I really never stopped running so he would go crazy and he'd call me and say come and I'd come backstage before you know and while the movie was playing and I would entertain sin dokdo and then he told me about this television show and I said I'm not sure graven images I'm not sure yeah my take your picture where's it going it's out there like a Native American I said you know he's very funny I said it's going to the netherworld he said Holland I said no ha ha ha so anyway we I began writing yeah is this is to your point believe it and I'll be getting you back that's all right and Admiral broader review 1 season 39 in those days we wrote 39 shows second year this this genius Pat Weaver they The Jakarta Show didn't work but we do still an hour and a half from 9:00 to 10:30 out of New York NBC and big ratings big hit second year even bigger ratings even bigger hit against Milton Berle against wrestling against whatever was right on television in those days okay it's time for Sid Caesar to sign for this third year probably for two years and maybe three three years right so genius I say said don't sign do not sign I had done a couple of months trying to figure out something with Freddie Coleman and these these guys at Columbia I was going to write a movie for them called PAL Joey they'd family from the and I was talked up as being this new smart funny writing kid so I was only in in my late 20s so they took me out to the coast and I worked there for three months during the summer and a Sinatra could not at that point do PAL Joey so it all went for naught but still they paid me and we talked about movies and one of the guys mentioned you know you're writing the city because they knew I was going back to writing it they said why don't you bring him out here we'll make some movies with him this guy Jerry Wald was running he was a very good comedy writer when he was a kid running the movie production at Columbia Pictures so I came back and I said Sid don't sign let's go Dollywood let's make movies I'll direct them I'm very smart I can do that and we'll get writers with me and we'll write you're funnier than Danny J I said he's he's fine he's charming yes he's delicious he's really entertaining but he's not funny right you are really funny you're funnier than Red Skelton you're funnier than anybody in Hollywood and you know you'll be a revelation to the world and the world you know they only know you on television and the you know and crazy about you but you go whenever you go to sweeten wouldn't you like to be seen and swim so anyway I said more important Sydney call him Sydney when I was serious Sydney if you make movies you will live it'll you know like Voltaire wrote things down and we read them to this day on celluloid you will live on kinescope you will die kill difficult the workload yes of 39 right 39 shows yeah doing five or six different you're easy and everything isn't everything so he said you're right let's do that come on now let's go to Hollywood let's make movies he was handsome I said you'll be a eating man and you'll be the funniest leading man that ever lived and we'll take our time and we'll do a movie a year and we'll both get rich and we'll you know we'll meet beautiful women and we'll live under a palm tree it's gorgeous out there and he said okay and he he did say he said I will do that I will do that and he spoke to max Liebman and of course there was panic and went all the way to the top of of RCA you know the Sarnoff people ran and they could all went crazy and at the end of the week I said said I haven't heard from you you know what's going on I call Jerry Wald I call Freddie comb are called Joanie taps Joanie taps one of the producers wore black and white shoes I never forgot it black and white wing tip shoes nobody watched I said I said Joanie not since the 20s nobody is where you know that's one anyway I said Sid we're going to Hollywood you know and I said but you know I call I said I haven't I haven't heard from you and Sid said they were they were giving him something like five in those days now I'm talking about let's see 49 50 50 51 51 50 job talking about 1952 in 1952 he would be making $5,000 a week that's like a million I don't know what I don't really know you know yeah you know what them what they yeah but was a lot it was a lot of money but I'm sure they backed up the truck was that it then yes so and they did very well NBC it was their star program and so what they what they did is they he said he kept saying no no no they said we'll double it he said no I'm gonna make movies because I said in the end you'll make just as much money maybe more but you'll have what we all want we want we don't want fame and fortune we want our stuff to be seen in a pre we want to be appreciated that's what we're living for in in this business well we want to be we want to be saluted by the world for for our contribution to to show but so in the end they offered him twenty five thousand a week and he couldn't say no so that was the end of our dreams and to this day I will walk because of my movies I will walk somewhere and kids will shout spaceball rules yep but if Sid walked anywhere they wouldn't pay any attention to its it they don't know what he's done it's just like you don't know the Ritz brothers right this greatest comic that ever lived is unknown in America today you know it's funny because I don't know whose idea it was but I one of the reasons that I really wanted to get that I was inspired I remembered very clearly the movie theater called the hearthstone Plaza right near my parents house in Brookline and my dad took me to see sometime in the early 70s they packaged your show of shows Oh ten four ten ten ten from your show of shows and they showed it and I went and watch that in the movie you've