Last week, "Pope of Trash" John Waters came to do his one-man monologue, "This Filthy World", at the Rose Wagner Center. It was a terrifically funny piece for those who know his work or are aligned with his aesthetic. It randomly meandered to different topics - his films, his celebrity obsessions, his thoughts on fetishes and subcultures.
Here's a collection of non-verbatim quotes from the show, just to give you an idea...
"Be glad that your kid is a troublemaker. You should hope that he's a bad influence on others."
"You know who I love? Justin Bieber. Can you imagine if he'd met Michael Jackson?"
"People who don't get along with their own minority - THAT'S my core audience."
He made an appeal for the return of teenage hitchhiking. He expressed his hopes for a mausoleum/museum called "Disgraceland", and for a club segregated for different fetishists called "The Pelt Room".
Lest your stereotypes of Salt Lake City overwhelm you, I'm happy to report that the vibrant counterculture of the city was there en masse. He had a Q&A session afterwards which included a fascinating back and forth between himself and a young man whom he had inspired to become a corrections officer. The conversation was about convicted Manson girl Leslie Van Houten, aka "Lulu".
As he explains in his book, he takes care to make sure that his advocacy for Van Houten doesn't become a joke, or camp, and to be empathetic and take the thoughts and considerations of her victims' families into account.
"Who do you think is currently the filthiest person in the world?" This was the last question he took for the evening. 'Filthy' is a positive, he explained, and then crowned Johnny Knoxville with the title, whom he described as a gentleman, a wonderful person, and the straightest man ever to produce films about men stuffing things in their rectum...
There was a private reception afterwards which I was fortunate enough to attend. However, I was starstruck and lame. I had very little to say to Mr. Waters, who was very nice and gracious (and was taking pictures, signing butts and overseeing a couple getting engaged in front of him). I probably bored him immensely. There were many things I would have loved to discuss with him.
Such as: was he responsible for the last 15 minutes of "Exorcist: The Beginning" (the most execrable entry in a franchise that should not have been a franchise)? See this hilarious and NSFW link, which sadly I'm unable to embed.
Or: was he ever going to use John Walker Lindh in one of his films, opposite Patty Hearst?
Or: did he think the Broadway and film remakes of "Hairspray" drained the bite and sleaze and awesomeness from his original work?
Or: his contributions to the Child's Play franchise (see 1:49)
Or: why oh why couldn't there be a spin-off of "Pecker"? It could be a serious theological thriller about faith and mystery, something to rival "Agnes of God".
Ah well. I got shy and self-conscious, and I'm sure he didn't need me babbling on and on about things he's probably moved on from. Someday, some day I will make my impression upon the trasherati!
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Comments
Tell us about Salt Lake's vibrant counter-culture.
I am sure that Mr. Waters' life is all the better for having met the purveyor of the "swank lounge of nightmares".
LOVE your idea for the Pecker spin-off.