Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner to Salute Sid Caesar at Paley Center | Playbill

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News Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner to Salute Sid Caesar at Paley Center Long-time friends and comedians Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner will honor their late boss Sid Caesar at the Paley Center in Los Angeles July 16.

Moderated by Eddy Friedfeld, co-author with Caesar of the book "Caesar's Hours: My Life in Comedy, With Love and Laughter," the event will take place at 7 PM PT. 

Here's how the event is billed: "When Sid Caesar passed away earlier this year, he left a creative legacy that both shaped and indelibly transformed television comedy. His admirers, whose ranks included Albert Einstein, compared his comic mastery to the genius of his idol Charlie Chaplin. Caesar's two groundbreaking variety series of the fifties, 'Your Show of Shows' and 'Caesar's Hour,' kept America laughing on Saturday nights with an unending stream of brilliant monologues, sophisticated movie parodies, and hilarious sketches.

"The series also produced a 'murderers' row' of writers and performers who would carry Caesar's comic vision into the next decades. His comic protégés included Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Lucille Kallen, Mel Tolkin, Nanette Fabray, and staff writer Mel Brooks. In this special Paley Center evening — filled with clips of Sid's work from the Paley Archive — our guests salute the genius who gave them their start, and remember his extraordinary and enduring contributions to the entire comedy world."

Caesar starred in the 1950s live comedy show "Your Show of Shows," which featured Brooks in its roster of comedy writers. He starred in the the 1962 musical comedy Little Me by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, which featured him in seven different roles, displaying his chameleon-like comic talents. His performance earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. His stage credits also include Make Mine Manhattan, Four on a Garden and Sid Caesar & Company. A two-time Emmy winner, Caesar appeared on the TV shows "Caesar's Hour" and "The Carol Burnett Show," as well as the films "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Silent Movie." He died Feb. 12, 2014. Read Playbill.com's obituary for Mr. Caesar here

Academy Award winner Mel Brooks wrote and directed the films "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein," "The Producers," "High Anxiety" and "History of the World." He won the Tony Awards for Book and Score of a Musical for The Producers and contributed the lyrics, music and book for Young Frankenstein. An award-winning comedian, actor, writer, director and producer, Reiner's stage acting credits include Inside U.S.A. and Alive and Kicking. He directed Something Different, Tough to Get Help and The RoastEnter Laughing was adapted from his book of the same name. He frequently performed with Caesar on "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour."

The show is free to the audience and will be live streamed on PaleyCenter.org/Live starting at 10:10 PM ET. Visit paleycenter.org for more information.

 
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