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[0:05] Donnie L. Betts: Fresh for your ears, tell everybody.

[0:07] Donnie L. Betts: It's the new podcast from the producers of Destination Freedom Black Radio Days. Produced and hosted by Donnie L. Betts of No Credits Productions comes The Eclectic.

[0:18] Donnie L. Betts: Interviews with difference makers, artists, authors, bold thinkers, people we love who get stuff done.

[0:25] Donnie L. Betts: On this episode of Destination Freedom Black Radio Days, The Eclectic, we go behind the curtain with Devon Goffman, a seasoned Broadway stage veteran whose résumé reads like the greatest hits of musical theater.

[0:36] Donnie L. Betts: His voice and presence have lit up theaters from Jersey Boys to Motown the Musical, and now as Spats Colombo in Some Like It Hot, the Tony Award-winning musical comedy that's been lighting up stages from coast to coast.

[0:49] Donnie L. Betts: Devon gets real about life on the road, the ups and downs, and what keeps him going from city to city. He talks about finding inspiration and community in places like Denver, working side by side with his wife, and what it's like playing the villain that everyone secretly loves.

[1:04] Donnie L. Betts: And through it all, he reminds us how laughter, music, and a good show can help lighten even the heaviest days. It's a conversation about art, resilience, and the healing power of performance, and one you don't want to miss.

[1:35] Donnie L. Betts: Share with us your full name, your mama's name, and your mama's mama's name, and where you spent your childhood.

[1:42] Devon Goffman: All right. My full name is Devon Goffman. I grew up in Buffalo, New York. My mama's name is Denise Goffman, and my grandmother's name was Muriel Cotton.

[1:57] Devon Goffman: My mother raised me in Buffalo, New York. My mom came from Long Island, New York City. My mom and dad both were from there. I have my whole upbringing was in Buffalo, and then I went to college at SUNY Fredonia, which is close to Buffalo, before moving to New York right after I finished college.

[2:22] Donnie L. Betts: So now you were sharing with me earlier, kind of off mic, that you have been in and out of Denver, maybe possibly on six different tours. Is that correct?

[2:31] Devon Goffman: Yeah, at least five, at least five. I'm kind of trying to come up with, well, this might be my fifth or sixth. Jersey Boys was my first time playing the Buell Theater in 2012. I was here, and it quickly became my favorite tour city.

[2:47] Devon Goffman: I've toured a lot. I believe I might have come here many years ago. I was on the Grease Tour back in the early 2000s, like 2005. But I was here with Jersey Boys, then I came back with Motown the Musical in 2014-15, and then I came back again with On Your Feet, the Gloria Estefan musical in 2018.

[2:58] Devon Goffman: Then I came back again with Jersey Boys when I was playing Tommy DeVito to close the Broadway tour. That was 2021, I believe. And then I'm here again with Some Like It Hot right now, playing Spats Colombo.

[3:33] Donnie L. Betts: But let me ask you, as an artist that tours quite a bit, what is life like on the road? I mean, you talk to musicians, they tell you about what that life is like on the road. But tell me what your life is like, the ups and downs of an artist who tours the way you do.

[3:48] Devon Goffman: That's a really good question. Touring, there are really great ups and then there's slow downs. I mean, there are ups and downs, downsides to being on tour. I would say that my favorite part of touring is that you get to a new city every week or every few weeks, and it's a whole fresh new audience of new people.

[4:09] Devon Goffman: In every state across the United States, people respond a little differently. The theaters are different, so you get different spaces and how the show is responding, how the show plays. And so as an actor, I think it's a wonderful experience to be pretty resilient as an actor on tour because you're coming into new cities, new houses, and you kind of just have to roll with the punches.

[4:36] Devon Goffman: The downside of touring is the traveling. It's a lot of planes, a lot of taxis, a lot of rental cars, a lot of hotels, and those things can be really fun for a vacation, but when it's your life, we do eight shows a week every week, and then we usually travel every Monday. So we start on Tuesday, we do eight shows, and then we travel the next Monday.

[5:05] Devon Goffman: Luckily, we're here in Denver for two weeks. So I get to come here, and I'm gonna have a little time to do some hiking and the best parts of touring, which is when you're in a city like Denver, getting to try all the local food establishments, going to the baseball games. That's what I love about touring is getting to immerse myself in the communities that I'm playing.

[5:30] Devon Goffman: We do our best to give back as much as we can to the communities that we're in by doing some charity work if we can, if we have long enough stays. We can go sing at a hospital and do whatever we can as a group to give back a little bit to the communities that are bringing us there.

[5:46] Devon Goffman: But I mean, the part of missing your families is the hardest part of touring. They can come visit, but you don't really get a lot of time at home with your family or with your close friends and whatnot. But we make good friends on the road and we take care of each other like a family on the road.

