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Joe Dombrowski did not plan to be a full-time comedian.
He was an elementary school teacher for 10 years, and during those ten years, he did standup as a side job, “to put a little gas in my car or pay for my lunch, just make a little supplemental income.”
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“Because, as we know, teachers are wildly underpaid in this cunch,” he says, quickly following up with, “That’s gay for ‘country.'”
But his comedy and his classroom weren’t entirely separate: once, he pranked his students with a fake spelling test, and recorded their reactions. He’d been posting comedy videos on Facebook for a while, so tossed this one up there too.
The next thing he knew, he was viral. He woke up to 20 million views, and those views got him an invite to feature in not one, but two episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Being on the show “really changed my life, because after that I was able to use some leverage to take my hour of standup, which I had already written, and tour it around the country,” he says. “That led to me getting picked up by my managers and agents, which then led me to global tours all over the world.”
That was 2019, and for the first time, Dombrowski realized comedy could become his career. Then COVID happened, and he lost all his upcoming tour dates. He ended up finding a position teaching kindergarten, something he’d always wanted to do, and since he couldn’t do standup with basically every venue closed by the pandemic, he launched a podcast, Social Studies, where he shared funny stories about his students.
When venues reopened, he was able to go straight back to touring–and using recordings of his shows to build his social following across TikTok (1.4 million followers), Instagram (one million), and YouTube (93K). Thanks to that following, he was recently able to film his first full-length comedy special, Don’t Eat the Crayons.
We’ll let him tell you all about it below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Hello there! Excited to chat. I know you have a new comedy special out.
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you. I‘m very excited about it.
Tubefilter: I know it came out November 5, right?
Joe Dombrowski: It did come out on the 5, yes.
Tubefilter: Okay, great. Let’s get some background about you first. I’d love to start with, imagine somebody is reading this and they don’t know anything about you. Tell me about you, where you’re from, and how you got into comedy.
Joe Dombrowski: Since they’re reading only, the first thing they need to know is I’m gorgeous. [laughs] It’s kind of crazy. I was an elementary school teacher for 10 years, and while I was teaching is when my comedy blew up, but a lot of people don’t know that I’ve actually been doing comedy and standup even longer than that because as we know, teachers are wildly underpaid in this cunch. (That’s gay for country.) I was doing comedy because I loved it, but also to put a little gas in my car or pay for my lunch, just make a little supplemental income, and then it blew up. It blew up in a very, very big way.
I put a video of me doing a viral prank spelling test to my students out on the internet, woke up with 20 million views, and landed two appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, which really changed my life because after that I was able to use some leverage to take my hour of standup, which I had already written, and tour it around the country. That led to me getting picked up by my managers and agents, which then led me to global tours all over the world, and now my special, Don’t Eat the Crayons, which is very surreal to watch that because first time I ever did standup, I was in third grade, and it was my third grade talent show. Now I’m doing it professionally and thriving, honey.
Tubefilter: How did it go at your third grade talent show?
Joe Dombrowski: You know, I wouldn’t actually say that I was professional. I think that I broke a big rule of comedy and I stole all of my jokes from a magician that I had seen the week prior. Didn’t quite have the ethics of the craft down yet, but honey, I slayed.
Tubefilter: That’s all that matters.
Joe Dombrowski: Not my finest work. We’ll leave it at that.
Tubefilter: I think we can excuse you being a third grader. You get a pass.
Joe Dombrowski: Are we excused in this society anymore? Are they going to dig it up? Is there going to be an article about me? Is this a bait and switch that you have in right now, James?
Tubefilter: This is me recording you as you’re problematic. I’m going to write your call-out posts.
Joe Dombrowski: Go for it!
Tubefilter: I mean it! It’s going to happen!
Joe Dombrowski: You mess with the bull, you get the horns! That’s the funniest thing about my fans though too. Mariah Carey has lambs, Nicki Minaj has barbz, I have wolves. My fans are ruthless. If anyone crosses me on the internet, I don’t even say anything. I have to tell them to calm down.
Tubefilter: Wow, just openly threatening me?
Joe Dombrowski: No, no, no I’m not. I’m not. I’m not threatening you.
Tubefilter: But your fans will.
Joe Dombrowski: I’m just telling you to tiptoe. [laughs]
Tubefilter: Gotta watch my back. So you were a star at third-grade comedy. What was the catalyst for you posting on the internet in the first place?
