Geoffrey Owens Joins WHY I'LL NEVER MAKE IT Podcast for Black History Month

You may remember him as Elvin on The Cosby Show, but Geoffrey Owens has had a long 35-year career onstage and onscreen since his television debut. And he recounts both the highlights and the low points in a frank and honest discussion with host Patrick Oliver Jones.

In the first of two episodes, their conversation focuses on the award-winning series that put Owens on the map, its cultural impact as well as the opportunities (or lack thereof) it has brought to his career. For example, right after The Cosby Show ended its eight-year run "auditions, let alone jobs, were kind of few and far between." It would be a year and a half actually until he landed another major role in Ron Howard's The Paper.

Listen below!

Yet all the while theater has remained his first love. Owens made his Broadway debut just a year after starting The Cosby Show, and has gone on to appear in a total of four productions, all of them Shakespeare plays. He regards Estelle Parsons and Austin Pendleton, fellow theater actors who also work onscreen, to be major influences in the craft and practice of his own acting career.

The interview also touches on two controversies that have affected Owens' life and career. First, there are the sexual assault allegations and convictions that rocked Bill Cosby, forcing networks and studios to take the hit sitcom out of syndication. It led to a substantial loss in residual income for Owens, and he's been asked repeatedly about those scandals, which he considers to be a minefield because "I don't know and I wasn't there."

Secondly, there were the photos that surfaced in 2018 of Owens working at a New Jersey Trader Joe's. What began as job-shaming on Twitter quickly became a surge of support for him and respect for the dignity of work. In one of the more touching and raw moments of the interview, Owens explains what led him to work at the grocery chain. He goes on to say that "one of the positive byproducts of [Covid-19] has been that people have definitely learned to appreciate the everyday worker." In fact, Owens is producing a show called Shift Happens, airing on IGTV, where he interviews the regular day-to-day employees who are often overlooked.

Listen to these episodes at whyillnevermakeit.com.

Why I'll Never Make It is a weekly theater podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, exploring what it means to "make it" in the performing arts and features fellow creatives sharing their own struggles and successes. Upcoming guests for Black History Month include Adrienne Walker (The Lion King and Kiss Me, Kate), Carrie Bernans (Black Panther), and Emmy winner Erin Cherry (After Forever).

To post a comment, you must register and login.