Background
Schimmel was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Betty and Otto Schimmel, Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.
Schimmel was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Betty and Otto Schimmel, Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.
He was best known for his comedy albums and his frequent appearances on Home Box Office and The Howard Stern Show. Schimmel is number 76 on the 2004 program Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups Of All Time. He was voted class clown during high school and was in the United States Air Force for one year during the Vietnam War.
A club owner in Los Angeles offered to make him a regular, but when Schimmel moved there he found that the club had burned down.
Undaunted, and with some help from Rodney Dangerfield, who invited him to perform on his Home Box Office Young Comedians Special, Schimmel began making a name for himself. He wrote material for In Living Color and for comedians such as Yakov Smirnoff and Jimmie Walker.
Their son Derek died from cancer at the age of 11. Schimmel cited Lenny Bruce as his all-time comedy hero.
In one signature bit, Schimmel joked about making obscene suggestions to a lady from the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
His act was described as raunchy and sexually explicit, which he claimed as the reason he never appeared on network television He said his inappropriate comments on Late Night with Conan O"Brien and The Hollywood Squares caused him to be removed, though he later returned to O"Brien"s show. However, his edgy style made him a hit on The Howard Stern Show.
On August 26, 2010, Schimmel was a passenger in a car driven by his 19-year-old daughter, Aliyah, in Scottsdale.
The car flipped onto its side and came to a stop in the shoulder of the Loop 101 freeway. Schimmel was hospitalized in serious condition, while Aliyah was hospitalized in stable condition.
Schimmel"s son Jacob, also in the car at the time, was not injured. On September 3, 2010, Schimmel died of his injuries.
He is interred at the Paradise Memorial Gardens in Scottsdale, Arizona.