Joe Dombrowski: The way the world was changing in comedy. It was the early 2010s. Things were starting to evolve in the way that comedy took off on the internet. I was starting to use it to pivot, to have people come to my shows that I was doing in the Detroit area. I’m originally from Detroit. I was realizing the more that I was doing, the more that it was going, but I was still a teacher.
I was really, really tiptoeing along what I would allow myself to post and what I would save, but I noticed things in my classroom were really hitting, and then people were finding me, and they were liking what they saw, then they’d find out when I would just do a subtle post of I’m performing here. The change of the world was what did that.
Tubefilter: What was your original platform, Instagram, YouTube?
Joe Dombrowski: Facebook, believe it or not.
Tubefilter: Facebook, really?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes, the video blew up on Facebook before anything else, and I posted it. All the rules were out the window. I posted it. There was no editing. It was raw. It was shot on my iPhone, so terrible footage. I posted it at nine o’clock in the morning, Eastern, horrible time to post, and still broke through. I think that really was important, a pivotal moment in my career growth also because it taught me to not be precious with the content.
The comedy will speak for itself, if it’s good, it will shine through. Rather than saving a piece until it’s perfectly beautifully edited, and I have the right time, and the right audience, and it’s around the right holiday, if it’s good, it’s going to push through. I am so glad that I learned that so early on.
Tubefilter: How have things progressed for you in terms of career?
Joe Dombrowski: Oh, immensely. I left teaching, which sometimes I get a little heat for, but ultimately, I think I’m doing the right thing–because as a teacher, you have a target on your back, and you can’t say shit or you’ll lose your job. You can’t say it like it is. Now I can go on stages all over the country and the world and really talk about the hardships that is the American education system, and the things that do need to be changed about it. Comedy is just my vessel. I’m using comedy as my vessel for change for that.
I’m also able to talk about my life, my upcoming marriage, and the journeys that we’re on, and everything along that. It’s been cool. I think one of the biggest things is as a teacher, on that teacher budget, I was never really able to travel. It wasn’t in my scope of possibilities. Now, being a full-time comic, it’s amazing to see all these different corners of the world and what everything has to offer. I’m loving it.
Tubefilter: When did you leave teaching?
Joe Dombrowski: It was an interesting progression. I originally left in 2019 to go on my first international tour. I was doing a tour of the US, Canada, and Australia. Then February 2020 hit and I lost all of my tour dates and we didn’t know what was going to happen. I was desperately trying to double down on content, which was only going so far. I made the active choice to go back in the pandemic and teach kindergarten, a kindergarten position, because older teachers were leaving the classroom at an astronomical rate, and I still had my teaching credentials, and my degree, and my certificate. I saw that position open and I had always wanted to teach kindergarten. I was like, “I got time on my hands. I think I can serve right now.” I interviewed and I got the position and it was honestly the best year of teaching in my entire career. It was great.
Tubefilter: What made it so good?
Joe Dombrowski: Like I said, I had always wanted to teach kindergarten. I knew I was made for that. Kindergarten is a beautifully chaotic mess. You never know what’s going to happen. The name of the game is not education. It’s edutainment. You are literally putting on your own PBS show to these kids every single day. Every minute of every day is different. My ADHD thrives in that environment for the best. I think it was really a time where I was able to use my neurodivergence to thrive, which was super helpful and really creative.
The kids are just funny, and they’re curious, and they’re sweet. They’re sassy. Every day is just a different journey. It was great. My podcast spiked during that time because I would just go and tell these crazy stories of what was happening with the kindergartners in the classroom. After the pandemic was over, I was able to leave and go back on tour. Yes, it was a great little chunk of time.
Tubefilter: Then you were able to leave, and now you’re back to full-time comedy?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes.
Tubefilter: Then tell me how your special came about. What was the opportunity there?
Joe Dombrowski: Every comedian comes to the point where you ride your material into the ground until it’s dead. I was riding all of this material from when I taught kindergarten specifically, and a few other grades before. I was like, “This is a special. I’ve done it enough. I’m getting tired of the content. People are still responding to it really well. I’ve ridden this wave, and I think it’s time to put it out there,” so I condensed all of my teaching material into one 30-minute special, and filmed it in LA, put it out there.
It was shot beautifully by Don’t Tell Comedy. I’m super proud of the work that we did together. It’s been very, very, very well-received. Some of the best comments I’m getting are people who had no idea who I was, and they’re just stumbling across the special and loving it and wanting more. I’m very proud of it. It’s a labor of love. I think it’s just the first taste of me that people will be getting.
