Robert Schimmel

Stand-up comedian, Robert Schimmel is the author of Cancer on $5 a Day (Chemo Not Included), an edgy, hilarious, and poignant musing on his battle with cancer. It is a platform in which he tells his story of overcoming major personal and career obstacles with the power of humor.

In the spring of 2000, Schimmel was riding high. He'd won the Stand-Up of the Year Award, his HBO special was a huge hit, and his pilot had been picked up as a series. And then it all came crashing down. Diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, he was told he would have to undergo chemotherapy immediately. His once white-hot career started to slip away.

Despite being close to death, Robert never lost his sense of humor, and used this sense of humor to get him through an incredibly difficult disease and subsequent medical complications. Schimmel takes audiences along on his journey, from growing up the son of Holocaust survivor parents, to becoming a well-known comedian, and ironically working to make people laugh as his own son was losing his battle with cancer. The fortitude, determination, and humor that got Schimmel through these incredible events in his life are applicable to many of life's obstacles that so many people face. Schimmel demonstrates how many difficult events in one's life is survivable - using humor.

Alternately laugh-out-loud funny and profoundly poignant, Schimmel's speech is an honest account of how, even after the loss of a child, career ups and downs, and being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease one’s self, life is still worth living. His message gives audiences the inspiration to take on whatever challenges they may be presented with, and offers them insight on the power of humor as a coping skill in their own lives.