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The Mark Simone Show Transcript May 27 2006

by Mark Simone for WABC 770
Recently transcribed by the Brookslyn webmaster!
Audio available here

SIMONE: Well, on the line is the genius himself, Mel Brooks, a comedy legend. Of course, creator of the Producers, uh, and well, so many great accomplishments. What an honor to have him with us. The genius himself, and he's on the line right now. Mel Brooks, how are you?

BROOKS: Hello Mark Simone. Uh, ya know, I'm not really a genius. I, I'm just a humble, ya know, five foot seven, uh, little guy who aspires, to, to be uh...

SIMONE: A genius.

BROOKS: Yeah, who aspires to be a genius. Right, right, you said, you said it, right.

SIMONE: No, but you are, seriously I mean this is like, in the comedy world, speaking to DaVinci right now.

BROOKS: Yes, I just wish some other comics had the code so we could get a few, a few tickles and a few laughs.

SIMONE: Hey now I remember talking to you when the Producers opened on Broadway we would...

BROOKS: Yeah that was five years ago, a little over five years ago and we had a, a great chat and I remember talking to you years ago when you were Steve Allen's sidekick

SIMONE: Oh those were the good ol' days.

BROOKS: Those were great days. But the Producers is still there at the St. James theatre and it's not easy to get a ticket, especially on weekends.

SIMONE: Well, that's what I was going to say when we were talking years ago it was always about how you could never get in. There was no way you could see it for a year but now, this is big news, it's coming out on DVD.

BROOKS: Yes, it just hit the streets a couple of days ago. And it's uh... without bragging, it's doing very well. I mean, it's selling like hotcakes. I wish it was selling like DVDs. Ya know, but hotcakes is good enough. What the hell you put a little syrup on it, break it up and try to chew it, you might get some... But anyway, look, all I gotta tell ya is that these are the performances that you will see on film that we saw on opening night. Ya know, I guess it was April 17th in the year, uh, in the year 2001 at the St. James theatre on Broadway. And there was the incredible Nathan Lane. The fabulous, ya know, Matthew Broderick. And there was Gary Beach, playing Roger DeBris. And his common law roommate. Playing Carmen Gia was Roger Bart and they're all in the picture. And we got, we added a couple of very exciting people. Will Ferrell is Franz Liebkind, the neo Nazi wacko. And the most beautiful legs, and body & mind and face in the world has joined us to play Ulla. And Ulla is Uma. Uma.

SIMONE: Ooo.

BROOKS: Uma Thurman, yes, yes. And uh, I said to her, I said "Uma, if I get you the job will you go all the way with me?" And she slapped me. And I cherish that slap. I still feel my cheek on that side and say "hmm, she slapped me, isn't that nice?" But seriously folks, I'm kidding, that didn't really happen. This is comic talk.

SIMONE: There's no casting couch in your world.

BROOKS: No, but when her agent said "Look we understand the part of Ulla is open and ya know we would like to suggest Uma for the part." And we said "yes, yes." And then Uma said "Ya know, I don't really sing and dance, I've never done that." And so Stro, Stroman, Susan Stroman, took her under her wing. And for ten days, morning, noon & night she worked with Uma Thurman and at the end of ten days, bang out of the egg came this beautiful golden chick that was hatched and uh, man can she sing and dance. And you'll see it, you'll see it in the movie. She was born to sing, sing and dance, ya know?

SIMONE: Well you know you've got a hot property when Uma Thurman calls you to be in it.

BROOKS: Yeah, she had seen the show on Broadway and she said "you know I'm really Swedish, you shouldn't get anybody but a Swede to play that part.

SIMONE: (chuckles & mumbles)

BROOKS: We kind of agreed with her.

SIMONE: We're talking with Mel Brooks. The Producers, of course the hottest thing of Broadway, people waiting to see it. Now you can get the DVD and see it whenever you want. Also, if you're in Ohio and you're not coming to New York this is the way to see the Producers.

BROOKS: It's true. It's true. I mean there's nothing like a DVD. Ya know, I have a copy and the great thing about the DVD is you can't wear it out. I've got a copy of Singin' in the Rain and I must play it once a week, ya know, and it's such a thrill. The DVDs of these classic um, I guess, music comedies...

SIMONE: Yeah.

