FULL TRANSCRIPT OF MEL BROOKS INTERVIEW
BY STEVE FRIESS, MAY 24, 2007

CREDIT: THE STRIP PODCAST, THESTRIPPODCAST.COM.

E-MAIL AT THESTRIPPODCAST (at) AOL.COM.

[Hear the entire interview on The Strip Podcast here]

NOTE: BROOKS’ COMMENTS ARE VERBATIM. FRIESS’ QUESTIONS ARE SOMETIMES PARAPHRASED.

FRIESS: You’ve said when you were coming up your role models were Gene Kelly, Errol Flynn and Fred Astaire. But now, looking back, even if you had been able to be just a big movie or stage star, would you have had such a long career?

BROOKS: You’re young forever when you write. Alfred Hitchcock directed until the day he died. As long as you don’t have any dementia or Alzheimer’s, if you have your All-Bran every day and clear yourself out, I think your brains are gonna be alright.

FRIESS: If those films had been made today, they’d be big hits…

BROOKS: I think so because they’re not topical subject matter, they’re eternal. The reanimation of dead tissue, the story of Frankenstein can go on forever. There’ll be 25 more Frankenstein pictures sometime in the future. And as far as Blazing Saddles, that’s really taking a genre apart and making a statement. It just happened to be a statement about how blacks were treated in 1874. It would work today.

FRIESS: But f those films were made today, not only would they have been big hits but there would have been sequels. But you’ve never really made a sequel. How come?

BROOKS: Yeah, it’s a franchise industry. “Pirates of the Carribean III” is coming out tonight. They did “Shrek 3.” I never did a II. I don’t think comedy works in twos. Maybe horror films do. You know, Friday the 13th part 24.

FRIESS: It’s been said many times that your early films really broke a lot of molds. The use of vulgar epithets, farting, interracial relationships. You really burst on the scene after the Hays Commission, the so-called morals standards for movies, was abandoned. Did that liberate you?

BROOKS: You know, I got into a lush, verdant, exciting valley between the Hays Office and political correctness. Right after now, everything was pc. You couldn’t say the N word. A lot of things i did were looked down at as not nice, not nice. Comedy is truth-telling. It doesn’t necessarily have to be nice. In fact, the funniest comedy is frequently not nice.

FRIESS: What about the Don Imus thing?

BROOKS: You always have to be smart and put things in the correct context. We used the word nigger a lot in Blazing Saddles. But our true love was the black guy. We cared about him and his fortunes and his survival. We allowed the bad guys to say those words, never the good guys. You gotta know. Just being stupid and politically incorrect doesn’t work. You can be politically incorrect if you’re smart.

FRIESS: I read somewhere that Warner Bros wanted you to cut out the farting campfire scene, the use of the word ‘nigger’ and the punch of the horse in Blazing Saddles. How did you manage to keep those things in the picture?

BROOKS: There was a guy running Warner Brothers at that time and we had a sneak preview at the AVCO Theater on Wilshire Boulevard. And it was a riotous, riotous screening. People were running up and down the aisles screaming. They were just going nuts. It started with politically incorrect things like “Dock that chink a day’s pay for napping on the job.” After the poor Chinese worker collapsed. Right then I knew I had the right audience. They were screaming with delight.

After that screening, the guy comes into my office and he says, “The fart scene has to go.” I say, “It’s out.” He says, “Punching the horse has to go.” I say, “It’s out.” He says, “Using the word ‘nigger.’” I say, “It’s out.” There were 22 things he objected to. Out, it’s out. The bad guy beating up the little old lady. One after another. I wrote it on a pad, “It’s out.” When he left my office, I threw the pad into the waste paper basket. And said, “I’m not going to change one frame of this picture.” I never heard from WB again. They didn’t say well you didn’t do those things. Or maybe I was lucky. Who knows about the politics of studios. Maybe he was fired or transferred or something.

FRIESS: But you had control over the movie anyway, right?

BROOKS: Yes. Since my first movie I always had final cut.

FRIESS: How do you get that?

BROOKS: I don’t know, you just demand it or you don’t do the picture. It’s like I did the Producers for Joseph E. Levine. At AVCO embassy and I said I wouldn’t do the picture if I couldn’t have final cut and he said, “Give the kid final cut.” And that was the end of it. I established all my movies after that. … I just established that if you hire Mel Brooks, you hire a guy who gets final cut. That’s all there is to it. But I agreed on limitations. But the limitations were only on time. They don’t want a 3-hour movie and I agree with them. I don’t think three-hour comedies work.

