The lobby of The Antlers, A Wyndham Hotel is silent as a library, save for the booming sounds of the charismatic man nestled behind the grand piano.

With nary a musical scale to warm up his fingers or vocal exercises for his deep, raspy signature voice, classic tunes pour forth — ZZ Top’s “Tush” and “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis — as Papi Sorrels’ thick fingers, bearing the weight of several bulky silver rings, dance over the keys.

Sorrels is taking a musical break from muscling grand pianos and a drum kit into the hotel, all in preparation for his Big Ivory Ticklers show on Friday.

His palpable energy fills the empty lobby, and your body sways without thinking. It’s clear why the longtime Colorado Springs resident has made entertainment his life’s work, including a notable globe-trotting dueling pianos career. The interactive performance features one or two piano players on grand pianos, taking song requests from the audience and guiding sing-alongs. But there’s more to it than that.

“If it’s just music, we did it wrong,” said Sorrels, who co-owns Acme Event Co. with his fiancée, Missy Sorrels. “It’s the brains of a DJ and the togetherness of a tribute band. You have to have the mic work of an ’80s pro wrestler, of how to talk to the crowd — snarky and direct. You have to know songs. And it’s the randomness of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Second City and The Groundlings improv comedy, and the chaos of a circus.”

But now, Sorrels is upping the ante. His new Big Ivory Ticklers show features three pianists, including him, and three grand pianos he’s gutted and refitted with electric keyboards. He’s also got two additional musicians on drums, guitar and other instruments. They’ll still take audience requests and cover “everything from 1955 to 55 minutes ago,” Sorrels said. “We play ABBA to Zach Brown.”

“I created this show. It’s the first of its kind,” he said. “When I first started dueling, they weren’t doing improv comedy. You had to sit behind the piano, and that was it. But I’d do dance moves in front of the piano. It’s kind of like Riverdance. They said you can’t move your arms, and Michael Flatley was like I’m gonna move my arms.”

Acme Event Co. is the new event coordinator at The Antlers. Sorrels, a Springs history buff, wants to bring pizzazz back to the hotel that has deep historical roots in our city. He’s contracted to program a year of events, including an Oktoberfest and a Halloween shindig, and it all starts with the Friday show, which will also feature circus performers and VIP dinner and show packages. Go online to eventbrite.com for tickets.

“He’s 100% an entertainer,” said Prime25 owner Chuck Schaeffer, who’s hired Sorrels to perform in venues around the city throughout the years. “He’s not shy. He’ll do things that shock you. He’s one of those guys who’s not afraid of anything, and he feeds off the crowds and knows how to read them.”

Historical figure

A conversation with Sorrels, one of the first dueling piano players in the Pikes Peak region — he started in 1999 at the popular downtown nightclub Rum Bay, now The Mansion — is also a trip into the annals of Springs history and pop culture.

It doesn’t take long for the jovial man to relay a funny anecdote, do a spot-on impression, or bust out with the name of a nearly forgotten Springs artifact, be it a defunct restaurant like The Hungry Farmer or Conway’s Red Top; demolished artifact, like the long-gone city waterslide or discount clothing store Germers; or city figure, like Bob Telmossee, a philanthropic businessman who died in 2006.

Even though he’s not a native, he’s a die-hard Springs fan, which is why it’s important to him to pump The Antlers, and downtown, by proxy, with new energy and entertainment offerings.

“There are people I’ve gone to and said we’re going to do The Antlers, and they go what’s that? Are you kidding me? Not on my watch,” Sorrels said. “We’re not tearing down that statue of General Palmer. It’s staying if I have anything to do with it. Acacia Park will see events that are fun and happy again. America the Beautiful Park is going to be used. Antler’s Park. We’re going to use it all.”

After moving here from Oklahoma as a kid, he went to Emerson Junior High and Wasson High School, dropping out before graduation to try his hand at improv and stand-up: “My dream was to be on ‘Saturday Night Live,'” he said.

So the young man headed west to California, where he studied for a couple of years at The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy theater in Los Angeles. And then he became a father to three. He tried to juggle both passions for a while, but eventually moved home, where he took on odd jobs, including hype man for concerts at venues owned by Sam and Kathy Guadagnoli, like Rum Bay.

