Dominic Syracuse: So I was explaining that to my son. I said, “You know, bud in jail, in prison, use ramen noodles as money.” And I never forget, five years old, he goes, “Oh, I wanna go to prison.” Like, “I’ve messed this up.”

Andrea Marie: We are Moms Unhinged, a nationally touring standup comedy show. Join us in our podcast as we explore everything from motherhood, midlife, crisis, marriage, divorce, online dating, menopause, and other things that irritate us.

Hello everyone and welcome to Moms Unhinged the podcast. I’m your host Andrea Marie and I am here with the wonderful, the fabulous Dominic Siracus coming in, calling in from Wyoming. So welcome Dominic

Dominic Syracuse: Thank you so much. As you can see, I am in my bunker. Deep in the heart Wyoming in an undisclosed location.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. If you guys are listening to this, you have to go over to YouTube or where, somewhere and just take a look at the man cave bunker that Dominic is in, ’cause it’s amazing.

Dominic Syracuse: And thank you. I like it to be like if my whole mind exploded out of the back of my head, what it would look like. And that’s pretty much, that’s pretty much it. Lots of records and lights

Andrea Marie: and,

Dominic Syracuse: you know, random on the floor. I have the camera set at such a place that you can’t see the floor, because if you could, it’s just pretty much trash, workout equipment, and my dogs are somewhere in there.

Andrea Marie: Oh my goodness. That would be stressful for me to look at, so I’m glad you don’t have that.

Dominic Syracuse: This is the only room in my house my wife let me decorate and does not come into ever.

Andrea Marie: Smart, smart, smart woman. Smart woman. So you guys, I have to just tell, I have to just toot Dominic’s horn for a little bit just because I’m super excited to have him on our show as one of our token dads. We’re mostly interviewing moms here. Dominic is one of our token dads and, we’re paying him 80 cents on the dollar to be here.

Dominic Syracuse: Which I’m grateful for, by the way.

Andrea Marie: Actually no, we’re not paying him at all. But I just wanna say how awesome it’s been. Dominic had Moms Unhinged on his segment of comedy shows called Comedy That Cares up in Wyoming. If you guys are in Wyoming or even just near Wyoming or planning on just driving through Wyoming, go see one of those shows.

He puts on an amazing event, all throughout Wyoming doing tours. and also contributing, you know, the proceeds to charity. They pick a different charity every, every month, and it’s just really such a special thing. And what a way to make a difference, make people laugh, and have a night out with laughs and fun and community.

So just hats off to you for creating that show. And thank you for having Moms Unhinged on that show in

Dominic Syracuse: May.

Oh, In May. It was perfect. It was perfect. So yeah, the comedy tour is called Moms Unhin- or it’s called Mom- So we’re, I’m stealing your branding. The whole thing’s Moms Unhinged. No, sorry. The comedy show’s called Comedy That Cares, and like you said beautifully, we just pick a different nonprofit each month, but we try to fit the acts to the nonprofits.

And so our nonprofit for May for around Mother’s Day, was Climb Wyoming, which is a nonprofit that helps mothers who are primarily single mothers, or escaping potentially a bad situation and things like that, kinda get back on their feet. And so it was absolutely perfect. Andrea came in, crushed it.

Janae Burris came in, crushed it. Everybody loved it and left so happy. I’ve never had people more excited about merch than they were about your booby cups. I can’t tell you how much.

much I hear

Andrea Marie: Our boob cups are our bestseller, I will say.

Dominic Syracuse: and for those of you that, you know, maybe you aren’t in Wyoming ’cause you didn’t know Wyoming existed, or you’re like, “Why would I ever go to Wyoming? I’m not Kanye West.” Like, for anybody out there like that, I totally understand. We are filming it. So we filmed the whole first season, which you, Moms Unhinged was the headliners for.

And we’re gonna create a whole social media channel around it, so YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all that. So we’re hoping to launch it beginning of October. So for anybody who likes the concept, likes the idea, wants to see Andrea crush it, wants to see any of the other amazing comedians who we had through, we’re gonna start, you know, blasting it out soon.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, so that’s, that is awesome. I can’t wait to see some of the clips. That’s be so fun. and you are a dad yourself.

