Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, left, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who appeared at last year’s Big Slick Celebrity Weekend, will be back this year. REED HOFFMANN Special to the Star
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).
Gaten Matarazzo, left, who plays Dustin on “Stranger Things,” will appear at Big Slick this weekend. The Netflix series is filming its fifth and final season. Netflix 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.