Tubefilter: What are your future plans?
Joe Dombrowski: I’m currently working on another special that has a little bit of teaching material, but it has a bigger theme that I’m keeping to myself for right now.
Tubefilter: I suppose that’s allowed.
Joe Dombrowski: [laughs] I’d say I’m about 75% finished writing this new hour that I’m currently touring with. Probably in about another year, I’ll have it perfected to film again. I’m hoping to see my career progress even further. Maybe it’ll be on a different streaming platform. However, YouTube’s been wonderful to me. I think it was the best place for my first special to go. I think that it’s great that it’s independently produced.
I think it’s wonderful that it’s free for my fans and other audience members. I think the algorithm’s working in my favor to push my content to new fans, which would probably not be the case if it was living on a major streamer. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to cultivate new fans and to use social media, which is how I got my first big pop to my advantage to continue to grow my career as an artist.
Tubefilter: Do you see YouTube being a major factor moving forward?
Joe Dombrowski: Major, major factor, major factor. I will say my biggest fear with YouTube, I wasn’t keen on doing it at first. I didn’t really like the fact that I was putting it on YouTube because when you put your special on YouTube, you are making yourself subject to public commentary. If it was going on anywhere else, nobody would read the comments. Maybe there’d be a couple of reviews here or there and that would be it, but I knew if it was going on YouTube, I was going to have to be the victim to the comments. I am blown away at how genuinely positive they are. I wasn’t going to read them. Then my managers were like, “No, they’re like really good.”
The special’s been out since the fifth and there’s maybe like four not nice ones. They’re not even harsh.
Tubefilter: That’s amazing.
Joe Dombrowski: They’re not even harsh! They’re just like, “I don’t like this.” I’m like, “You don’t have to. I’m not for everyone. I was never trying to be.” You get your occasional, I’m sorry, you get your occasional groomer. On YouTube, as a gay comic, as a gay artist, period, you get a lot of anti-LGBTQ. Call it like it is, hate speech, in your comments, and that was my biggest concern. I think I was just speaking from a point of truth. I was speaking from my experience. I was speaking from who I innately am from my core. I wasn’t putting on a persona of someone else. I was being me.
I think at the end of the day that really showed. I think that’s why it’s being so well received. I’m very proud of the work. I’m happy about the comments that are happening. If you’re reading this, go ahead and leave another one.
Tubefilter: I’m really curious about this, the writing process for a special seems like it takes a decent amount of time?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes, it all depends on the artist too. Some comics will pump a special out every year, some sooner. Some people will double down on crowd work and record a lot of that and turn that into a special which is great. I like the written material. My process is to write, write, write, get it good and take it out to the clubs and tighten it up, tighten it up, tighten it up in the clubs. Once my hour is tight enough to take to theaters, I’ll take it out into theaters, and we’ll perform it there.
My personal philosophy is I’m not taking a piece of work that’s not theater ready into theaters. I don’t want to be working out material in theaters, I want to be fine tuning in theaters. Then once you do that, I’m ready to film. For me, it’ll only be a year, a year and a half until something’s even ready to start talk about being filmed. That’s my process. It unique to the artist really.
Tubefilter: Then for your various social media channels, how do you handle posting material? How do you cut up crowd work?
Joe Dombrowski: Again, like I said before, I’m not too precious about it. If I did something onstage that I think is going to hit, I don’t care. I’ll clip it out and put it up. Whether it’s crowd work, or it’s material, I’ll put it up. One of the great things about putting my special on YouTube also is that I’m the 100% sole owner of the special so I can put whatever I want out there. No one bought it to tell me what I can and cannot do.
I’m still clipping the special up and using that on other socials. I’m almost at 1 million on Instagram, and people are still finding it and being like, “Oh, I didn’t know you had a special,” and going straight to YouTube to watch it because of the clips that I’m putting out there from it, which is beyond amazing. On top of that too, I still like to be myself. I like to have fun on social media. I think social media can bring people down a lot because of some of the things that on there, and I like my page to be an outlet and escape from reality.
Every once in a while, I’ll just turn on my front facing camera and record some bullshit of me being myself and having a good time, then I’ll post that, and it’ll get super well received too. One of the things that I do too, is I do, my fans will send me writing examples of little kids writing, and I’ll read verbatim, as it’s written, not what they meant to say. Those videos do so well. I’m not going to do anything if I’m not having fun with it. I’m really enjoying doing those too. Why not? Don’t take it so seriously, right?
