Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Angel at the Fence -- The Comedy of Robert Schimmel

There's nothing as fun as watching a great comedian. And I love talking about comedy.

I've been arguing with my girlfriend about Chris Rock. She thinks he's great. I think he's okay, but overrated. For some reason, black comedians can get away with having this manic energy, but when you break down their material, there often isn't a lot there.

Yes, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor are two of the best ever. And, I'm not talking about the big name African-American guys. But the no-namers, who just get on stage with all this energy and very little material.

I found it funny that D.L. Hughley recently said that black comedians are funnier than white comedians. I hate statements like that. Or, idiots like Jerry Lewis, who said there have never been funny women in comedy Because we've all seen funny female comedians, and funny comedians of all races.

There's a great comedian named Robert Schimmel, who has been making the rounds of the talk shows lately.

I first saw him on HBO years ago. His show is a little to X-rated for me to repeat any jokes. There's a great one that KGBs morning show replays, about him teaching his daughter how to drive, and how she makes a wrong turn and crashes into a building. As he's yelling she says, "Okay, geeeez...you don't have to give me my allowance this week." He replies, "Allowance!!! You're going to $%&@ the car repair guy to fix this."

Anyway, I've been thinking about Schimmel because of the 79-year-old Holocaust survivor that had appeared on Oprah a couple times, and wrote the book "Angel at the Fence." His story was that he was in a concentration camp, and every day a girl on the outside would appear and throw an apple over the fence to him. Years later on a blind date in the U.S. they meet and have been married all this time.

It turns out the story was a lie. And, just like that Frey guy, who wrote about his drug addiction and was endorsed by Oprah, she is getting knocked for this.

And I really don't think that's fair. She didn't do anything wrong by assuming his story was true.

But, this reminds me of Schimmel because he told a story on Howard Stern a few different times, about his parents (both Holocaust survivors). Long after his father passed away, he flew his mom to one of the concentration camps she had been in. They end up seeing the town she grew up in, and they go to a cafe she liked. She confesses that she loved a man before his father, and they met there every Tuesday for coffee.

They walk into the cafe and it's packed. She sees the back of a mans head, with white hair, and screams that it's him. Schimmel tries to calm his mom down, thinking that she's gone bonkers.

It turns out it is the guy, and he's single. They reunite and marry.

Steven Spielberg hears this story, and buys the rights.

So, Robert Schimmel explains that he has two or three screenplays he's been shopping. He used to write for In Living Color and a few other comedians. And now it's his mom that has a development deal with Spielberg. He jokes that his mom says, "Well honey, I can talk to Steven. Maybe he'll hire you on as a consultant or something."

When Schimmel was on Dennis Miller's radio show the other day, he talked about meeting Steve Martin while he was working at a stereo place. He had to go to his house to install the system and he mentioned that he was a comedian also. Martin said, "Yeah, really. That's why you're installing my stereo." Now, Martin has written the liner notes for his latest CD (they both have the same manager).

Miller told a story about how a comedy club hired Schimmel as a regular after seeing him there on an open mic night with his sister. When he flew out to start his job as a real comedian, the club burned down.

It wouldn't be the weirdest event in his life. He had an 11-year-old son die of cancer.

He got divorced and married one of his daughters friends.

And he's been kicked off a number of shows for saying inappropriate things (Hollywood Squares and Conan O'Brien, even though I saw he was on the other night).

Schimmel went thru his own series of medical problems that almost killed him.

I would think with all that, and his sense of humor, publishers would be jumping at him. Instead, they just wait for the fake stories that are more heartwarming I guess.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob

There's nothing as fun as watching a great comedian. And I love talking about comedy.

I've been arguing with my girlfriend about Chris Rock. She thinks he's great. I think he's okay, but overrated. For some reason, black comedians can get away with having this manic energy, but when you break down their material, there often isn't a lot there.

Yes, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor are two of the best ever. And, I'm not talking about the big name African-American guys. But the no-namers, who just get on stage with all this energy and very little material.

I found it funny that D.L. Hughley recently said that black comedians are funnier than white comedians. I hate statements like that. Or, idiots like Jerry Lewis, who said there have never been funny women in comedy Because we've all seen funny female comedians, and funny comedians of all races.

There's a great comedian named Robert Schimmel, who has been making the rounds of the talk shows lately.

I first saw him on HBO years ago. His show is a little to X-rated for me to repeat any jokes. There's a great one that KGBs morning show replays, about him teaching his daughter how to drive, and how she makes a wrong turn and crashes into a building. As he's yelling she says, "Okay, geeeez...you don't have to give me my allowance this week." He replies, "Allowance!!! You're going to $%&@ the car repair guy to fix this."

Anyway, I've been thinking about Schimmel because of the 79-year-old Holocaust survivor that had appeared on Oprah a couple times, and wrote the book "Angel at the Fence." His story was that he was in a concentration camp, and every day a girl on the outside would appear and throw an apple over the fence to him. Years later on a blind date in the U.S. they meet and have been married all this time.

It turns out the story was a lie. And, just like that Frey guy, who wrote about his drug addiction and was endorsed by Oprah, she is getting knocked for this.

And I really don't think that's fair. She didn't do anything wrong by assuming his story was true.

But, this reminds me of Schimmel because he told a story on Howard Stern a few different times, about his parents (both Holocaust survivors). Long after his father passed away, he flew his mom to one of the concentration camps she had been in. They end up seeing the town she grew up in, and they go to a cafe she liked. She confesses that she loved a man before his father, and they met there every Tuesday for coffee.

They walk into the cafe and it's packed. She sees the back of a mans head, with white hair, and screams that it's him. Schimmel tries to calm his mom down, thinking that she's gone bonkers.

It turns out it is the guy, and he's single. They reunite and marry.

Steven Spielberg hears this story, and buys the rights.

So, Robert Schimmel explains that he has two or three screenplays he's been shopping. He used to write for In Living Color and a few other comedians. And now it's his mom that has a development deal with Spielberg. He jokes that his mom says, "Well honey, I can talk to Steven. Maybe he'll hire you on as a consultant or something."

When Schimmel was on Dennis Miller's radio show the other day, he talked about meeting Steve Martin while he was working at a stereo place. He had to go to his house to install the system and he mentioned that he was a comedian also. Martin said, "Yeah, really. That's why you're installing my stereo." Now, Martin has written the liner notes for his latest CD (they both have the same manager).

Miller told a story about how a comedy club hired Schimmel as a regular after seeing him there on an open mic night with his sister. When he flew out to start his job as a real comedian, the club burned down.

It wouldn't be the weirdest event in his life. He had an 11-year-old son die of cancer.

He got divorced and married one of his daughters friends.

And he's been kicked off a number of shows for saying inappropriate things (Hollywood Squares and Conan O'Brien, even though I saw he was on the other night).

Schimmel went thru his own series of medical problems that almost killed him.

I would think with all that, and his sense of humor, publishers would be jumping at him. Instead, they just wait for the fake stories that are more heartwarming I guess.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.