never seen him before never seen how could because I couldn't no Sid Caesar was they weren't rerunning him on TV it wasn't uh I watched that with my dad and I remember very clearly that this is your life sketch we're SIDS running away in the audience I watched that and I had that feeling of how do you get to do that yeah and this is I don't know 1974 yeah yeah I don't know I'm 10 11 yeah and that's also not what I was supposed to like I know a kid do any for the garments exactly it's gonna be that's gonna be the first Gentile in the very center right with orange hair and freckles but I I saw that so fortunately that's what kept that's what brought Sid Caesar to me and you know I knew who you were through the movies yeah sure I didn't know a famous I came what I wanted to see you to become well known and appreciated for his singular and really creative contribution to comedy yeah yeah and and it never worked it never worked out ruin so really brings him out - yeah it did hey I mean I mean he he was up until 1960 I mean you know he did like honors over nine years on television and then he went right from that to a Broadway show like my Manhattan yeah and then right into mad mad mad mad mad mad world and then I think he just was he he was exhausted he was interested I grabbed him and used him in one or two I in silent movie yeah I made him the studio chief I gave him two cigars yeah yeah at the same time and I let him do all the crazy takes and all the stuff that it's it's easier is so well known for and in history of the world he was a cave man and he made a beautiful painting on a cave wall and another cave man who was the critic the art critic comes in pees on it you know pisses horn he's so unhappy and then so but I used him as much as I could yeah you know you know within the limits of what characters we had created to do these whatever classes after Caesars hour I'm not enough sure what year this is there's gotta be late 50s you were broke yeah I was no I had done after I'd done that well I'll tell you when I was broke uh I struggled through and got a guy after Caesars hour I was broke and I struggled for a couple of years why were you broke were you spending it as soon as it came in no I this is an intervention by the way yeah we got to stop your spending yes insane it's really you know this shows a lot better for me than your show I'll do your show again I promised you when you did my AFR you were very good oh thank you really funny you know what I worry about with that I wanted I was a moat I was emotional I just wanted to be sweet and talk about how much you meant to me and I saw everyone else going out and doing and doing and doing shtick and kind of was a rose yeah it was a girl and I'm backstage and I thought I don't I can't do it I don't I don't have I don't I don't feel like that's my place so I went out and I was nice and then I walked offstage and I thought oh you were funny I'm not zinging him well I always walk upstage depressed yeah well I don't like I mean that's what helped I claim you cuz ha ha ha that's the time they're spot on yeah no seriously yeah you know do comics of jerk rule on yeah no no but uh you are really I gotta tell you I've seen a lot of comics I've been around a long time from from my clubs to borscht belt to Act two big stuff to television to movies and stuff and you're up you're up there you're good you're really good you know it's interesting i i have lived off my insecurities as a comedian and i think there's a lot of it comedians that do that and for me it's always i never feel safe and it's so it's my backpedaling my bobbing and weaving that seems to that people seem to like and living when i look at you i don't get insecurity when I look at your comedy I've never there's never been a hint of insecurity coming from your calm is that fair it's you it is I've never shown it and but I mean there is an enormous amount of anxiety behind it but I'm a brilliant and skilled performer and actor it's true yeah I cover it with a great deal of bravado yes you know I do I'd say you know I like I used to come on stage in the borscht belt I'd come on stage and I'd say stop examining me to dissin to the Jewish women down front they're looking at I said well I said stop examining me stop looking at me relax sit back you're gonna love me I'm terrific I'm really funny not like the you've seen up here me you know you're gonna love all the stuff I did I went to a restaurant Thursday night this out done that's how I what a great way to come out yeah that's just the way I used to that is the exact opposite of how I've approached comedy yeah and you don't choose how you go at it everyone finds their way but but I what you just described is is beautiful to me because it's obviously you were right it works but it's such an audacious it is because the audience terrifies us yeah fuck'em let's give them a little of their own you know yeah let's get let's get even with them hate your face gether scare the out of the audience you know and I used to do that well I think the other thing too is with your with your films audacious is another word yeah you're you're I mean I remembered the reaction but you know I saw Blazing Saddles before I saw the producers I know that the producers was first but I was it I was too young to see the producers I saw Blazing Saddles and it was a nuclear bomb went off I mean which must have been fun for you yeah it was it was just I said when we were writing it the writer we had a great writers room there was Andy Bergman there was Norman Steinberg there was Richard Pryor said he mentioned and we all had bagels and lox for breakfast Richard had Remy Martin for breakfast anyway I said - I said to these guys this thing Ilyn is this guy's just gonna go nowhere it's a Western people haven't