By MICHAEL AUSHENKER Staff Writer How does one write an upbeat book about living with cancer? You can ask Alan Eisenstock, co-author of ‘Cancer on $5 a Day (Chemo Not Included),’ when he visits Village Books on Swathmore next Wednesday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m. The book’s subject, comedian/cancer survivor Robert Schimmel, is also scheduled to appear. ‘I met Robert in 2000,’ Eisenstock recalls. ‘I had an assignment from Emmy magazine and I did a profile of him. He was this 50-year-old comedian who was under the radar, but was just about to burst. He had a commitment from Fox for a sitcom. He was really hot. And then he disappeared.’ Eisenstock, a Palisades resident and veteran writer, remembered the raw comedian when it was time to write another book a couple of years ago. ‘We had hit it off on the phone and we had a lot in common,’ Eisenstock says. ‘He’s the comedian’s comedian. I’ve never seen anyone who comes close to him in person, with the exception of Richard Pryor and possibly Chris Rock.’ So the writer’s agent contacted Schimmel, and learned why Schimmel had abruptly vanished from the entertainment scene: he was battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. ‘Originally, we were going to do a straight memoir,’ Eisenstock says, ‘but there was an editor at Da Capo Press who said that we should focus on cancer. Robert’s had a lot of trauma in his life. His parents are Holocaust survivors, he’s had a son who died of cancer at 11, and he had a heart attack. ‘First and foremost, I commit to staying alive,’ starts one passage in Schimmel’s voice. ‘Which is not easy with cancer-killing poison through my body, my face eternally hovering an inch above the toilet bowl, and my body feeling either as cold as Antarctica or as hot as the surface of the sun. Not to mention the overall pain. Just picture yourself stepping out into the street and being hit by a car. Wham. And by a Hummer, not by a Mini Cooper.’ Another section reads, ‘I open the pamphlet and begin reading: ‘Treatments for cancer can cause discomfort, fatigue, and intense pain.’ Hey, is this about cancer or divorce?” ‘Cancer’ is certainly not a book for the squeamish, not is it a typical surviving-cancer manual. ‘It’s very raw, it’s graphic regarding the depiction of the disease,’ Eisenstock admits, ‘but he’s a courageous guy and the way he approaches the topic is unique.’ Now seven years in remission, Schimmel has made a career rebound, appearing on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ two weeks ago. And Eisenstock is glad to see his friend back on the talk-show circuit. ‘He is just so funny. He works very blue, but he kills you.’ Eisenstock has written seven books, from sports-related to ‘as told to’ books, but he is particularly proud of his latest. ‘It’s a different kind of cancer book. It’s really funny and it’s really inspirational. A customer who read the book, who is also a writer and has non-Hodgkin’s cancer herself, wrote me to say it’s the best book on cancer that she’s ever read.’ Eisenstock’s career began with a bang writing on sitcoms. He worked as a staff writer on the last season of ‘Sanford & Son’ in 1977, then moved on to write on ‘Mork & Mindy,’ ‘What’s Happening?’ and ‘Family Matters.’ Nine years ago, Eisenstock moved to the Palisades with his wife, Bobbie. ‘We were living in Santa Monica,’ he explains. ‘I had come to this life decision. We thought we would move back to New England. The Palisades to me was the closest thing to New England I could find.’ The Eisenstocks have two children: Jonah, a sophomore at Cornell University, and Kiva, a senior at Harvard-Westlake. ‘I love the idea that the Palisades has this little village,’ Eisenstock says. ‘It’s a great place to live
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