Read Funny Man Mel Brooks Audible Audio Edition Patrick McGilligan Stephen Hoye HarperAudio Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 21 hours and 23 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher HarperAudio Audible.com Release Date March 19, 2019 Whispersync for Voice Ready Language English, English ASIN B07NPF1LTX

Funny Man Mel Brooks Audible Audio Edition Patrick McGilligan Stephen Hoye HarperAudio Books Reviews

• My high school pal and I sneaked off one Friday night to see “Blazing Saddles.” We were 17, which made us ‘legal’ to get into an R-rated film. It still felt like an act of rebellion. Our parents wouldn’t have approved. The campfire scene alone was worth the ticket, but there was so much more.
  
  There’s so much more to Mel Brooks, too, and “Funny Man” is a serious biography about a seriously funny man. Behind the talk-show antics and the big-screen parodies is a self-made entertainer who worked hard to achieve and maintain his standing as one of the most reliable laugh-makers around. If dying is hard and comedy is harder – well, the business of comedy is harder still, if Mel’s career is any example.
  
  Fueling Mel’s rise from teenage Brooklyn wiseacre to national clown is an out-size ego. The talent hasn’t always been strong enough to support the ego. His career has had plenty of failures amid the enormous hits. But those hits – “Get Smart” in TV, “The 2,000-Year-Old Man” in recordings, “The Producers” on Broadway and a string of movies _ are pretty darn solid.
  
  Comedy isn’t all fun and games, and neither is Mel. He covets credit and at times seems to want more than his fair share. He covets the money that laughter generates and at times seems to want more than his fair share. His first shot at being a husband was a misfire and he wasn’t the best ex-husband either. Tread carefully Mel is as well-armed with lawyers as he is with humor.
  
  (Mel does have an eye for and an appreciation of talent. For example, when no one else would take a chance on young David Lynch, Mel did. Lynch had the freedom to make “The Elephant Man” his way because Mel backed him up.)
  
  All this and more make Mel Brooks a real person, not just the character he’s created for our amusement. And author Patrick McGilligan makes “Funny Man” a fascinating read – a well-sourced, painstakingly researched tale of a success that has had plenty of high notes and more than a few sour ones. But I’ll take those laughs any day.
• This is a highly uncharitable view of Mel Brooks's life and works. It's far too long because the author doesn't choose to tell us what we need to know, but rather everything that he knows. I got the feeling that every electronic file and index card that was created made its way into the book. Do we really need to know that an assistant cameraman on a film became the sound guy five years later on another one? It's almost that tedious.
  
  The eye-opener for me was the ongoing depiction of Brooks as selfish, abrupt, parsimonious, and egocentric to an extreme. For his entire career as a writer he never wrote—he was called a "talking writer" and someone else had to write down the outpourings. According to the author's research, Brooks is also highly litigious. The author mentions several times that, of all his books, more people refused to be interviewed for this one, citing Brooks's massive temper and readiness to sue. And Brooks is well into his 90s!
  
  The background of the various movies and plays is interesting, especially the casting and fights over various credits, as well as Brooks's cleverness in building his own fortune through overseas rights. His treatment of his first wife is nothing less than detestable. His love affair with and marriage to Anne Bancroft is delightful.
  
  I've always considered Brooks funny and no less now. But I've also believed that all comedy, especially Jewish comedy, is rooted in pain, and this book demonstrates not only the truth in that belief but also the pain it can cause for innocent bystanders. The book would be far better at two-thirds the length, and Brooks, apparently, would have been far better with two-thirds more charity and generosity.
• Yes writers are funny men and women, Brooks included, but the Brooks antics, his massive ego, his lack of character and his boorishness is nothing to celebrate.
• I loved Mel Brooks' films and I hated reading this book. The author seems pretty much hell-bent on destroying Mel Brooks' legacy. I bought this book because I wanted to get the background on some of my favorite films of all time. Instead, the author drags us through tedious amounts of irrelevant historical detail to demonstrate the thoroughness of his research - and then just bashes the poor guy mercilessly. Let's face it. I don't expect anyone in Hollywood, much less Mel Brooks, to have been without his issues. I'm sure there were plenty of times when he was a self-obsessed moron. Who in Hollywood isn't (except perhaps Tom Hanks)? But the author seems to only want to accentuate Mel's bad sides with very little credit to the positive. I stopped reading about 350 pages in because it was just not balanced. What I hoped would be an enjoyable read was simply painful. If you liked Mel Brooks' stuff, don't waste your money here. It'll give you High Anxiety.
• A superb biography. Meticulously researched, incisive & well written. Despite its length, the book is a mesmerizing & a quick read. There are informative discussions of all aspects of Brooks's career television, stand up, film & theater. Should remain the definitive biography for decades to come.
• Very long book, and heavy
• I loved this book. Author Patrick McGilligan tells a great story of Mel Brooks’s life and career. But the book is more than that; it is also a history of American comedic television. I’m a big Brooks fan and I couldn’t put the book down. But there is a darker side to Brooks that McGilligan also describes that is equally as fascinating as Brooks's comedic side. As a biography in general I think this book is well worth reading. But for anyone familiar with Brooks’s work, it is a must read.
  Disclosure I received a complimentary copy of this book via Edelweiss for review purposes.