What’s the greatest feat of endurance you’ve ever accomplished? Run-walking a half marathon? Knocking out the entire first season of Stranger Things in a single Saturday? Not to show you up or anything, but Mel Brooks has been hilarious for almost a century. He honed his early Borscht Belt shtick in the 1940s while competing with Henny Youngman, Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, and Don Rickles for stage time. Brooks directed Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers and founded the production company Brooksfilms, winning a deluge of awards and launching the careers of David Lynch, Cronenberg, and Chappelle. These days, the comedy god spends his time hanging at buddy Carl Reiner’s house, performing for crowds of 5,000-plus, and regaling GQ with stories about getting kudos from Alfred Hitchcock and Barack Obama.
GQ: What’s the toughest crowd you’ve ever played for?
Mel Brooks: Twelve hundred people at a Catskills hotel. For the last eight minutes or so, I had them laughing. But it took an hour. Flop sweat. I ruined a perfectly good $80 suit.
Do you remember the joke that got them?
A guy goes into a grocery store and says, “I want half a pound of butter.” He looks and sees shelves completely covered with boxes of salt. All over the grocery store, hundreds and hundreds of boxes of salt. So he says to the grocer, “Listen, I don’t want to pry, but do you sell a lot of salt?” And the grocery man says, “Me, if I’ll sell a box of salt a month, I’m lucky. But the guy that sells me salt… Boy, can he sell salt.” I stole it from Myron Cohen, a great Borscht Belt comic.
Do you feel like the 2000-Year-Old Man, telling me about things that happened 70 years ago?
Absolutely! I’ve lived through two wars—three, actually—so I’ve been around. I don’t mind being the old professor, giving you info.
A lot of your time these days is spent being lauded. Do you ever get sick of being honored?
Well, it comes and goes. [Ed Note: He lists 12 major awards he’s received.] I’m a bona fide EGOT. You know what that is?
You won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.
There must be 12 or 15 of us. But you gotta ask the others, do they have the National Medal of Arts? I got it from Obama.
Is he funny?
He’s quick! He’s a good ad-libber.
Who’s the funniest head of state?
Putin is, but he doesn’t know it. Shame on him! Put your shirt on—you’re not Schwarzenegger.
The un-self-aware are always funny. What’s your favorite comedic type?
People who are incredibly secure in their ignorance are the funniest. Thank god for Trump. He’s kept nighttime television alive. Kimmel and Fallon and Corden…all the Jimmys.
How did you discover Dave Chappelle?
I was looking for sidekicks for Cary Elwes, who played Robin Hood [in Robin Hood: Men in Tights]. And then Dave Chappelle was so unassuming, so sweet, as well as funny. I said, “That’s the guy.” And then the other night, Quincy Jones and I were given theater awards at the Geffen Playhouse here in Los Angeles, and Dave Chappelle came from nowhere. He said, “I love that guy. Somebody had to give you your first job in showbiz.” To believe in you, you know? I remember my French teacher, when I was only about 13 or 14, said, “I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and no child ever had a perfect French accent like you do. You’re gifted. Whatever you choose to do, follow through.” It’s very important for us who’ve been through it to help young people that we think are talented.
What other directors did you look up to?
Hitchcock was a remarkable guy. I sent him an outline of High Anxiety and said, “This is a pastiche of all your films. Mr. Hitchcock, if you don’t want me to do it, I won’t do it.” He says, “No, no, no. I saw Blazing Saddles. You’re a genius.” For one month, I saw him almost every day. He told me all the stories of his youth.
What’s the funniest thing Carl Reiner’s ever said?
He’s 95. And his neck is bent a little, so he looks down all the time. I’m always curious about his movies, and I ask him questions like “Your early movie The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming—who was in the cast besides Alan Arkin?” But he said to me the other night, “Don’t ask me all these goddamn questions! Ask me about floors!” Because he’s always looking down. “Ask me about floors!” That’s hysterical. I love him.
Do you still love being in front of an audience?
The thing that thrills me the most, ever since I was a kid, is a bunch of people laughing together. When I do my act at the Chicago Theatre or Radio City Music Hall, and they’re screaming… You ever hear 5,000 people scream and laughing together?
Not for me.
It’s scary. I told the audience one joke, and I was blown back. I took a question from the audience, and the guy stood up and said, “Mr. Brooks, what do you wear, boxers or briefs?” And I answered, “Depends.” And I got such a laugh that I could feel the air blow me back onstage. Five thousand people cracking up at once!
This piece appeared in the June 2017 issue with the title “Gods Of Comedy: Mel Brooks.”