Cancer on $5 a Day* *(chemo not included): How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life - Hardcover

Robert Schimmel; Alan Eisenstock

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0738211583 ISBN 13: 9780738211589

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2008

Synopsis

In the spring of 2000, Robert Schimmel was riding high. He'd won the Stand-Up of the Year Award, his HBO special was a huge hit, and his sitcom had been picked up. 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. The sitcom was dumped and the fire of his white-hot career started to go out. But Schimmel never lost his sense of humor, his knife-like edge, and most of all, his passion to entertain. Indeed, it was his basic need to laugh-even if the only people around him were suffering from cancer and the room he was playing was the Mayo Clinic infusion center-that carried him through his ordeal. From his colorful banter with nurses and other patients during chemo, to his hilarious conversation with a wig salesman, going for the laugh was Robert Schimmel's survival mechanism. Alternately laugh-out-loud funny and profound, Cancer on Five Dollars a Day is an honest account of how one man's face-off with a deadly disease helped him better understand himself.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Schimmel was named one of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Comics. He is a regular on Howard Stern and Conan O'Brien. He lives in Los Angeles.

Alan Eisenstock is the author of several nonfiction works. He lives in Pacific Palisades, California.

Reviews

Schimmel already had a hit HBO stand-up comedy special and a Stand-Up of the Year title from the American Comedy Awards when, in the spring of 2000, he was diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His world changed instantly; success in the raunchy joke trade-he also had an edgy FOX series in development-was replaced by the struggle for survival, the rigors of chemotherapy and all the fear and uncertainty that goes with it. Schimmel also looks back on his son, whom he lost not long before to brain cancer. Among a crowded field of inspiring and straight-talking personal survival stories, Schimmel's conversational account is particularly ribald, emphasizing the importance a sense of humor can play in coping, learning and healing.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0738211583
• ISBN 13: 9780738211589
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224