Green’s Dictionary of Slang

showbiz adj.

pertaining to show business, entertainment.

1945		Variety 30 May 28/3: [headline] Cantor’s Showbiz tribute [OED].
1959		News Chronicle 17 Oct. 4/2: Skirmishes with showbiz brigands [OED].
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 48: All kinds of showbiz hustlers talking big money.
1969		F. Norman Norman’s London 241: They get a lot of famous showbiz people in here don’t they?
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 77: A buncha mundane showbiz tales.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 184: A six-million-dollar entertainment crime, a show-biz caper.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 112: She [...] became a necessary decoration at the best showbiz parties.
1997		(con. 1950s) J. Byrne Slab Boys [film script] 9: Yuv mebbe seen his name in the papers ... showbiz management?
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 65: In this end of town it’s all young babes with tit-jobs, messers, chancers and hustlers [...] showbiz folk, hookers who look like Daddy’s girls.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 5: Him with glintin face an showbiz grin like when he was 11 an won young rapper competition at Willesden Sport Centre.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 120: Along with the showbiz bigwigs, the attorney general [...] was on hand.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] I’d applied to join the Victoria Police and had been rejected, probably because of my ‘showbiz’ past.
2010		K. Richards Life 127: Everybody’s too cute and they all wear uniforms and it’s all showbiz.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 202: She was much more showbizzy than Ellie.
2017		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 23 Apr. D4/1: Bunny Arszman, president and artistic direcxtor of the Showbiz Players.

In compounds

showbiz sherbet (n.) [sherbet n. (4); the image of cocaine as an expensive drug]

(drugs) cocaine.

2000

N. Griffiths Grits 434: I fully intend [...] ta snawt a line av showbiz sherbert as big n thick as one av the lines in tha middle av the rowd.