Now in its ninth year, the multi-MAC Award-Winning Mama’s Next BIG Act! is an eight-week, mixed-genre, live performance competition for solo, duo and group acts in the categories of music, drag, burlesque and variety. Held at Don’t Tell Mama, the contest is created and produced by Singnasium Artistic Director/CEO and 
multi-MAC/Bistro/Nightlife award-winning Lennie Watts. Winners are determined by both audience votes and a panel of judges led by Watts and permanent judge Frank Dain, Editor-in-Chief of Cabaret Scenes magazine and a MAC/Bistro award-winning vocalist. A third guest judge consists of past competition winners and award-winning performers.
The 2026 season of Mama’s Next BIG Act!, featuring Music Director Yasuhiko “Yaz” Fukuoka and Host Lena Moy-Borgen, began on Monday, July 6, and runs every Monday for eight weeks at 7 PM (no contest July 20). The grand finale will be held on Monday, August 31, at 7 PM. For more information and reservations, click here.
NiteLife Exchange (NLE) asks Lennie Watts (LW) and Frank Dain (FD) Six Questions:
NLE: Mama’s Next BIG Act! is celebrating its 9th annual season—
congratulations, Lennie! As the competition’s creator and producer, how has the competition evolved since its inaugural year in 2015?
LW: Thank you! Well, it really hasn’t changed too much. The biggest change has been the number of weeks. The first couple of years, the contest was 12 weeks! We now do eight weeks. The format has stayed the same.
NLE: Over the years, have the contestants mostly been people you already knew from the cabaret community, or have you been seeing new faces?
LW: It has really been a mix. I’m really proud of the fact that the contest attracts so many new people who have never done cabaret. Many of them have gone on to be regular members of the cabaret community. Many have gone on to be nominated and win MAC Awards and BroadwayWorld Awards. Over the years we have had nearly 300 contestants.
NLE: The winner of Mama’s Next BIG Act! receives an impressive prize package, including a $1,500 stipend toward the production of a cabaret show, a feature article in Cabaret Scenes magazine, and a place on the Don’t Tell Mama Wall of Fame with their own show poster. But the pièce de résistance is the prize of a coveted appliance. Past winners have taken home a Ninja Air Fryer, an Instant Pot and a Hamilton Beach 10-Speed Blender. The big question is, what’s the prize appliance this year?
LW: We have almost exhausted the appliance inventory!! This year the winner receives a panini maker!
NLE: Frank, as a permanent judge, what keeps you coming back to Mama’s Next BIG Act! each summer?
FD: It’s something to do on a Monday night! Seriously, being exposed to new performers and watching their growth during the contest is a big part of what keeps me coming back. We’ve had people who have had experience performing in cabaret as well as those who have never sung in public. But what they have in common is that they all start on square one on the first night of the contest. It’s not just the judges they have to impress; it’s the audience too. That’s a lot to accomplish with just one song.
It’s exciting to see how a contestant relates to the audience, and as they move on to the next week, how comfortable they get. It’s a happy surprise to watch someone who started out tentative and unsure of themselves become more confident as the weeks go on. There have been years where someone I thought wouldn’t make it through has ended up in the finale! And vice versa. (That is more a result of the votes they’ve earned and not about the quality of their work.) That’s satisfying to witness and makes me glad to be a part of Mama’s Next BIG Act!
Another reason I keep coming back is to hear the comments of the other judges. In addition to Lennie and me, except for the first week of the contest, we have a guest judge for each subsequent week. Quite often, we are in sync with each other. Of course there are times when we aren’t, but those are rare. Another judge may have a suggestion for the contestant that I haven’t thought of, so I’m learning something too. That helps me be a better judge.
An added plus is that I’ve become friends with some of the contestants, AND I’m in great company with Lennie, our hilarious host Lena Moy-Borgen and our terrific pianist Yaz Fukuoka. It’s a good team, and one I’m happy to be a part of.
NLE: Since audience votes help determine the outcome each week alongside the judges’ scores, have the judges and the audience generally been in agreement?
FD: The thing to remember is that a lot of the audience is made up of friends and relatives of the contestants who will then vote for the person they have come to support; those votes can be different from ours. However, to keep this from becoming a popularity contest, the audience must vote for four people. Having said that, there have been times 
when we’ve been surprised by how the votes land. While the audience only votes for a certain number of contestants, the judges vote for all the contestants. To keep the results fair and above board, we tally our votes first, then we tally the votes of the audience. The total each contestant receives from the judges and the audience is what determines who moves on.
NLE: Your feedback has helped countless contestants develop as performers. How has serving as a judge for the past nine years influenced your own approach to performing?
FD: I hope that’s true. We do our best to be constructive because we want them to be the best they can be. I think I’m a better performer for having been part of the contest. I see what works and what doesn’t work. I take in the comments from the other judges. I’m exposed to new material as well as familiar material that’s performed in an unexpected way. Isn’t that what cabaret is all about—taking the familiar, telling the story,and making it your own? Many of these contestants are fearless and I’ve tried to incorporate that in my approach to performing. It’s been a great learning experience for me as a performer and audience member. I thank Lennie for asking me to be a part of Mama’s Next BIG Act! since its inception.
Photo key, top to bottom: 1. The 2026 team 2. Winner of 2017 contest, Heather Villaescusa 3. Aaron Valentine, 2025 winner, accepts his appliance 4.Final five of 2018 5. Final six of 2015
Photos courtesy of Lennie Watts
