VOTW 020 | When the Prison Tells You To Start a Business P2 with Dominic Syracuse

Welcome to Episode 21 of Voices on the Wind with host Toby Lyles, sponsored by artist Denise Patton from Art at the Hynds.

Connect with Denise on FB @ https://tinyurl.com/Artatthehynds

Toby is joined today by Dominic Syracuse for part two of their inspiring interview.

“You know, within a year and a half of doing stand-up, I found myself running my own comedy club and opening for Bob Saget. Isn't that crazy? And the way all that happened was, you know, the pandemic happened and the prison shut down. We weren't allowed in anymore, right? Because of COVID. All of LA shut down. It became a ghost town. Came back to Cheyenne and... My joke was yeah, it's a perfect place to quarantine because in order for us to be six feet apart we got to come 20 feet closer to each other. Yeah, so I come back to Wyoming and I was calling, you know, my principal at the prison and stuff and I was like when is it gonna open again? When am I gonna get back to work? You know, and he goes, you know, he's like, I don't know that we're gonna open back up the program might dissipate we might lose our grant, but he's like you should really make your own business...”

“I just thought it was going to be a place for me to practice my stand up. I did not intend for this to be anything more than that. I was like, yeah, I'll come in on a dead night, like a Tuesday. We'll do it. Well, the thing was, there was nothing else going on. So a bunch of people show up. had the COVID limit was like 60 people. 60 people show up. We didn't even have furniture. We had to borrow furniture from the Plains hotel next door.”

“The business I built and my comedy career started taking off at the same time. It's kind of like, have you ever heard the bamboo analogy? Slow growth, but it's really strong? Exactly. It takes like six years to till the soil and nothing sprouts. But then as soon as it sprouts, it goes like a foot a day...a 15 year success...overnight success.”

Episode 021

Release Date: September 2, 2025

Host: Toby Lyles

Guest: Dominic Syracuse (Part 2)

Get in touch with Dominic

https://www.cognitivebehavioraltheater.com

https://www.dominicsyracuse.com

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dominicsyracuse

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DominicSyracuse