YouTube star who made Paul Rudd cry coming to Kansas City Big Slick for the first time
READ MORE
2022 Big Slick Celebrity Weekend
After the pandemic sent it online two years in a row, Big Slick Celebrity Weekend is back, in person, June 24-25. Here’s what to know.
Expand All
So. They meet again.
The man who made Paul Rudd cry on YouTube is coming to Kansas City as a guest at the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend next week, co-hosted by Rudd.
With the announcement Friday that “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans will be among the celebrity guests, we can only hope that eating blazing-hot chicken wings will be added to this year’s events.
On his show, Evans challenges celebrities to eat wings coated in hot sauces as he interviews them about their lives and careers.
Also announced Friday: repeat guests Katherine “Kat” McNamara of Lee’s Summit (“Shadowhunters,” “Arrow” and the recent Hallmark romance “Love Classified”), Martin Starr (“Spider-Man,” “Silicon Valley”) and Samm Levine (Rudd’s “Wet Hot American Summer,” “Freaks and Geeks”), as well as another Big Slick newcomer, Peter Schrager, who is a host on NFL Network. Maybe they’ll want to sit in the hot seat?
Or maybe Big Slick’s other hosts — Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet, Rob Riggle and David Koechner — want a turn? Their names have popped up when fans discuss dream guests for Evans’ show.
Evans is the guy who made Shaquille O’Neal chug from a gallon of milk after eating a wing coated with Da’ Bomb hot sauce, the famous demon dressing made by Spicin Foods in Kansas City, Kansas.
O’Neal scoffed when Evans told him the sauce came from Kansas.
“Kansas don’t know how to do no hot wings!” O’Neal said before his eyes bugged out at the first bite.
The basketball great quickly corrected himself: “Oh, I apologize, Kansas.”
Da’ Bomb nearly took down Rudd, too. The “Ant-Man” star appeared in an October 2019 episode that went viral and inspired a Twitter timeline full of memes. That episode has more than 21 million views to date.
“I like spicy food,” Rudd told Evans before the tasting began. “I don’t shy away from it. Um, I’m not so crazy about plutonium and I know where some of this is headed. So I guess we’ll see.”
Instead of chicken wings, Rudd ate hefty chunks of cauliflower dipped in the sauces because, he said, he was trying to eat less meat.
In between mouthfuls he talked about Big Slick and how one year, during batting practice before the celebrity softball game, he stood in the batter’s box facing then-Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who had pitched the night before “but was still throwing at 85, 90 miles per hour,” Rudd recalled. “I knew what was coming … and it’s like hitting a bullet.”
Rudd’s lips were tingling by the time he tasted Da’ Bomb, which put a flush on his cheeks and tears in his eyes.
He goes down in “Hot Ones” history as the guy who mixed all 10 hot sauces together for one last mouthful of hellfire. And not once did he reach for a cooling gulp of water or milk.
Who wouldn’t like to see him do it again at Big Slick?
Proceeds benefit the Cancer Center at Children’s Mercy.
This year’s events include:
▪ The Big Slick Celebrity Classic softball game at 5 p.m. Friday, June 24, at Kauffman Stadium. Anyone who buys a ticket to the Kansas City Royals game that night against the Oakland A’s can watch the celebrity softball game beforehand for free.
▪ The Big Slick Party & Show at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at the T-Mobile Center downtown. Tickets range from $75 for standard lower level to $250-$375 for upgraded seats with Founder’s Club access, including drink tickets or open bar. They’re available at bigslickkc.org and T-MobileCenter.com.
Other guests already announced include Heidi Gardner from “Saturday Night Live,” a graduate of Kansas City’s Notre Dame de Sion; singers Sheryl Crow, a Missouri native, and David Cook of Blue Springs; actors Adam Scott, Kevin Pollak and Ginger Gonzaga; sportscaster Joe Tessitore and WWE star Happy Corbin from Lenexa.
Friday’s announcement was officially the last of the guest list, but don’t be surprised if more names pop up next week, such as some Kansas City Chiefs stars.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 8:51 AM.
.jpg)
