Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Eric Hosmer, ‘SNL’ stars set for biggest Big Slick ever
If Kansas City’s Big Slick Celebrity Weekend gets any bigger organizers will have to turn it into an entire week.
The annual fundraiser celebrates 15 years Friday and Saturday with its biggest lineup yet — more than 50 stars, including three “ringers” for the softball games whom Royals fans will recognize.
And come on. If someone doesn’t shout, “Live from KC, it’s Saturday Night!,” from the T-Mobile Center stage, well, it’s an opportunity missed because the contingent of former and current “Saturday Night Live” cast members is the biggest subset of stars coming.
Kudos to the obviously persuasive Heidi Gardner, the Kansas City native and current “SNL” cast member who became an official Big Slick co-host last year. Castmates Ego Nwodim, James Austin Johnson (will he do his Donald Trump impersonation?),Devon Walker and Molly Kearney are Big Slick first-timers.
Other newcomers include Dustin from “Stranger Things” (Gaten Matarazzo) and Superman’s gal pal Lois Lane (Bitsie Tulloch).
Actor/comedian Kumail Nanjiani (“The Big Sick”), comedian/actor Fortune Feimster (“The Mindy Project”) and “Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross are also first-timers.
Last year’s event, which boasted the biggest slate of celebrity guests to date, helped Big Slick raise more than $3.5 million, a record. Big Slick has raised more than $20 million, helping to attract top medical and research talent by exposing a national audience to the work of the Children’s Mercy Research Institute.
It began in 2010 as a celebrity poker tournament and has become the biggest celebrity event of the year in Kansas City.
Here’s the lowdown of this year’s event.
Hometown hosts
The event’s KC-connected hosts — Gardner, David Koechner, Eric Stonestreet, Paul Rudd, Rob Riggle and Jason Sudeikis (an “SNL” alum) — tap colleagues from their TV and Hollywood gigs, even their own families.
Sudeikis’ uncle, George Wendt of “Cheers” fame, will return to participate in a reunion of “Bill Swerski’s Superfans,” the “Saturday Night Live” skit whose characters famously cheer for “da Bears.”
Wendt, who grew up in Chicago and attended Rockhurst College, will appear with fellow superfan, comedian and Big Slick regular Robert Smigel (the voice of Triumph the Comic Insult Dog) and unnamed “special guests.”
Friday night: Celebrity softball game
In previous years, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce have smashed home runs in the Big Slick softball game at The K.
Alas, they are not scheduled to play this year. The Chiefs will be at the White House earlier in the day for a repeat visit as Super Bowl champs.
Though their fans will miss them, Big Slick organizers are bringing in three guys who know a lot more about pitching, throwing and batting at the K.
Eric Hosmer, Jeremy Guthrie and Mike Moustakas, members of the 2015 World Series champion team, will be in the lineup.
Joining them in adding some “legit athleticism,” as organizers said, will be Lo’eau LaBonta, midfielder for the Kansas City Current women’s soccer team.
Gates open at 4:30 p.m.. The softball game starts at 5 p.m., before the Royals take on the San Diego Padres that night. Everyone with a Royals ticket can watch the softball game.
If purchased through the Big Slick website (or using this link: mlb.com/royals/tickets/specials/big-slick), a portion of ticket proceeds is donated to the fundraiser.
Saturday night: Big Slick Party & Show
Though they will miss the softball game, both Mahomes and Kelce are expected to appear at the show Saturday night at the T-Mobile Center.
“Hey Big Slick, did you REALLY think I was going to miss out on the opportunity to support @childrensmercy this weekend?!? I’m comin’ in hot from the White House — be ready for me!” Kelce announced on the Big Slick Instagram Tuesday.
Most years it’s difficult to tell who’s having more fun — the celebrities on stage or the audience.
This year’s lineup — which includes Sheryl Crow and Kansas City’s Tech N9NE — is heavy on comedians. And here it should be noted that the humor has definitely grown rowdier in recent years.
So anyone planning to take children should pay heed to this note on BigSlickKC.org: “This show may contain adult humor and is not recommended for those under 18 years of age.”
Big Slick veterans also have come to expect big-ticket auction items to bid on, and Big Slick organizers have definitely upped the ante this year.
Tickets to TV’s biggest talk shows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Kelly Clarkson, Drew Barrymore and Jon Stewart at “The Daily Show” are up for grabs.
Actor Katherine McNamara, who grew up in Lee’s Summit, will host lunch in Kansas City for a winning bidder, along with her fellow “Shadowhunters” co-stars Dominic Sherwood and Matthew Daddario.