Dominic Syracuse: I am.

Andrea Marie: Have three.

Dominic Syracuse: Three teenage boys

Andrea Marie: Three. So let me, yeah, let me just set the stage. Three teenage boys. You have a business doing cognitive behavioral theater, and you also run this Comedy That Cares.

I don’t… It is mind-blowing. How do you even do all that stuff?

Dominic Syracuse: Okay, Andrea, this is the life a comedian has to live when no one books you.

Andrea Marie: You just make your own show. That’s what I did. That’s what I did.

Dominic Syracuse: Exactly, no.

Andrea Marie: It’s so true.

Dominic Syracuse: No, it’s true. So I, interestingly enough, my, even my story in standup is kind of, interesting because I never necessarily set out to be a standup comedian. I was always interested in being a very dramatic actor.

Andrea Marie: You went to acting school.

Dominic Syracuse: Yeah, that’s my secret that nobody knows. I can have, like, 15 to 25 Shakespearean monologues ready to go at any minute.

I grew up in the theater. I did my first play when I was, like, eight years old, and I ended up studying at this place in Los Angeles, called the Art of Acting Studio, which is Stella Adler. Stella Adler, yeah, she trained a lot of great… she trained folks like

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: Marlon Brando, Benicio del Toro, Mark Ruffalo.

I say any great actor whose name ends with O. Selma Hayek-o trained there. Kevin Costner-O. Yeah, exactly. The list goes on and on. You have to add an O to your name.

Teaching acting and mental health skills in prison

Dominic Syracuse: But I trained there, and, she actually had a program that interested me more than anything I’ve ever done because to pay my way through school, I always did what I could to give back. ‘Cause, you know, like, acting and stand– it can be very solipsistic. It can be very, like, “Look at me, look at me.”

So I always wanted to… I always did work like, working in rehabilitation centers or supporting people with disabilities or something like that, just kind of as, like, my way to contribute back a little bit. And, Stella had this thing called the outreach program, which went and taught acting in maximum security prisons.

Andrea Marie: Wow. Wow.

Dominic Syracuse: Choked up when I talk about it, as you can tell.

No, I taught acting. I know. It was amazing ’cause when I heard about it, I was like, “Oh my gosh, this blends all of my passions. I have to do this. I’ll do anything. I’ll wait in line, I’ll volunteer, I’ll pay you.” You know? And they were like, “Dom, you’re the only one interested.

It’s yours. Go ahead.” I went into maximum security prisons in LA and taught acting for started out as volunteer, and then I became full-time. And then they, they said that they were getting more emotionally out of the inmates from my acting classes than they were, like, the mandatory anger management classes and stuff.

And so as far as, like, self-expression, ’cause the teachers were amazing. The anger management teachers were incredible, but it, there was something about, you know, getting a bunch of inmates together and being like, “Hey, who wants to express your opinions?” And everybody just blows up.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. Y- yeah

Dominic Syracuse: And so anyway, I got certified to start teaching anger management, and so I got certified in what’s called cognitive behavioral therapy.

And because all I’ve ever known is performance, I started using acting and improv to teach cognitive behavioral therapy, called my business Cognitive Behavioral Theater. And now I just, I travel all over using acting and improv to teach, like, mental health practices and stuff like that. so that’s the business.

How inmates pushed him to try stand-up

Dominic Syracuse: But the funny thing is how it got me into stand-up, because, like I said, I was in, I taught in the prisons five days a week, eight hours a day for, like, six years. And after a couple years, the inmates were like, “Hey, you know, you’re always telling us to follow our dreams. When are you gonna follow yours?” You know?

And I’m like, “What are you talking about?”

Andrea Marie: Ooh.

Dominic Syracuse: And they’re like, “Yeah, you’re always talking about it, but you’re never. What are you doing to actually do that?” So everyone’s always told me that I should try stand-up, I should be a stand-up comedian, blah, blah, blah. This was back in, like, 2016. And, and so I made them a deal.

