Just about anyone who digs outsider moviemaking has drunk from the deliriously demented well of filmmaker John Waters.
Dubbed the Pope of Trash by William S. Burroughs, the Baltimore native helped pioneer the midnight movie genre in the '70s with twisted classics like Pink Flamingos, spawned the celebrity of lovable drag queen Divine and gave the world Odorama.
After his '70s-early-'80s underground reign, Waters made commercially successful kitsch-fests like Cry-Baby and Hairspray that have been adapted to Broadway, swerving from major-release comedy to freakazoid territory with Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented and A Dirty Shame.
Waters has endeared himself to fans not only for his delightfully deviant sense of humor — and memorable one-liners about "cha-cha heels" and other middle-class perversions — but for his uncanny empathy with society's disenfranchised. He gives good interview wherever he goes, and records his witty observations in books like Shock Value, Crackpot and, most recently, Role Models.
Waters visits USF's Theatre 1 for a free one-man show on Thurs., Jan. 27. Here's an excerpted version of our recent Q&A; read the complete interview at cltampa.com/arts.
Do you think Tampa Bay, with its strip bars and seedy underbelly, is at all like Baltimore?
I think there is a certain similarity — maybe some people from Baltimore ran away and landed there and vice versa. I think they cross state lines to go to the same exact types of places.
Yeah, maybe they landed at the Port of Tampa. There's a bar there called Stoney's I know you'd love.
So the seaport there is not fixed up? It hasn't been yuppified? See, in Baltimore by the harbor, it has. It used to be all rats and lesbian bars and sailor bars. They were great. Now it's been very much yuppified, but other parts haven't yet.
Do you make it your business to seek out the working-class dives in Baltimore?
I have a friend I always go with back home who just e-mailed me about two bars to try when I get home. One is in a hardware store. I love that idea. It's a bar in a hardware store. I feel like Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble — 'not the needle-nosed pliers, baby!'
Have any idea what you'll discuss at USF?
I'll probably be trying out some of my new showbiz material on you to see what works and what doesn't.
You've befriended Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten [involved in the LoBianco murders] whom you've written about in Role Models and voiced your support for parole.
She was turned down again. She's up for the next one in two years. She never gives up and that's why she is a role model to me. …Forty years is a very, very long time — it's an appropriate time — I'm not saying it's too long. …But she doesn't even blame [Manson]. She said, 'It was my fault for making him my leader, for taking the drugs, and he couldn't be a cult leader if he didn't have followers.'"
This week, we're dealing with the aftermath of the Tucson tragedy.
That case is interesting to me because it's the ultimate test of the insanity law. …I am kind of obsessed by it.
You've said in the past that you don't watch TV? Are you watching more TV now?
When something big happens, yes — but otherwise I never watch TV. To turn on the TV is traumatic for me because in each apartment where I live, the remotes are different and I practically cry that I get so frustrated and think, 'I fucking can't turn on my TV!' And I'm not a Luddite. I have Blackberries and computers. It's like, aren't I successful enough that I can hire someone to travel with me to turn on my TV twice a year? Am I that pathetic?"
So you don't watch reality TV?
No, I don't watch reality TV.
You've said that you're fascinated with people who've "exhausted the concept of fame."
Ha, that's different — that's Justin Bieber, whom I've just met, and he drew on my mustache! Did you see all that? Just Google our names together and you'll see it. It's almost scary — like why are we together? I was just on The Graham Norton Show with him in London. I think that anyone who makes fun of him is jealous. I'm for that — to be 16 and so famous you never have to leave the house. I think it's great. I even bought the pimple medicine he's endorsing in case I ever get a pimple at age 65 — I'm putting on Justin's medicine! I'm for him. I'm a 'Belieber,' as they say. He said after the show, 'Your 'stache is the jam,' which made me almost levitate.
As far as others go, you champion the "minorities who don't fit into their own minorities." Who are those people nowadays?
The new people I want to march for are the people who are asexual, who hate sex, and the heterosexual couples who have chosen not to have babies. That's the most hated minority. I'm for them. I think they're brave.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.