FRIESS: But since you had final cut, would it have been better to have someone say, “Well, that’s not that funny?” Were there any of these pictures that you didn’t like when they were finished?

BROOKS: You always look back and I wish I had kept the thing I cut out, that it was back in. More than I wish that thing that’s in there was cut out.

FRIESS: Well, nowadays you save that for the DVD edition.

BROOKS: Well, yeah. There wasn’t even VHS back then. The only thing that made money in the 50s and 60s was to rerun the movie.

FRIESS: That’s such a strange mentality now. I realize that’s the way it was until the 1980s, but there was for the most of the history of motion picture, was made only with the audience in the theater in mind.

BROOKS: Exactly. Nothing else.

FRIESS: Has that changed anything?

BROOKS: It doesn’t change anything for me because I’m the same guy who wrote a sketch for New Faces of 52 called “Fathers and Sons” … and Brooks Atkinson said the funniest moment on Broadway was that, Mel Brooks’ satire of “Death of a Salesman.” So I’m doing the same thing I always did.

FRIESS: One thing I wonder about both “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles” is that when these pictures were made, you were using outlandish racial stereotyping to make a satire about race. You did the same thing with gays in both movies – made them flamboyant and theatrical – but I wonder if audiences then understood that you were making the same point about stereotypes or if they were actually laughing at the gays themselves?

BROOKS: I don’t know. That’s up to the audience. A smart audience is always laughing with the gays and understanding their travails, their problems, their lifestyle, you know. That’s a smart audience. A dumb audience will always laugh at, a smart audience will always laugh with. That’s your answer. It’s a perfect answer.

FRIESS: Do you think anybody but a Jewish filmmaker or playwright could get away with “Springtime For Hitler.”

BROOKS: Well, he’d have to be really smart. Anybody can get away with anything as long as he’s really clever.

FRIESS: Was there a lot of backlash?

BROOKS: Oh, yeah, a lot of letters, a lot of criticism. At the end of “History of the World Part I,” I wrote a song called “Jews in Space” and I got these guys with torahs and yarmulkes flying around in space. It was pretty wild and I got a few letters on that.

FRIESS: Did it help you that you are Jewish?

BROOKS: When we were writing “Blazing Saddles,” the fact that Richard Pryor was on the writing team gave us a lot of liberty. He said you can say this word and we can do this cliché because Richard said, “It’s fine because that’s what’s happening at 126th Street right now.” I did the same thing with Gregory Hines when we were doing “History of the World,” we were dong the Roman Empire and I said, “Are you being a little too stereotypical when you’re doing that?” and he’d say, “No, that’s what it is. I’m just doing the truth.”

FRIESS: In Blazing Saddles, there’s a love scene between Madeline Kahn and Richard Pryor. They’re never seen, I don’t think, even touching one another – the lights go out. Could you have done that scene with light? Was that a line even you couldn’t cross at the time?

BROOKS: That’s one we could not cross. We didn’t want to cross.

FRIESS: How come?

BROOKS: Because sometimes you have your own standards. Like in “Spaceballs” – I didn’t want any frontal nudity or explicit nudity between the princess and Captain Lone Starr, the hero. You can do sexual references with President Skroob, with Dark Helmut and with Barf, the mog, the half-dog-half-man, because they are more cartoons. But mainstream characters, the sexuality actually becomes dirty. Sexy is good or dirty is not.

FRIESS: Wait a minute, though. Is this a taste question or is this a race question?

BROOKS: It’s a taste question.

FRIESS: But then the next scene (in “Blazing Saddles”) after it’s over, he’s serving up him a big ol’ sausage.

BROOKS: Right.

FRIESS: So, where’s the taste in that?

A; Steve, thee’s a difference between explicit and innuendo. That is innuendo.

FRIESS: Names in your films are always funny. Hedley LaMarr, Max Bialystock, Prince Valium, Dot Matrix, Eye-Gor. Is that just part of your sense that every last convention of show business is available for send-up or laughs?

BROOKS: If I can. John Calley, at Warner Brothers, he wasn’t the guy who said take things out. He’s the guy who said, put things in. I said to him, “Can you really do something like this, can you really beat up a little old lady? It’s so vicious.” And he said, “If you step up to the bell, ring it.” So that’s my credo. “If you step up to the bell, ring it.” Some things are chances and you’ve gotta listen to your own sense of right and wrong. As long as my heart’s in the right place, I can go almost anywhere no matter how politically correct. It’s about where you are in the story and what characters you love and support.