[6:05] Devon Goffman: And then my wife, my beautiful wife, Katie Goffman, will fly out to see me whenever she is not booked or when she's not on stage herself or in a writing meeting. She'll fly out to see me for a week or two, sometimes three weeks, which is the best. And that's life as an artist; you're a nomad a bit. You’re always moving and trying to find the light in it, you know.

[6:37] Donnie L. Betts: Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much for that answer. Let me ask this question too. You mentioned your wife being in the industry as well. Do you find it easier that you both are creators?

[6:49] Devon Goffman: Yes, absolutely. We understand each other's lifestyle, we help each other, we work together. We create things together. We created a web series together where I wrote the music and she wrote the book and directed, and we do things together, we work together.

[7:07] Devon Goffman: So we kind of feel like it's part of the team, it's all part of the team. So if one of us is doing well, one of us is doing something, it's always what's best for the team. The Goffman, that's us. We get to work together sometimes. We were here together with Jersey Boys the last time. She was playing Mary Delgado and I was playing Tommy DeVito when I was here in 2022 with Jersey Boys, and it was great playing the Buell then and being together on the road for a year was amazing.

[7:40] Devon Goffman: We've done a bunch of shows together of late. We did Nine to Five together in Virginia, and we did Beautiful, the Carol King musical together, and we did Jersey Boys twice now together. So we get to work together; that's the best because we don't have to FaceTime as much when we're together.

[8:00] Devon Goffman: But we get used to FaceTime. When we're together, I say this: we put our phones down and we spend quality time. We try to walk the beach together or whatever we can do, go to a nice restaurant and spend, I call it quality time over quantity time when we are together. Sometimes it's hard not to have that quantity time, but when we have quality time, we try to enjoy it.

[8:26] Donnie L. Betts: That's beautiful. I mean, you met my wife last night. We're both in the industry; she's a costume designer, so it makes it easier, I think, for us too. So that's why I asked that question. Thanks so much.

[8:36] Devon Goffman: Agree. It's great. We're a community of artists, and I think sometimes it works if you're with somebody that's out of the industry completely, but I think there's something about, for us, it works for us that we understand each other's hopes and dreams and passions, and we're always there.

[8:58] Devon Goffman: My good friend Omar Lopez-Sapero is a brilliant actor, one of my best friends. I stood up in his wedding with him and his wife, Ariano Rosario, and they're both also touring actors and doing different shows and have been through the Buell as well many times.

[9:17] Devon Goffman: But Omar always says your best friends are your front row, and that's what they sit in the front row and cheer you on when you're doing your show. And like Omar and Ariana and my wife Katie are all like my front row. So when they come see the show and my family's out there, when my mom is out there, when my dad is out there in the audience cheering me on, then that's your front row, you know.

[9:43] Donnie L. Betts: I love that. So let me ask you about this character that you so seem to really enjoy, and that's Spats from Some Like It Hot. Let's talk about Spats.

[9:54] Devon Goffman: Okay. Spats Colombo. Spats Colombo, okay. So I uh this this is a really fun show. The show is a comedy and it moves really fast. And the script is fast and funny, and there's some fun tap dancing in the show and great singing, but Spats is the villain. And I think the lovable villain, I like to say. Um, but Spats, okay, Spats Colombo was based on Al Capone and uh Chicago gangster from the head of the mafia in um 19, I believe 32. We're talking Spats Colombo was written for this movie, Some Like It Hot, based on Al Capone. And um Spats uh triggers the action of the show. So without Spats triggering the action of Some Like It Hot, we we don't have the whole musical or movie. So he uh I get to I get to show up, and um I don't want to ruin it for anybody watching who hasn't seen the show yet, but uh Spats um Spats ends up killing off some of the uh um not the gangsters who aren't doing a good job and it triggers the action when Joe and uh Jerry, who are the two lead actors, the two um musicians, accidentally watch this uh mob hit, and it triggers the whole action of the show where they have to hide from the mob.

Um the cop Mulligan is the detective who has been chasing Spats Colombo, my character, for many years. And um Mulligan is chasing after Spats, and Spats is chasing after Joe and Jerry. And if you have ever watched old cartoons or uh like uh Scooby-Doo, there's nothing more fun than a chase scene with um doors opening and closing and hilarious music. And um Mark Shaman and Scott Whitman wrote the music for for this musical, two genius composers that have done so many wonderful things, like the musical Hairspray, the TV show Smash, um, the music for When Harry Met Sally, that movie. These guys are um legends in our industry. And we they've built this brilliant uh chase scene at the end of the show that I'm sure you remember where um where we have some uh I think somebody used somebody said Doriography uh last night.

So the doorography, but it's tap dancing, it's fun, it's fast moving, and uh Spats Colombo, my character, is the center, one of the center focuses of those chase scenes. So um I like playing Spats. Spats is fun. I believe Spats, I always say he's kind of the Simon Cowell of the 1930s. He's a talent scout, and even though he runs his supper club, which is selling alcohol illegally during Prohibition, but Spats is analyzing the talent and trying to find the best talent. That's his love, that's his true passion. The mob is what he does to make a living, and uh organized crime is how he makes a living. But the the man Spats really does appreciate a wonderful singer or a wonderful tap dancer. And I think that that's where Spats is really fun and interesting.