BROOKS: Are there forever. It's such a fabulous thing to do. To just say well I don't feel so good tonight or I'm tired. I don't know what to watch. Ya know, I'll get, I'll go out and get a pizza and uh, some beer. And oh there's a new DVD of the Producers is out. I'll put that on and I'll watch some of this comedy and some of this singing and dancing. And I'm sure, ya know...

SIMONE: You know what I like you put... There's a lot of stuff on there there's outtakes and there's a lot of scenes that are not in the original. So there's a lot of good extra stuff.

BROOKS: Yeah, well the movie was very long so we had to cut the first number, which is a show stopping number starring Nathan Lane called... "I used to be the king, the king of Old Broadway." It's so, it's so, he's so good and Susan Stroman it's one of her best, ya know, crazy dance numbers, fabulous. So...

SIMONE: So, Mel Brooks, let me ask you this. Is this the first time in history that a movie became a play, a musical and then became a movie again?

BROOKS: Well, yeah it was a movie in 1968 with Gene Wilder and Zero, Zero Mostel. Which only had one piece of music in it to think of...

SIMONE: But was there anything...

BROOKS: Spring Time for Hitler. And then David Geffen kept bugging me, ya know, 30 years later. This could be, this could be a show. And so I made it into a musical comedy for Broadway.

SIMONE: Well I'm trying to think anything else was a movie then to Broadway then back to a movie.

BROOKS: The only thing I can think of was something like that.

SIMONE: Was it Chicago?

BROOKS: No, no, it wasn't Chicago. Uh, because Chicago... Well, Chicago started as a movie called Roxy Heart.

SIMONE: Oh yeah, that's right.

BROOKS: Roxy Heart, it wasn't called Chicago. And then Bob Fosse got a hold of it and made it Chicago. And the it yeah, it became a musical.

SIMONE: Huh.

BROOKS: So that's similar. And Little Shop of Horrors.

SIMONE: Oh yeah, that's right.

BROOKS: Little Shop, now that was a Roger Corman picture right?

SIMONE: Uh huh.

BROOKS: That was a Roger Corman picture. And uh...

SIMONE: And now here's another question.

BROOKS: And now wait a minute, that became, that was a movie that became an off Broadway musical.

SIMONE: You're right, it went back to Broadway.

BROOKS: It went to Broadway and Rick Moranis was in it.

SIMONE: Yeah.

BROOKS: And then it became a movie again, a musical movie, right?

SIMONE: Yeah, I'm just trying to think of the Mel Brooks record that'll never be broken. Now you also, I think you have an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy right?

BROOKS: Yes, in, in multiple, uh...

SIMONE: And I think only two other people have ever done that

BROOKS: No no no, I think there is six or seven all together.

SIMONE: Oh, alright. I think Liza Minelli is one. And I think Streisand did it.

BROOKS: Yeah, maybe Mike Nichols, Mike Nichols and strangely enough Rita Moreno.

SIMONE: Yeah.

BROOKS: There were five or six. Ya know, I'm not alone in uh... but I probably got more, without bragging, I've probably got more Grammys then they have, Emmy's, I got two Oscars.

SIMONE: You must have a hell of a mantle!

BROOKS: No, no, no it's gone. eBay! I sold it all. It's all gone. I got over a hundred dollars. eBay, eBay! Ya know, I can go, I can stop a hot dog vendor and say "two, gimme two! " Ya know, I gotta lot of money, I sold everything on eBay.

SIMONE: When you're on eBay do you type your own name just to see what people are selling of yours?

BROOKS: No, I don't, but I should I guess.

SIMONE: Yeah, you'd be amazed.

BROOKS: I bet there's a lot. Ya know, just recently someone called me. "Blazing Saddles, Blazing Saddles, the poster, original poster signed by you. It's on!" I said "Okay, well try to buy it," ya know. And they said "No, no, no, we can't. It's too expensive." I said "Okay, forget it," ya know.

SIMONE: Well we're talking to Mel Brooks. Now people must... the Producers was such an incredible success on Broadway. People must bug you all the time... "Let's do Young Frankenstein. Let's do this one, that one."

BROOKS: Well, actually I decided to do Young Frankenstein cause it's kinda like an opera. It lends itself to the musical stage. It's big stuff. It's funny stuff. It's really wacky stuff. And it's also kind of artistic and ya know you get a touch, a brush stroke of high brow there. And, uh….

SIMONE: So you'll write a new score for this?

BROOKS: Well I just finished a song actually.

SIMONE: Wow.

BROOKS: I finished one song for it.

SIMONE: Can we have a note or two?