FRIESS: I assume you’ve heard that in the past month the MPAA said they may start considering smoking as a factor in rating films.

BROOKS: That’s just stupid. If the character smokes, he should smoke. Especially if it’s period. Are you going to do something set in the 30s or 40s or 20s and have nobody smoking? That’s crazy.

FRIESS: Why would the MPAA be susceptible to that pressure.

BROOKS: I don’t know. Is it Washington? I think smoking may be too casual in au courant television. … I wouldn’t encourage young people. If I were to write a half-hour young person’s sitcom, nobody would smoke in it. But if I were going to do a remake of “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, they would both smoke. Because it would be strange to put them in 30s costumes and drive 30s cars and not light a 30s cigarette. If I was doing something new, really current, I wouldn’t have it. I don’t think it’s a good thing. I think it should be discouraged. But there’s a truth in art, too, and truth in art must always prevail.

FRIESS: So now you’re working on “Young Frankenstein,” which is coming to Broadway this fall…

BROOKS: I’m just up to his neck. I just put a zipper in his neck.

FRIESS: You’re still writing it?

BROOKS: Yeah, we’re polishing.

FRIESS: It’s supposed to be out this fall, right?

BROOKS: We’re going to go to Seattle, for a try-out, preview, to see what works and what doesn’t, and then after Seattle we’ll end up in New York sometime around Halloween.

FRIESS: And what theater in New York?

BROOKS: It looks like the Hilton Theater. It’s a beautiful theater where I saw “Ragtime” and 42nd Street. We just simply need a big place. It used to be called the Ford. It’s on 42nd Street. Strangely enough, “The Producers” was a very backstage, very hip musical. And you’ve got to know a lot, you’ve got to buy a lot. You have to go along with a great, great Broadway flow. But “Young Frankenstein,” it’s kind of like a great Gothic opera, you know, and young people, children love it. I get a lot of letters from 9-year-olds. Would you please sign my “Young Frankenstein” DVD or whatever. It’s amazing that “Young Frankenstein,” with some hip references, is a very, very family-oriented show. So we’re very lucky to get a 42nd Street theater. There are literally millions of people in New York City, especially in the summerm and they see the big monster up on the marquee and they say, I want to see that.

FRIESS: I take it it’s a much more intesive process than “The Producers” because “Young Frankenstein” wasn’t a musical. All you had was the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” number.

BROOKS: That’s all we had, thank God for Irvin Berlin.

FRIESS: And actually, I heard Gene Wilder talking about how you tried to get him to take out the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” scene.

BROOKS: I did, I did. I said, Gene, we might be killing it here. We have to stay true to Mary Shelley’s creation. She wrote a magnificent, legendary book and the concept is so monumental. We don’t want to trash it. Maybe we’re going too far. And he said, no, I think it wants to go there. He convinced me to go ahead with it.

FRIESS: The way he described it, he got really exercised and angry about it and in the middle of the argument, you said, OK, fine.

BROOKS: Yeah, I said, if you care that much about it, fine, you got it.

FRIESS: So how many songs have you written for “Young Frankenstein?”

BROOKS: Roughly 17…I ‘m on my 18th song now.

FRIESS: Is that difficult to go back and write?

BROOKS: No, no, they write themselves almost. I mean the villagers are so happy that Baron Frankenstein is dead at the beginning that they dance a tune called “We’re the Happiest Town in Town.” Then they find out the bad news, that there’s a “Young Frankenstein” still alive and he’s in New York and he’s teaching at a medical school. And then we segue to the doctor who wants nothing to do with … you know, my grandfather’s work was crazy and he lives for the transference of intelligence from one brain to another. And he sings a song called “There is Nothing Like The Brain.” It’s a terrific song.

FRIESS: Originally you had Kristen Chenoweth in the role of Elizabeth.

BROOKS: Oh yeah. She was so great. But you know, we took a good bounce. You know, in show business, “Oh my God, they lost Kristen Chenoweth.” but, but we got a great, great talent to play the role. We got Megan Mullally.

FRIESS: But that role was very small in the movie, so I’m wondering is it bigger?

BROOKS: Oh, it’s giant.

FRIESS: It was only a couple of scenes in the film.

BROOKS: It’s big now.

FRIESS: I wondered if Kristen wasn’t interested because it wasn’t a big role.