Tubefilter: Yes, very cool.
Joe Dombrowski: I’m just a very cool guy.
Tubefilter: [mock dubiously] Uh-huh.
Joe Dombrowski: [laughs]
Tubefilter: It’s still really wild to me that you originally started on Facebook, and now you’re on Instagram, which I’ve found are two of the most difficult platforms for creators like people to consistently maintain an audience and grow an audience across. It’s interesting that Instagram is working so well for you.
Joe Dombrowski: I have the quite opposite problem of most of my friends. When I say my friends, I mean my comedy friends. A lot of my friends in the industry are desperately trying to grow their Instagram presence, but have astronomical numbers on YouTube. I am the exact opposite. YouTube is one of my smaller platforms, and I am just thriving on Instagram, and TikTok, and Facebook. The challenge that I have now is to use those platforms to convert people now over to my YouTube, that I’m trying to get going. We all have our challenges, and that’s mine. I’m down for the ride.
Tubefilter: That is an unusual problem. I know.
Joe Dombrowski: It really is. When I tell people, they’re like, “What? You have 1 million almost on Instagram, but you’re at 90,000 on YouTube.” I’m like, “Honey, just trust the process.”
Tubefilter: It’s a weird flip because usually you’re doing really well across every other platform, and maybe YouTube just needs to catch up with the times.
Joe Dombrowski: If I really have to break it down and think about it, I think that early on in my YouTube presence, YouTube recognized my page as a teacher page rather than a comedian page. I think the algorithm is still learning to push my content out in a comedy sense rather than an education sense because I’ll still get comments in my comedy videos that are like– I’ll make a joke about something teacher specific, and they’ll be like, “What about the FMLA and OSHA?”
All these teaching and life acronyms. It’s like, “Honey, I’m not over here doing professional development at a convention. This is a joke, Ms. Thing, but this got pushed out to you because that’s what you consume.” I think I’m not determined, I’m just going to push. I’m going to push and I’m going to make it. Honestly, you’re going to look back in five years and be like, “I interviewed him. Holy shit.” If I’m not saying it, who is?
Tubefilter: I believe you, 100% believe you.
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you. If I don’t believe me, who will? That’s the bottom line. Number one question that I always used to get when I was still teaching and doing comedy, people were like, “How are you doing it? How are you a full-time teacher and a full-time comic? I can’t even breathe. I can’t even go to the bathroom.” I was like, “Oh, because you’re telling yourself you can’t. If you tell yourself you can’t, you can’t, but if you tell yourself you can, you will find a way to do it.” I found a way, and I’m still finding a way, and I have huge goals, and I’m going to meet them because I’m not going to tell myself that I can’t. It’s really not a hard concept.
Tubefilter: To wrap up, aside from an upcoming marriage, which, congratulations–
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you!
Tubefilter: –any other cool plans or goals?
Joe Dombrowski: Oh, it’s so far down the pipe, but we are two family-oriented guys for sure. We definitely have a full family of children in our future. Who knows when that will happen? Right now, I think I just need to focus on being on tour and having a wedding and house renovations. We’ll be family-oriented guys. You’ll see a little bit of that in the special in the future for sure. Gay dad content.
Tubefilter: Gay dad content, that’s going to be a hit.
Joe Dombrowski: Honey, let me tell you what, I can see the future so clearly. I’m like, “What comedian is talking about being a gay dad? Oh, no one. It’s going to be me.” It’s over. Game over for you hoes.
Tubefilter: [laughs] Okay, last thing, tell everyone a little more about your special that’s out now.
Joe Dombrowski: The special is called Don’t Eat the Crayons, watch it on YouTube, and don’t just watch it. This is what you have to do. You have to watch it, you have to give it a thumbs up, you have to leave a nice comment because you’re going to help me teach the algorithm to get me where we need to be. Let me tell you what, Karma will come back and do a good thing for you because we’re going to do onto others like they would do on to you. If you were me, I would actually have the special on replay, on my TV, on my iPad, on my laptop, on my phone, but that’s just me, you don’t have to do that. If you don’t, you will go to hell. I don’t make the rules, but I digress, do what you want.
Tubefilter: That’s going to be the headline. If you don’t watch the special, you will go to hell.
Joe Dombrowski: Do it. I literally love that. That’s amazing.
