Touch of class, dab of dirt

By Sarah Feldberg

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Filmmaker John Waters is known for his affection for filth and for showcasing the damp, ugly underbelly of human sexuality.

Waters, who directed such films as “Pink Flamingos,” “Hairspray” and “A Dirty Shame,” brings his one-man show to the Palms on Saturday as a part of the Fangoria Trinity of Terrors festival.

He was at his home in Baltimore, putting addresses on some of the 1,800 Christmas cards he’ll send out this winter, when he spoke to the Sun by phone. The conversation included talk about his live one-man show, his favorite Halloween activities and how to foam at the mouth.

What can you tell me about your one-man show you’ll be performing this weekend in Las Vegas?

Well, I think this year it should be called “This Horrible World,” since it’s a horror convention. It’s everything about my life. It’s sort of like a “feel good if you’re insane” lecture to inspire people who might feel left out of society ... I’ll talk about horror movies. My mother thinks all my movies are horror movies, even though none of them are technically horror movies.

You’ve turned shock value into a lifestyle and a career. Does that ever get tiring or daunting?

No, because I never try to just shock people. That’s easy to do. I try to surprise people, hopefully with wit. I never tried to top “Pink Flamingos,” if I had I wouldn’t be coming this Halloween. I always have to reinvent it and I always try to surprise people, but it’s easy to shock people. It’s harder and more desirable to use wit to surprise people.

Are people harder to surprise now, because there’s so much out there?

I think “Pink Flamingos” still works. You can show that to a 16-year-old today, which is probably illegal, but anyway, they have the same reaction it did when it came out. So that didn’t mellow. I think what’s hard to do is have something that comes out, if it’s ever just known for being shocking, that lasts. “Pink Flamingos” did. I don’t think it’s my best movie, but I do think it worked beyond my ever imagining and still works. It didn’t get nicer, and it doesn’t seem old hat.

Vegas is the kind of place that people come to because they think there are no limits here.

My favorite thing to do is watch overweight people wait in line for hours at all-you-can-eat restaurants. That is astounding to me. It’s so American. I think you really have to be in good shape if you’re a tourist there. It takes so long to get to your room; it’s like a 30-minute walk. One thing that really made me laugh, I remember … I was in the Hilton, in the casino all the people dressed in those Star Trek outfits would recognize me and come over. I could tell they were all gay, so it was like underneath their costumes they were all big queens ... It was hilarious to see gay people disguised as Star Trek characters. It was a different kind of drag, that’s all.

You worked with very low budgets on some of your older films. What are some of the things that you had to make work?

In “Multiple Maniacs” there’s a scene where Divine eats David Lochary’s heart, and I just went to the butcher and got a cow’s heart. It was kind of rotten; it was horrible ... Puke, I remember when we didn’t have any money, the best thing was just creamed corn out of a can. If you want to foam at the mouth you just put an Alka Seltzer without water in your mouth and gurgle it around and you start foaming. Mink (Stole), when we were young, she would go to thrift shops the day after Halloween when all the children’s costumes were on sale for a nickel and buy them all and wear them all year as her outfits. That’s a good fashion choice. The day after Halloween, Halloween costumes are really cheap in thrift shops and the most pitiful ones are left. Just wear them all year.

Are you a big fan of Halloween?

I don’t know. It used to be gay Christmas. I think Halloween parades have been ruined a little bit, because they’re not gay parades. They turn into a little bit just like tourist things. In New York, Halloween is kind of horrible, because everyone comes into the city that doesn’t live there and just pukes dressed as a witch. You see people dressed as goblins vomiting at bus stops. When I was young, I was a vandal on Halloween. I really looked forward to destruction on Halloween.

Throwing eggs?

Oh, way worse than that! My friend would pour gas all over lawns and then throw a match and the whole lawn would go up. Stuff like that. We were really bad kids. I mean, I didn’t really do that, but I was with him and I would run a lot. I used to take my best friend … when she was 4, I took her out and had her throw eggs at cars … I’m happy to take a child to do their first trick on Halloween. It’s something I’ve tried to make my specialty with my nieces and nephews and friends’ kids. One egg.