John Waters on The Year of FILTH, Punk, & Christmas

John Waters needs no introduction, at 77 years of age he’s the leader of the punks. The coolest celebrity that ever existed. He reads more books than all the bibliophiles I know. And he’s on the road touring with his hilarious one-man show.

He never changed who he was to fit in or to get a deal. After decades of bad reviews, the mainstream now gets John Waters. They finally do! There’s nothing more punk than being yourself and having The Culture change because of you. He recently got a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a MAJOR exhibit at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Randy Barbato (executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race) said “Hollywood will never be the same” and I couldn’t agree more. I declare 2023 the Year of Filth!

The John Waters Christmas is here

I chatted with John over the phone in early November 2023.

Patricia Colli: Hi John! This has been a really good and busy year for you. You showcased your personal art collection at The Baltimore Museum of Art, have a major exhibit at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles AND got a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

John Waters: It’s been great! And I just did 6 of my other show in the past week. I’m a carny, I’m on the road! And I’m still writing my Christmas Show.

That’s fantastic! How are you feeling about it all?

I feel great, I feel like my profile couldn’t get much better. Maybe I should run for office, but that’s when I’d start going downhill: when you have to appeal to everybody. When you try to appeal to nobody in the arts, you succeed. And when you try to appeal to everybody in politics, you don’t succeed. (laughs)

I would totally vote for you! From a fan’s perspective it’s great to follow your career and see how you’ve changed culture. You’ve always been true to who you are, never tried to fit in and after decades of bad reviews, people get you. Now they’re ready, and you’re still the same.

Oh that’s sweet of you, thank you! I would say I just made bad taste 1% more respectable and… Trump ruined it, this is not even bad taste. There’s not even good bad taste anymore because Melania’s Christmas decorations ruined it forever. They were so horrible! You couldn’t describe them and they weren’t funny. That’s the end of good bad taste.

It’s true, but because of you there’s more room for people like me to belong a little bit more.

That’s what I’m excited about. But that’s not bad taste anymore, maybe we have a new good taste.

You have excellent taste in my book. The way you live your life is really inspiring. You are a true punk!

Thank you. Punk is where I feel the most comfortable.  I talk about in my show, how punk should be the new diversity. We’re not included enough! You know, I’m the host of that big punk Festival every year in Oakland.

Yes, Mosswood Meltdown is great! I agree, punks are such a minority now. But at least we have you as our leader.

Thank you. I’m probably the oldest punk there (laughs)

Well, I don’t know about that. Every year I’m impressed with how many seniors I see in the mosh pit.

Maybe when I turn 80 I’ll jump in the mosh pit from the stage.

(laughs) And I will be there to catch you! I can only imagine how much great material you have for this year’s Christmas Show.

Yes, it’s always different. If you saw it last year, get ready for a whole different show.

Oh, I know. This is my 12th Christmas!

Oh my God! I love doing the show in San Francisco, it’s part of my ritual to start the tour in San Francisco. The audience is great, I still have an apartment there. I’m a part-time resident.

You make San Francisco cooler.

We’ve got C.H.U.D everywhere, which stands for Cannibalistic Human Underground Dwellers. So I guess I’m looking for Bud, the C.H.U.D., the cutest one.

(laughs) What’s that? Is that a movie reference?

Yeah, it’s a real movie and Bud, the C.H.U.D. was the sequel. I guess it’s not politically correct to call people C.H.U.D., but C.H.U.D.s are the dangerous ones that wish you ill on the street. I don’t have to be that liberal about them when they’re running at you (laughs). Christmas brings out the C.H.U.D. in all of us.

Because we could all end up homeless. We could all end up anything. You look at every one of those people and, my friend Pat Moran always says, “Each one of these people had a mother”. 

That’s true, sometimes I’m walking down the street and I see people doing drugs that resemble someone I know. The other day I saw a guy that looked like someone I dated and I had to look again. Once I hugged a stranger cause I mistook him for an artist I know and he was kind of a C.H.U.D. (laughs).

That’s happened to me! I’ve been in San Francisco walking down the street and a homeless person is lying on the street begging, looks up and says “John! Remember me?” And I look at him and I do, vaguely. I can see that I remember him from 50 years ago and it could’ve been me, it could happen to anybody. But in San Francisco, they also have a sense of humor. There’s one time I saw somebody with a sign that said, “I used to be quite attractive”. (laughs)

John Waters by Greg Gorman

Well, at least they still have a memory. A lot of them just seem to be fried up by fentanyl these days, it’s sad.

