A Blazing Good Time
with Mel Brooks

You haven't known true comedy if you haven't seen Blazing Saddles. It's a 1974 satirical Western comedy with real social commentary. It follows Bart, a crafty Black railroad worker who becomes the first Black sheriff of Rock Ridge, his frontier town. Despite their racial bias against him at first, the townspeople's views change when he and his drunk gunfighter friend prove useful in driving out thugs and bandits.

Even though I don't like Westerns, I ended up loving this movie. It's one of the funniest films I've ever watched, with the right amount of slapstick humor, innuendo, and more. It's more than just laugh-out-loud funny; I often feel smarter every time I watch it.

And boy, what a cast! You can never go wrong with the late Gene Wilder when Mel Brooks is at the helm. The writer-director, who also plays multiple characters, has always brought out the best in Wilder. They're a match made in comedy heaven, and Blazing Saddles is no different.

Then there are the incredible Cleavon Little and Madeline Kahn, both gone now but unforgettable here. Little gives such an earnest performance as Bart that you can't help but root for him. He plays a great straight man against all the craziness surrounding him in Rock Ridge. And of course, Madeline Kahn is phenomenal as always.

The fact that it all came from Mel Brooks's brilliant mind still blows my mind. People throw around the word genius nowadays, but he truly is one. He's given us so many incredible comedies over the years that it almost seems impossible that they all came from one person.

Mr. Brooks, who turned 100 this June, has always inspired me, and I will never forget the first time I saw him in person.

In June 2013, he received the AFI Life Achievement Award at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. In my opinion, he deserved it even earlier in his career, maybe in the 90s or the early 2000s. But I'm glad he got this honor, and what a tribute it was.

It was a star-studded affair, too. Martin Scorsese presented the award, while Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Billy Crystal, the late Cloris Leachman, Jimmy Kimmel, Martin Short, the late Carl Reiner, and more spoke at the ceremony.

The event was closed to the public, but the red carpet was open beforehand. I was there to see all the arrivals, especially Mr. Brooks, and to get his autograph.

I still can't believe I got him to sign my Blazing Saddles movie poster. The place was so hectic, yet miraculously, he caught sight of me and signed it. He interacted with many fans that night, and I'm lucky to have been one of them.

I only got to watch the ceremony on TV, and everything was spot on. I'm glad they paid fitting tribute to one of Hollywood's brightest and wittiest minds. How I wish I'd been watching movies when he was at his prime. I would've watched every film he made in the cinema.