It’s ‘Showtime’ for Big 10 Ballroom, where Tulsans can show off talents and compete for prizes

Artists and performers of all ages are invited to audition for “Showtime at Big 10 Ballroom,” a community talent competition housed inside the historic venue set for Nov. 28.

Lester ‘Doc’ Shaw, a musician and owner of Big 10 at 1624 E. Apache St., is holding auditions until Nov. 7. Performers seeking to audition can call 918-430-1700 or email [email protected]. 

So far, the show will include singers, dancers, step groups and at least one comedian, Shaw told The Eagle. 

“It’s just family-oriented performances,” he said.

Shaw has hosted talent shows in the past, but this will be his first where performers will compete against each other for cash and other prizes, he said. 

“The audience will basically decide who the winner is. There won’t be any booing or anything like that,” he said. 

The competition will be set up in a format similar to Showtime at The Apollo, minus the Sandman coming out to usher people off stage.

“You don’t have to be a professional. It could be your first time ever on stage,” Brenda Shaw, his wife and business partner, told The Eagle. “We just want people to come in and be able to share what they have, the gifts that they have.”

Restoring a cultural institution

The pair bought the historic cultural institution over a decade ago and began rehabbing the site. Under previous ownership, the building was used as a warehouse and then a thrift store before falling into disrepair.

They reopened Big 10 in 2023, remaking it into a home for youth arts organization A Pocket Full of Hope to teach teens life skills through the arts. 

They see the talent show as serving two purposes: giving a platform to local performers and artists and reintroducing Big 10 Ballroom to the community.

Decades ago, it was a major music venue and safe haven for Black performers who couldn’t perform elsewhere during the segregation era. That history will be shared throughout the event in between performances.

“We have Cain’s and we have the history there, but people don’t realize that Big 10 brought in so much more at a time when it was so heavily segregated and it was hard for people to perform,” Brenda Shaw said. “There was this whole pocket of artistry taking place over here that people don’t even know about.” 

Throughout the mid-1900s, artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ike and Tina Turner, Count Basie and B.B. King all performed at Big 10. The couple wants kids growing up in north Tulsa to know the rich history that exists in their own community.

Beyond the venue, Doc Shaw is campaigning for the entire neighboring Apache community to receive its own historical designation. 

“This is basically sacred ground, what we’re standing on,” he said.

A son of north Tulsa, he said all of his work is part of a mission to give back to the community that raised him and show Tulsa’s youth what’s possible. 

“This is something that I’m passionate about as far as Tulsa, north Tulsa — creating these opportunities, letting people see, ‘hey, you can build something from nothing,’” he continued.

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