Schaeffer worked at Rum Bay at the time and hired Sorrels to do a piano show, under the assumption Sorrels could play the instrument. Sorrels, however, could not play piano, but he knew how to sing and dance and wow a crowd.

He “white lied,” he says, and told Schaeffer and Sam he could play. He just needed 30 days to prepare. So he bought a keyboard, a chord book and a song book of 50 of the greatest classic rock songs, and holed up for the next month, spending up to 14 hours a day trying to learn enough music for the show. It almost worked, until Schaeffer poked a hole in his facade.

“I go walking back to see if he needed anything, and he wasn’t even playing the piano. He was just singing,” Schaeffer said. “It was one of the keyboards that was playing automatically. He was faking the whole time. I say, are you kidding me? I was blown away laughing, but also, what the heck? He ended up learning to play piano and pulled it off.”

A year later, after Rum Bay killed the show, he found a couple of other piano gigs around town, including the Golden Bee at The Broadmoor, and started his first entertainment business, helping book local bands, like Martini Shot and Arch Hooks, in gigs around the state. His first production, “Papi’s Laff & Jam Showcase,” featured bands, comedians and dancers at Embassy Suites in 1999.

“He has an incredible business mind on top of talent. He’s definitely a visionary,” said professional recording artist and saxophonist Tony Exum Jr., who’s known and worked with Sorrels for more than two decades. “He’s a big-hearted individual. I’ve never heard him sound down or negative.”

Years later, Sorrels landed a job doing a dueling pianos show in Fort Worth, Texas, which led to him performing in all of the continental states and receiving invitations from around the world to perform. The man who only had a dozen songs, seven of which were pretty good, in his repertoire when he started at Rum Bay, now had 3,000.

Along the way, he also started teaching dueling pianos to the younger generation, born of a desire to keep the niche art form alive.

And then the pandemic descended, and stripped him of touring, performing and income. Back home in the Springs, he once again did odd jobs until inspiration hit: He would do socially distanced shows to raise money for struggling restaurants, including drive-in performances from inside buildings while patrons sat in their cars and tuned into a radio channel to hear him. And there would be 24-hour virtual shows, where he played for an entire day. Altogether, he raised $150,000 for eateries around the Pikes Peak region, including The Chicken Coop, Slinger’s Smokehouse, O’Furrys and Good Company.

“His career is remarkable, especially for someone who’s been based in Colorado Springs,” Exum said. “And the work ethic — I’ve seen this man start from almost an idea on a piece of paper and bring it to fruition. I don’t know too many people who can put passion into action.”

These days, Sorrels runs Acme, the second incarnation of his entertainment company, which includes Dueling Pianos Official Road Show, the state’s longest-running dueling pianos show that he just bought from a Denver company; Big Ivory Ticklers; and the upcoming 4 Grands, 8 Hands, a four-part dueling pianos show. He also has a stable of local musicians he helps find gigs for around the city and country, including Exum and singer-songwriter Rafiel Slade.

“Colorado Springs is No. 1 in something again — No. 1 in dueling pianos,” Sorrels said. “I finally get to wrap up a bow on the story the way I want to. When I first started this, I didn’t know what I was doing. Who does? Nobody knows what they’re doing at the beginning of their life, when you’re young, especially in the entertainment business. The journey’s been remarkable, and to have The Antlers give me a shot, knowing how much I care about it.”

Putting on shows isn’t new to Sorrels; he’s booked Southern rock band The Marshall Tucker Band and rapper Tone Loc to perform in the Springs, and filled the City Auditorium with 3,000 people who came to watch mixed martial arts fights.

“Getting people together has always been my thing,” he said.

And now he’ll do it for the Antlers, inspired by the city’s celebrated Fannie Mae Duncan, a Black entrepreneur who ran the Cotton Club, an integrated jazz club, from the 1950s to 1975, and was famously open-armed to all.

“The Antler’s is full-on ready to have Colorado Springs talent represented the right way again,” Sorrels said. “I’m going to do what Fannie Mae said — the everybody welcome thing. I’m going to create events that make everyone feel great.”

Details

Big Ivory Ticklers, three grand dueling pianos, by Acme Event Co., 7:30 p.m. Friday, The Antlers, A Wyndham Hotel, 4 S. Cascade Ave., $35, $65 couple without dinner, $97 couple with dinner; 303-597-8844, tinyurl.com/3ekhmkv8, duelingpianosofficial.com