Just got to enjoy Albert Brooks live and in person pitching his new futuristic novel, 2030, The Real Story of What Happens to America at an uptown B&N in NYC.
Brooks arrived at the bookstore just after an appearance on The Daily Show. He announced we were the first B&N stop on the tour, and that by the time he got to B&N in Tennessee he would have it down better if anyone wanted to trail him there.
There was a good turn out and if I hadn’t had the time wrong, it was 7:30pm not 7pm for his appearance, I would have missed hearing him and been relegated to the crestfallen people out of ear shot beyond the glass doors of the author conference room. Brooks upon arriving at the podium indicated those people behind the glass, “What ... they got diseases?”
The intrepid and hilarious Albert Brooks was a favorite of mine when he first started making Johnny Carson giggle uncontrollably decades ago. My favorite schtick was when he lined up six or so audience members and as a parody of the old Ed Sullivan Show spinning plates act, he declared that he could keep 6 people laughing simultaneously by running back and forth among them telling them jokes. Brooks confided that he didn’t often repeat his ideas. “Johnny just told me to show up and surprise him. So, I did.”
Brooks attended high school with his buddy, Rob Reiner. Carl Reiner was like a surrogate father he confided.
One man in the audience launched the Q&A by asking Brooks to comment on the ever-increasing narcissism in our society. Brooks remarked that what has followed the “me” generation is the “I don’t give a shit about anyone but me” generation.
I haven’t read his new book, 2030, but Brooks said one of his themes deals with the young vs. the old. “Young people are going to want to kill us all,” he said with a weary smile. “I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist,” he hastened to explain. “Let’s say I’m a very concerned optimist."
Obviously the audience was made up of long-time devotees and when he asked early on, “Should I make Defending Your Life a Broadway musical?” it was unanimously endorsed with applause and yeses.
Most interesting to me were Brooks’ insights into the difference between writing for the screen and writing a novel. Writing a novel freed up his imagination in an exciting way. He confessed that with the more screenwriting he had done, the more he had learned to write “cheaper.” You would imagine a hurricane, he offered as an example, and then you realize the price of staging that, then you tone it down to rain -- nope -- too expensive. A sunny day? Hmmmm. Still might turn out to be too expensive. Then you settle for a man in a room with the blinds closed. He shrugged. Everything costs so much.
He mentioned the cost of filming again when he was asked about the success of improvisation during a movie. In spite of the fact that Martin Scorsese used Brooks’ improvisations for his role in Taxi Driver, most directors including himself don’t use improvisation he insisted, what with filming costing around $1 million a minute. The crew is standing around, that costs. Besides, Brooks expanded, improvisation is usually just people getting angry. He launched into a funny angry dialogue of two people insulting each other. Then asked if we had ever seen an improvisation that made us cry. He did admit that he had let the cameras keep on rolling and rolling unbeknownst to Garry Marshall in Lost in America to capture some convincing spontaneity from newbie as actor Marshall.
Brooks has a kind of “teddy bear but with an edge” persona. He didn’t wax as personal or as nostalgic as I would have hoped. He clearly was eager to get to the signing part and less than comfortable basking in the adoration of part of his avid fan base there before him. But it was a treat to behold him. He is still a grand master of the quip.
When asked in the final question to talk about his Academy Award nominated role inBroadcast News, Brooks confessed, “When Sean Connery three weeks before the awards disclosed he thought it was all right to beat your wife, I thought I had it.” (Connery was nominated for The Untouchables that year). Brooks shook his head and looked down in that resignation-tinged-with-exasperation Albert-Brooks way. Then exhaled, “But the voting was already in.”
Albert Brooks -- strong, fun, creative, edgy voice of my boomer generation.
Thank you for this - would look out for the book at the american center library here. Did you read the book called He, she and It? that was published in the 70s but gives a rather close prediction of what the US is now and would be in a few years time.
Thanks, Rolling. Will look it up. I did not get a chance to peruse Brooks' book yet. I spoke of the challenging of writing prose after only dialogue for so many years. I wish he had mentioned more about the book in the pitching session but it was still a fun experience.
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