Props to the students who got Craig Robinson — music teacher by day, aspiring comic by night — riled up.

“Well, you get to class, and you pass out pretty much,” Robinson, 43, said. “It wasn’t the best idea for me to be out late at night and then turn around and be at work at 8 a.m. I was most effective when the kids would” annoy me “and I was like: ‘No more Mr. Nice Guy! Turn to page ...’ Otherwise, I was thinking about that next joke.”

In “Mr. Robinson,” which debuts Wednesday on NBC, he riffs on that time as a substitute music teacher and leader of a funk band called the Nasty Delicious who takes a full-time gig in a Chicago middle school where his high school crush (Meagan Good) works.

After nine seasons as Darryl Philbin on “The Office,” Robinson should find helming a story spun from reality to be a no-brainer. Right?

“I saw some of the comments on the Internet, and some people put you in this box, like, he’s good only in small doses,” he said by phone from Los Angeles. “And it made me realize, wow, you have no idea who I am, so let me show you.”

He added: “I would never try to escape Darryl because that’s how people know me. But it’s cool to branch out and be Craig because Craig is way wilder than Darryl. He’s the full monty.” These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q: It sounds like “Mr. Robinson” is pretty much based on your life.A: I taught kindergarten through eighth-grade music in Chicago, mostly in the inner city. And I actually do have a band called the Nasty Delicious. So I’m like, hey everybody, this is what I do. This gets rejected, you’re pretty much rejecting me.

Q: So those guys onstage are your real band members? Isn’t your brother in the band?A: Brandon T. Jackson is playing my brother in the show. But the guy who’s onstage with me playing bass is my brother, Chris Rob.

Q: You started teaching after college. Were you pursuing comedy simultaneously?A: My last couple of years of college, I threw my hat into comedy. I started reading about it, studying it. Then I started doing open mikes in Chicago and cut my teeth. I was obsessed with the feeling you got from being onstage. It just seemed like the comedian was a magical superhero. I wanted in.

Q: Your mother was a music teacher.A: My mother plays organ, she was first-chair cello, she sings like an angel. She’s so talented, and it’s in our blood. I was listening to music before, during, after I was born. I was born on the piano. (Pause.) Not literally.

Q: When was your big break?A: In 1998, I won the Bay Area Black Comedy Festival, which got me some notoriety and got me my manager, Mark Schulman, who is with me until this day. After that I did stand-up gigs. I got “Lucky” on FX. My manager would send me out on anything. If it called for a 5-foot-2-inch white guy, he didn’t care.

Q: And then?A: And then “The Office” came along. It started with me in the warehouse, and it blossomed, so that was cool.

Q: You just got back from Germany. What were you doing there?A: A movie called “Morris From America.” It’s an indie coming-of-age story that deals with (Morris') relationship with being in Germany. I play his father, Curtis. Taking on the role in this drama, (the challenge) was: Can I speak German in a movie?

Q: So can you?A: (He rattles off a few lines in German.)

Q: What does that mean?A: My wife is dead. I can’t take the ring off because my finger is too fat.