[13:11] Donnie L. Betts: Beautiful. Thank you. Now, um, what's next? What's the next city?

[13:15] Devon Goffman: Well, we finish here in Denver, then we go to Las Vegas, and then we head to Los Angeles to the Pantages. And then I believe that we're gonna be hitting, I think the next cities after that are like Portland and Seattle and uh some really great West Coast cities, uh Sacramento, uh, that we haven't hit yet on this tour. Um the tour has been selling well, it's been doing great. People, um, the audiences are are laughing. I think it's a good time um right now. Everybody needs a good laugh. I think in general, in the um in our society, in our community, we are starved for some good laughs, and Some Like It Hot will bring it. I hope, hope it brought it to you last night.

[13:57] Donnie L. Betts: You brought it to me, and uh I have to tell you, Devin, it was it was just a heartbreaking day for me. I I lost a very good friend of mine, and the show last night was exactly what I needed. And I just want to thank you and the cast for doing that for me. I appreciate it so much.

[14:13] Devon Goffman: And Donnie, that's that's I'm really sorry for your loss. And I I know how hard. I mean, we all have things that come up every week, especially as we get older. That things happen that are um that are wonderful and they're painful. And um, I hope that a show, our show, I always feel like there's somebody out there that needs to be cheered up when they're coming to see the show. And that's what gives me a little hope that makes it okay that I'm away from my family and away from the people that I love to do this comedy on stage, so that people can show up at the Buell or whatever theater and and have a little little bit lighter load on uh when they're feeling heavy, because we all have those days, and man, I'm sorry that happened to you yesterday. I would have never known it seeing you afterwards. You were so joyous, and uh thank you for being giving me all the the praise and love that you gave out for our show afterwards, even though you were feeling like that.

[15:12] Donnie L. Betts: Um it's really hard. Well, uh it was because the person I lost was a song and dance man like you, and he would enjoy the tapping and everything else and a duography that all was right up his line. So I felt like I was watching uh the embodiment of him in your production last night.

[15:30] Donnie L. Betts: Last thing, um, so I saw something in your bio that I would really wanted to ask you about. I have a feeling I know it's something real good. It says, Go Bills.

[15:41] Devon Goffman: Go Bills, and not explain it though. You you I mean from Buffalo, even though we I have a job country Josh Allen jersey right over here. I've I've got one sitting in my in my hotel room. I'm a big Buffalo Bills fan. My dad and I went to head season tickets as a kid um back in the 90s when they were um going to four Super Bowls and we lost those four Super Bowls. But you know, I believe um, I always believe that there's a there's a big one coming for the Buffalo Bills. And they give, you know, it's a connection that me and my father has. Um my dad is actually coming out here this week, and he's gonna see the show on Sunday. Um he's flying up from Florida, and and we're gonna go um we're gonna go hiking and see a concert this uh on the day off, which is amazing.

And we're gonna enjoy what Colorado has to offer because I mean I was raised to love hiking, and my dad was big on canoeing and hiking and camping, and and uh he's so we're gonna have a little father-son time when uh when he comes up here. But uh yeah, the Go Bills. I'm all Buffalo all the time. That's my one team that there's no I don't have any other football teams that uh I am an obsessive butt Bills mafia.

[16:51] Donnie L. Betts: Nice. I love it. I love it. It's been such a joy, Devin. Devon Goffman is uh in Denver, Colorado with Some Like It Hot at the Buell Theater. And we've just been blessed to have him as our guest on Destination Freedom Black Radio Days, the eclectic. And he's put a smile on my face, and the cast has put a smile on my face, and he will put a smile on your face as well, too, when you see the production, no matter what city you're in, especially here in Denver.

[17:17] Devon Goffman: Yes, Tony winning choreography by Casey Nicholaw. The best choreography they that the year Some Like It Hot, a couple years ago was in the Tony Awards and the Tony winning costumes. It's an unbelievable time. Uh come out and see it and uh have a little fun and lift up your day a little bit with a little comedy.

[17:36] Donnie L. Betts: Beautiful. Thank you again, and um, we'll talk to you soon.

[17:41] Devon Goffman: Thanks for having me, Donnie. You got to keep in touch. This is so much fun. Take good care.

[18:12] Devon Goffman: Featuring Broadway's Devon Goffman, sharing stories from the stage, the road, and the heart.

[18:18] Donnie L. Betts: This episode was brought to you in part by Monfee Snapple Foundation, the Ulypian fund of the Demna Foundation, KGU Radio, the Demerant Urban Spectrum, and No Credits Productions.

[18:29] Donnie L. Betts: If you felt inspired, uplifted, even simply entertained, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review.

[18:36] Donnie L. Betts: Your support helps us keep these voices heard.

[18:40] Donnie L. Betts: Until next time, I'm Donnie L. Betts for Dead Collective.