I said, “I will go out once a week and start doing comedy in Los Angeles, and I’ll film it, and if they get all the stuff done for the week, I’ll bring it in. Like I’ll bring a clip in, and we’ll watch it on Fridays, you know, for the group.” And that’s literally how I started.

Andrea Marie: Wow.

Dominic Syracuse: Stand-up comedy, was showing it.

And you know what’s funny is like, you know you’re good in prison when they freak out. Like they’ll lose it. The guards will come in because they’re losing it so much. And so that was hard for me when I started, like, headlining and stuff, ‘ cause, you know, my wife would be like, “How was the show?”

And I’d be like, “Well, it was good. No one threw chairs.” I mean, no one had to be put in solitary confinement, so I guess it was just a mid-tier. But so anyway, that’s my, that’s like the abridged version of kind of how I made my business and started standup and all that stuff.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, that’s amazing.

Dominic Syracuse: Got me to where I am now.

Explaining prison ramen currency to a 5-year-old

Andrea Marie: I know, that’s amazing. I love that so much. And it’s so interesting how our paths can go in just such this direction. Like, you know, you’re when you’re a kid, you’re probably not like, “Hey, I wanna go spend a lot of time in prisons but not be in prison,” you know? Like…

Dominic Syracuse: except I’ll tell you this. So my son, so I was, when I was in LA, I was a single dad. Me and my son were, just kinda living in LA doing our thing and what I would do, I was, I didn’t have a lot of money, starving artist kind of thing, but he loved ramen noodles, and I could make it rain ramen noodles, right?

So what we would do is we’d go in the grocery store, and his, one of his favorite things to do was he’d lie in the gro- the shopping cart, and I would bury him in ramen noodles. And then we’d go and he’d like to jump out and, like, scare the cashier when we’d check.

Andrea Marie: My gosh.

Dominic Syracuse: And it was It was sweet. He was 27. No, I’m just kidding. He was five.

Andrea Marie: Just last year.

Dominic Syracuse: Exactly. It was just, it’s recent. No, but the funny part is that I was explaining to him, so in prison you don’t really have money, what- but they use ramen noodles as currency. They call them soups. So you get a certain amount a week, and people save up.

So they’ll literally trade stuff. They’re like, “You want two soups? You want three soups?” So I was explaining that to my son. I said, “You know, bud in jail, in prison, they use ramen noodles as money.” And I never forget, five years old, he goes, “Oh, I wanna go to prison.” Like, “I’ve messed this up.”

Andrea Marie: That sounds too good. Oh, shoot.

Dominic Syracuse: I’ve screwed up somewhere.

Andrea Marie: He’s, like, researching misdemeanors he can… You know?

Dominic Syracuse: Exactly. How can I…? You know that if you go to jail. Look, first of all, my dad’s there every day. Secondly, you just get ramen noodles all the time.

Andrea Marie: It’s heaven.

Dominic Syracuse: yeah.

Andrea Marie: Hilarious. Oh, that’s so funny. So you are, so you were a single dad, raising your son, and then you met your now wife.

Dominic Syracuse: Beautiful wife.

Andrea Marie: Yes, beautiful. I have met her as well. She is the rock, I would kind of say.

Dominic Syracuse: Hands down.

You know, let me just say something real quick. sorry to inject.

Andrea Marie: Lost your phone, yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: Yeah, no.

Andrea Marie: Just think about how we communicated with her instead of you.

Dominic Syracuse: You should definitely tell that story actually, yeah. You should because– Okay, this is the thing listen, my wife is amazing. I love my wife, and she does hold it down. She is like the, she’s responsible, she’s wonderful.

But any time people meet me first and then meet my wife, they talk to her like she is a part of the Peace Corps. They’re like, “Oh my God, I don’t know how you do, I don’t know how you do it. You are a saint.” They talk to her like, kinda like my caregiver is how they talk to her.