Joe Dombrowski did not plan to be a full-time comedian.
He was an elementary school teacher for 10 years, and during those ten years, he did standup as a side job, “to put a little gas in my car or pay for my lunch, just make a little supplemental income.”
“Because, as we know, teachers are wildly underpaid in this cunch,” he says, quickly following up with, “That’s gay for ‘country.'”
But his comedy and his classroom weren’t entirely separate: once, he pranked his students with a fake spelling test, and recorded their reactions. He’d been posting comedy videos on Facebook for a while, so tossed this one up there too.
The next thing he knew, he was viral. He woke up to 20 million views, and those views got him an invite to feature in not one, but two episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Being on the show “really changed my life, because after that I was able to use some leverage to take my hour of standup, which I had already written, and tour it around the country,” he says. “That led to me getting picked up by my managers and agents, which then led me to global tours all over the world.”
That was 2019, and for the first time, Dombrowski realized comedy could become his career. Then COVID happened, and he lost all his upcoming tour dates. He ended up finding a position teaching kindergarten, something he’d always wanted to do, and since he couldn’t do standup with basically every venue closed by the pandemic, he launched a podcast, Social Studies, where he shared funny stories about his students.
When venues reopened, he was able to go straight back to touring–and using recordings of his shows to build his social following across TikTok (1.4 million followers), Instagram (one million), and YouTube (93K). Thanks to that following, he was recently able to film his first full-length comedy special, Don’t Eat the Crayons.
We’ll let him tell you all about it below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Hello there! Excited to chat. I know you have a new comedy special out.
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you. I‘m very excited about it.
Tubefilter: I know it came out November 5, right?
Joe Dombrowski: It did come out on the 5, yes.
Tubefilter: Okay, great. Let’s get some background about you first. I’d love to start with, imagine somebody is reading this and they don’t know anything about you. Tell me about you, where you’re from, and how you got into comedy.
Joe Dombrowski: Since they’re reading only, the first thing they need to know is I’m gorgeous. [laughs] It’s kind of crazy. I was an elementary school teacher for 10 years, and while I was teaching is when my comedy blew up, but a lot of people don’t know that I’ve actually been doing comedy and standup even longer than that because as we know, teachers are wildly underpaid in this cunch. (That’s gay for country.) I was doing comedy because I loved it, but also to put a little gas in my car or pay for my lunch, just make a little supplemental income, and then it blew up. It blew up in a very, very big way.
I put a video of me doing a viral prank spelling test to my students out on the internet, woke up with 20 million views, and landed two appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, which really changed my life because after that I was able to use some leverage to take my hour of standup, which I had already written, and tour it around the country. That led to me getting picked up by my managers and agents, which then led me to global tours all over the world, and now my special, Don’t Eat the Crayons, which is very surreal to watch that because first time I ever did standup, I was in third grade, and it was my third grade talent show. Now I’m doing it professionally and thriving, honey.
Tubefilter: How did it go at your third grade talent show?
Joe Dombrowski: You know, I wouldn’t actually say that I was professional. I think that I broke a big rule of comedy and I stole all of my jokes from a magician that I had seen the week prior. Didn’t quite have the ethics of the craft down yet, but honey, I slayed.
Tubefilter: That’s all that matters.
Joe Dombrowski: Not my finest work. We’ll leave it at that.
Tubefilter: I think we can excuse you being a third grader. You get a pass.
Joe Dombrowski: Are we excused in this society anymore? Are they going to dig it up? Is there going to be an article about me? Is this a bait and switch that you have in right now, James?
Tubefilter: This is me recording you as you’re problematic. I’m going to write your call-out posts.
Joe Dombrowski: Go for it!
Tubefilter: I mean it! It’s going to happen!
Joe Dombrowski: You mess with the bull, you get the horns! That’s the funniest thing about my fans though too. Mariah Carey has lambs, Nicki Minaj has barbz, I have wolves. My fans are ruthless. If anyone crosses me on the internet, I don’t even say anything. I have to tell them to calm down.
Tubefilter: Wow, just openly threatening me?
Joe Dombrowski: No, no, no I’m not. I’m not. I’m not threatening you.
Tubefilter: But your fans will.
Joe Dombrowski: I’m just telling you to tiptoe. [laughs]
Tubefilter: Gotta watch my back. So you were a star at third-grade comedy. What was the catalyst for you posting on the internet in the first place?
