Sharpen your crayons: Kindergarten teacher turned comic Joe Dombrowski returns to the Comedy Club

Perhaps you’ve seen him on TikTok. Stand-up comedian Joe Dombrowski, who went viral in 2017 for an April Fools’ Day joke with his elementary students, is returning to the Spokane Comedy Club for another round of laughs.

The Seattle resident will be making another appearance in the Lilac City on Friday and Saturday with two shows each night.

The Detroit native spent 10 years as a kindergarten teacher, an experience that has given the comic material to work with. According to Dombrowski’s website, his acts “often highlights his outrageous family dynamics and of course his time as an elementary school teacher.”

Dowbrowski told The Spokesman-Review in 2023 that “Boy Meets World” character Mr. Feeny is a good example for how he ran his classroom.

“Just like Mr. Feeny, the students could have fun but I ran a tight ship,” he said.

On being a teacher, a profession from which he’s since retired, the then-33-year-old said “each day is very different” and he “loved it.”

After his TikTok went viral, Dombrowski made multiple appearances on “Ellen,” hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres. He has also headlined the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal and the New York comedy festival.

When he’s not traveling, Dombrowski is producing his podcast, “Social Studies,” in which he and fellow comedian and high school teacher Gaspare Randazzo discuss life in and outside the classroom.