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Born in 1926, Mel Brooks will celebrate his 100th birthday on June 28. He is one of the select group of EGOT winners, i.e., a recipient of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. Perhaps the best way to understand his extraordinary career is to examine it biographically, in successive phases: Brooklyn Jewish childhood, pool-side tummler at a Borscht Belt hotel; service in WWII; writing for Sid Caesar’s pathbreaking variety show during the formative period of American television; breaking through (along with his great friend Carl Reiner) with his classic comedy album, The 2000 Year Old Man; creating a series of classic comic films over four decades, parodying one American film genre after another; and finally migrating to Broadway with the musical version of his hit 1967 film The Producers. How did he, as much or even more than any other comedian, mine the traditions of Jewish comedy to reach the pinnacle of American popular entertainment?

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Please RSVP to Charmaine clw@tilb.org