Joe Dombrowski: The way the world was changing in comedy. It was the early 2010s. Things were starting to evolve in the way that comedy took off on the internet. I was starting to use it to pivot, to have people come to my shows that I was doing in the Detroit area. I’m originally from Detroit. I was realizing the more that I was doing, the more that it was going, but I was still a teacher.
I was really, really tiptoeing along what I would allow myself to post and what I would save, but I noticed things in my classroom were really hitting, and then people were finding me, and they were liking what they saw, then they’d find out when I would just do a subtle post of I’m performing here. The change of the world was what did that.
Tubefilter: What was your original platform, Instagram, YouTube?
Joe Dombrowski: Facebook, believe it or not.
Tubefilter: Facebook, really?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes, the video blew up on Facebook before anything else, and I posted it. All the rules were out the window. I posted it. There was no editing. It was raw. It was shot on my iPhone, so terrible footage. I posted it at nine o’clock in the morning, Eastern, horrible time to post, and still broke through. I think that really was important, a pivotal moment in my career growth also because it taught me to not be precious with the content.
The comedy will speak for itself, if it’s good, it will shine through. Rather than saving a piece until it’s perfectly beautifully edited, and I have the right time, and the right audience, and it’s around the right holiday, if it’s good, it’s going to push through. I am so glad that I learned that so early on.
Tubefilter: How have things progressed for you in terms of career?
Joe Dombrowski: Oh, immensely. I left teaching, which sometimes I get a little heat for, but ultimately, I think I’m doing the right thing–because as a teacher, you have a target on your back, and you can’t say shit or you’ll lose your job. You can’t say it like it is. Now I can go on stages all over the country and the world and really talk about the hardships that is the American education system, and the things that do need to be changed about it. Comedy is just my vessel. I’m using comedy as my vessel for change for that.
I’m also able to talk about my life, my upcoming marriage, and the journeys that we’re on, and everything along that. It’s been cool. I think one of the biggest things is as a teacher, on that teacher budget, I was never really able to travel. It wasn’t in my scope of possibilities. Now, being a full-time comic, it’s amazing to see all these different corners of the world and what everything has to offer. I’m loving it.
Tubefilter: When did you leave teaching?
Joe Dombrowski: It was an interesting progression. I originally left in 2019 to go on my first international tour. I was doing a tour of the US, Canada, and Australia. Then February 2020 hit and I lost all of my tour dates and we didn’t know what was going to happen. I was desperately trying to double down on content, which was only going so far. I made the active choice to go back in the pandemic and teach kindergarten, a kindergarten position, because older teachers were leaving the classroom at an astronomical rate, and I still had my teaching credentials, and my degree, and my certificate. I saw that position open and I had always wanted to teach kindergarten. I was like, “I got time on my hands. I think I can serve right now.” I interviewed and I got the position and it was honestly the best year of teaching in my entire career. It was great.
Tubefilter: What made it so good?
Joe Dombrowski: Like I said, I had always wanted to teach kindergarten. I knew I was made for that. Kindergarten is a beautifully chaotic mess. You never know what’s going to happen. The name of the game is not education. It’s edutainment. You are literally putting on your own PBS show to these kids every single day. Every minute of every day is different. My ADHD thrives in that environment for the best. I think it was really a time where I was able to use my neurodivergence to thrive, which was super helpful and really creative.
The kids are just funny, and they’re curious, and they’re sweet. They’re sassy. Every day is just a different journey. It was great. My podcast spiked during that time because I would just go and tell these crazy stories of what was happening with the kindergartners in the classroom. After the pandemic was over, I was able to leave and go back on tour. Yes, it was a great little chunk of time.
Tubefilter: Then you were able to leave, and now you’re back to full-time comedy?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes.
Tubefilter: Then tell me how your special came about. What was the opportunity there?
Joe Dombrowski: Every comedian comes to the point where you ride your material into the ground until it’s dead. I was riding all of this material from when I taught kindergarten specifically, and a few other grades before. I was like, “This is a special. I’ve done it enough. I’m getting tired of the content. People are still responding to it really well. I’ve ridden this wave, and I think it’s time to put it out there,” so I condensed all of my teaching material into one 30-minute special, and filmed it in LA, put it out there.
It was shot beautifully by Don’t Tell Comedy. I’m super proud of the work that we did together. It’s been very, very, very well-received. Some of the best comments I’m getting are people who had no idea who I was, and they’re just stumbling across the special and loving it and wanting more. I’m very proud of it. It’s a labor of love. I think it’s just the first taste of me that people will be getting.
