Comedy legend Mel Brooks is part of season two of Ruthie’s Table 4. Chef and restaurateur Ruth Rogers invites her celebrity customers to reminisce in every episode of the iHeartPodcasts program. The episode is now streaming.
During the interview, Brooks talks about how he struggled to make a living even after winning an Oscar, his memories of Gene Wilder and Cary Grant, and being inspired by Ethel Merman in Anything Goes.
“I’d never seen a Broadway show. I was nine years old, and Uncle Joe took me to see Anything Goes. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. Even though we were in the second balcony as far away from the stage as you can get, Ethel Merman was too loud. No mics…I just couldn’t stop clapping and screaming and shouting. And then I got back in Uncle Joe’s cab. I said to him, Uncle Joe…I’m not going into the garment sector…. I’m gonna go into show business.”
