Kayce Alltop is a Chicago voice over artist, voice over demo creator, improviser, teacher, and the list goes on. “If I’m ever filling out a form and it asks for my career,” Alltop says, “I always just put ‘Performer.’ It’s easier and it’s my favorite thing I do.” While more people probably understand what a voice over artist is versus a music director, Kayce says she still encounters people who just assume she does cartoons. “It’s like when you say you do improv and people think that means you do stand up, that’s their level of knowledge on it, they think cartoons are the only thing you could possibly do voice over for.” Though, for any animators and/or casting directors reading this, I’m sure Kayce would love to voice a cartoon.
As a performer, whether or not to be a freelancer isn’t exactly a choice. Kayce is in the union and represented by the fantastic Grossman & Jack talent agency, but none of that can actually guarantee a steady paycheck. Even if you land a series, you’re still living paycheck to paycheck. “You know how it is,” Kayce explains to me, who very much knows how it is, “you get one huge ass paycheck and then you get no ass paycheck for a while.” I’m happy to say that the week Kayce and I sat down to chat about her creative journey and work space, we were both actually quite booked with projects. Like good little creatives, we made it work, and I’m glad we did.
Oh, I mean, I don’t know that I have. I know we can, I know everybody can, but I, for one, avoided being a theatre major in college for a very long time. The term ‘starving artist’ scared the crap out of me and I was like ‘Well, I can’t do that! I better major in marketing.” That wasn’t a lot of fun so I tried psychology, only to realize that you really have to get your Ph.D. if you want to do anything in that field, and that wasn’t going to happen. So I finally caved and went with theatre in my junior year. I thought to myself, “Well, I’ll figure the rest out later.”
And, I sort of did, but it wasn’t until I landed my first big voiceover job that I felt confident. It was a non union job for a hospital. They were recording five or six different spots and I
got paid like $8,000.00. I quit waiting tables because of that check. I quit my job and was just like, “I’m going to keep finding jobs like this.”
Focusing. I eliminated the TV from my 9-5 life. Still, you’re at home so all of a sudden you’re like “I should clean this, or do this, or I should do laundry now.” So now I keep that office like it is my office in a building downtown.
Zero.
envy you. What are your techniques for shutting down for the day?
That’s a good question. I’m still trying to work on it. Instead of half working / half messing around for six hours, I’m trying to get better at really focusing and working hard for four. Part of it is closing any unnecessary windows in my browser. Damn you Buzzfeed! The good thing is that usually I have somewhere else to be; like auditions. If I have an audition in the afternoon, it’s the perfect out. Work, work, work, then leave and run down to the agency, especially now that I live further away.
Absolutely. It could be the office, really. I had an office in my apartment, but it was just like a room/spare bedroom. This, I set up myself, I picked the paint color, I told my husband, Kevin, “The office is mine, I’m taking over.” I made it what I wanted it to be which made it a little bit better.
!["The thing about [organizing] is, I don't."](http://nataliecmueller.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/P1020209-1024x683.jpg)
“The thing about [organizing] is, I don’t.”
No, I’d say not. I like it a lot. But it’s missing a few things. I’d like to have a small booth to record in — closets are usually the easiest to transform into a casual recording booth but the closet in there has a support beam in it that makes it useless. Honestly, if I had a nice big closet that I could convert into a recording studio, that’d be the ideal.
Most of the things that come to mind are small things that are totally achievable; like a big dry erase board. I mean, I could just go to Target after this and pick one up…maybe I will. I need to get a music stand, I almost ordered one on Amazon the other day but then didn’t for some reason. What else? I would love a new laptop. I need some big cans, some good, quality headphones. My microphone is pretty nice [Editors note: Kayce uses a Blue Snowball USB mic]. My desk is old, but I like it. Let’s dream big…I want one of those desks that is also a treadmill. I want a treadmill desk! They are amazing, you just walk while you work, I’d be so skinny!
