‘You cannot define it.’ Children’s Mercy’s new leader kicks off 16th Big Slick
Alejandro Quiroga has only been president and CEO of Children’s Mercy Kansas City since January, so he gets a pass for sounding starstruck Friday.
It fell to him to open the 16th annual Big Slick Celebrity Weekend, to stand in front of the event’s A-list squad of hosts — Jason Sudeikis, Paul Rudd, Rob Riggle, Eric Stonestreet, Heidi Gardner and David Koechner — and say a few words to the media.
The hospital’s new leader said people have asked him: How can we make something like Big Slick happen in our cities? How can we reproduce it?
“I said, you can’t. You need Kansas City and you can’t have it,” he said to laughs in the auditorium of the Children’s Mercy Research Institute. “You need Children’s Mercy and it belongs to Kansas City. What happens here is extremely special and you cannot define it.”
Big Slick has raised $25 million for the hospital’s cancer research efforts since it began as a celebrity poker tournament. Nearing its 20th anniversary it has grown into a two-day weekend capped with a celebrity-studded variety show.
The guest list is full of returning guests — yes, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are coming back — but also includes notable first-timers Keenan Thompson from “Saturday Night Live,” the guys from “Impractical Jokers” and Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts.
Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch, the stars of the CW series “Superman & Lois,” will also appear.
Stonestreet joked that he’s been involved with Big Slick longer than all the years he spent in school. He said it feels selfish when people thank the hosts.
“This would not be successful if Kansas City then didn’t show up for it ... Kansas City just shows up every year to keep the ball rolling,” he said.
Big Slick prides itself on being different from other celebrity charity events because the stars get to see for themselves what they are supporting. While they’re in town they spend two mornings with the patients, families and staff at the hospital.
On Friday after talking to the media, some of the celebs played the Big Slick version of “Family Feud,” which the hospital streamed from the research institute’s auditorium to all patients.
“We love you walking around the halls ... everyone knows this is a special week,” Quiroga told the hosts.
A beloved member of the Big Slick family, Cheers” actor George Wendt, died last week. The uncle of Jason Sudeikis appeared at the first and last events.
Wendt’s sister, Kathy Sudeikis (Jason’s mother) recalled Friday that at the first Big Slick her brother rubbed his bottom onto a bar stool that they sold for $5,000.
Just last year Wendt appeared in a Big Slick skit reprising his role as “Da Bears” superfan Bob Swerski, a character he played on “Saturday Night Live.”
“He’s going to be felt, his absence is here,” Rudd said, noting how Wendt was as much a part of Big Slick “as any of us. He’s a really, really sweet guy. I love him.”
“With regard to Uncle George,” Sudeikis said, “there’s that old saying, don’t meet your heroes because they usually let you down. But he’s not one of those people. He’s as fun and kind and warm as any character he played on television or films.”
His uncle blazed a trail for him, Sudeikis said, taught him that acting “was a career you could actually have if you really cared about it.”
He mentioned one of his uncle’s college hangouts in Kansas City while he attended Rockhurst University, “a bar called Mike’s ... where I think he logged maybe 18 credit hours. But it was all preparation of a job that we all know him for on ‘Cheers’ ... time well-spent.
“We miss him greatly. I love him dearly.”
Stonestreet recalled hanging out with Wendt on a hotel balcony during one Big Slick event when Wendt asked him if he liked Winstead’s cheeseburgers. When Stonestreet said yes, Wendt told him someone should order some.
“And miraculously, 100 cheeseburgers showed up,” Stonestreet said. “We sat there and toasted each other with cheeseburgers. It was perfect.”
The Big Slick family
By now Big Slick’s hosts sound like brothers and sisters teasing each other around the dining room table when they’re together. Friday they began connecting the dots on how they first met each other, most of them long after their childhood years in and near Kansas City.
The original three hosts were born elsewhere but grew up in Johnson County — Sudeikis (Shawnee Mission West), Riggle (Shawnee Mission South, KU grad) and Rudd (Shawnee Mission West, attended KU).
Kansas City natives Eric Stonestreet (Piper High, K-State grad) and Heidi Gardner (Notre Dame de Sion, KU, MU), along with Koechner from Tipton, Missouri (Benedictine College, University of Missouri), joined later.
Riggle joked that “we all (babysat) for Heidi at one point, I believe.”
When Riggle said he met Rudd at the University of Kansas, Stonestreet let out a “boo.” He’s a Kansas State grad.
Riggle said he was excited to see Rudd in his first national commercial for Miller Lite. “The very first job I ever got,” said Rudd.
Seeing it made him believe that he could do the same thing some day, Riggle said.
Riggle and Sudeikis, who both grew up in Overland Park, crossed paths for the first time in New York City when they both auditioned for “Saturday Night Live.”
As Sudeikis told it: “I was talking about Kansas City, Rob comes up — this is how I remember it — Are you talking about Kansas City? I go, yeah. (He asks) are you from there? I go, yeah, where are you from? And he’s like Overland Park.
“I go, ‘Me too, what school district?’ ‘Shawnee Mission South.’ ‘Me too, but I went to West. What cross streets?’”
Stonestreet said he, Sudeikis and Koechner all have ties to the same improv theater in Chicago. Then Koechner was surprised when Stonestreet told him they were both on an episode of the sitcom “Dharma and Greg,” Stonestreet’s first TV job.