seen a Western in 35 years they don't give a about we're making a Western they don't give a about horses letting this is not gonna work so let's do everything that we weren't allowed to do as comedy writers as kids is let's just you know all bets are off we go nuts and that's the way we wrote it we wrote it crazy Richard Pryor I was supposed to play if you want to yes I I always gotta be the sheriff he was gonna be black bar yeah and then somebody from Warner Brothers said uh he takes drugs we've done we you know we have people lawyers we can't there's no insurance he does and he did he was taking drugs but but he still was the best yeah what difference did it make and I said to them nobody will know they'll just see a performance and he'll crane level kill them he's the he's the best comic that ever lived I said you know you got a but they wouldn't have him and later we saw a lot of we saw a lot of guys auditioning for Black Bart and I turned to Richard I was at him next to me I said Richard I love this guy and he said you know he said somebody it was Cleavon little yeah and Richard said you know if I wrote into town was my kind of tan face of my black mustache I looked more like a Cuban than a end and yeah yeah yeah and word n-word and where it's I look more like a Cuban in and then he said but this guy he is black he will scare the out of them you know and and we also had charm and grace yes he was beautiful and his timing was perfect great timing so we it's like in in in my making movies I've had a couple of lucky bad that was a lucky bounce getting not having Richard Pryor but getting Cleavon little was a great bounce in favor of of the movie were really working Blazing Saddles really working you know my honor you want him am i on you stay on the cutting in the middle of my no they didn't they're gonna cut it beautifully it'll all be you the the n-word you could you do that today it felt like there was a period of time where you you use that word and it well in Django quick yeah do you know now yet yes he used it but who used it more is it more in Blazing Saddles or is it more in Changa it's about even you counted right it's dreadful yeah yeah it's arable yeah but both in a good cause yeah I don't think anybody uh my son Max was explaining the guy that did in a world war zero to max was explaining to me the other night he said and he said you know dad I don't think anybody has covered slavery as acutely and as brilliantly as Tarantino did in Django he said it's really covered in other movies it's sentimentalized it's emotionalized it's romanticized but he named he said Quentin nailed slavery just for what it was yeah it's horrendous and he did it so and it's a it's a great picture and you know when I saw him in a restaurant after it opened I said I forgive you for taking the n-word from me yeah from another white man and I said it and I told him how wonderful I thought his movie was you know I want to talk about the producers I know that I didn't see it till after I'd seen Blazing Saddles and I loved it and then I was shocked to find out you made the picture and it's a classic and then when I you know years later biggest hit ever on Broadway when it came out critics killed it is that true well the the one we needed the most to survive the initial opening of the film was the New York Times because that was like the the posh paper you know the you know the important paper that would drive all the Jews and the intellectuals to buy tickets to see it you know however renata you don't forget these things god bless me Renata Adler was the motion picture critic for The Times and she thought it was just a ridiculous despicable she called black CollegeHumor she's what the leading man was fad it's for cr0 maestro busted it he needed to slim down yeah Troy Zero Mostel uh and I came home that night after you know after the Times came out and and I sat together on the couch and I was really crying I said well I said I I was I made a good living in television get smart mm-hmm show of shows I said I can go back to it I can make I could make a living and I can do good things so movies in you know they don't want me movies are not for me and then other papers came out that were middling warm fair but but then the magazine's came out look and Time and Newsweek and there were raves all of them gene Shalit said no one will be seated for the first 88 minutes of the producers they'll all be on the floor laughing their heads out that's good you know and so I mean it was just I mean it was wonderful so he kept it going around around for about eight eight months it before sellers take out a he did he killed me in London he take him took out of there before we opened and in the Evening Standard and the the Guardian big ads double-truck ads right saying this is the funniest picture ever made the greatest comedy you'll ever see and the critic said well you know we'll be the judge of that hello and you don't like to hear that so oh but it hung on in England too and they liked you know springtime for Hitler when producers comes out so many people including yourself world war ii concentration camps hitler is so fresh it's still so new did you have a fear that it's too soon opening night st. James theater 44th Street on Broadway opening night of the producers middle of act 2 we're doing springtime for Hitler yeah and a big guy stands up start screaming at the stage and walking up the aisle where the is Mel Brooks how dare he such an outrage Jews and concentration camps and he I'm in the back and I say I'm out but you know I want to stop this guy you know it's the opening night induces and and and he says I was in I was in World War two and I said I was in World War two I didn't see you there I mean I try to defuse that I was telling no but those