Tubefilter: What are your future plans?
Joe Dombrowski: I’m currently working on another special that has a little bit of teaching material, but it has a bigger theme that I’m keeping to myself for right now.
Tubefilter: I suppose that’s allowed.
Joe Dombrowski: [laughs] I’d say I’m about 75% finished writing this new hour that I’m currently touring with. Probably in about another year, I’ll have it perfected to film again. I’m hoping to see my career progress even further. Maybe it’ll be on a different streaming platform. However, YouTube’s been wonderful to me. I think it was the best place for my first special to go. I think that it’s great that it’s independently produced.
I think it’s wonderful that it’s free for my fans and other audience members. I think the algorithm’s working in my favor to push my content to new fans, which would probably not be the case if it was living on a major streamer. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to cultivate new fans and to use social media, which is how I got my first big pop to my advantage to continue to grow my career as an artist.
Tubefilter: Do you see YouTube being a major factor moving forward?
Joe Dombrowski: Major, major factor, major factor. I will say my biggest fear with YouTube, I wasn’t keen on doing it at first. I didn’t really like the fact that I was putting it on YouTube because when you put your special on YouTube, you are making yourself subject to public commentary. If it was going on anywhere else, nobody would read the comments. Maybe there’d be a couple of reviews here or there and that would be it, but I knew if it was going on YouTube, I was going to have to be the victim to the comments. I am blown away at how genuinely positive they are. I wasn’t going to read them. Then my managers were like, “No, they’re like really good.”
The special’s been out since the fifth and there’s maybe like four not nice ones. They’re not even harsh.
Tubefilter: That’s amazing.
Joe Dombrowski: They’re not even harsh! They’re just like, “I don’t like this.” I’m like, “You don’t have to. I’m not for everyone. I was never trying to be.” You get your occasional, I’m sorry, you get your occasional groomer. On YouTube, as a gay comic, as a gay artist, period, you get a lot of anti-LGBTQ. Call it like it is, hate speech, in your comments, and that was my biggest concern. I think I was just speaking from a point of truth. I was speaking from my experience. I was speaking from who I innately am from my core. I wasn’t putting on a persona of someone else. I was being me.
I think at the end of the day that really showed. I think that’s why it’s being so well received. I’m very proud of the work. I’m happy about the comments that are happening. If you’re reading this, go ahead and leave another one.
Tubefilter: I’m really curious about this, the writing process for a special seems like it takes a decent amount of time?
Joe Dombrowski: Yes, it all depends on the artist too. Some comics will pump a special out every year, some sooner. Some people will double down on crowd work and record a lot of that and turn that into a special which is great. I like the written material. My process is to write, write, write, get it good and take it out to the clubs and tighten it up, tighten it up, tighten it up in the clubs. Once my hour is tight enough to take to theaters, I’ll take it out into theaters, and we’ll perform it there.
My personal philosophy is I’m not taking a piece of work that’s not theater ready into theaters. I don’t want to be working out material in theaters, I want to be fine tuning in theaters. Then once you do that, I’m ready to film. For me, it’ll only be a year, a year and a half until something’s even ready to start talk about being filmed. That’s my process. It unique to the artist really.
Tubefilter: Then for your various social media channels, how do you handle posting material? How do you cut up crowd work?
Joe Dombrowski: Again, like I said before, I’m not too precious about it. If I did something onstage that I think is going to hit, I don’t care. I’ll clip it out and put it up. Whether it’s crowd work, or it’s material, I’ll put it up. One of the great things about putting my special on YouTube also is that I’m the 100% sole owner of the special so I can put whatever I want out there. No one bought it to tell me what I can and cannot do.
I’m still clipping the special up and using that on other socials. I’m almost at 1 million on Instagram, and people are still finding it and being like, “Oh, I didn’t know you had a special,” and going straight to YouTube to watch it because of the clips that I’m putting out there from it, which is beyond amazing. On top of that too, I still like to be myself. I like to have fun on social media. I think social media can bring people down a lot because of some of the things that on there, and I like my page to be an outlet and escape from reality.
Every once in a while, I’ll just turn on my front facing camera and record some bullshit of me being myself and having a good time, then I’ll post that, and it’ll get super well received too. One of the things that I do too, is I do, my fans will send me writing examples of little kids writing, and I’ll read verbatim, as it’s written, not what they meant to say. Those videos do so well. I’m not going to do anything if I’m not having fun with it. I’m really enjoying doing those too. Why not? Don’t take it so seriously, right?