Stonestreet’s “Modern Family” co-star Ariel Winter will jump on a Zoom call with a successful bidder.
Al Yankovic and Koechner are offering tickets to their comedy shows.
The hosts and guests will sign a custom guitar that will be auctioned. Another item: a custom shuffleboard table made by Varsity Construction in Shawnee with a plaque signed by Big Slick hosts.
As always, donations can also be made directly to Children’s Mercy at BigSlickKC.org.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. at the T-Mobile Center.
Tickets starting at $75 are available at the Big Slick website or T-MobileCenter.com.
The celebrity guests
▪ Becky Ann Baker, actor, “Freaks and Geeks” and “Girls” (married to Dylan Baker)
▪ Dylan Baker, actor, Amazon’s “Hunters” and “Happiness” (married to Becky Ann Baker)
▪ Aisling Bea, actor, “Living With Yourself”
▪ Luke Benward, actor/singer, “Cloud 9,” “Ravenswood,” “Dumplin’”
▪ Philip Bowen, musician, TikTok fiddler
▪ Richard Christy, radio personality, musician/drummer
▪ David Cook, Blue Springs native, musician and “American Idol” winner
▪ Baron Corbin, wrestler, WWE
▪ Sheryl Crow, Grammy winning singer and Missouri native
▪ David Dastmalchian of Overland Park, actor, “Ant-Man,” “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”
▪ Beth Dover, actor, “Orange Is the New Black,” “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later”
▪ Sean Evans, host, YouTube’s “Hot Ones”
▪ Fortune Feimster, actor/comedian, “The Mindy Project”
▪ Jonathan Fernandez, actor/comedian, “Gossip Girl,” “Lethal Weapon”
▪ Will Forte: actor, “MacGruber,” “The Last Man on Earth,” “The Great North,” “SNL” alum
▪ Joe Gatto, actor/comedian
▪ Seth Herzog, comedian who brings the raunch to “Big Slick”
▪ Anthony Hill, grew up in KCK, actor, “Grey’s Anatomy”
▪ James Austin Johnson, comedian/actor, “SNL,” Donald Trump impersonator
▪ Punkie Johnson, actor/comedian, “SNL”
▪ Molly Kearney, comedian/actor, “SNL”
▪ Travis Kelce, Chiefs tight end, actor, game show host, former “SNL” host
▪ Taran Killam, “SNL” alum, “The Heat,” ”12 Years a Slave”
▪ Samm Levine, comedian/actor, “Freaks and Geeks”
▪ Patrick Mahomes, quarterback, Kansas City Chiefs
▪ Laura Marano, actor/singer, “Austin & Ally”
▪ Gaten Matarazzo, actor, “Stranger Things”
▪ Katherine McNamara of Lee’s Summit, actor, CW’s “Walker: Independence,” “Shadowhunters”
▪ Logan Mize, country artist from Kansas
▪ Kevin Morby, singer/songwriter
▪ James Murray, comedian/actor, “The Tenderloins”
▪ Kumail Nanjiani, actor/comedian, “Silicon Valley,” “The Big Sick”
▪ Tech N9ne, Kansas City rapper
▪ Ego Nwodim, comedian, “SNL”
▪ The Potash Twins, musicians and TV personalities
▪ Brian “Q” Quinn, comedian/actor/podcaster, “The Tenderloins”
▪ Kevin Rahm, actor, “Madam Secretary,” “Lethal Weapon,” “Mad Men”
▪ Al Roker, TV personality, NBC “Today” show
▪ Jeff Ross. comedian, aka “Roastmaster General”
▪ Peter Schrager, Fox Sports
▪ Adam Scott, actor/comedian, “Parks and Recreation”
▪ Robert Smigel, voice of Triumph the Comic Insult Dog, “Bill Swerski’s Superfans”
▪ Jake Tapper, CNN anchor
▪ Sarah Tiana, comedian, “Lights Out With David Spade”
▪ Joe Lo Truglio, actor, “Reno 911!,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (directorial debut, “Outpost,” features the Bakers)
▪ Bitsie Tulloch, actor, “Grimm,” “Superman & Lois”
▪ Blake Vogt, magician
▪ Devon Walker, actor/comedian, “SNL”
▪ George Wendt, actor (“Cheers”), Sudeikis’ uncle, “Bill Swerski’s Superfans”
▪ Ariel Winter, actor, “Modern Family,” TikTok creator
▪ Finn Wolfhard, actor, “Stranger Things,” “It,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”
▪ Al Yankovic, musician/comedian/actor
