John Waters Gay filmmaker, writer and stand-up extraordinaire John Waters is bringing his one man show to Auckland and Wellington in October and November. The 65-year-old moustachioed master of cult trash films, from Pink Flamingos to the more mainstream Hairspray, will perform his 'vaudeville act' This Filthy World at Wellington's Opera house and Auckland's Civic Theatre. The monologue focuses on Waters' early artistic influences, his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy, and the extremes of the contemporary art world. This Filthy World will also draw on material from Waters’ most recent book, Role Models. Waters says This Filthy Word is "a self-help group for people who don't need self-help. It's to try to make you feel good about being nuts, which I think is important these days." About John Waters: Since his teenage years, John Waters has used Baltimore, which he fondly dubbed the "Hairdo Capitol of the World," as the setting for all his films, forging an unwavering path in his quest to give bad taste a good name. In 1967, he made his first 16-mm film, Eat Your Makeup, the story of a deranged governess and her lover who kidnap fashion models and force them to model themselves to death. Mondo Trasho, Waters' first feature length film, was completed in 1969 despite production grinding to a halt when the director and two actors were arrested for "participating in a misdemeanour, to wit: indecent exposure." In 1972 Waters created what would become the most notorious film in American independent cinema of the 1970's, Pink Flamingos. Centred on the battle to secure the title "Filthiest People Alive," Pink Flamingos turned Waters into a cult celebrity and went on to become a smash success. In Hairspray (1988), Waters created "an almost big-budget comedy extravaganza about star-struck teenage celebrities in 1962, their stage mothers and their quest for mental health." The film was a box office and critical success, later turned into a Broadway production, with a remake of the film released in 2007 starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. Later hit films include Cry-Baby with Johnny Depp and Serial Mom with Kathleen Turner. Pink Flamingos, the ultimate trash masterpiece, was again in theatres for a 25th Anniversary re-release in 1997, complete with new footage. Commenting on the long-lasting popularity of the film, Waters proudly boasts, "it's hard to offend three generations, but it looks like I've succeeded." As an openly gay man, Waters is an avid supporter of gay rights and gay pride.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 28th June 2011 - 2:18pm