Entertainment

JOHN WATERS

TRASH-TASTIC director John Waters has always prided himself on his subculture-y nicknames (“the Pope of Filth,” “the Prince of Puke”), but with a second big musical, “Cry-Baby,” vying for Tony Awards tonight, Waters may attain his most outrageous title yet: King of Broadway. Yikes! Fear not, “Pink Flamingos” devotees: the pencil-mustachioed one will jettison all that respectability with his one-man show, “This Filthy World,” on June 26 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

“Hairspray” won eight Tonys in 2003. “Cry-Baby” is up for four tonight. What are your odds this time?

Last time we were the favorite, and this time we’re definitely the underdog. That’s fine. Being fourth is enough. We’re just trying to claw our way up to third.

What can we expect from your one-man show?

I’ve been doing it for 30 years. It’s updated and expanded every time. It’s a spoken-word act that focuses on what I call my “early negative artistic influences.” It touches on true crime, fashion lunacy, the extremes of the art world, sexual deviancy and a lot of other things. I’m interested in showmen, people that had to keep reinventing themselves.

What do you think the state of comedy is now?

I think it’s good! When I was young, in the ’50s, I used to buy all these books like “Sick Jokes,” and then “Sick Sick Jokes,” and now that’s become American humor. I think that’s great, because Americans have learned to laugh at what they fear.

Does your show encourage people to revolt?

I say in my act that I’m tired of people whining about politics. What do they do about it? They wear a watch that says “38 weeks till Bush is out of office.” Turn over a car! The reason they don’t is because there’s no draft. If there was a draft, every college would be burned down. This show I’m doing is benefiting the Stonewall Foundation. I hope gay people don’t forget that Stonewall was a riot. We should be troublemakers. I miss ACT UP. I’m for making trouble. I think we should have ACT BAD.

Trash culture has always been your thing. now it’s become commodified and gentrified. Is it endangering the real thing?

Well, you just can’t have real trash in Manhattan. It’s impossible, because of irony. There is no such thing as a real biker bar or trailer park. Irony makes everything have the prefix “faux.” I go to a real biker bar [in Baltimore], where the girls beat each other up and they don’t even get thrown out, they just sit there bleeding and smoking.

You have a rabid cult following. What’s a typical fan interaction like?

The newest thing, which always alarms me a bit, is when I autograph their bodies and then they go and have it tattooed on. So I’ve been trying to write small. The most shocking thing was the girl who had the script of “Female Trouble” tattooed on her leg. I love that. I mean, how many writers can say that? Their faces maybe, but their actual scripts?

What do you think about this epidemic of buttoned-up conservatives getting busted for the very things they rail against?

I talk about Larry Craig in my show. I could have told him, if you’re gonna have sex in a public bathroom, any self-respecting pervert knows that one guy sits down and the other takes two shopping bags and stands in them, so it looks like there’s only one person in there!

Picking His Brain

“I’m certainly going to vote for Obama.

I used to vote several times, but that’s getting harder to do with picture IDs.”

Hopefully, we’re going to shoot [my new kids’ movie] “Fruitcake,” in November. It’s a terribly wonderful children’s Christmas adventure. Johnny Knoxville plays the dad, but mostly it’s all children.

I haven’t seen “Poultrygeist,” but I love the ad. It’s a hilarious title. I know [Troma Entertainment chief] Lloyd Kaufman – his company has been around, it seems, as long as MGM.