BROOKS: It had nothing to do with the role, believe me. It had to do with I think she had previous commitments that she couldn’t get out of. Believe me.

FRIESS: We haven’t seen who’s playing the role of Dr. Frankenstein.

BROOKS: Roger Bart.

FRIESS: I thought he was playing Igor.

BROOKS: He was Igor. Until yesterday. Christopher Fitzgerald is Igor. An enormous talent. An imp of a man. He’s only 5-2. He’s darling. And Roger has Broadway in his bones. He’s the last living Danny Kaye we have left.

FRIESS: Which is funny because most of America probably only knows him from his role in “Desperate Housewives.”

BROOKS: I know. He took over the role of Leo Bloom in “The Producers.” Oh, he’s so good. He got promoted up the ranks. He deserves it. He started as a bit thing and then he became Leo Bloom and now he’s Dr. Frankenstein.

FRIESS: Cloris Leachman read for the role she played in the movie but…

BROOKS: The problem is, there’s a lot of singing and dancing for Frau Brucher. She’s about 81, 82. I don’t want to be responsible for killing her. Although she wouldn’t mind dying on stage. She wouldn’t mind doing it. But it’s a very, very difficult role for anyone over 50 let alone 81.

FRIESS: So who’s playing that role?

BROOKS: We’re pretty sure Andrea Martin. Do you know who she is? SCTV’s Andrea Martin, Broadway Andrea Martin. Super-talented Andrea Martin.

FRIESS: Was Cloris disappointed?

BROOKS: Yes, she was very, very disappointed. But she’s a good guy. She took it in stride and she’s on to other things. She’d be good for a little bit of a movie, she can work three or four days. But you can’t work for a year doing 8 shows a week. You gotta really be in great health to do that.

FRIESS: So it wasn’t a matter of trying to completely divorce this cast from the cast in the film?

BROOKS: No, no. It was nothing like that. Peter Boyle is dead. Gene Wilder and Terri Garr are out of commission. Madeline (Kahn) is gone. If I could have resurrected the entire cast and put them on stage, I would’ve done that in a minute.

FRIESS: Why did you think “The Producers” would work here? Did Vegas pursue you or did you pursue Vegas?

BROOKS: Vegas pursued us to begin with and I thought it would be a great idea because it’s kind of a Vegas show. It’s witty, it’s funny, it’s beautiful leggy girls, you know. It’s a little risqué. It has great joie de vivre. I’ve seen it maybe 20 times already with various audiences. They love it.

FRIESS: Oh, but tell me something about that because we talk to Broadway stars all the time and one of the thing they notice is that the audience’s behavior, like they’re not familiar with what it’s like to go see live theater. Some actors have said it’s almost like they think they’re watching television. You find that?

BROOKS: Well, they do. They have a tendency to murmur and bubble and talk. I think they take they’re drinks in with them so maybe they’re half-sloshed. But they’re great audiences. They cheer. They applaud, they cheer, they laugh their heads off.

FRIESS: I guess now that you say it that way, since most of your fame comes from mainstream movies that middle America finds riotous, the genteelness of Broadway audiences is probably a bigger challenge to win over than the every day Americans who come to see shows in Vegas.

BROOKS: Well, when we opened up the producers at the Drury Lane Theater in London, they were tearing up the seats. I got on stage and they wouldn’t stop applauding and I said, “So much for British reserve, you know?” What I’m saying is, I’ve got a way of allowing them to let go. Audiences who have seen “The Producers” for six years on Broadway. They give themselves to it. Whatever restraints, however genteel they might be, they’re passionate going out. I’m very proud of breaking them down and making them go with the flow.

FRIESS: When I interviewed David Hasselhoff, he said that you specifically sought him out for the role of Roger Debris in Vegas and he was stunned you even knew who he was.

BROOKS: Oh yeah, I wanted him right from the beginning. We wanted this big, gorgeous… “Why don’t we get David Hasselhoff? He’s gonna look great in a dress.” That was the beginning. He said, ‘I got great legs.’ I said, “That’s it, you got the part.” I watched him on various television shows, “America’s Got Talent.” He’s very up, a very positive guy. And he sings beautifully. The most important for a Broadway performer is not that they’re talented so much as do they love what they’re doing. Because if they get that across, the audience will forgive anything. I never met anybody who loves what he’s doing more than David Hasselhoff.

FRIESS: Did you have any idea that he was having all these personal problems?