well I got a lot of when I first did the producers the film rabbis galore I just got every rapper in New York sent me a letter think twice before you do another thing that's a you know it's a think to you know and I wrote back to every single letter I got explaining you can't get on a soapbox with Hitler you've got to ridicule him to get you got to bring him down with laughter II there's no way to get even yeah and try to make them understand you know what what the into the real intent of the springtime for Hitler number was all about you talk about lucky bounces I mean gene Wilder Zero Mostel but then dick Shawn Oh dick Shawn is someone who I mean I knew I was the wrong generation yeah yeah you you I but I a little baby I was a baby but but I always knew dick Shawn was hilariously funny he was so and he's so fantastic in that movie yeah he is so great yeah I miss him a lot he died at a very young age died on stage he died on stage yeah Wow it's a good way to go I don't want to go that way you don't want to go on no you know I'd rather I'd rather die trying to get to my bed at 102 and then jump missing and falling on the floor yeah and saying Manny man I would have a guy working for the dome that's the way that's how I want to go ah calling for Manny and harden - Manny will be 95 yeah I'm coming um I thought I uh Young Frankenstein did you want to be in Young Frankenstein was it was the idea that you would be I was gonna do the county Mars row yeah the you know the inspector the police come down her and gene said I won't do it I'll do the movie with you I'll write it with you I'll star in it over if you just promise one thing and I said what's that Jane he said that you won't be in it why he said because you're able to pop you'll able to open the mask of a guy in armor and say hi of folks right he said he said you're always breaking I don't want to break any fourth walls here right I want it to be in a strange way a salute to Mary Shelley and James yes yeah I said I agree with you it's beautiful that way and he said I would like we should do it in black and white I said right and I said okay well you get that how'd you get it in black made in black and it was we just it was crazy because we had this deal with Columbia studio Kent can't be happy no we had a deal with Columbia Pictures to make the movie and just as I was leaving we all shook hands David picah Schneider all it well Columbia guys gonna make the movie we're gonna make Young Frankenstein for Columbia Jenkins I I get to the door I'd leave it just as the way I hold the door from and I say by the way we're gonna do it in black and white just the way James Whale would have and I leave and then I hear these Jews thundering after me down the hall wave goes what are you crazy whatever and they grabbed me they took me back and he said we're not gonna do a we had an hour later they said okay well making a black-and-white but on color stock so that we can show it in color in Peru which just got color and I said no no because you'll screw me yes you will say this and then in order to save the company you'll risk a lawsuit and you will print everything in color it's got to be on agra plaque and white thick film even though it's having trouble going through the sprockets of it that's I want to get like it looks beautiful it is Jerry Hirschfeld it's I mean it like I said we're talking real it looks like Casablanca it looks yeah it looks like one of the great black and it didn't it now it is one of the great black-and-white bilities black-and-white backlighting a halo around the lemon and the other women and Jean jeans blonde here yeah yeah you know it was just beautifully photographed I feel like there's a second where you open break the fourth wall uh with Marty well Marty money was very difficult not to break the fourth he's Lee I think he thought he looks right to camera one point and but it's just the tiniest right tiniest yeah god he was funny Marty Marty was very brave and he said uh at one point he said he says I've got this speech when you mind if I I don't uh I took some pauses in it I'd like to take a bit of time when I said sure - did he - it any way you feel you know properly comfortable so I said I'll never forget oh it's that the scenes thoughts with Gene Wilder and he says reputation reputation and Terry goes as dr. you dr. Frankenstein you haven't touched your food you'll get you you'll get sick he said there there and any smashing head I've touched it there there and then Marty says I'll never forget what my father said on a cake like this I didn't do any to say anything everywhere I mean I was crammed with crazy I'll never forget what my father said on occasion and so we all you know we all waited you know I'm behind a camera way and and and and gene is the best cuz he just looks away Hey yeah he knows if he looks at if he's gonna yeah yeah he took about a minute I'll never think of my father in occasions like this and gene takes to hold man finally Jesus what did he say you know What did he say and Marty says get out of the bathroom give someone else a job he's a big potato I mean it was like it was like to me to be like the best scene in the movie you know yeah just a timing and uh ah it was so I mean it was a such a pleasure I well I made movies I needed my rest I would have I would have cottage cheese and some sliced peaches or something in my trailer and that was it you know I wouldn't just to gather my strength and having to deal with that but on that picture I found Cloris I found Madelyn I found Jeanne I found Marty Peter Boyle and I would just gathered them together and have lunch with them I loved them so literally loved them so much let me ask you I don't I don't I was thinking about this today I don't know of a comedy mind that's been better at