Dominic Leonelli used to make his co-workers laugh while washing cars at an auto detailing place after he dropped out of Woodrow Wilson High School.

This weekend the South Side Youngstown native will be back in the Mahoning Valley getting laughs with no scrubbing required.

Leonelli, who’s now based in New York, will headline Funny Farm Comedy Club shows on Friday at Riser Tavern on the Links in Columbiana and Saturday at Margarita King in Niles.

Leonelli will be making his Funny Farm debut about 20 years after his first attempt. When he was about 18 and had been making his classmates laugh for years, Leonelli said he regularly went to the Funny Farm with his girlfriend.

“I don’t know if Dave (Robich, Funny Farm owner) even knows this,” Leonelli said. “I called the club to try to get in, and it just didn’t sound like I could get in. I talked to someone, maybe even Dave and they said you can’t just start comedy like that.”

He credited Jimmy Bartok, a veteran comedian who heard the laughs Leonelli got while detailing vehicles, that gave him the courage to find a more professional stage.

“Jimmy said `You’ve got some funny stuff. You always have people cracking up. You might like doing standup comedy over washing cars,'” Leonelli said.

Bartok found an open mic at the Funny Stop in Cuyahoga Falls and set up an appearance for Leonelli, where he did well (it helped that several friends made the drive west to support him). He then started doing independent comedy shows locally.

Leonelli has been in New York for the last 11, 12 years, he said, which is much better than his first attempt.

“For a few years I talked about moving to New York, and one time I came up here to move,” he said. “I didn’t tell no one in case I backed out. I got so scared as soon as I got here, I lasted 45 minutes in the city and went back home. I didn’t even hang out long enough to eat.”

When he hit 10 years doing auto detailing (he started at 16) and a coworker told him he was going to end up there another 10 years, Leonelli quit and made the move to New York, this time for good.

Aspiring standup comedians don’t make much money. And before the boom in the gig economy, it was hard to find work with flexible hours that allowed a comedian to pay rent while chasing stage time.

Leonelli has had success following the path comedians have followed for decades. He has headlined prestigious New York clubs like Caroline’s, performed at the New York Comedy Festival and opened for such acts as John Witherspoon, Dave Attell and Ari Shaffer. Norm MacDonald invited him to be his opening act for an East Coast tour.

But many of his biggest breaks have come through social media. Some of his clips have been viewed millions of times on TikTok, and he has 126,000 followers on Instagram.

“I get recognized almost everywhere I go, and it’s people who say, ‘I seen you on TikTok’ or ‘I follow you on Instagram,'” he said.

He can’t imagine having the same success without social media.

“Even with these followers and these fans, there’s no gates, no doors opening for me,” he said. “I’m doing it on my own. I don’t know how those old-time guys did it. I feel bad for them, those old-school guys when there was just one gatekeeper. Before the internet? I can’t imagine that. I’ve been lucky enough. I’ve been going out. It doesn’t cost me anything, it’s free advertising.I just post it online and go out and have these fans and I get to do my own show.”

Leonelli is creating opportunities for himself outside of standup as well. He’s starring in a low-budget film he wrote and directed called “Billis” (a trailer can be found on his YouTube page).

He described it as a broad, slapstick comedy about the son of a porn star who grew up to be a Canadian rock star. Billis moves to New York to get away from the limelight, and his gift for always knowing the weather (the result of a childhood head injury) helps him solve a murder.

“I think it’s hilarious,” Leonelli said. “People are banging the table just watching the footage. I’ve done three, four, five short movies and student films for NYU, and you can tell when it’s good or not.”

It’s essentially finished, although he’s trying to recruit two Italian TikTok influencers who have more than a million followers to play hitmen in the movie. If that happens, he’ll shoot some additional scenes.

He’s also finished the screenplay for a second film.

For his Funny Farm shows this weekend, expect plenty of stories about growing up in Youngstown.

“I lay out my life a little bit, talk about the early days in Youngstown, moving to New York and getting famous and what I’m going through now.”

If you go …

WHO: Comedian Dominic Leonelli.

WHEN / WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday at Funny Farm Comedy Club at Riser Tavern on the Links, 105½ St. Andrews Drive, Columbiana, and 7 p.m. Saturday at Funny Farm Comedy Club at Margarita King, 1201 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles.

HOW MUCH: TIckets are $22.50 and are available online at funnyfarmcomedyclub.com and by calling 330-759-HAHA.