BROOKS: No, not at all. No idea. It was foolish of him to allow his occasional binges or whatever to be filmed. That was foolish. But I guess it was even more foolish for his kids to give it up to his ex-wife, that tape. But he’s the goodest guy. He’s the goodest parent and the nicest father. I gotta tell ya, there’s a lot of backbiting in theater. When you hear whispers in dressing rooms, they’re usually knocking the shit out of somebody in the next dressing room. There was none of that whatsoever. They all loved him, every little dancer and bit player and Brad Oscar. They couldn’t get enough of him.

FRIESS: On that videotape that you were just referring to, his daughter is warning him that he might get fired from the producers if he didn’t stop.

BROOKS: No, we never said anything like that. That was her admonition to make him stop. We never said anything about that. We never even knew about that so how could we say that.

FRIESS: Are you concerned now that the production doesn’t have a major name star?

BROOKS: All the good shows don’t have a name. “Phantom of the Opera,” “Wicked,” “Spamalot.” They all don’t have names. I think “Spamalot” may have a bit of a name there.

FRIESS: Well, and Harvey Fierstein came to do “Hairspray” here and it didn’t matter.

BROOKS: Names don’t mean much. The only name I think would work in Vegas is a guy we had on Broadway who was spectacular even though he wasn’t Jewish as Max Bialystock, he’s Italian. Tony Danza.

FRIESS: Tony Danza?

BROOKS: Tony Danza leaped across the floodlights. I mean, people wanted to hug him and kiss him and bite him at the end of the show. I talked to him. We’re working on him. I think we’re going to get him to come to Vegas for a couple of months to play Max Bialystock in Vegas.

FRIESS: And what would Brad do? Oh, Brad’s leaving…

BROOKS: Brad would be leaving. Tony would take over and Tony would set that town on its ear. He’s a Vegas guy. He could’ve been a Vegas singer and dancer, he could’ve been a Vegas prize fighter, he could’ve been a Vegas emcee, he could’ve been part of the Rat Pack. He just belongs in Las Vegas. He loves the town and the town would love him. If we can get Tony Danza to do it, I think it would literally be fabulous.

FRIESS: Well, there are all these stars on television who have these secret talents in live theater – Megan Mullally, Christine Baranski – obviously these people are known by the Broadway community but once they become known as TV stars, it’s hard to get your head wrapped around the idea that Tony Danza, the dad from “Who’s The Boss?”m is actually an accomplished singer and dancer.

BROOKS: His moves are so clean and neat and his voice is so fabulous. I think he’s gonna shake things up a lot. It’s going to be a very tough ticket once we get him here.

FRIESS: How long do you think the show will last in Vegas?

BROOKS: We’ve got a great company. We’ve got Leigh Zimmerman. Who wouldn’t want to marry Leigh Zimmerman? What living human male would not want to marry Leigh Zimmerman? She’s got the longest, most beautiful legs, she’s got the sweetest voice, she puts on the most beautiful Swedish accent. She is amazing. There’s a lot of great people still in the show.

FRIESS: So how long will it last in Vegas?

BROOKS: I think it’ll run through the year. I think it’ll stay until January 1.

FRIESS: Oh, that’s it?

BROOKS: That’s what we’re committed to that. Ad then if Tony Danza leaves, we’d have to get a new star and maybe go on into 08.

FRIESS: But right now the plan is to make it through this calendar year?

BROOKS: The plan was to put it on for a year.

FRIESS: Oh. Then through a year would be beyond January. Wouldn’t that be to February or March?

BROOKS: Uh, you’re right. It would be a year, so I think it would be to March.

FRIESS: Huh. OK.

BROOKS: You’re right. You caught me. You’re right. Do you want to be my lawyer?

FRIESS: No, I really don’t. Do you think “Young Frankenstein” could eventually be a Vegas show?

BROOKS: Oh yes. Give it a few years. Definitely. It’s a great spectacle. Jus think of the fireworks in creating the monster. The laboratory going berserk with lighting and explosions, it’s going to be great.

FRIESS: Did you see what they did with Phantom in Vegas?

BROOKS: No, I haven’t seen it yet.

FRIESS: Well, it’s interesting because they really put a lot into the effects and made it a physically different show.

BROOKS: That’s what we’re going to do with “Young Frankenstein.” We’re going to make it a spectacle and I know its going to work in Vegas.

FRIESS: So are ticket sales good for “The Producers” in Vegas?