Tubefilter: Yes, very cool.
Joe Dombrowski: I’m just a very cool guy.
Tubefilter: [mock dubiously] Uh-huh.
Joe Dombrowski: [laughs]
Tubefilter: It’s still really wild to me that you originally started on Facebook, and now you’re on Instagram, which I’ve found are two of the most difficult platforms for creators like people to consistently maintain an audience and grow an audience across. It’s interesting that Instagram is working so well for you.
Joe Dombrowski: I have the quite opposite problem of most of my friends. When I say my friends, I mean my comedy friends. A lot of my friends in the industry are desperately trying to grow their Instagram presence, but have astronomical numbers on YouTube. I am the exact opposite. YouTube is one of my smaller platforms, and I am just thriving on Instagram, and TikTok, and Facebook. The challenge that I have now is to use those platforms to convert people now over to my YouTube, that I’m trying to get going. We all have our challenges, and that’s mine. I’m down for the ride.
Tubefilter: That is an unusual problem. I know.
Joe Dombrowski: It really is. When I tell people, they’re like, “What? You have 1 million almost on Instagram, but you’re at 90,000 on YouTube.” I’m like, “Honey, just trust the process.”
Tubefilter: It’s a weird flip because usually you’re doing really well across every other platform, and maybe YouTube just needs to catch up with the times.
Joe Dombrowski: If I really have to break it down and think about it, I think that early on in my YouTube presence, YouTube recognized my page as a teacher page rather than a comedian page. I think the algorithm is still learning to push my content out in a comedy sense rather than an education sense because I’ll still get comments in my comedy videos that are like– I’ll make a joke about something teacher specific, and they’ll be like, “What about the FMLA and OSHA?”
All these teaching and life acronyms. It’s like, “Honey, I’m not over here doing professional development at a convention. This is a joke, Ms. Thing, but this got pushed out to you because that’s what you consume.” I think I’m not determined, I’m just going to push. I’m going to push and I’m going to make it. Honestly, you’re going to look back in five years and be like, “I interviewed him. Holy shit.” If I’m not saying it, who is?
Tubefilter: I believe you, 100% believe you.
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you. If I don’t believe me, who will? That’s the bottom line. Number one question that I always used to get when I was still teaching and doing comedy, people were like, “How are you doing it? How are you a full-time teacher and a full-time comic? I can’t even breathe. I can’t even go to the bathroom.” I was like, “Oh, because you’re telling yourself you can’t. If you tell yourself you can’t, you can’t, but if you tell yourself you can, you will find a way to do it.” I found a way, and I’m still finding a way, and I have huge goals, and I’m going to meet them because I’m not going to tell myself that I can’t. It’s really not a hard concept.
Tubefilter: To wrap up, aside from an upcoming marriage, which, congratulations–
Joe Dombrowski: Thank you!
Tubefilter: –any other cool plans or goals?
Joe Dombrowski: Oh, it’s so far down the pipe, but we are two family-oriented guys for sure. We definitely have a full family of children in our future. Who knows when that will happen? Right now, I think I just need to focus on being on tour and having a wedding and house renovations. We’ll be family-oriented guys. You’ll see a little bit of that in the special in the future for sure. Gay dad content.
Tubefilter: Gay dad content, that’s going to be a hit.
Joe Dombrowski: Honey, let me tell you what, I can see the future so clearly. I’m like, “What comedian is talking about being a gay dad? Oh, no one. It’s going to be me.” It’s over. Game over for you hoes.
Tubefilter: [laughs] Okay, last thing, tell everyone a little more about your special that’s out now.
Joe Dombrowski: The special is called Don’t Eat the Crayons, watch it on YouTube, and don’t just watch it. This is what you have to do. You have to watch it, you have to give it a thumbs up, you have to leave a nice comment because you’re going to help me teach the algorithm to get me where we need to be. Let me tell you what, Karma will come back and do a good thing for you because we’re going to do onto others like they would do on to you. If you were me, I would actually have the special on replay, on my TV, on my iPad, on my laptop, on my phone, but that’s just me, you don’t have to do that. If you don’t, you will go to hell. I don’t make the rules, but I digress, do what you want.
Tubefilter: That’s going to be the headline. If you don’t watch the special, you will go to hell.
Joe Dombrowski: Do it. I literally love that. That’s amazing.
