Review for Robert Schimmel: Life After Then

Robert Schimmel is an American stand-up comedian, a Perrier Award nominee and also voted one of Comedy Central's top 100 stand-up comedians.  That doesn't sound particularly impressive really when you think about it, does it?  And you'd be right if that was all there was to this story, but wait…there's more.
 
Schimmel attracted record ratings (don't they all…) for both his Showtime and HBO comedy specials and about to star in his own prime-time series when he hit a pothole in life's winding road.  He had a heart attack, got cancer, had his TV series cancelled before it had even begun, found his soul mate, then got divorced when his wife found out, lost a house, was told by doctor's he had three years to live and wouldn't father any children.
 
Eight years on with two young children, Schimmel has emerged battered and bruised but upbeat about his experiences, even authoring a book on his ordeal called 'Cancer on $5 a day…How humor got me through the toughest journey of my life'.  Schimmel's entire routine during this set, his return to stand-up, is based around all of this and he doesn't hold back at all with a series of rather explicit jokes on relationships (especially his ex-wife), sex and cancer.
 
Some of his material, especially on cancer, is extremely close to the bone but it's clear that his humour (this is how you spell it, Robert…) was the key to getting through his illness as near the end of his set he apologises to anyone suffering or knows of anyone suffering from this dreadful disease.  He also puts on a mini slideshow of photographs that include both his family and his cancer treatment, explaining that he actually dialled in a performance on The Simpsons whilst undergoing chemotherapy.  Some of his pictures are actually quite shocking when you compare his appearance then to now.
 
I have to admit that I had reservations at the start of this set as to whether I should really find his style and subject matter funny, but ultimately I was drawn in and laughing enthusiastically along with his audience after a short while.  I then discover in one of the extras that Schimmel is aiming for the wrong kind of laugh, the one you want but know you shouldn't really get and that kinds of sums up how I felt just after pressing play.
 
There are two extras included on this set.  The first is a brief 5 minute set of clips showing Schimmel backstage prior to this gig with him telling some stories and a couple of jokes.  The other more substantial one is the Deli Extra, essentially an interview in a Delicatessen with the co-author of his book, Alan Eisenstock that is very funny and revealing in its own right.
 
The set is a short one at only an hour long, but if you can handle near knuckle laughs then you may well enjoy this one.  Michael McIntyre he isn't…

As a brief taster, here's a short clip from the set: