Biography of Robert Schimmel

In June of 2000, everything was going Robert Schimmel’s way. The award winning stand-up comedian and writer had just been featured in his own HBO Special and his latest stand-up CD, If you Buy This CD, I Can Buy This Car, was well received. Most exciting of all he had just finished shooting the pilot for his own network sitcom, Schimmel. Then, all of a sudden, his world changed. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system.

“I went to my doctor to have this lump on my neck checked out, and after the test came back, he called me into his office and said, ‘Robert, I’d like you to meet your oncologist.’ I said back to him, ‘I thought oncologoists were for people with cancer.’ That’s when it hit me.” Tragically, this was not Schimmel’s introduction to the world of cancer.

Eight years earlier, his son, Derek, had succumbed to brain cancer at age eleven. Terrified and confused, Schimmel began treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale.

It was while undergoing treatment in Mayo’s infusion suite that Robert realized the impact that his positive outlook could have, not just on himself, but on others, as well.

“Staying positive and having the ability to laugh played a great role in my own recovery. I think it was as important as the treatment I was receiving. It’s my mission to try and give other people fighting the disease the same gifts of laughter and a positive attitude that I had. Hopefully, my career as a comic will give me the forum to touch these people.”

Today, Schimmel has resumed his hectic schedule performing around the country, just as he did before his diagnosis. He is talking to Fox about resuming his television project and considering writing a book about his experiences. Above all, Schimmel is glad to be alive.

Schimmel’s brand of all-too-real humor has put him at the foregront of comedy ever since he first began writing gags for, among others, Yakov Smirnoff, Jimmie Walker, Gabe Kaplan and Joan Rivers.

After serving a stint on the staff of In Living Color, his big break came when he was singled out by Rodney Dangerfield and invited to perform on an HBO special. In quick succession he appeared on the Playboy Channel and Fox Network before landing a pair of his own Showtime Specials.

From there, guest shots in a wide variety of TV and film productions set the stage for his recorded comedy debut, Robert Schimmel Comes Clean in 1997, followed, a year later, by If You Buy This CD, I Can Get This Car, which helped to land the performer the prestigious Best Male Stand-Up Comic award at the 1999 American Comedy Awards. His third CD, Unprotected was released in 1999.