How I got my EGOT: 12 Lessons Mel Brooks Learned Making TV, Albums, Movies and Theater

It stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony–and the comedy legend has earned each of these awards during seven decades in show business. With a new box set collecting material from his entire career, Mel Brooks talks about his experiences in each medium and the lessons learned along the way.

Only 11 people in the history of the world have one. As popularized by the show 30 Rock, an EGOT is the prestigious honor of making a grand slam out of all four major entertainment awards. It’s a distinction that lasts a lifetime. In the case of Mel Brooks, however, even if he hadn’t won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, thereby breathing the same rarified air as Audrey Hepburn (and of course Whoopi Goldberg), he’d remain distinguished beyond measure.

Brooks is a comedy pioneer in every sense. From his Borscht Belt beginnings, the comic went on to television’s first comedy, which just happened to have one of the most esteemed writers’ rooms ever–his compatriots on Your Show of Shows included Carl Reiner and Neil Simon.

Although he didn’t invent the parody film, Brooks took it to delirious new heights, sending up just about every movie genre on a quest to bring anarchy to the cinema. He nurtured a robust postmodernist streak, titling a film History of the World, Part I, even though he never intended to make a sequel, and creating a silent movie in which the only line of dialogue is spoken by the world’s most famous mime. Brooks was also the first filmmaker whose work has been adapted into a hit Broadway musical, which itself was adapted back into a film. (John Waters has since followed suit with Hairspray.)

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