But again, that’s not incorrect. You should totally tell what happened when we were doing the Moms Unhinged tour for Comedy That Cares.

The phone incident on the Moms Unhinged tour

Andrea Marie: Right. So here’s the story how we got to meet Dominic’s wife. We were coming up, we’re heading up there, and we’re like, you know, not sure exactly… I don’t even think we knew a lot about where we were going. And so we just start headed, heading to Casper. I can’t even remember what the first stop was.

And so we’re like, ” Okay, we’ll just drive up there. Dominic will eventually let us know how things are going.” And so then we get a call from your wife, who is like, “Hey, Dominic’s phone got ran over on the side of the highway. So here’s the deal.” And she gave us the lowdown.

We’re like, “Thank you for letting us know what’s going on.”

Dominic Syracuse: I know. Listen, okay, so on my side of it, I’m heading up to Casper for the show. I’m like, all I give you guys is like, “Hey, you know, Casper, show, Rialto, be there at 4:00.” And then, and then I’m going… and I’m planning on giving you a call and everything. I stop to get gas and I’m talking to somebody, in the Bluetooth of my car.

And I get out to get gas and I go, “Can they still hear me if I’m outside of the car? Do I need to bring my phone? I probably should bring my phone if I’m talking to them.” So I bring my phone, fill up gas, get back in my car, start driving. I’m still talking to him. I get about half a mile down the highway and I hear and then the call just drops.

And I look at my rear view mirror, I was like, “What was that noise?” And I see my phone cascading down the highway. And I realized, oh, I left my phone on the like, hood of my car as I’m driving.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: And then I’m like, “Oh, I should stop and get it.” And then I just see in my rear view a semi-truck run it over with all 18 wheels.

Andrea Marie: Oh, man.

Dominic Syracuse: And so I pull-

Andrea Marie: He backs up and runs it over again.

Dominic Syracuse: He backup over, flips me off, you know. So, luckily the only number I’ve memorized is my wife’s, ’cause this thing happens quite often. So I pull over, in a gas station and, and, and I ask to use their phone and I call my wife and she knew it was me. The funniest part is she’s like, “Random gas station, middle of Wyoming, must be my husband.”

And I was like, “Babe, we’ll freak out about this later. My phone is destroyed, but for right now I need you to call Andrea ’cause I’m pretty sure I haven’t told them the address or what time they’re supposed to be there. So I need you to call.” And she’s like, “How am I supposed to get ahold of them?”

I’m like, “Go to the Moms Unhinged website, see if there’s any contact information. I will wait here at the gas station for…” So I get it. I get it, I guess is what I’m saying.

Becoming a blended family with 3 boys

Andrea Marie: Hilarious. I know. So that was, it was so much fun. Such a fun tour. So you, so yeah, you’ve got your son raising as a single dad, and then you meet your wife. She’s got two boys as well, and so now you’re a blended family with three teenage boys.

Dominic Syracuse: We are three teenage boys.

Andrea Marie: At this moment.

Dominic Syracuse: Yeah. Before I get to the crazy, can I tell you the sweetest story?

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: Okay, I’m gonna try to do this without tearing up, but, so I met my wife. I started doing stand-up, kind of creating stand-up comedy clubs here in Wyoming, and she came out to a club one night, and this was during the pandemic.

So the pandemic’s what brought me back from Los Angeles to Cheyenne, and my joke is that because, you know, everything got shut down in LA, and everyone was quarantining, and I was like, “I’m gonna go back to Wyoming ’cause in order for us to be 10 feet apart, we have to come 20 feet closer to each other.”

Andrea Marie: Yeah. We’re already spread out.

Dominic Syracuse: We’re all–

 wyoming, socially distancing since 1865, you know? So I came back and, started, you know, we started up this little comedy club, and she came in one night. And the funny thing is I knew her because I used to have a crush on her in high school, and I was always too afraid to say anything.

