Funny Man

Mel Brooks

By: Patrick McGilligan

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

A deeply textured and compelling biography of comedy giant Mel Brooks, covering his rags-to-riches life and triumphant career in television, films, and theater, from Patrick McGilligan, the acclaimed author of Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane and Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light.

Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy award–winner Mel Brooks was behind (and sometimes in front the camera too) of some of the most influential comedy hits of our time, including The 2,000 Year Old Man, Get Smart, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. But before this actor, writer, director, comedian, and composer entertained the world, his first audience was his family.

The fourth and last child of Max and Kitty Kaminsky, Mel Brooks was born on his family’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926, and was not quite three-years-old when his father died of tuberculosis. Growing up in a household too poor to own a radio, Mel was short and homely, a mischievous child whose birth role was to make the family laugh.

Beyond boyhood, after transforming himself into Mel Brooks, the laughs that came easily inside the Kaminsky family proved more elusive. His lifelong crusade to transform himself into a brand name of popular humor is at the center of master biographer Patrick McGilligan’s Funny Man. In this exhaustively researched and wonderfully novelistic look at Brooks’ personal and professional life, McGilligan lays bare the strengths and drawbacks that shaped Brooks’ psychology, his willpower, his persona, and his comedy.

McGilligan insightfully navigates the epic ride that has been the famous funnyman’s life story, from Brooks’s childhood in Williamsburg tenements and breakthrough in early television—working alongside Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner—to Hollywood and Broadway peaks (and valleys). His book offers a meditation on the Jewish immigrant culture that influenced Brooks, snapshots of the golden age of comedy, behind the scenes revelations about the celebrated shows and films, and a telling look at the four-decade romantic partnership with actress Anne Bancroft that superseded Brooks’ troubled first marriage. Engrossing, nuanced and ultimately poignant, Funny Man delivers a great man’s unforgettable life story and an anatomy of the American dream of success.

Great life story

Loved it. It was a great and illuminating tale of one of my favorite artists.

Rushed and opinionated

I appreciate the honesty of this biography. Mel Brooks is an extremely funny man, but he does have a large ego and he treats business as business. The early part of his career felt very in-depth. The second act of his life and career felt rushed and it felt like a rinse and repeat for each movie or project he was involved with. The author is very honest and I like that, but I don't like how he throws in his own opinions. He tends to make sure to touch upon the bad parts of Mel Brooks after a triumph to remind us that Mel is a flawed person, but he seems to do that at odd times, almost like he never wants to give the subject a win.

Warts and all story of a comic legend.

No holds barred coverage of a legendary writer and performer. Well researched and detailed telling of a fascinating life story. Plenty of behind the scenes stories to whet any fan's interest.

Narrator is distractingly awful

He reads every sentence as it if were a standalone item -- no context or consideration for what came before it or after it. Very, very odd.

Mel Brooks :Funny Man

This book was well written, and illumonated much about Mr. Brooks’ personality which is not common knowledge to even his most ardent fans. I enjoyed the book very much,