The Kennedy Center to Welcome Mel Brooks for Onstage Conversation

The Kennedy Center presents a hilarious conversation with 2009 Kennedy Center Honoree Mel Brooks, where the beloved comedian will be live on stage to share behind-the-scenes stories from his legendary career and life, after a screening of his groundbreaking movie Blazing Saddles. This outrageous masterpiece, considered one of the top comedy films of all time, will be presented on a big screen followed by a live conversation and audience-led Q&A with Brooks on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall. Tickets start at $65 and go on sale to Kennedy Center Members on Thursday, December 17, 2015 and to the general public on Friday, December 18, 2015. This special presentation is part of Capital One's sponsorship of Comedy at the Kennedy Center. A full schedule of events is available here.

Director, producer, writer, and actor Mel Brooks is one of the few entertainers to earn all four major entertainment prizes-the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, and the Tony. 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 in 1997-1999, Mel Brooks won Emmy Awards for his role as Uncle Phil on the hit sitcom Mad About You. He also received three 2001 Tony Awards and two Grammy Awards for The Producers: The New Mel Brooks Musical, which ran on Broadway from 2001-2006. 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 2007-2009. Both musicals continue to be performed and enjoyed by audiences all over the world.

Brooks's 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 became the 41st recipient of the AFI's Life Achievement Award.

Mel Brooks... Back in the Saddle Again will be presented on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall. Tickets start at $65 and go on sale to Kennedy Center Members on Thursday, December 17, 2015 and to the general public on Friday, December 18, 2015. Tickets will be available for purchase at the Kennedy Center Box Office, by calling InstantCharge at (202) 467-4600, or through the Kennedy Center website at www.kennedy-center.org.

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