All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

Bragging finds its way into most autobiographies, but I have never read any autobiography with as much boastfulness as “All About Me!” (2021) by Mel Brooks. Yet except for the final chapter, in which he describes the awards he has won and the glowing things famous people have said about him, none of this is grating. It's just part of the fun, and besides, as it has been said, it's not really bragging when it's true.

Certainly it's true that Brooks is a comic genius. Everything he touches turns to laughs. The book has a few personal details — his childhood in Brooklyn, his World War II service in Europe, his meeting and marriage to actress Anne Bancroft — yet the focus falls mostly on his many show business successes, each show more remarkable in its own way. He wrote skits for Sid Caesar, won a Grammy with Carl Reiner for the 2000 Year Old Man record, helped create the “Get Smart” TV series (he's the one responsible for Maxwell Smart's shoe-phone) and then directed a string of classic movie comedies before turning to Broadway, where years before Ethel Merman in “Anything Goes” had first inspired him to go into show business.

Brooks may boast a lot, but he gives plenty of credit to Caesar, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Nathan Lane and many others. I don't remember him saying a negative word about anyone. Even Hitler gets a kind word for inspiring “Springtime for Hitler,” the play within “The Producers.”

Most of his films are spoofs of film genres. “Blazing Saddles” takes on westerns, “Young Frankenstein” (my personal favorite) spoofs classic horror films, “High Anxiety “plays with Hitchcock, etc. While “Spaceballs” may be having fun at the expense of “Star Wars,” it is actually a remake of “It Happened One Night,”Brooks says.

One secret to his success, he confesses, is that he always ignored Hollywood producers. He would always agree with whatever orders producers gave him, then go ahead and do everything his way. The producers always forgot their instructions to him when they saw the final result — and when they started counting the money that flowed in after the film's release.

If Brooks didn't listen to producers, he always listened to audiences, even if that audience was fellow writers or members of the cast and crew on a movie set. If they laughed he kept the joke in; if they didn't laugh or didn't laugh hard enough, he took it out.

People will always laugh at Mel Brooks films. And that is something to brag about. show less

Mel Brooks is a great raconteur and has 2,000 years worth of anecdotes about his long career. Each chapter covers a project, so casual listeners might skip any movies they aren’t that interested in but they’d miss some fun stuff.

PRO-TIP: if you listen to Brooks’s narration at x1.50 the seasoned 95 year-old sounds eerily like “classic” Mel Brooks

One of my sons, the same one who gifted me with Frederick Joseph's Patriarchy Blues, gave me Mel Brooks' memoir for my birthday. That's partly my own fault for introducing him to Mel Brooks' films like The Producers and Blazing Saddles. I love much about Mel Brooks, and this book has added one thing more. The focus of much of the book is on the movies, but he also talks about his time as a writer for Sid Caesar, his songwriting (I didn't know he wrote so much of the music for his films), and his long loving marriage with Ann Bancroft. Brooks mostly tells stories but along the way he manages to reveal who he is as a human being, and that is a person I would like to know better.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, read by the man himself. I think he strikes a good balance between humility and blowing his own trumpet. He certainly has a lot to blow about. I had no idea. Makes me want to see lots of his old movies, starting with Blazing Saddles!

Yes, this is a memoir all about Mel Brooks, written by Mel Brooks, so no surprises. It begins with his childhood through current day, includes lots of photos, and describes his “remarkable life in show business” – which is the subtitle of the book. So why didn’t I finish it? I just couldn’t stand another corny joke! All of his anecdotes include jokes and one-liners, and I’d read 100 pages before I’d had enough (the book is over 450 pages, without an index).

You can tell he thought this book was very funny. I enjoyed reading about his life, especially the origins of the movie The Producers but not everything needs an accompanying joke (funny or not). If I didn’t have a towering TBR pile of books, I might have stayed with show more it. But sorry Mel, I’ve had enough. show less

Were I to ignore my scoring rules, this would be a 5-star book but only for the audiobook read by Brooks, himself. Without his voice, this would definitely remain a 4-star book. Brooks does not dwell to deeply or fulsomely about the darker periods of his life. And for me, that's fine. I was more interested in the stories of his childhood and career, the behind-the-scenes stories of his movies, and in his tales of friendship with so many famous people. And Brooks delivers on all those.

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All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks is a memoir by the famous legendary entertainer. Mr. Brooks is a comedy legend whose star still looms large, and has created a standard for TV, movies, and plays are which is difficult to top.

The book is not an encompassing biography by any means, for example his first wife, Florence Baum, is not mentioned at all. Instead, All About Me! concentrates more on the author’s entertainment portfolio, and all the things which made Melvin Kaminsky into Mel Brooks.

The book starts at the beginning, growing up in a poor Jewish family living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. When he became older, he show more joined the Army during World War II, where he honed his humor, managed to grab Bob Hope’s trousers to get an autograph. Once honorably discharged he started writing for TV’s Sid Cesar variety show where he got to know Neil Simon and Woody Allen among others.

The chapters pretty much follow Mr. Brook’s filmography, movies that have become comedy classics from the moment they were released. Blazing Saddles that poked fun at westerns and racism (which was too much for my Gen Ziers to watch), Young Frankenstein (or is it Franken-steen?) took on the 1940s horror flicks, Spaceballs which got the approval of George Lucas as long as no action figures will be made (his lawyers’ request), The Producers making fun of Hitler, High Anxiety, a movie that Alfred Hitchcock himself approved of, The Elephant Man, a serious movie which he produced, and many others including Get Smart. Mr. Brooks goes on to talk about his Broadway shows, and a bit about the Kennedy Honors as well.

Mr. Brooks is very generous with giving credit to those who helped him achieve his success. From those previously mentioned to his frequent collaborators Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder and Carl Reiner, and of course Anne Bancroft, his second wife.

I loved the book, but as a fan of Mel Brooks I knew I would, especially with him reading it. It was warm and funny but uneven, there’s little, if any self-reflection and a few uncomfortable moments. Nevertheless, I loved the odd anecdotes which, to me, are worth the price of admission (pun intended). show less