It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks - Hardcover

It's Good to Be the King traces the life and career of little Melvin Kaminsky, who began life as the adored youngest son of a Brooklyn Jewish family, thrown into poverty by the death of his father when Mel was four years old. It examines the roots of Brooks's need to entertain and how he developed his unique blend of slapstick, satire, and just plain silliness into a winning and flexible comedy style that would stand the test of time.

Noted Hollywood biographer James Robert Parish traces Brooks's rise from street-corner wit to Borscht Belt comedian; explores his long and fruitful collaboration with comic genius Sid Caesar, during which Brooks came of age as a comedy writer; and recounts Brooks's mad scramble to find a future in show business after Caesar lost his footing in the medium.

And the rest is history! Well . . . not exactly. Parish traces the roots of the Brooks/Carl Reiner "Two Thousand Year Old Man" routine back to its origins during World War II, reveals that neither Mel nor Carl thought it was their best material, and maps the routine's circuitous path from backstage gag to hit comedy album.

Parish follows Brooks from the disappointing initial box office of his first two movies, The Producers and The Twelve Chairs, through the gradual growth of The Producers into a cult favorite, to the phenomenal success of his western spoof Blazing Saddles. He reveals that Brooks was always at his best when stretching himself, doing things he "couldn't" do—directing, writing songs, playing the lead. But Mel also learned the value of surrounding himself with talented people like Carl Reiner, Buck Henry, Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, and others.

Offering many insights into the wacky world of Brooks and his many collaborators, as well as an intimate look into Mel's seemingly unlikely, yet highly successful marriage to the brilliant and beautiful actress Anne Bancroft, It's Good to Be the King might just be the most delightful, engaging, and entertaining biography you'll ever read.

"A gleefully readable, well-researched study of hubris in Hollywood."
—Publishers Weekly

"Not only instructive but intensely pleasurable."
—The Wall Street Journal

"I always learn something from every juicy, well-researched, and information-packed volume of Parish's studies of Hollywood."
—Rex Reed, columnist, The New York Observer

"A know-it-all backstory of infamous film flops wittily reminding us how often, and in so many ways, Hollywood can screw up the best laid plans."
—Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light

"A how-not-to guide for ambitious filmmakers. No individual can shoulder all the responsibility for failure, though it's fun to play the blame game while you're reading."
—The Washington Post

"Horrific flops have an arresting train-wreck quality: you can't help but gawk, even though you know you probably shouldn't. James Robert Parish quickly dispatches one misbegotten project after another in a heavily researched and compulsively readable tome."
—Daily Variety