Saturday, May 30, 2009

Robert Schimmel - Life Since Then

You may be familiar with Robert Schimmel from his earlier comedy work and/or his comedy specials on HBO and Comedy Central. Maybe you have heard him on Howard Stern or possibly heard that he divorced his wife and ended up marrying his daughter's best friend. Interpersonal dynamics have taken a bit of a back seat in recent years as Schimmel has done battle with non-Hotchkins Lymphoma. He lost a testicle (and his son, sadly also to cancer) but has since gone into remission. It's a hell of a way to have a career resurgence, but it has also revitalized Schimmel's career in a big way.

I'll be the first to tell you that I really don't want to to hear survivor humor. Laughing through the pain is definitely something that people should do, it's just always tougher for me to hear from comedians. These are the reasons why I don't want to hear Christian Finnegan or Louie Anderson. Sorry things went a little shitty for you, but let's suck it up. Guys like Sean Rouse have had (and continue to have) no-end of horrific things befall them and seem to have done ok for themselves. See if you can do the same.

Schimmel does a lot of material about his cancer, but it goes over real well (at least for this asshole) and as insensitive as his humor often is, he's always quick to point out that he is in no way making fun of people's cancer or making light of people's losses. Heavier material is off-set handily by great bits about family trips and hosting the AVN awards. It makes Life Since Then a great watch/listen for comedy fans as well as people trying to deal with cancer first or second-hand. Regardless of your application, you can grab a copy of Life Since Then or his other swag from Bob's website and/or keep up on his general goings-on here.

1 comment:

kats said...

This guy is hilarious! Crazy how pain brings out some of the best comedy in people...or I guess that goes for whatever the art of choice is.