His parents had him and his sister at a tender age of 17 and 18 years old. His father is no stranger to the entertainment business, he is a professional drummer who played and continues to play with many known artists and bands such as Willy BoBo, Tierra, The Tokens, Red Bone, Cannibal and the Headhunter, and many others.

Robert gives his sister all the credit for learning how to defend himself. He claims she was a bully big sister and she was not very nice. “She was the judge, the jury and the prosecutor.” “Now I am a 19th degree black belt in siskickbutt style of martial arts…due to her.” Robert was introduced to independence at a very young age. He remembers walking to school all by him in the 1st grade. He was determined to do whatever he enjoyed.

After attending High School in Montebello, where he was raised, Robert decided to pursue a career in Architecture at Woodbury University, where he attended for a period of 3 years. He felt something was missing and was not sure if this is what he wanted to pursue. Taking his friends advice to go into comedy, he decided to change majors and transferred to Cal State L.A., where he studied Theatre Arts and wrote and starred in his one-man show. “I then knew this was my calling…it gave me all the confidence in the world.” He quickly noticed that the audience took to his humor and he began working right away.

He started his career at The HAHA Comedy Club located in North Hollywood, California and performed with Joey Medina, Paul Rodriguez, Jon Lovitz, and Arie Spears at The Laugh Factory and Alex Reymundo at The Improv. He is now a paid regular at the world famous Laugh Factory, Improvs all around the country. He also performs at the Comedy Store on Sunset and The Ice House. Not only does he perform at all the major comedy clubs around Los Angeles but also at 4th and B’s in San Diego and the USO tour in Okinawa Japan on camp foster.

He has also been featured on SiTV’s Inside Joke, The Latino Laugh Festival, LATV’s Loco Comedy Jam and The Laugh Factory Website. You can see him in the movie, “Primos”, on Netflix. Recently he has been accepted into the groundlings improvisation school in Hollywood.

Influenced by Eddie Murphy, Paul Rodriguez, Sam Kinison, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfield and others

Robert’s zany personality and quirky material comes from observing the absurdities of everyday life. His unique style is very physical. His facial expressions always get the crowd. “Not only do I tell jokes, I can dance, sculpt, I can sing…in the right setting (the underground tunnel in downtown).” His sense of timing is what people have reinforced towards him. “I get this great gratification from experiencing people around me in a good mood…even on a cloudy day.”

Robert’s ultimate goal in the business is to produce great material for the masses. He would like to use stand up comedy as a tool to one day break into Hollywood as an Actor and eventually become a successful director/producer. “I am working towards longevity in this business.”

www.robertzapata.com

www.myspace.com/robertzapata