And, the club owner, the bartender guy is like, he’s like, “Oh, do you know Dom?” And she goes, “Oh, I know who he is, but I don’t think he knows who I am.” I’m like, “I know exactly who you are.” I didn’t mean for that to come off as creepy as it did. But I remember we went up after a show, and I was kinda showing her around the place, and we sat up in this mezzanine, and we had this big, long conversation.

And I remember the topic of celebrity crushes came up, and my– She’s so beautiful, and believe it or not, I’m five foot two. She’s actually smaller than I am, which is very hard to find, right? And anyway, we’re talking about celebrity crushes, and she says that her celebrity crush is Joe Pesci, and I was like, “This bodes so well for me.” I was like, “You like short, loud Italians is what you’re saying.”

Andrea Marie: I am locking this down.

Dominic Syracuse: So anyway, literally haven’t been apart since, you know, got married. But I remember the first time, she had two boys, and they’re all around the same age. her oldest and my son are about six months apart, and then our youngest is, you know, he’s two years younger.

Well, anyway, I remember the first night we introduced the boys, and they all hung out, and they got along great. And anyway, my son, he was about eight years old, and he would do this annoying thing, ’cause it was around Christmas time, where he would ask for unbelievably lavish gifts because he still believed in Santa.

If there’s anybody listening to this with children, Santa is real. But the point is I was like, he would ask for things like, you know, a $20,000 gaming chair. And he’s like, “Well, if it’s coming from Santa, I’ve been good,”

Andrea Marie: Let’s dream big. Dream big, you know?

Dominic Syracuse: And so I had to have this big, long conversation with him about, “Hey, you know, calm down.

First of all, you gotta be appreciative of what you have. Secondly,” you know… I had a conversation about asking for too much rather than just being grateful. Anyway, the first night we get them together, of course we were like, “Hey, do you boys wanna have a sleepover with each other? Wouldn’t that be great?”

They have a sleepover. They’re tucked in and my son looks at me. Oh, God, I’m not gonna be able to do this without tearing up. He looks at me and he goes, “Dad, I know you said I shouldn’t ask for big stuff,” but he’s like, “Do you think I could ask for Christmas that you guys get married so that these two can be my brothers?” I know. Look at me, I’m destroyed.

Andrea Marie: Tearing up. Oh my God, that’s so sweet.

Watching your kids grow up way too fast

Dominic Syracuse: So that was like the first day. So we’ve all been a big, happy family ever since. And now they’re grown-ass men. They’re 16, 15, and 13, and they’re taller than me, and they’re hairier than me, and I have to ask them how to shave. I say this on stage, but it’s so true.

Do you know how hard it is disciplining your kids when you’re wearing shoes they handed down to you?

They do this thing now where I’ll go, “Hey, make sure your room’s clean.” And they go, “Okay, Pop,” and they pat me on the head.

Andrea Marie: Oh, man.

Dominic Syracuse: It is the worst. But yeah, now I have a bunch of grown teenage monsters. And you have boys too, right?

Andrea Marie: Yeah, I have two boys and they’re also taller than me. Yeah and taller than their dad actually. I don’t know how, I don’t know what we’re feeding them these days. Is it the ramen? I don’t know.

Dominic Syracuse: It’s the ramen.

Andrea Marie: Know. It’s the ramen. What are they putting in the ramen?

Yeah, they are, they’re really grown n- they’re really grown ass. They’re 24 and tw- no wait, yeah, 21 and 24. You know, they have birthdays in the summer and I always have to think about it.

Dominic Syracuse: Yeah. Right, right.

Andrea Marie: Know, for a long time. I mean, it’s wild how quickly it all goes. Like, you know, it’s just one minute you’re bearing them in the shopping cart, and the next minute they’re patting you on the head.

You know?

Dominic Syracuse: It’s wild. It’s wild. And I’m like, I had a dream. You can tell, you’re beginning to tell I’m super-duper sentimental. I was having this– I had a dream. I was on the road. I was doing… I was somewhere, Indianapolis or something, and I had this dream, and it was more like a teleportation.

