John Waters

Incorporating memoir and lecture with a touch of vaudeville, This Filthy World celebrates the film career and obsessional tastes of the man William Burroughs once called “The Pope of Trash.” John Waters continuously hones this joyously devious monologue, updating it with his crackpot opinions on current events while preserving stories of his childhood in Baltimore. A discussion of early negative artistic influences paves the way for a Waters version of American cultural studies from the 1960s to the present, set against the backdrop of his filmmaking career. In the process, he focuses on his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy, and the extremes of the contemporary art world. A master of irony, a man renowned for his outrageous wit, Waters elevates all that is trashy in life into a call to arms to “filth followers” everywhere. Waters signs copies of his latest book, Role Models, in the Walker Shop after the performance.