Mel Brooks Brings Story Behind BLAZING SADDLES to Thousand Oaks Tonight

Join the incomparable Mel Brooks for an exclusive, inside look at his storied career, and the making of the legendary and groundbreaking movie Blazing Saddles tonight, March 19 at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. This outrageous masterpiece, considered one of the top comedy films of all time, will be presented on the big screen followed by a live conversation and audience Q&A with Mel Brooks himself.

A very limited number of VIP meet and greet tickets will be available. Tickets start at $59 (plus applicable service fees) and go on-sale December 19 at noon at ticketmaster.com or at the Civic Arts Plaza box office.

Somebody give the governor a harrumpp! Memorable and monumental, Mel Brooks and Blazing Saddles...back in the saddle again.

Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor, is in an elite group as one of the few entertainers to earn all four major entertainment prizes -- a Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Oscar. His career began in television writing for Your Show of Shows and together with Buck Henry creating the long-running TV series "Get Smart." He then teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform the Grammy-winning "2000 Year Old Man" comedy albums and books. Brooks won his first Oscar in 1964 for writing and narrating the animated short The Critic and his second for the screenplay of his first feature film, The Producers in 1968. Many hit comedy films followed including The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, To Be or Not to Be, Spaceballs, Life Stinks, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. His film company, Brooksfilms Limited, also produced critically-acclaimed films such as The Elephant Man, The Fly, Frances, My Favorite Year and 84 Charing Cross Road.

For three successive seasons, 1997-1999 Mel Brooks won Emmy Awards for his role as "Uncle Phil" on the hit sitcom "Mad About You." Brooks received three 2001 Tony Awards and two Grammy Awards for The Producers: the New Mel Brooks Musical, which ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2006. The Producers still holds the record for the most Tony Awards ever won by a Broadway musical. He followed that success with The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, which ran on Broadway from 2007 to 2009 and both musicals continue to be performed and enjoyed by audiences all over the world.

In 2009 Mel Brooks received The Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing a lifetime of extraordinary contributions to American culture. His recent projects include the Emmy nominated HBO comedy specials "Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again," and "Mel Brooks Strikes Back!" as well as a career retrospective DVD box set titled "The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection Of Unhinged Comedy." In the spring of 2013 he was the subject of an Emmy Award-winning American Masters documentary on PBS called "Mel Brooks: Make A Noise" and was the 41st recipient of the AFI's Life Achievement Award.

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