It was so vivid. And I just got transported back to being in my kitchen in Los Angeles. And my son, you know, he used to be so small, he would wrap his arms around my wrist and wrap his legs around my arm, and I was dreaming of it, and I remember him going, “Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad,” you know. And I woke up, and I got so sad because he’s never gonna be that size again.

It’s over. He’s done. He’s grown. Those days are gone. And I was telling him about it, and he’s driving now, so he’s driving, and I’m sitting next to him, and I said, “Man, I had this dream that– Remember when you used to hang on my arm? You remember that and everything?” I was like, “Man, that’s never gonna happen again.

That makes me so sad.” And my son, so stoic and practical, he just looks at me and he goes, “Well, Dad, if you want, I can hang on your arm again. I just don’t think you can handle it. I’m like 107 pounds, and you haven’t really been lifting a lot, so I,” Like he just– he don’t understand what I’m saying at all.

Andrea Marie: That’s so funny. Oh, God. Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome.

The parenting stories no book prepares you for

Andrea Marie: So yeah, so one of the things I ask all of our guests is for an unhinged moment where things went… I know we’ve kind of, that’s been sort of the topic of the whole. But like, a particular unhinged moment where things went wrong, just so we can all feel better about ourselves.

And it can be with your kids or your parents, which-

Dominic Syracuse: Oh, well, I mean, first of all, my parents are wild. I mean, my dad, like I, I have a super hardcore Italian father from New York. Like I like to say that my dad’s like if Super Mario had a baby with the cast of The Sopranos, just super Italian dude. And my mom, you know, is… I like to say my, ’cause my mom’s Jewish, but from the South, a Southern Jew.

That’s a whole different kind of Jewish, I need you to know. And so yeah, so, I like to say my parents are what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. And there’s, I could tell you a bunch of, I mean, like, there’s so much stuff, okay? Like I remember one time I got my head gashed open on a bike ride, and I had to get staples in my head, and my mom hates going to the doctor for any reason, right?

So she honestly thought she could remove the staples with a staple remover.

Andrea Marie: Oh my God.

Dominic Syracuse: She’s like, “What? They’re staples. It’s the same thing. It’s literally called a staple remover.” And she’s pulling, and I remember she pulled the first staple. It went nowhere. And instead of her being like, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do this,” she was like, “I should pull harder and faster.” And I’m like, “Ah!” And you can’t complain about, around my mom.

You can’t complain because I have six sisters, okay? And one brother. So I’m sitting there going like, “Ah, Mom, it hurts.” She’s like, “You know what hurts? Child labor, okay? That hurts. This is revenge.” Like, she doesn’t… So there was, like, wild stuff like that, and then my dad, like I said, super Italian Goomba guy.

I mean, even still I’ll go to his hou- Like, my dad used to walk around the house in his tighty-whities singing Sinatra.

Andrea Marie: Oh my god.

Dominic Syracuse: I would be like, “Dad, I have friends coming over. Can you please…” You know? And he goes, “Oh, excuse me.”

Andrea Marie: Just rein it in.

Dominic Syracuse: “Get a little more presentable.” And he goes into the bathroom, comes out still in whitey-tighties, but with perfectly combed hair. That’s the world I grew up in.

But I actually, having kids, I have so much more patience for my parents now because there’s no way to do it right. And also, there are things they don’t put in books. Like, there are things that they, no parenting book tells you how to handle.

And I’m gonna give you in, that example right now since ramen noodles are the theme.

A ramen-in-the-bathtub discovery

Dominic Syracuse: I had no idea why my youngest son was taking so long in the bath, and I didn’t wanna ask because you know, he’s around that age that, you know, you know what? Just whatever, take your time, come out clean. I don’t care.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: But my older son comes to me and he goes, “Dad?” And he’s like, “The tub is clogged, and the water’s not draining.”