BROOKS: It's called, uh, it's called "He was my boyfriend." It was written for Frau Blucher. (Mel neighs like a horse). It was written for Frau Blucher and she sings... He would come home in a snit, he would have a terrible fit, I'm the first thing he would hit, but I didn't give a BLANK He was, my boyfriend He was, my boyfriend Ya know, kind of a Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht three penny opera sound to it. But she'll be fabulous. You know Cloris Leachmen is still living. She's still among us. She's celebrating her 80th birthday, I think in a week or so. And at the same time celebrating over 60 years of continuous employment in show business.

SIMONE: Huh.

BROOKS: And ya know, I don't know, if I get this together and I put this on the boards on Broadway I may ask her to play Frau Blucher, ya know?

SIMONE: Wow, that's amazing.

BROOKS: She's got a lot of energy, she could it.

SIMONE: But now, are you willing to put yourself through this again where everbody's going to bug you for tickets and nobody can get in?

BROOKS: No, no, no, I'll just give all of that to some scalper. I'll say "Murray," ya know, "anything over a hundred is mine," ya know. Actually, I'm kidding folks. A lot of people don't understand jokes in irony. Ya know? What we have to do with the Producers, because there is such a terrible thing called scalpers. You know about them.

SIMONE: Yeah.

BROOKS: They send these blind guys to the, not really blind, they're not really known, to the box office and they buy eight at a time and they, ya know, they buy many hundreds of tickets and then they give them to door men and people in hotels to scalp them. Ya know, instead of a hundred they'll get two or three hundred for a ticket, especially if it's a hot show. So what we did, we created Broadway Inner Circle or... they created it and I joined them that so we could scalp our own tickets, literally. Ya know, so we could get them out of the hands of scalpers.

SIMONE: But your tickets are so hot. I remember seeing you. You'd sit on the stairs, on the steps. You didn't even have a seat.

BROOKS: I didn't have a seat, I couldn't afford a seat. Why would I give up, ya know, my percentage? I had 2 or 3 percent of the show. If I sat in a seat I'd be knocking myself out. So it was great. And ya know, the audience didn't know, but the performers knew that I was sitting on the steps of the St. James Theatre in the back of the house. And they would wave at me ya know and whistle. They knew I was there. Sometimes they would throw their voices at me or they would throw in the words "Mel is here tonight!" Ya know, so we, I loved it. If you go to the St. James theatre, especially Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you're liable to see me there. I don't go... they're all good; I don't have to worry about checking on their performances. But, I just bathe in the, in the joy of...

SIMONE: Well you should.

BROOKS: In the happiness of the show, ya know.

SIMONE: It's an amazing, amazing thing, a phenomenon on Broadway and now the DVD which everybody should get. You can get the DVD of the Producers, ya know, on line.

BROOKS: With the original cast. And you get, you know, you get Uma Thurman with your popcorn. And Will Ferrell, I mean it's an amazing... I don't think there has never been a better neo Nazi that's lived. I think he was born to play this Kraut, ya know.

SIMONE: So if you want to see the Producers or you've seen it and just want to have it forever this something you should get, the DVD of the Producers.

BROOKS: Gee, Mark, this is so kind of you to flog this DVD for me.

SIMONE: Oh I love it, it's great.

BROOKS: And ya know, you want to know something? Maybe, I guess it's ego. But every once and a while again I will, I'll watch it myself just to see the original cast. And hear it, ya know? Because on the DVD we get these girls in pearls. These beautiful girls that you can see right through the pearls, ya know... incredible naked bodies... and the backstage. Did you see that little backstage thing about girls in pearls.

SIMONE: Oh yeah.

BROOKS: Yikes, it's almost, like we're edging into porno.

SIMONE: So you've used the freeze frame on that DVD.

BROOKS: Yeah, all, all the time. They are very, very beautiful girls. And if you stay to the very end of the movie, to the very last frame, you will see Mel Brooks. I am there. I say "Get Out!" I chase you, I chase you out of the movie house.

SIMONE: It's a wonderful DVD. Well, Mel Brooks keep up all the great work. You are a genius and it's always great to talk to you.

BROOKS: Mark, it's always good to talk to you, we've had good times in the past, we've had good times right this moment, and I hope with Young Frankenstein we'll have good times again.

SIMONE: Alright, we'll check up on you soon. Thanks for being with us.

BROOKS: Okay Mark, take care.

SIMONE: Take care.

BROOKS: Bye bye.

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