John Waters on This Filthy World – Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

Im on the phone with the cult film director, actor, and godfather of camp John Waters as hes preparing his annual Christmas party for about 200 people. Hes been keeping busy,just finishing up the last show of his holiday tour (a yearly ritual of his), and this time aroundhe visited 16 cities. As he puts it, Im like a drag queen on Halloween.

Nobody does it quite like Waters. With a career bridging the divide between high and lowbrow culture, this is the man whose stringof trashy '70sexploitation comedieselevatedDivine to the world,who directedthe original 1988version of the musical Hairspray,and who still finds time to starin everything from Seed of Chucky to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Carrying a sign that read "I'm not psycho,"he once hitchhikedacross the United States from his native Baltimore to San Francisco, and wrote about his experiences inhis bookCarsick.He also maintains a regular column on Artforumwhere he rounds uphis favorite movies each year with his eclectic taste.

The last time Waters was in Minnesota, he curated the show Absentee Landlord at the Walker Art Center in 2011. The exhibit envisioned the Walkers galleries as rental apartments, where he housed 80 pieces of art in different rooms, organizing the roommates in a way that putthem in conversation with each other to reveal new sides to each work.

Notdirecting at the moment, the man with the pencil-thin mustache continues to perform his freewheeling one-man show,This Filthy World,while updating it to reflect the times. Its always rewritten and completely new. Im always rewriting it, he says. In a wayIve been doing this for 50 yearsits a self-help in a way, at the same time telling you how to negotiate your way and fail upwards. But its everything: Its about crime, fashion, movies, young people, music... How you really should just stay in the city you were born in now. You dont have to move to New York or L.A. anymore, you should just make those cities better.

Ahead of his two sold-out performances at the Parkway Theater, I caught up with the inimitable man once ordainedby the beatnik author William S. Burroughs as thePope of Trash.

On his childhood in Baltimore, My childhood was like a pretty upper-middle class family, very functional. They were horrified by what I did, but at the same time they were supportive. Ive written about them a lot in all the books. The best thing I can think of is my father after he saw A Dirty Shame, and he said, It was funny, but I dont know if Ill ever see it again.

On the effectCatholicism had on his upbringing, I always make the joke that, being raised Catholic, sex will always be dirty. It made me angry, thats what it did right in the beginning. My mom would tell me the first thing I rebelled was when we had to stand up in church and take the pledge of the Legion of Decency, which condemned movies, and I refused to take it. I was about seven years old. It made me angry. It still makes me angry.

On his parents' acceptance, I never came out as gay, its not like a bar mitzvah. They were afraid to ask me if I was gay because they thought it might be something worse. [laughs] They were confused because they figured I was gay, except I had straight male friends and I hung around with girls too. There were so many mixed signals they didnt quite know what it was, but whatever it was, I think smoking pot and LSD made them more nervous. They had so many things to be nervous about, but they still tried to accept that they did the best they could, and they made me feel safe, and thats the only thing that really counts, whatever your parents say. Your parents could be serial killers and be good parents if they make you feel safe."

On political correctness in comedy, Weirdly, I am politically correct, even though the stuff I say, you would probably argue with me. No one ever gets mad at what I say, because I think I make fun of myself first. I dont think Im mean-spiritedwell, I am about Trumpand I also kind of make a lot of jokes about the Democratic candidates, too. I think Im an equal opportunity employer, but I only make fun of things (mostly) that I love. I think thats why I lasted so long, because being mean is funny for 10 minutes, not 70. Also, Im 73 years old, and if youre still that angry at 73, youre kind of an asshole. I mean, you shouldve worked something out by the time youre 73. [laughs] I mean, theres lots to get angry about politically, but if youre blaming everybody for different things in your life at 70you know, life isnt fair, and everybody is not dealt the same hand, so you have to accept that. You can blame your parents up to 30.

On his morning routine, I wake up Monday to Friday at 6 a.m., read six newspapers, look at my emails, and then turn it all off. At 8 a.m. I write until about 11:30 every day. And then in the afternoon, Im in my office, and we sell whatever it is Im thinking about.

On the 2020 presidential election, Im hoping for this scenario: That the election is so close that [Trump] loses by one vote, which will make him go so insane that he will refuse to leave the White House, and then tanks will have to come in to remove our own president from the White House. That would be a good movie. With Melania? It would be a really exciting action movie.

On what hes been reading, I really like Lydia Davis, her essays I just read are really, really smart. I just read Ducks, Newburyport, and its one sentence and its 987 pages long. Its quite good though: Its a page-turner, but the problem is theres no place to put the bookmark.

On his most controversial opinion, That Greta Thunberg is really a Children of the Corn. Im really for her, but Im scared of her now. When Trump criticized her, she answered back, I know you are, but what am I? She makes Republicans so crazy that it makes me laugh. We need some fearless people to straighten us back out here.

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John Waters on This Filthy World - Mpls.St.Paul Magazine