KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – The celebrities behind Big Slick said Kansas City is more than just where they grew up. It’s family.
At their opening press conference, hosts David Koechner, Rob Riggle, Eric Stonestreet, Jason Sudeikis, Paul Rudd and Heidi Gardner explained what brings them back year after year for the celebrity fundraiser weekend that benefits Children’s Mercy. For some, it’s a literal family. For others, it’s the sense of home they can’t find anywhere else.
“My three sisters live here and my brothers live nearby,” said David Koechner, who hails from Tipton, Missouri. “So any reason to come back to this area, and this is a great reason. My family expands every year and it’s just beautiful.”
Stonestreet, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, said he moved back to Kansas City at 51, something he never expected.
“Lindsay, my wife, and my family brought me back to Kansas City,” Stonestreet said. “I didn’t have that on my bingo card. But my God, have I enjoyed it. And I’m so happy here.”
Rudd, who graduated from Shawnee Mission West and the University of Kansas, added that no matter where the group lives now, Kansas City is home.
Big Slick celebrity guests (from left): David Koechner, Eric Stonestreet, Paul Rudd, Rob Riggle, Jason Sudeikis and Heidi Gardner at the opening press conference on May 29, 2026.(Jordan Fremstad, KCTV5)
“The most formative years of all of our lives were in Kansas City,” he said. “It’s always been great coming back and having friends and family here. But also the support of the city. We feel it.”
Riggle, from Overland Park, Kansas, said almost everything he loves is in Kansas City.
“I long for the day when I get to move back here,” he said.
Sudeikis, who also grew up in Overland Park, stated that Kansas City keeps reinventing itself.
“When I lived here, I only went to Taco Villa, Taco Bell and Gates,” he described. “Now, just new places open all the time. There’s always something new, whether it’s the arts, whether it’s food, certainly the different sports teams.”
Gardner, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, and lives in the area part of the time, said every inch of the city holds a special memory.
“This weekend, even the nostalgia of being downtown, whenever I come down here for the Big Slick, I go into Crown Center, and I ride the escalator up to where the movie theaters used to be,” Gardner said. “I rode that so much with my brother, Justin, and my mom.”
Stonestreet said he has been given trouble in Hollywood about how much he loves Kansas City.
“I actively have been given trouble about how much I love where I’m from,” Stonestreet said. “Co-stars, Julie Bowen, for example, just can’t get over how much pride I have in the city that I’m from. It is a unique town, and we are reflected that about when we talk about how much we love our city. Other people just don’t feel that way, necessarily, about their hometowns.”
Riggle said Kansas City is ascending in every way.
“I see opportunity coming, I see growth, I see business, I see pride,” Koechner said. “When something you love is ascending, it’s pretty fantastic.”
Bringing Hollywood to Kansas City
Gardner said she will shoot a movie in Kansas City toward the end of the summer.
“I truly couldn’t believe that I got to be a part of something that I really wanted to be in that I thought was an amazing script,” Gardner said. “And then when they dropped it on me that they were going to shoot in Kansas City, I was like, are you in my dream life?”
The group said they would like to see Kansas offer film tax credits to bring more productions to the area.
“It’d bring even more jobs if Kansas were to see eye to eye with Missouri,” Sudeikis said.
Big Slick’s main event takes place Saturday night. The weekend has raised money for Children’s Mercy Hospital for 17 years.
But before the weekend festivities began, some celebrities made their most important stop first, visiting with and performing for Children’s Mercy patients.
Magician Blake Vogt performed a special show for the kids, with members of the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line there to cheer them on.
Stonestreet said being with the kids is always the highlight of the weekend.
Big Slick has raised over $30 million for Children’s Mercy since it began in 2010. Tickets to Saturday’s show are still available online.
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