And I said, “Oh, you just gotta take out this thing.” And I take it out, not making this up. There is just tons of cooked ramen noodles. Exactly. In the drain, just dangling. it looked like this je- it- looked like a, jellyfish, just tons, right? And I didn’t even have to ask. I knew it was my youngest son, and I’m like, “Boy, get in here.” And I’m like- Tell me you’re not eating ramen noodles in the bathtub. And he goes, ” Well, I can’t tell you I’m not eating ramen noodles in the bathtub because I’m absolutely eating ramen noodles in the bathtub.” And I’m like, “Dude, what? Okay. You wanna walk me through the steps?” You know?

Andrea Marie: And like, you know, it’s hard to even figure out, like, what is the, like what are the consequences for that? You know, like, it’s like I don’t even know how to discipline. There’s yeah, like you said, there’s no discipline if this then that. If they’re eating ramen noodles in the bathtub, then-

Dominic Syracuse: Yeah. I challenge you to go back to any Oprah episode on positive parenting, and you handle the ramen noodles in the bathtub episode. That doesn’t exist.

So I’m like… This is what he tells me. I was like, “Dude, what? Like, how are you…” I’m like, I’m like, “Are you bringing in a bowl?

Like, at what point?” And he goes, “No, I just make them in the bathtub.” And I’m like, “Stop, dude. Stop.”

Andrea Marie: oh my God.

Dominic Syracuse: I’m like, “You, okay, you’re telling me that you’re just, with your juices and everything, you’re just cooking?” And he goes, “No, I’m not disgusting.” He’s like, “I shower first.”

So he goes, and he goes, “What I do is I shower, I wash my hair, I wash my body. I wait for the soap to cle- to drain out, plus that cleans the bathtub, too.” And then he’s like, “Then I flip it on, okay? Hot water, throw the ramen on there.

It cooks the ramen as I’m in there, and then I just lie back and I got myself a little bath snack, okay?” And I’m like, “Dude.” Son, ok.” But I’m like, “Do you still use the seasoning packet?” And he goes, “Of course I use the seasoning packet.” And he’s like, “What?” He’s like, “It makes my skin smell delicious.” And so look, I don’t know, like at that point, I don’t know if there’s something wrong with him, if there’s something right with him, if he’s a genius, if I should have him committed.

I don’t even care. Now we have a rule, and I have it written in the bathroom, which just says, “No food or drinks in the shower for any reason.”

Andrea Marie: It’s weird what kind of rules you have to… You understand why these you see these rule things at and things like that sometimes, and you’re like, “Yep, that’s every rule, there was something happened.” And it’s things you don’t even think. And some of these things can be expensive.

I mean, that could, like, clog up the sewer line. You know, who knows?

Dominic Syracuse: Like, who knows? Or just what are you… like, because here’s the thingand this is where I try to commend him, ’cause he, my youngest is super creative. I mean, he’s just got that creative brain. Mm. I guarantee he was, like, just sitting there eating ramen noodles going, “I wonder what it’d be like to take a bath in ramen noodles.”

But he’s not gonna let, he’s not gonna stop at wonder.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: He’s Not gonna stop at, “I wonder what that’d be like.” He’s like, “I’m a do it right now.” And never once, you know, that’s not illegal. Like, there’s no law.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Dominic Syracuse: You can’t do it.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. Oh my gosh, ugh.

Dominic Syracuse: I don’t so So crazy. I’m sure there’s… I feel like we could, I feel like there’s probably another two hours of craziness we could just, like, tap into here. This has been so much fun, Dominic. The half hour always goes by. It’s hilarious.

Real quick, can I tell you one quick thing? Like real, one quick last thing? So I have recently started telling that story on stage, and I’m nervous to tell that story on stage because, you know, it’s weird, and I don’t want people like shaming my son or anything or whatever, and it’s like one of those things you keep private.

But what I found out, tell me if you’ve seen this, especially with Moms Unhinged, where you tell a story like that and then people come up to you and want to tell you their stories.

Andrea Marie: Oh, absolutely. And they’re even crazier a lot of times. They’re just wild.

Dominic Syracuse: Right. What…?

Andrea Marie: ” What? What?