finding women funny women than you and you said just now you know there's Madeline Kahn Bernadette Peters Cloris Leachman Teri Garr you found such great funny women I think better you're you're better at that than than anybody you know in the history of the medium why what was it about was hoping against hope they'd sleep with me hahahaha alright I know you were thinking of George Brent I know you think of a handsome guy with a must he was an actor a handsome guy with a mustache but you know who knows it's in the dark we'll do it fast yeah and they said no well let's think about it you know but anyway no I knew you know did this day I know who who these people are you know and their day you know like Sarah Silverman you know yeah they're talented you know and there's there's an inner energy and a glow that you know and Madeline was Madeline was supremely talented yes and she could sing as well as any color coloratura she sang you know glitter glitter and be gay which is an aria from Candide that Leonard Bernstein wrote and it's uh it's impossible to sing very few people can sing it and Madeleine could sing it in the center of every single note with incredible changes of tempo and she could do it Madeleine was in and our timing he was so talented I mean she had lived one line for me and I nearly ruined the take because Gregory Hines is pouring her wine yeah and he says and she's the Empress in room and as He pours it he says say when she says 8:30 and ha ha ha it was you know we had another you know yeah I'm clan but she just so quickly undercut it Evers she was amazing but it's funny cuz people think of that era that sometimes people think women are allowed to be funny now there's more of a modern and you think nuts really not true you always throughout your career finding really funny women and letting them carry the bill really letting them go yeah Cloris was you couldn't if you have smoked around Cloris she'd slapped a cigarette right out of your mouth she was a little nuts yeah she's still with us thank God but you know but I'm careful not to smoke don't smoke around her I wouldn't that to happen high anxiety high anxiety you it's an homage to Hitchcock what I didn't realize is that you actually knew Hitchcock and you were you were friends he helped me write it I didn't know I said them are a very rough outline a Bracy of it I said it's basically um your career and I want to know where when not when and how I'm stepping over the line and what I'm doing if anything offends you right yeah if the whole thing offends you I won't do it because I admire you so much and I think I said frankly I think you're the best director that ever lived and I believe that to the state he's the best film director than ever I told that to Billy Wilder who didn't like that Billy Watt it yeah that's it they didn't like that too much but Hitchcock had it all and I said and he and he called me and he said mr. Brooks I said who says he said it's hitch I said well stop this come on who the is there you know I said it's Alfred Hitchcock I said really he said yes I want you to come to my studio tomorrow Friday company Universal I'll leave a pass for you be there at noon I said yes sir yes sir you know and I did and then we tell you talked about the script and he said what he thought I should use the parts of his films that he thought would lend themselves to parody to satire was he was he right was he he was absolutely spot-on did he pitch jokes he pitched one joke I couldn't use it then he pitched the joke he said there's a man running and they're after him with guns drawn and he's running for his life and suddenly comes to the end end of the dock and and the ferry is ten ten feet away and without Herculean effort he leaps into the air and makes it on the ferry but he doesn't know that the ferries coming in that's good yeah and I said yeah but do it I wasn't gonna pay for ferrying iron did you get to socialize much with him yeah we went to Jason's we wait that was just for what's it like what's it like to eat go to Jason's with Alfred Hitchcock oh I mean it you can get it on my my and my box said I have your box oh yeah I haven't seen that part yet incredible well I think it since it's in there where it's a true story but can't believe it so uh he orders a shrimp cocktail a sirloin steak two inches medium-rare asparagus and a baked potato with sour cream okay first thing that comes sixth large shrimp with cocktail sauce we I order filet of sole you know I'm nervous eating with it yeah yeah I can't eat much and then he eats a steak tucks it away beautifully asparagus you only have plenty of sour cream in the middle of that big potato and I have new orders a frappe two yellow balls of ice cream with chocolate sauce some grated nuts in the cherry and he eats that okay that's him they pour him some coffee sips the coffee he opens his coat reaches into his best takes out a beautiful ostrich leather covered cigar case flips it open he takes out of probably a Cuban cigar illegal but he had best tasted and he puts it in and he takes out from his vest a little guillotine and he Clips the tip of the cigar he reaches in his other pocket and before he can George the head waiter is over with a lighter or a match or something right and he starts Lee leans forward and stops I said well this is this is a momentous moment he stops he doesn't take leans back because stands there he says George I still feel a bit peckish do it again Oh what does he really mean do it again yeah and five minutes later shrimp cocktail six large shrimp cocktail sauce that's arrogance in its own little dish steak little green things on in in the in the in the sour cream and then all these years later you know every detail of this meal I know every detail he didn't I lied when I was on television