I’m always kind of amazed, when I first came to San Francisco everyone was poor. It was cool to be poor then. I lived in my car the first week I was there, not far from where I live now in Lower Nob Hill. I lived right across the street from the Nob Hill Theater. I didn’t love it but you’d just put towels on your car windows and that was it.

There are still a lot of people living in their cars. I lived in a closet when I moved here, I didn’t realize it was a closet until later (laughs). Some of The Cockettes lived in a closet too, if you’re lucky it’s just a rite of passage.

The worst place I’ve ever stayed was at a friend’s apartment in New York. There were no windows and the first night, they turned off all the lights and went to sleep. I heard the rat trap go off and then I heard a rat puke. 

 Oh nooo! (laughs) That’s VERY John Waters though. 

(laughs) Yeah, I’ve never heard a rat puke before but that’s punk rock. 

I can imagine you reproducing that in one of your movies. Can I ask you about LIARMOUTH?

Now you can because the writers’ guild strike is over. I finished the script, I turned it in and they liked it. We’ll see what happens! I’m in the middle of it. There are a lot of green lights you can wish me for Christmas. That’s the only kind of lights I want on my tree, green lights to get a movie made!

John Waters by Greg GormanVery exciting news! Me and all your fans will be surrounding you with green lights in our thoughts. I was at the City Arts & Lecture event that Aubrey Plaza interviewed you (you can read the article here) and I got very STRONG Marsha Sprinkles vibes from her. 

(laughs) I can’t comment on that. The screen actors guild strike is still happening.

The other day I was thinking about how the world would be a better place if Divine was still here. What do you think Divine would be doing in 2023?

Divine would be a very happy man. He was never trans, he would be for the movement but he didn’t want to be a woman. The last movie he made was Allan Rudolph’s “Trouble in Mind” and he played a man. Divine would still be a great character actor and could play women, animals, he could play everything! He would still be working, if he had been alive he probably would have been the grandmother in A Dirty Shame. He would have been the right age at the time.

And he would probably get a Star on the Walk of Fame next to yours.

I hope he gets a Star next, I even said that when I got the award. I hope somebody sponsors Divine to get his Star, he certainly deserves it.

photo: Patricia Colli

I play this game sometimes, I like to  imagine what a certain character would be doing in the real world these days. What do you think Pecker would be doing?

Well, Pecker would have a tough time because of cell phone cameras, you can’t really take an ugly picture. Diane Arbus and Pecker could never have a career because the camera corrects it. Every picture looks like a calendar in a barbershop. Perfect scenery picture. That would be a challenge for any modern photographer.

I would still look forward seeing Pecker’s art show.

His real art show is in the Academy Museum, all the photographs are in there. If his career had kept going he would definitely have had a show in San Francisco.

I can see that! He would have a big turn out, all the cool people in the city would be there.

It could be at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art because the guy who used to run The Baltimore Museum now runs the SFMOMA. He would know Pecker and bring him out.

Cecil B. Demented Brazilian edition postcards from my personal collection

That would be lovely! What do you think Cecil B. Demented would be doing in 2023?

Cecil B. Demented would probably be stopping the sequel from Barbie from being made (laughs). I don’t have anything against Barbie, but he would be angry that any movie made that much money. You know what I mean? He would kidnap Barbie and force her to go trans, that would be very San Francisco.

I would love to watch that movie. In my early  20’s I was so into it, I got Demented Forever tattooed. Such an underrated classic! Hope it gets a Criterion edition soon.

That’s great! I still get people on the street who stop me and say Demented Forever. Stephen (Dorf) came to see me in Baltimore, I hadn’t seen him for a while, it was great. And I saw Melanie (Griffith) this Summer, she was lovely. I saw them separately. 

If you could have three wishes granted this Christmas: one art wish, one film wish and a personal wish. What would they be?

My art wish would be to get a Mike Kelly’s painting where all he did was take a piece of wall carpeting and paint it the same color.

My film wish would be that both LIARMOUTH and Fruitcake get greenlit.

My personal wish would be that I would live in good health beyond my two role models Norman Lear and Mel Brooks, both who are near or over 100 years old.

 I wish for that too! If you could create a new Christmas tradition what would it be?

I guess it would be Tea Bagging around the Christmas tree. And you could hang your own balls on the tree if you could do it painlessly and with joy. (laughs)

(laughs) I will be on the front row then. I’m looking forward to seeing you on Christmas . Thank you so much, John!

You had great questions, thank you!

*Low ticket alert* Get your tickets for the greatest night of the year

November 30, 2023 at The Great American Music Hall

21+, Doors open at 7PM 

859 O’Farrell St San Francisco, CA 94109

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