History of the Comedian, Part II: Mel Brooks revisits his career and joins the online conversation

Is the world ready for Mel Brooks to join the Twitter conversation?

Ready or not, here comes @MelBrooks later today in an event coordinated for Comedy Central’s first-ever online #ComedyFest — that starts today and continues through May 3, 2013 — with the 2,000(minus 1,914)-year-old comedian in conversation with Carl Reiner and moderated by Judd Apatow.

If you think you’ve already just seen Brooks and Apatow in conversation, that’s likely because you just saw or heard that happen as part of a separate “Town Hall” recording for SiriusXM. In fact, that debuted over the weekend.

See him compare his younger self with Quentin Tarantino back when Brooks released Blazing Saddles:

Here Brooks extolls the virtues of singing with his wife, Anne Bancroft, in 1983’s To Be Or Not To Be.

1974 was a big year for Brooks also, with him writing and directing BOTH Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. 2013 is shaping up to be big, too.

It’s all part of a resurgence in Mel Brooks comedy — something something don’t call it a comeback is the cliche you’re searching for here — designed to both enlighten the next young generation of comedy nerds as well as to celebrate an entertainment icon while he’s still around to enjoy it and share his knowledge with us.

In the past year, Brooks has sat down for extended retrospectives and interviews with:

In the coming month, in addition to today’s Comedy Central #ComedyFest on Twitter with Apatow and Reiner, Brooks also is the subject of a new PBS documentary in its American Masters series (“Mel Brooks: Make A Noise,” premiering May  20, 2013).

And on May 15, Brooks will be promoting that PBS documentary of him with a Skype session with Joy Behar and Susan Stroman (director of his Broadway musical version of “The Producers”) and filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg for the 92nd Street Y in NYC.

Twitter and Skype?! Are you ready for this, Mr. Brooks? Is the world ready for more of you?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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