You Otter Know is a tender, funny and entertaining online queer magazine experience, available for free at youotterknow.camp, featuring art, humour, glossy photo spreads, illustrations, poetry, new writing and important life lessons. Exploring sexuality, chronicling insights into sobriety, regaling entertaining personal history and sharing the many lessons learned from a heady career in show-business. Deliberately created to look like it’s been found in a seedy basement and uploaded for your pleasure, You Otter Know is inspired by the graphic design of retro erotica from the 70s, 80s and 90s and is available later this month online.
After Harry’s tour of his theatre show Sex Education – which won both a Brighton Fringe Award (2017) and the Melbourne Fringe Award in Edinburgh (2019) – was interrupted by the COVID-19 crisis, with multiple dates across the UK and Australia postponed and cancelled, You Otter Know was founded in the first lockdown, as a new way for Harry to continue working at home. Sharing art and collaborating with fellow live artists across many continents in these tricky and trying times. Issue 1 was commissioned by Homotopia (the UK’s longest running LGBTQIA arts and culture festival based in Liverpool) and launched in June, viewed online by thousands of people in over 50 countries. Marlborough Productions have taken on the role as commissioners for Issue 2 which launches on the 23rd November and coinciding with the UK’s second lockdown.
Harry said, “This year has been so tricky for us all and I miss theatre so much. On a personal level, it felt like everything I had been building towards was wiped away and like for so many of us, I don’t know what will return. Earlier this year while in lockdown, I wanted to find a way to create with my peers and connect with audiences. If everything was going online, I wanted to find an outlet for my art and hone my digital voice. I’ve always been such a fan of vintage erotica and with the help of the independent publishing house Polari Press, we worked towards creating a digital zine that emulated the style of seedy mag that I love so much. Together with some very talented friends of mine, You Otter Know was launched. Like a variety show between the pages. Now we find ourselves in Lockdown Two and I’m so excited to be releasing Issue Two. Settle down, pop the kettle on and enjoy!”
You Otter Know Issue 2 is jam packed with exciting content, featuring queer Australian songwriter Brendan Maclean on the cover who takes us behind the scenes on his video House of Air. Writer, comedian, performance artist and theatre maker Krishna Istha shares their secret diary. Hula hooper, roller skate artist, pole-dancer, voguer and cabaret artist extraordinaire Symoné explores truth and lies. Here to disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed, the beautiful art of Simba. An in-depth chat with artist, community activist and pleasure seeker COAX. Plus, Harry explores five years of sobriety and the premiere of Lovers in the Backseat, the final photoshoot before the world changed.
Issue 2 is released on 23rd November at http://youotterknow.camp/
