These days, you don't have to be as quick to find Robert Schimmel. He was just voted Best Male Stand-up at the 13th Annual Comedy Awards. A recent performance at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival impressed HBO executives enough to get Schimmel a one-hour special; Warner Brothers just picked up his option for a third CD. And when he comes to Boston to perform at the Comedy Connection this weekend, he'll be meeting with executives to discuss a movie loosely based on his career as a stand-up.

Part of the buzz around Schimmel comes from his frank talk about off color subjects, most notably sex. In a time when every comedian has a joke about Monica's dusty knees, the subject matter itself isn't shocking. But Schimmel often takes his subjects out of the abstract and personalizes them.

"I'm just very honest onstage, and I think that's what throws people. You know, 'He's not really supposed to be talking about that.' Well why?" According to Schimmel, he doesn't do anything people could come over to him after a show and take issue with. "I do what I think is funny… I think a lot of the stuff is tamer than what people think."

One routine on his new CD, "If You Buy This CD, I Can Get This Car," concerns a talk with his daughter about losing her virginity. She admits to him that her boyfriend Steve is curious about "going all the way," whereupon Schimmel, in order to spare his daughter, offers to step in and show Steve what it's like. "Was it what you expected, Steve?" Schimmel says. "Stop crying." Just a father protecting his little girl.

So far, his family hasn't objected to any of his material. And Steve doesn't mind, either. "The first time he saw me do it, he came over after and he said, 'Man, I can't believe I'm in your act. That's so cool. I can't wait to tell my friends.'"

There are some topics even Schimmel considers off limits. "I don't make fun of cancer and AIDS, child pornography and kidnapping - stuff like that. I'm not malicious at all onstage."

Indeed, six years ago when one of his sons was fighting a losing battle with cancer, Schimmel saw a comedian in Las Vegas. "He was doing this whole routine about people with cancer, and some people were laughing and some people weren't… Instead of me laughing and forgetting about everything, all of a sudden, it brought that reality to my mind. And I felt really bad. I decided at that moment that I never wanted to do that to anybody."