I said two yellow balls he didn't I mean he didn't have the dessert yeah he said I'm going to a shoe whatever the that I'm gonna wish you the frappe and the and he had a cup of coffee and then he lit the cigar I mean but he had the whole meal I mean he was and he said to me Melvin he called Melvin he said Melvin we only live once and I you know I never forgot that and that's why once in a while I'll go to a bar and say what are you doing later Fido all right all right all right all right I'll take because he said don't even wanna go you only live once here you take a shot you know and you're embarrassed I'd say now if you don't show this my children but might be watching oh I'd like to ask you about uh you ask enough I've done to you man I don't even know when I get paid for this if anything you have to pick missus if you have to pay for the right to be here this cost $75 this ride this is how we this is how we make this thing pay I'll give you 50 right now k - the 75 is a bit much how the hell did you land and bankrupt how did you how did you get her to marry you most beautiful woman wanted woman how did you do that I you know what I really can't talk much about it yeah it's too it we were very I was very lucky to yeah yeah she she spotted something she'd said one thing that made her um attracted to me she said you look like my father and you talk like my mother it's true a great head great combination yeah you talk like my mother and it was and we just we knew we just knew that we were you know ya meant each other and it was great for 45 years unbelievable and you know and it's very hard you know to to to do without it um one thing I have always had heart a hard time imagining for you is the idea of you writing for another performer because you love to do it so much that I imagine it would be hard for you to write for another comedian and someone told me was it true that you wrote for Jerry Lewis and I have a hard time too picturing you writing for Jerry it was one of the toughest experiences of my life because after writing the show of shows such a classy remarkable very creative of an show very literate yeah we would you know references attended one of our jokes our references were incredible whether the orange to visibly did foreign movies the audience has never seen a foreign movie did Japanese movies Italian movies French movies German movies but once what in one of our scenes we do we Sid was in the in the box so he wouldn't hear and they closed the door and it was a game show and he was he was in this no hearing glass glass closed space and closed bait so they locked the door and and call what was it was the house that he began talking he said in 1918 in America entered World War one and Sid was moving back and forth and finally slumped on Carlton but the errand but the era it was amazing and then finally he said he said and the last question is for all the money for this for the for the $64,000 the last question is uh who wrote the Opera Faust now I mean you know this is America where we're doing it we're doing a show for free and hope for people in North Carolina you know and and Abilene you know Texas and Sid says in kind of a Jewish New York way he says go know and call suggests Kudo you got it you know gue know is yeah yeah yeah of the of the Opera you know and so and so but but I mean the nerve of us to assume that enough Americans knew that gue know had read had written samson and delilah whatever yet i think that was the opera but also it you still works a little bit even if you don't know you know yes still well call was brilliant and followed up with shouting goon oh yeah after synod said go no you know yes and covered covered it you did that all was always so you got to get him to do this so then your writers jibber-jabber good said so he said didn't he sink i gotcha on you she did he'd say it on her show and then he got an offer from touring opera company so i think he's gonna go out on the road yes he did um uh so then you're working for you're writing for jerry lewis and it's not the same situation Joe I'd I wrote it I was writing part of one of the writers of a movie called the ladies man when I wrote a couple a couple of jokes that were okay but he kept he kept improving them and I kept explaining that's not what the joke is about or that's not what the rhythm about let's or you know and finally I just quit you know yeah in the middle I just I know we have a contract don't really keep the money room you know not the entitlement for you this and I liked him I like Jerry Jerry was Jerry was always good always but but he got is we all have our own like you do with your writers and you do it we all have our own prejudices about what we think works and what what with a where the rimshot is you know and yeah Jerry heard the rim shot somewhere else and you know he wasn't a bad guy he had a 59 Jaguar black with leather interior red leather what a car what a car and he said I don't like it I know I don't like the way to handle that him I said Terry it was beautiful car in the world and this is Jerry Louie and he had paid 10,000 or 12,000 for it a year before this was 1960 you need was a 59 Jaguar you know X something kind of beautiful he said you wanted I said yeah he said give me five grand I said okay take it out of my salary you know and I got the car when I'd where's the car now I gave it away Morris a couple of years later three or four years later because I went back to New York and how we came out here to doomed to wrecked move yes yeah and you know and and I really beautiful car so Jerry wasn't such a bad guy but we didn't we didn't see eye to eye on everything that you know he had his own and he wasn't so so damn bad he was a bit of a genius in his own oh yeah world you know he was the French