Mahomes, Rudd and plenty of fan love help Big Slick set another record
So this is what happens when Big Slick celebrities team up with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The 10th annual benefit for Children’s Mercy Hospital set another record Saturday night — $2.5 million — bringing the total raised to over $10 million since the fundraiser began.
“This is the biggest we’ve ever gone in Big Slick history,” co-host Rob Riggle said at the end of the evening’s auction, held at the Sprint Center for the first time, as confetti rained down from above. Organizers say 4,900 fans bought tickets for the show, about four times the audience from previous years at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland.
The biggest money-maker of the evening was a package that just kept getting better.
“Where are my Chiefs fans at?” said Mahomes, a Big Slick first-timer who had already stolen the show at Friday’s celebrity softball game at Kauffman Stadium. The quarterback launched the bidding on a barbecue and whiskey dinner for eight, with him and such teammates as Travis Kelce, Dustin Colquitt and Eric Fisher. Then Chiefs owner Clark Hunt hopped on stage to say he’d attend as well.
Then they threw in the custom jacket Paul Rudd wore in February when he got to announce that Mahomes had won NFL MVP, the jacket with “Mahomes 15” on the back. And then Mahomes offered to autograph it.
Then everyone on stage said they’d high-five the winner.
Sold, to mega-Chiefs fan Scott Gorran for $55,000. He tried on Rudd’s jacket — a pretty perfect fit — and got lifted off the ground and twirled in a bear hug by Kelce. When Mahomes started to do the same, Big Slick host Eric Stonestreet stepped in: “That’s enough, Patrick, that’s enough.” The MVP needed to save himself for the season.
Other big items of the evening:
A trip to the set of Taran Killam’s TV series, “Single Parents,” and to the set of his wife Cobie Smulders’ series, “Stumptown,” plus a trip to Disneyland: $45,000.
A visit to the premiere and cast party of “Angry Birds 2,” starring the voice of Big Slick co-host Jason Sudeikis: $35,000.
A visit to Stonestreet’s “Modern Family” set, which is heading into its final season: $34,000.
A KU basketball experience with Riggle, $24,000.
A visit to the set of the DC Comics movie “Suicide Squad,” in which David Dastmalchian of Overland Park will play Polka-Dot Man. “I don’t even know what Polka-Dot Man does,” confessed Dastmalchian, who co-starred with Rudd in the Marvel Comics “Ant-Man” movies. “But Harley Quinn might be there.” It sold for $18,000.
A trip for four to appear with Al Roker on the “Today” show. Rudd, who lives in New York City, said he’d run over with a breakfast of Pop-Tarts. It also sold for $18,000.
The larger venue for the auction meant organizers wanted to add more entertainment between the bidding. That included performances by Blue Springs native David Cook and his fellow “American Idol” alum Chris Daughtry, musician Lucas Novick, who was treated as a child at the Children’s Mercy Cancer Center, plus comedy sets and magic.
The evening began with a series of video greetings from stars such as Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Spider-Man Tom Holland and Kansas City native Don Cheadle, who said they hoped to attend a future Big Slick.
Which got the hosts to thinking out loud: Next year at Arrowhead Stadium?
This story was originally published June 9, 2019 at 2:31 AM.
