Robert Schimmel had always been known for his frank observations and take-no-prisoners attitude in his comedy.

He approached cancer the same way.

Schimmel, now 59, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000, shortly after the pilot for his TV sitcom had been picked up as a series.

Eight years after his treatments were completed, he's giving humor and hope to people with the disease. He is a regular speaker at wellness communities and hospitals, and released a book, "Cancer on Five Dollars a Day (Chemo not included): How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life," last year.

"I'm not saying cancer's a funny thing," said Schimmel, who performs this weekend at Penguin's Comedy Club in Davenport. "But you've got a couple of choices - you can book passage on the woe-is-me train ... or find humor in it."

Schimmel found humor in the wig salesman who didn't respond to his request to lease a hairpiece with an option to buy, and from the offer of medicinal marijuana.

Humor took the pressure off the tense situations, he said.

Schimmel said the public doesn't realize how many cancer success stories are out there, since attention is usually focused on celebrities who have been diagnosed.

"More people make it than the public believes," he said. "If you've fought that fight and you've won, the only people who know it are your friends and family. There are people like that who quietly make it."

Schimmel said he had only a day from his diagnosis to his first chemo treatment, and didn't have time for a bad attitude.

That's not the case with others who have cancer, he said.

"If you get to wake up today and do the (stuff) you wanted to do today and you go to bed tonight and didn't die, it would be sad to sit in a chair thinking, ‘What happens if it comes back?'" he said.

Although his agent and manager advised he not talk about cancer in his standup act, it does take up about 12 minutes of the show.

"I didn't want to send a message to my audience that cancer changed who I was," he said. "I didn't want to hear ‘Remember when Schimmel was funny before he got sick?' I know people who have had it and won't talk about it. They say, ‘That's not me anymore.' "

Schimmel, who was named as No. 76 in Comedy Central's Top 100 Standup Comedians a few years ago, is readying a one-man show about his experiences that he will play for 10 nights at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. "It's going to be more serious stuff, too," he said. "The funny parts aren't going to be standup."

"My manager didn't like ‘Night of the Living Dead' " as a title, Schimmel said. "I thought it was funny."

IF YOU GO

Who: Robert Schimmel, with Dwayne Clark

When: 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 10-11

Where: Penguin's Comedy Club, inside the Freight House Complex, 421 W. River Drive, Davenport

How much: $17.50 advance, $19.50 at the door

Information: (563) 324-5233 or QCFreightHouse.com on the Web

Also on the Web: Robert Schimmel.com