BROOKS: Wonderful, wonderful. It’s a great little theater, the Paris is a wonderful hotel. The rooms, the food, the ambiance is just fabulous. They have that Mon Ami Gabi and that terrace. It’s so incredible. I love it there. I never can get there, I’m always working. I’m working on the animated version of “Spaceballs.” I want to take time out at Paris and watch the show.

FRIESS: Did Steve Wynn ever take inters tint eh proucers?

BROOKS: Oh yes, Steve is always interested in what I am doing. He has a wonderful hotel and he’s a wonderful guy.

FRIESS: How come he didn’t put “The Producers” into his hotel?

BROOKS: I think it was booked beforehand. Who knows? There are politics here, you know. There are agents, there are lawyers. Harrahs is a big outfit. And I think what Harrah’s wants, Harrah’s gets. I was happy to go with them.

FRIESS: Why are you doing “Young Frankenstein” the musical? You’re 81 years old. You’ve won every major award. It’s only a matter of time before you get a Kennedy Center honor. What do you have left to prove?

BROOKS: I don’t know. I love writing songs. I’m a songwriter. And here’s a chance to write 17 or 18 new songs. And I love “Young Frankenstein.” I know what to do with it. I know how to make it a great musical. I’ve got to. It’s like I’ve got to see it on stage. And what am I gonna do? I’m still a horse that can run. I may not be able to win the Derby. But what do you do when you retire. People retire and they vegetate. They go away and they dry up.

FRIESS: You lost your wife, Ann Bancroft, just about two years ago…

BROOKS: I’m not going to talk about that. It’s private. I can tell you this: She would be delighted that I am writing the songs to “Young Frankenstein.” She was the first one to dub me a songwriter, so.

FRIESS: I haven’t really read this anywhere and I was hoping you could explain this to me. Your actual name is Melvin Kaminsky. Your mother’s maiden name was Brookman. Gene Wilder was Jerome Silberman. I actually have some experience with this. My grandfather, like you, was a director up in the Catskills in the 1930s and 1940s and his given name was Martin Douglas Buchbinder and he became Doug Martin.

BROOKS: That’s what we all did then. We aspired to some kind of English royalty. We all wanted to have these very tony, fancy English names. First of all, I was gonna be Mel Brookman. I liked that. And I was a drummer and I started to write that on the drums and I could only get Brook. The letters would be too small. So I got to Brook and I put an “s” and forgot about the M-A-N. That’s how I became Mel Brooks. I thought it was a catchy name. We all… stand-up mountain comics. “Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Melvin Kaminsky.” If you said, “Now, please welcome the new director of the Moscow Arts Players Melvin Kaminsky,” that would work.

FRIESS: It is hard to imagine now why that was necessary. Ethnic names are all the thing now.

BROOKS: We all did it. Maybe in the 20s there was a swatch of anti-Semitism especially in the Midwest. And so many Jewish names.

FRIESS: Did somebody tell you to change your name?

BROOKS: No, not at all. It was de rigeur. If you got into show business, you were Marty Brennan instead of Marty Lipshitz.

FRIESS: The Borscht Belt circuit that you started out in. I’ve always wanted to ask one of the old Jewish comics this question. Do you actually eat borscht?

BROOKS: Never.

FRIESS: I’ve never met a Jew who liked it.

BROOKS: Never tasted borscht on the Borscht Belt. It was many years later that I tasted it and I said, “This isn’t so bad.’

FRIESS: Is it true that you actually have heard Musak vesions of “Springtime for Hitler”?

BROOKS: In elevators, right. And I see people swaying back and forth and humming. If they only knew the lyrics. If they only knew that bah-bah-be-bah-bah-be-bah-bah-bahhh was ‘Springtime for Hitler and Germany.” But they didn’t. They just swayed. Henry Mancini did a wonderful instrumental of it with a Latin beat on it.

FRIESS: Who do you see as you heirs? The Farrelly brothers, Sasha Baron Cohen? Do you recognize some of what you’ve done in what they do?

BROOKS: I do, I do. I would say one of my grandchildren would be Sasha Baron Cohen. The nerviness. The boldness. The Brooksian boldness in that young man. And I think he’s great.

FRIESS: What makes you laugh?

BROOKS: What makes me laugh is sometimes is I’ll be very retro. I’ll get together with a bunch of comics. Real old, old, old comedians. Paul Mazursky is part of that crowd. We would laugh at very old, bad jokes. My girlfriend was so skinny, I took her to a restaurant and the waiter said, ‘Can I take your umbrella?”

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