And, Koechner said, “some of us have had the same pedigree as far as SNL.”
“Not all of us. No, no, that’s fine,” Stonestreet said to laughs.
“Here we go,” Riggle said.
Big-ticket auction prizes
Two events make up Big Slick weekend.
The Big Slick Celebrity Classic Softball Game will take place on the main field at Kauffman Stadium on Friday, May 30, before the Royals play the Detroit Tigers. Everyone with a Royals ticket can watch the softball game, which begins at 5 p.m.
The Big Slick Party & Show, the weekend’s main event, is Saturday, May 31, at T-Mobile Center. The raucous event includes musical performances, skits and an auction for big-ticket items.
Tickets, starting at $75, are available at bigslickkc.org or T-MobileCenter.com.
Organizers said extra tickets have been made available for the party at T-Mobile.
A silent auction is underway for a lengthy list of prizes on the Big Slick website, several of which will put the winners in the presence of the stars themselves.
There are tickets to WWE events, the “Today” show concert series, the Los Angeles set of “Fox NFL Sunday” and several talk shows including “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “The Daily Show,” “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
Comedians Fortune Feimster and “Weird Al” Yankovich are offering tickets to their upcoming sold-out performances in Kansas City.
The guys from “Impractical Jokers” are offering four tickets to visit their set in New York or New Jersey.
It’s not a prank. The bid was at $5,000 as of Friday afternoon.
Singer Logan Mize, who will appear at the last Symphony in the Flint Hills concert on June 14, is offering two tickets to the event and a meet-and-greet.
During the live auction Saturday night the action is guaranteed to be fast and the bids high as people typically pay huge bucks for VIP, Hollywood experiences.
Rudd just filmed a new version of “Anaconda” with Jack Black that hits theaters Christmas Day. One auction package includes two tickets to the red carpet premiere with Rudd.
Stonestreet will reportedly play a serial killer from the Midwest on Showtime’s new drama series, “Dexter: Resurrection,” which has been filming in New York since January. Another auction package offers two tickets to the show’s red carpet premiere and a private meet-and-greet with Stonestreet.
Gardner is offering an ultimate girls’ or guys’ getaway in New York City where she will host two guests who will get new hairstyles, spa treatments and brunch with the “Saturday Night Live” star.
Actors Anthony Hill, raised in KCK, and Kansas City native Kat McNamara will host two people to a “next-level night” at the June 14 KC Current game, with premium seats close to the pitch.
Here is the final guest list:
- Becky Ann Baker, actor, “Girls,” “Freaks and Geeks,” returning guest
- Dylan Baker, actor, “The Good Wife,” “Spider-Man 2.” returning guest
- Philip Bowen, fiddle player, returning guest
Richard Christy, comedian, radio personality, (“Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”), new guest
- David Cook, Blue Springs native, singer, returning guest
Chris Daughtry, singer, “American Idol,” returning guest
David Dastmalchian, actor, KC native, (Murderbots,” “Life of Chuck”), returning guest
Jay DeMarcus, Rascal Flatts, new guest
- Fortune Feimster, comedian, returning guest
Will Forte, actor, “Saturday Night Live,” “The Four Seasons,” returning guest
Bill Glass, actor, (“St. Denis Medical” and Progressive commercials), new guest
Seth Herzog, comedian, returning guest
- Anthony Hill, KC native, actor, “Grey’s Anatomy,” returning guest
Tyler Hoechlin, actor, (“Superman & Lois.” “Teen Wolf”), new guest
- Travis Kelce, KC Chiefs tight end, returning guest
Richard Kind, actor, (“Spin City,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Only Murders in the Building”) returning guest
- Johnny Knoxville, actor, stunt man, returning guest
Darren Leader, drummer, Steel Panther, new guest
Samm Levine, actor , (“Freaks and Geeks”), returning guest
Kendell Marvel, songwriter, new guest
- Patrick Mahomes, KC Chiefs quarterback, returning guest
- Kat McNamara, KC native, actress, returning guest
Curt Menefee, longtime FOX NFL Sunday host, returning guest
Logan Mize, Kansas native, country singer, returning guest
James Murray, “Impractical Jokers,” returning guest
Tom Pestock, KC native, former WWE star (Baron Corbin) now TV chef, returning guest
- Kevin Pollak, actor, comedian, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” returning guest
Potash Twins, jazz musicians and TV personalities, returning guest
Brian “Q” Quinn, “Impractical Jokers,” returning guest
Kevin Rahm, actor, (“Mad Men,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Madam Secretary”), returning guest
- Adam Ray, comedian, new guest
- Andy Richter, comedian, new guest
- Al Roker, “Today Show” co-host, returning guest
Andrea Savage, comedian and writer (“I’m Sorry,” “Tulsa King,” “VEEP”), returning guest
Robert Smigel, actor, voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, “Happy Gilmore 2,” returning guest
Martin Starr, comedian, (“Silicon Valley,” “Freaks and Geeks”), returning guest
- Kenan Thompson, “Saturday Night Live,” new guest
- Sarah Tiana, comedian, writer, returning guest
Bitsie Tulloch, actor, (“Grimm,” “Superman & Lois”), returning guest
Blake Vogt, illusionist, returning guest
Sal Vulcano, “Impractical Jokers,” new guest
Calum Worthy, actor, (“Austin & Ally,” “The Act,” “American Vandal”), new guest.
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM.
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