For everyone My favourite things: Teacher comedians
Greg Davies
Best known as the host of UK Taskmaster, Greg Davies is a Welsh comedian and actor but before that he was a high school Drama teacher – perhaps the inspiration for his sit-com Man Down, which centres around the travails of a teacher having a midlife crisis. When asked about his favourite teachers when he was a child, he said: “They ignited within me a love of literature and for the arts generally. They were also probably the first people to take me to the theatre. But it was more than that: they were the first teachers who actually listened to us – that’s how we all felt and that’s why we still speak of them in such fond terms.”
Mr Luke
Mr Luke on Tiktok is a South Australian primary teacher with nearly two million followers. He may not officially be a comedian, but he will put a sweet smile on your dial. In a post at the start of term about mistakes he’s made so far this year he said: “Number one, I asked our little legends to stack their chairs. However, that was without really clarifying not to make like a gigantic tower of chairs in the middle of the classroom.” His full name is Luke Springer and he is now also an author of – you guessed it – children’s books.
Bron Lewis
Before turning to stand-up comedy, Bron Lewis, who grew up in Canberra, was a high school teacher for a decade. Co-winner of the National Raw Comedy competition in 2022, she tours nationally – but if you can’t get there, hop on her Instagram for a giggle. Memes titled ‘Teacher who cares too much’, ‘Teachers on the first weekend of term’ and ‘Teachers the day before school goes back’ sit alongside life humour about, for example: ‘Getting worse at parenting’. If you’ve ever known an ex-teacher, you will agree with her adage: ‘Once a teacher, always a teacher’.
Damian Callinan
Damian Callinan is a Melbourne comedian most recently seen in a recurring role on ABC’s The Newsreader, but known and loved for his stand-up, regular appearances on the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala and on TV shows from Skithouse to Spicks and Specks. He has also frequently on the radio and on stage – as both comedian and author – but did you know that he was once a teacher? Callinan has said that he grew up in a house full of teachers and taught in primary schools for 12 years before turning to comedy. His recent Substack post, ‘First day of school: alternatives to just taking a photo to mark the occasion’ is a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek take on how to make a child stand out from their school mates.
Lewis Garnham
Melbourne-based Lewis Garnham explains how he capitalises on his day job: “I’m a teacher’s aide at a school and it’s a good job to have alongside stand-up comedy because kids say a lot of funny things.” With a great mix of humour and poignancy, Lewis’s skits about some of the things he thinks, says and does in the classroom always hit a nerve. Like the time he forgot to take cutlery to school camp and had to share a student’s fork for a week. Or his reaction when a Year 9 student he’d been working with for a few years answered a question in the classroom – “a big deal for this kid” and “a beautiful answer, too” – prompting Lewis to spontaneously yelp: “F**k yeah, Benji!” Oops.
Daniel Delby
Daniel Delby is a Perth-based ex-high-school teacher now working as a comedian and marriage celebrant! He runs ‘teacher comedy nights’ specifically for teachers and education department workers, incorporating music class, hilarious work samples, and tales of student shenanigans, where audience members are encouraged to share their funniest teacher stories and pet peeves.
Instagram@danieldelbycelebrant
Not only but also…
- It author Stephen King taught English.
- Dawn French (French and Saunders) was a drama teacher.
- Liam Neeson, Jesse Williams, Billy Crystal, and Jon Hamm were all teachers before becoming actors.
- Sting (The Police), Brian May (Queen), Roberta Flack, Ezra Koening (Vampire Weekend), Sheryl Crowe, Kris Kristofferson, and Gene Simmons (KISS) were all teachers before becoming full-time musicians.
