An Evening with John Waters

I had the pleasure of attending one of those fancy, schmansy speaker’s series last night, billed as an evening with John Waters. Yep, THAT John Waters.

(Here’s the pre-lecture article. Here's another article from the NY Times about his book. Go here)

The evening turned to NOT be fancy or even schmansy, but more of a coming together of your favorite kooks, outcasts, and lesbian neighbors all listening to your naughty uncle by the fire.




The set was simple, two chairs, one for the interviewer from the local newspaper and one for Mr. Waters. They enjoyed about an hour of Q & A. While I don’t think it was a scripted talk, I do believe there was some outline of how Mr. Waters would respond to questions.

Some of my favorite responses were about looking up to Johnny Mathis and having an obsession with the Manson women. And his detail of some of the more colorful characters from Baltimore was a hoot. When describing Zorro the Stripper, he said she would come out on stage already nude, give the audience the finger, and shout “What the fuck are you looking at?”

I’ve seen several of Mr. Waters’ movies and truthfully, didn’t find then all that funny. I think his set-up of the movies’ premise is more funny and when you hear him talk about the cast, they seem like loads of fun. I really wish I knew them. Then again, carnies aren’t a group I usually hang with on Saturday nights!

Here’s a bad pic I took with my phone. That’s Mr. Waters on the right.

Great night. Glad we went!