Judd Apatow is in a constant state of fight or flight

Robert Lloyd, Tribune News Service

There are many books in the production offices of Judd Apatow — bookshelves full of books in rooms full of bookshelves. All sorts of books. Biographies, photo books, children's books, essays, stories. Has he read them? “So little,” he says. "But as long you buy them, that's 90% of it. As long as I have a lot of books, I'm immortal — you can't leave the Earth when you have more books to read."

Apatow has a new book of his own, "Comedy Nerd," following the interview collections "Sick in the Head" and "Sicker in the Head." It's a thick, glossy, photo-filled, endlessly browsable scrapbook that covers the entirety of a life and career — from fanboy to mogul, as writer, director and producer — that shaped 21st century comedy, encompassing the highlights, the lowlights and the never-lit. (Apatow's profits after expenses go to Fire Aid, helping those affected by the January wildfires, and the literacy charity 826 National.)

You've just finished a documentary on Mel Brooks, with your partner Michael Bonfiglio, and you're working on another about Norm Macdonald. Did they whet your whistle for the book?

I love having the opportunity to tell the story of these people's careers but, more important, their lives. Mel Brooks is the reason why so many of us went into comedy, is why young Jewish boys thought it was possible to get into show business. So to get to talk to him for 10 hours about what it felt like to be Mel Brooks, what was it like to be in World War II and then become a good TV writer and struggle in Hollywood and then figure out your approach to comedy.

Did that obsession make you an outlier among your childhood peers?

It was the glory days of comedy — "Saturday Night Live," Monty Python, "SCTV," Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett — but there wasn't anybody at school who wanted to talk about it with me. But that also made me feel I might be able to get a job in this industry because it didn't feel like there was any competition whatsoever. I think it was also connected to learning about alternative music and thinking that the bands that didn't have very many fans were better and loving them for that. Being into "SCTV" felt like being into the Replacements.

Did you have a vision of what that world was like?

I don't think I did. On one level I dreamed of being a stand-up comedian like Jerry Seinfeld or Garry Shandling. I was really scared to admit that and to get on stage and attempt it. I wasn't watching movies thinking I was gong to make movies. I wasn't someone who was looking at the coverage and wondering what type of lens they used. I just liked the movies. I had this vague sense of maybe I could be a comedian, maybe I could be an actor, probably in the back of my head I wondered, "How do you become Bill Murray?" I didn't have that level of confidence myself. But I did get onstage at the end of 12th grade; even though what I was doing was awful, I did begin the process of trying to figure it out. When I interviewed comedians for my high school radio station they all said it takes a while. And I thought, "It's OK to be terrible at this for a year." And I was excited that I was in the terrible stage. I thought, "It's begun."

Did you learn anything new about yourself going through all this stuff?

Making the book I thought, "Was it healthy or unhealthy to work this much?" I'm trying to entertain and tell stories and make work that is meaningful to people, and on another level just trying to fill some insecure hole with accomplishment. I definitely put a lot of energy into trying to succeed as a way of feeling safe: Life won't fall apart if I just do a good job on this. There was definitely the thought that this is work of a crazy person. He needed to take a nap and slow down. So I was both proud and embarrassed. It felt like a form of mania on some level.