There are collaborations where everyone knows where to stand, what to do and exactly when the camera is rolling. And then there was Frosty.
We actually met on Grindr during the Grabbys. Not particularly glamorous, perhaps, but very efficient.
Frosty was already a hugely established creator, and one of the things I immediately loved about him was how naturally he lets people into his world. He talks to his audience, shows the behind-the-scenes moments and isn’t afraid to explain how an experience actually made him feel. He’s confident, open and completely himself.
We arranged a collaboration. What I wasn’t expecting was that we’d basically become inseparable afterwards.
Suddenly we were texting constantly, deciding which events and clubs to go to together, eating out, going to the beach and creating an almost ridiculous amount of content. Photos, videos, TikToks, Reels — if there was a camera nearby, apparently we had something to make.
Then came the actual shoot.
Frosty had his photographer and cameraman, Klaus, with him from Germany. They gave the whole thing a proper production: photographs first, video afterwards, and photography throughout the main collaboration.
Except there was one slight problem.
The chemistry was considerably less professional than the production.
At some point David, Frosty and I stopped thinking about cameras altogether. Nobody needed to direct us. Nobody was worrying about angles. The attraction between the three of us was so natural that we kept getting distracted from the fact we were supposed to be making something.
And apparently our enthusiasm wasn’t confined enough to the hotel room.
Frosty’s balcony at Hotel Ritual looked directly over the area where the Grabbys events were happening, so naturally we thought it would make a brilliant place to start filming.
It did.
Until somebody knocked on the door.
We were politely informed that perhaps this particular performance needed to move back inside because it was, of all things, school-run time.
Not quite the audience we’d planned for.
We died laughing, retreated indoors and carried on with considerably more privacy.
Afterwards, the three of us showered, got dressed and went out for food as though this were the most normal afternoon imaginable.
And weirdly, that’s probably what I remember most fondly about the whole experience.
Adult creation can look very calculated from the outside: cameras, poses, collaborations, numbers. But sometimes you meet someone and none of that is the interesting part anymore. You simply have chemistry. You laugh together. You spend the rest of the trip together. And somebody you originally met for work becomes somebody you’re genuinely excited to see again.
Frosty and I still speak regularly, and he has invited David and me to Cologne this October for a filming week with him and Klaus. Halloween and Christmas content are already on the agenda.
I genuinely cannot wait.
Turns out the best thing we made at the Grabbys wasn’t necessarily the thing we went there to film.
