Schimmel in full recovery mode in return to Strip

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 8:55 a.m.

Who: Robert Schimmel.

When: 10 p.m. today and Saturday and June 11-12.

Where: Monte Carlo's Lance Burton Theatre.

Tickets: $35.75, $44.

Information: 730-7160.

Stand-up comic Robert Schimmel, a cancer survivor, is counting his blessings as he begins a two-weekend engagement at the Monte Carlo tonight.

For one, the cancer has been in remission for four years.

Schimmel had just completed a date at the Monte Carlo in June 2000 when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and given six months to live.

"Here I am, four years later, appearing on the same stage," the outspoken comedian said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "I never dreamed it could happen."

Weeks before he was diagnosed with cancer, the 54-year-old Schimmel had completed a pilot for a television series. In the wake of his illness, the series was canceled.

A second blessing -- he is wrapping up preliminary work on another TV series for Fox, which is scheduled to air in the fall or as a midseason replacement.

"The script is done, we're casting," he said. "Tentatively it will be called 'Schimmel and Schimmel.' It's based on my real life, about me and my daughter Jessica."

Shock jock Howard Stern, a friend of Schimmel's, is the executive producer.

A third blessing -- Saturday is his son Sam's first birthday.

"On June 5, 2001, I lost a testicle," Schimmel said. "The doctors said I would be sterile."

Through all of his tribulations -- his son Derek died of brain cancer at the age of 11 in 1992 -- Schimmel has maintained his sense of humor.

"That's how I deal with it," he said.

Discussing cancer has become an integral part of his act. His mother, Betty, 74, is a survivor of breast cancer.

Schimmel, a native of New York, got a late start in his comedy career.

Twenty-two years ago he was married and raising a family in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he ran a stereo store. One weekend he visited a sister in Los Angeles.

"She took me to the Improv one night and signed me up without telling me. The emcee pulled my name out of a bucket. When I went onstage, my first line was, 'I'm really not a comedian, I'm a stereo salesman,' and the audience started laughing. That's all I needed to hear."

The owners of the Improv told him he had a standing invitation to appear.

"So I quit my job, put my house up for sale and moved to L.A. with my wife and daughter, and the night before I got here the Improv burned down. It was still smoldering when we arrived."

He got a job selling stereos and appeared wherever he could get a gig at night.

His big break came when Rodney Dangerfield spotted him and invited him to appear on his HBO "Young Comedians" special. He went on to appear on Showtime, the Playboy Channel and the Fox Network as well as star in his own Showtime specials: "Hard Core in The Big Apple" and "Robert Schimmel Guilty As Charged."

Although onstage Schimmel talks about many taboo topics, especially sex, he rarely delves into politics.

"I don't like talking about politics in my act," Schimmel said.

But that isn't to say he doesn't have strong opinions.

"When (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld apologized for the treatment of prisoners in the Iraq prison, that bothered me," Schimmel said. "I don't remember us getting any apology for the four guys hanging from the bridge."

His pal and producer Stern has been at the center of a censorship furor for several months. Fans are afraid Stern will be pulled off the radio because of material the Federal Communications Commission claims is objectionable.

"It's unfair to single him out," Schimmel said. "But they always have to go for somebody big.

"It's a witch hunt. They are selective about who they pick."

He noted that Stern repeated some words that were used by Oprah Winfrey on her TV show, but it was Stern who caught the heat from the federal government.

"How did she get away with it, and not Howard?" Schimmel said.

Schimmel said Stern is fighting for everybody.

"What happens to him can happen to everybody," he said.