weren't crazy when they lauded him and what went nuts about a me they saw a bit of a genius yeah right you know night I loved him personally but I mean we just didn't see eye to eye on on rhythm was for rhythm you were a drummer and I know Johnny Carson was a drummer Johnny Carson was a drummer and he wasn't so bad no and I I've actually I think I saw 60 minutes with Johnny Carson where he's playing you could to you took it seriously oh yeah you you were serious drummer well I mean four to three years that's how I made a living you know yeah there was a band called Charlie Spivak he's a famous band and his drummer got sick and I was 15 I too young to be in the Union or something and I and I subbed for his drummer for a whole summer at the Riviera my club at Fort Lee New Jersey but this was the tempo you know that was his he played he was known as he was a trumpet player and he was noted the sweetest trumpet this side of heaven and he was very good in the bandwidth was very good but a little but we would call musicians would call Mickey Mouse and I was interested in yeah yeah you know you know you want to when you drum either gonna be a dwarf you know so because I used to I grew up watching you go on Johnny and I could see how much he loved you how much you loved being there and you do feel like you're watching two drummers it's two guys who know the rhythm of how something supposed to go which is a you know and he would you know he cracked up he'd fall down you were pretty good when I was on your show I was I really appreciated your truly you know enjoying getting cracking up it was it was very good but it's fun to watch uh you know I did something I did some project for Turner where I looked at a lot of the Johnny Carson's and it was a real highlight when you would go on I don't know how it how it felt to you oh really but throughout the years it really was appointment television when you were going to be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that was that was a huge deal it well you know is for me it was it was a genuine you know thrill it was a genuine thrill because he and he'd have great retorts he'd come back the vocal ping-pong was fabulous yeah you know and I'd always pick up the wrong I'd make a point of picking up ed McMahon's mug you know what's in this you know always every time I was on hey yeah but works every time Carson would go go every time we have I don't want to frighten you with this device this is a modern device and I think we have a to questions from the web is that right Frank all right Sarah from facebook asks why hasn't Blazing Saddles been made into a Broadway musical um Sarah to answer your question I have not ignored it I've been thinking about it and I have already kind of dummied one or two songs that might work in it and I'm thinking about it and one of the things that holds me back a little bit as I'm thinking is he gonna make a musical edit every movie he made it's too much you know but who is that that's who's that voice who's that voice in your head that's a tiny woman in the Bronx a woman who's in the Bronx is he gonna make up opiate enough enough you know this is woman been in your head a long time she's always there yeah she seems comfortable in there Vincent from facebook asks what do you think dr. Frankenstein's lab smelled like that's a good question well um resuscitating dead tissue think about you know it must have you know it must have stuck a little bit yeah II you know I would think but nobody know you know nobody covered not enough yeah not enough to commence yeah I have kept you here a long time love you it's been a pleasure and uh dull let's be honest both of us would you use a third half I don't see us losing any of this well what you know you don't see a sue because it's what is it it's the web right it's the web this goes out yeah and you know Chick Webb was a drummer yes I did you did really my Chick Webb yeah good for you I'm proud proud uh well you know I started out trying to be a drummer really and then I switched over I had I didn't have much money and I bought a drum kit my parents let me buy this drum kit and it was such a bad drum kit I've never met a drummer who knows that manufacturer who was called courtly co arty I've never heard of court no drummer no drummer has heard of courtly and I still have the drums I play them in high school I played him in college no offense to courtly yeah I don't think they make drums I think it's a company that makes an iron lung and then one and then one day they said let's try drums and then they did one and they said it doesn't work yeah and you got that why I got the court lead and then I switched to guitar because when I good out to LA it you still play - I play guitar yeah I've moved out and I realized you have a practice I was paying $380 a month in 1985 rent a month and they're not gonna let me have a drum kit in my apartment which means you have to rent a rehearsal space of course I'm not gonna I can't afford to do that so I went to a pawn shop bought a $90 guitar that's just great good got the Mel Bay chord book and we got myself that's great good for you well I know Charlie Christian oh really I was a kid yeah he was funny Benny Goodman's he was a genius they're the one I listened to in my car a lot is Django yeah I listened to you know Stephane Grappelli and Jagger well Django playing a gypsy style yeah with and he has a Belgian chip yeah who then lost I mean you lost a couple of things as gospel fingers yeah Anna fire a circus fire how do you know that I have to know a lot you're just a baby I don't know that stuff do you know about the automat oh yes there you put a quarter in and you get a hamster girls nickels nickels only that's what I was so long ago two quarter in there's no room for me did you go to the automat back in the day yeah all the time we ate at the automat us Carl Reiner about they don't talk about the quarterback and infinitum and love it right you put the nickel in and then you get a Serena kozhedub you'd have a lemon meringue piece of lemon meringue pie horn and Hardart hornet hornet I'm really proud of you thing you're really a baby to know about older than you think right you don't have any settled I've had incredible I've read this correctly lisanne blasted right yeah I'm an old old man you probably got Michael Dunn's face you think yeah every why they probably gave you haha is surgery you know let me ask you a personal question it has a heard of a running board a running board good yes yeah it's what God gangsters would stand on the side of the running board and shoot the machine gun where was the runny boat on what the running board was on like a hacker would ever run yeah yeah yeah and it would have a big running board board I've no ever that's pretty got a plan but here's anything about me running board here's the thing about me I don't know what I'm supposed to know now I'm from another era I'm from the wrong time you are you I grew up on Jimmy Cagney image with her I don't wanna I don't want to worry you but there were occasions during our interview here that I saw through you to the back wall and what did you know I don't know B so you have you may have some stuff running through you at times mm-hmm that that is good a good or bad depending but I did see the wall behind you saw me disappear for a moment no you were there but I saw the wall right for you they got one of your men who as soon as you do okay uh this is like I want a contest this is an absolute joy it is an honor I love you you've been a big part of my life you continued yeah I'm just you have given so much to people through your work and it made me so happy I remember when you came on our show crowd of people in their 20s I know who was amazing I jumped to their feet screaming and then you started to walk out and I grabbed you and then I turned you around and I said look at that that doesn't I don't see that a lot yeah and you gave me a big kiss on the cheek and then I thought I can die now I don't want to die now but I I can I can go so this has been just a huge not even Jewish I'm a little Jinyoung you might be I think I have a Jew you know you asked did you ask Marty short he never answered but he never responded you did yeah yeah I did I did but when I was he went toward you said tomorrow at Martin Short I just have one question for you are you a Jew yeah he never ended was no and I was waiting it there for the whole thing and he never did he ever answer he never said he was keeping his cards very good oh you were talking ordered them he was not the lucky John elf Dumbo oh man made by Mike you know later I played a movie in Ireland and we part of the movie and I would go into boss a damn - Guinness is for us good you took the time to learn the language yeah Jim yeah damn damn two Guinness are for us yeah ah it was good it's great I mean I really had a I hope you had a good time there's a black I had a great time this was the most fun I've had that I can risk was easy this was you know yeah but you know yeah yeah you know let this man we're gonna let you go but um I'm gonna hi Carl can get one can Carl see this when can people see this on their on their computers uh what is Carl - Carl does Carl watch things on his computers he does he's addicted is it all legal stuff yeah well no you know no porn new birth week of the 21st whatever is a what which month thank you this I'm impatient with him yeah yeah October 21 yes smiles over 21 that's only about 10 days really it's a short time what are we gonna do put this on transfer this to film no this is it we got it we should go out right now and we can get you guys we can get you guys copies and then yeah I can actually get you a copy I love it I really would love it yeah and especially the part about the automat the rest of it I don't give a we're only we're only using the automatic the automatic the only the automat is all were using everything else didn't make my nose a little yeah yeah didn't quite whole show business thing was that's not what people want to hear from you if you people here Mel Brooks is talking to Conan they want to hear coin-operated sandwich dispensers right and running boards you everybody new guises on the run a best person that ever lived now Brooks I love you guys thank you so much I do love you yes my god

Channel: Team Coco

Views: 1,171,900

Rating: 4.880506 out of 5

Keywords: Mel Brooks (Author), Conan O'Brien (Author), Serious Jibber-Jabber

Id: z2RpZBP_vyg

Length: 79min 52sec (4792 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I watched the whole thing when it was uploaded yesterday. Two of my favorite comedians just shootin' the shit. Very interesting, and if you're a fan of Mel and his work, you should definitely give it a watch.

[u/likewhoa-]

Just started it and plan to listen to the entire thing. I absolutely love the work of Mel Brooks. I probably wouldn't have found it without this link so thanks OP.

[u/alwayssunnyinLA]

I'm guilty of skipping most video links and hitting the back button if a gif takes more than 4 seconds to load, but I watched all 79 minutes and 53 seconds of that conversation. Thanks for posting it.

[u/CheepCheepChicken]

IN MEL WE TRVST

[u/mathemon]

This is amazing. I had no idea this interview existed. Thank you and kudos for bringing it to my (our) attention.

[u/thisNewFoundLand]

...brilliant conversation. Prime web experience -- thanks.

[u/Borkz]

I love his passe acknowledgement of racism, being from another time and all, without being derogatory about it. He doesnt deny it, he's just funny about it.