David Kirk Traylor, best known by his stage names David Zed and Mr. Zed, is an American

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Messa ...

, actor and singer, and comedian mainly active in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. His mime work involves portraying "Mr. Zed", a fictional human-like robot.

Career

Born in Indianapolis, David Traylor found success in the late 1970s performing "Zed", a humanoid robot. His performance of Mr. Zed included mime work, such as shuffling his feet, moving his forearms rhythmically, and mechanically rotating his head. In 1980, he performed as a singer at the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

with the song "R.O.B.O.T.", which became a major hit. In the mid-1990s, he was the author and host of the television show ''Mr. Zed Show'', which was broadcast throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Northern Europe through the Orbit Satellite television network. The Mister Zed Show was the first program of its kind to be shot entirely on digital video. The series featured a revised version of his Mister Zed character as a comedic figure, portrayed as the first-ever robotic stand-up comedian; in this context, he made numerous appearances on US and Canadian television programs and comedy festivals. He has also starred in a number of films and television series. As "Mister Zed", he competed in 2019 in the American reality television comedy competition series '' Bring the Funny'', making it to the first round (the "Open Mic"). He returned as a special guest in the season finale and appeared on the '' Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon'' to promote the show.

Discography

Singles

* 1980 - "I'm a Robot/I'm a Robot (Instrumental Version)" (Banana Records, 7") * 1980 - "R.O.B.O.T. (erreobioti)/R.O.B.O.T. (Versione Strumentale)" (EMI, 7") * 1980 - "Balla robot/Balla Robot (Versione Strumentale)" (Banana Records, 7") * 1983 - "Ballarobot/I am a Robot" (Banana Records, 7") * 1986 - "Witch Doctor/U-I-U-A-A" (G & G Records, 7", 12")

References

External links

Official site
*
David Zed
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

*https://variety.com/1992/tv/reviews/all-star-fiesta-at-ford-s-1200430356/
http://thecomicscomic.com/2010/06/23/mr-zed-robot-comedian-of-the-future-
nowiki
since-before-y2k-watch-him-on-regis-and-kathie-lee-in-1993/
*https://chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-06-16-9202230331-story..html *https://jeffbots.com/zed.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Zed, David Living people American male singers American male film actors American mimes Male actors from Indianapolis American Italo disco musicians Year of birth missing (living people) Bring the Funny contestants