Dominic Syracuse: I told that story for the first time on stage, and a woman came up to me and told me a story, and this is the funniest. As a parent, it’s fun. It’s one of those stories that as a parent it’s hilarious. If you’re not a parent, you could probably be like, “Oh, what? That’s terrible.” But as a parent, this is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard, especially a parent of boys.

She comes up to me and she goes, she said, “When my kids were 15…” I can’t even do it. She’s like, “My kids…” Maybe they were younger. She’s like, “They were younger. They’re two boys.” She’s like, “I found out that one of them put the shock collar we had for the dog on his little brother.”

Andrea Marie: Oh no.

Dominic Syracuse: And she’s like, “I found this out ’cause I went in the garage, and he was making him bark like a dog.”

Andrea Marie: Oh my God.

Dominic Syracuse: Because he’s going, “You have to bark or we don’t know if it works or not.” And he’s just got his little.

Andrea Marie: God.

Dominic Syracuse: Like a dog shock collar, seeing what it feels like. Oh As a dad of boys, I just laughed at that for like 45 minutes because.

Andrea Marie: I know.

Dominic Syracuse: What they do. They’re insane.

Andrea Marie: I know. They’re brains. They’re wild, wild thinkers. And, you know, they just do it. They don’t even think about like, “Oh, that’s probably not a good idea.” They don’t have that filter. They don’t have that.

Dominic Syracuse: No. Well, and I think not to like make it gender stereotypes anything, but it seems like women or like little girls, as they grow up, they seem to have more of like a, just logic and rationality. Like they seem to have more of it. Like they’re just like, “No, don’t do that. Let’s hang out and chill. Let’s be smart. You’re gonna get in trouble.”

That kind of thing. Whereas like young boys, at least my boys, are like, “Hey, what is the line?”

Andrea Marie: What if we jump off the roof onto a mattress? You know, or something. You know, it’s crazy. You know, it’s crazy stuff that they’re into. It’s totally wild.

Dominic Syracuse: By the way, in that scenario, the mattress is the solution. They’re like, “We brought a mattress. We wanted to jump off the roof, we could hurt ourselves.

Andrea Marie: We’re not stupid, Dad.

Dominic Syracuse: is the solution.”

Andrea Marie: Yeah, exactly.

Dominic Syracuse: Anyway

Andrea Marie: Oh, my gosh, so hilarious. That’s so wild. Well, I love that story. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your, all your fun with us. And good luck with your tour, your upcoming tour, for Comedy That Cares. You guys are kicking it off here in September.

Dominic Syracuse: That’s right.

Andrea Marie: And yeah, let us know where can people find you.

We’ll have that in the show notes, so.

Dominic Syracuse: Absolutely. Thank you so much. And first of all, thank you so much for having me, Andrea. This is a blast. It’s an honor to be a token dad with Moms Unhinged, I can’t tell you. And also, it’s great, it’s so good that you have a podcast ’cause you have the most like, podcast-y voice I’ve ever heard in my life.

Andrea Marie: That’s awesome.

Dominic Syracuse: It’s like your voice was someone AI’d like, podcaster radio voice. But anyway, you can follow me on all social media @DominicSyracuse. And then, like I said, we’re starting the channel Comedy That Cares. We’re launching it in, October, so follow me. I’ll give all the links, but just be ready for Comedy That Cares and, I’m just so excited because you get to s- I can’t wait for you to see the footage.

It’s gonna be amazing. I can’t wait for people to see the amazing comedians that are coming through. And we have comedians of like everybody. I mean, from local folks that I think should be super famous, all the way to social media stars like Dude Dad, to Moms Unhinged, to Tim Meadows.

It’s been

Andrea Marie: So great

Dominic Syracuse: amazing and, That was just season one, so we’re kicking it off, so keep an eye out for Comedy That Cares. Follow, like, subscribe, all the above and do the same for Moms Unhinged. And we’re gonna have to have you guys back soon.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. We’ll have to get you down to Colorado here too, so.

Dominic Syracuse: Oh yeah

Andrea Marie: Yeah. All right, thanks everyone. Thanks for tuning in.

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