Rock me, rock me, rock me tiny jesus
they can’t do something or have hit a wall, I don’t know if they can just go on a 3 mile run instead of on their lunch break and then come back to their work. Can they? It’s nice that I can. So…suck it people!For me, it’s bright spaces. That’s why I painted that bright blue color in my office. A nice window that I can have open when I’m not working. I need the energy of light in the room. I also need the ability to turn the world on and turn the world off for a moment. Either by blasting music to pump me up when I’m feeling drained, or to turn them off and have some quiet. And iced coffee. So, I guess: light, control, and iced coffee. In that regard my space is pretty good. The things that i need for it are all little items I need to just purchase for it.Oh and, the ability to leave it. The ability to just drop everything and go do something else. I don’t know if people who have 9-5 jobs can do that. If they’re feeling like
Oh I don’t, you see. I guess if I claimed to keep it organized it’s because I have a paper calendar. Google Calendar is amazing but I need a paper calendar. That way I can see everything and budget my time. So if I were to say that I was organized, it’d be in that way.
Oh my gosh, a good one? Really what I wish is that everyone who went to school for theatre was required to take an accounting class. I never took one. I never even had to take a math class in college, and now I’m number illiterate and spreadsheets scare me.
As a theatre major you learn how to act and to love your craft, but you don’t learn how to market yourself, or balance your books, or be your own business — and that’s what you are. I can sort of market myself, but the financial balancing and budgeting stuff, I have none of those skills in my body…I draw eights like snowmen.
Tchotchkes, tchotchkes everywhere. I wouldn’t say that I’m a hoarder but I like to keep things and I like little trinkets. They aren’t random, they’re meaningful tchotchkes. No Target tchotchkes. My house is like a big scrapbook. All of the art on the wall is meaningful. That wine bottle is from the day I was born. That bowl on that table is full of wine corks but only from meaningful events, like my brother’s engagement. Things like that.
My blue pillow that has a dove on it and says ‘Peace.’ — My intention wasn’t for it to go in my office and it isn’t even the same shade blue as the paint, but I loved the way it looked in there. So that…and my
framed copy of the Fortune magazine that I was on the cover of.
There’s this sketch and improv group called Hey You Millionaires. It consists of Jim Fath, John Bohan and James Asmus. They’re based in LA now, but were living in Chicago at the time and one of their show posters had them wearing suits and holding cardboard signs that said ‘Will Work For Food’ or ‘Will Do Comedy For Food’ or something like that. Fortune magazine saw it somehow and wanted to hire them to do a photo shoot for their cover story about finding unemployment. Except they were three white guys so Fortune asked them to send some headshots of women and some ethnically diverse men. They chose me and Mars Timmz and flew us out for this huge photo shoot. I was in the picture they chose for the cover.
I will tell you, Natalie, that is very much the truth. When I got home from that job, before we got the paycheck, I was the poorest I had ever been. And I was like “Is this ironic? because it feels like it might be.”
Dakota, Office Pooch & all around good company
You can find Kayce onstage at The Annoyance Theater and Bar in Burlesque is More, which opened this past weekend, and in a musical parody of Back To The Future at the pH Comedy Theater, which also opened this past weekend. In the latter, officially titled Flux Capacitor: A Very McFly Musical, Kayce plays Mayor Goldie Wilson and I, myself, served as Choreographer and Assistant Director, so you should probably go see it. “It’s super fun and campy and silly and I love it,” Kayce’s words, but I agree. You can also catch her onstage in any number of improv shows at pH, they have shows Wednesday thru Sunday evenings and Saturday afternoons and are available for private parties, corporate events, bachelorette parties, etc. When booking, you’d actually be dealing with Kayce herself, as she volunteers as pH’s Relations Director.
Her most recent voice project was for The First Years, a brand that produces products for infants. “It was something for a bottle,” Kayce remembers, “Because I had to say the word nipple like ten times in it and I giggled.” And her most recent on camera gig was a series of spots for McDonald’s McCafe.
You can find more information about Kayce, her reel and her voiceover demos at KayceAlltop.Weebly.com.
If you would like to be featured on the Creative Spaces series, please contact me.
Tagged with: aftra • chicago comedy • chicago performer • chicago voice talent • chicago voiceover • creative spaces • creatives • fortune magazine • freelance chicago copywriter • grossman and jack • grossman jack • hey you millionaires • kayce alltop • kayce alltop mize • mcdonald's • mcdonald's mccafe • ph • ph comedy theater • sag • talent agency • the annoyance • the annoyance theater and bar • the first years • union voice talent • voice talent • voiceover artist
Comments are closed.
