Singing songs about Space Buns – Annie Ellicott

Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes. 

 Annie Ellicott, my guest on this episode, has been singing most of her life. In elementary school she was a member of the Tulsa Youth Opera. Her first solo performance came at 15 as a Central High School student when she performed “Orange Colored Sky” made famous by Nat King Cole. By 16 she was doing paid gigs and has barely slowed down since. 

In 2016 she released her first album of original material, Lonesome Goldmine. There was a previous release of jazz standards in 2009 and hundreds of shows in between throughout the US and Europe.

While living on the West Coast, Ellicott landed an appearance in a Jeff Goldblum concert that turned into many more shows. If you weren’t aware, yes, I’m talking about the actor who played The Fly,  Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm and hosted a Disney+ show. She shares the story on how it came to be and what it was like in this conversation recorded Feb. 22 on Zoom.

Nowadays when she’s not singing, Ellicott is using her vocal talents in voice acting. She voices the title character of the Soundbooth Theater audio dramedy “Space Buns.” Ellicott does the voice of Ruby Little aka Space Buns and also the voices of a couple of the mice inside Ruby’s head. She also serves as the songwriter for the series that is co-created by her friend Emily Labes.  

We feature Ellicott in our March issue, and writer Destiny Lyons has this to say about the show’s premise:

 “The dramedy’s main character, Ruby Little, aka Space Buns, is an aspiring comic book writer who struggles to balance reality and fantasy. After a freak accident the night Ruby is supposed to pitch her idea, the distinction between the two blur even more.”

Ellicott discusses how the COVID-19 has impacted her musical career and how it’s opened the door to new opportunities like Space Buns that have forced her to grow as an artist. 

 If you want to check out episodes of her new series and sign up to be notified when new episodes drop, visit soundbooththeater.com. A note, the artwork for Space Buns was created by Tulsa’s own Jeremy Luther, so be sure to check it out as well. 

I really enjoyed getting to know Annie and learning about her creative process. Be sure to check out the song after our conversation. More on that later. 

OK, let’s get this going. 

This is Tulsa Talks with Annie Ellicott. 

In “Space Buns” Annie Ellicott is not only the lead voice actor, but also the series’ songwriter. To close out this episode we’re sharing a song from the first episode. “The Three Visionarily Impaired Mice” was produced by Mark Kuykendall and is available as part of the episode at Soundbooththeater.com. 

 Here is Annie Ellicott with “The Three Visionarily Impaired Mice.”