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A portrait of John Waters.<\/p>\n
Photo by Greg Gorman<\/p>\n
John Waters is rebelling simply by being here. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be 80,\u201d he told the audience at Berkeley\u2019s UC Theatre, just a week or so shy of his actual birthday. \u201c[Life] goes quicker. You don\u2019t get enough time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But the world\u2019s wickedest octogenarian wasn\u2019t in much of a rush during his new one-man show, \u201cGoing to Extremes: A John Waters 80th Birthday Celebration.\u201d On April 11, the \u201cPope of Trash\u201d took to the pulpit \u2014\u00a0 a lectern with a picture of himself in a pink pope robe and cap \u2014 for a stream of consciousness-style series of musings on the state of the world. The part-time local<\/a>\u2019s demented, spoken-word Boomer brain rot tackled everything from LGBTQ culture and aging to punk, politics and all manner of bodily functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cGo ahead, suck the helium out of those balloons, bitches,\u201d he enthused. \u201cIt\u2019s a John Waters birthday. I may be older, but together on this special day, we will smolder.\u201d<\/p>\n For longer than many of us have been alive, Waters\u00a0\u2014 the Impresario of Indecency, the Duke of Dirt, the King of Kevorkian Comedy \u2014 has been embracing his contradictions, freakishness and up-yours attitude. And because he only celebrates his birthday every 10 years (\u201cyou have to give yourself the party, you can\u2019t expect someone else to do it after a certain age\u201d), Waters\u2019 80th was the perfect occasion for reflection and advice.<\/p>\n \u201c[I\u2019m] looking forward to spreading my filth in Berkeley, a town that put the R in radical but still needs a little R as in rotten,\u201d Waters told SFGATE via email ahead of the show.<\/p>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In his trademark alliterative, propulsive and often outrageous style, Waters delivered a birthday sermon about the things he\u2019d like to reinvent, scenarios he\u2019d reimagine and the things we should make more extreme to suit his worldview. Among the latter: adventure parks (\u201croller coasters with free poppers for every rider\u201d), haunted houses (which could include a \u201chetero horror section\u201d where ghosts play the Grateful Dead), and travel (\u201cpurposely arrive 10 seconds before the flight door closes, just to experience a new kind of adrenaline rush\u201d). Oh, and the flight should only shows movies with airplane crashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cPick one and panic,\u201d he said with a withering smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n If we could stop talking about the weather as an extreme, John Waters would be delighted.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRain, big deal. I got enough sense to come in out of it,\u201d he said, as if taunting the already-soaked weekend<\/a>. \u201cSnow [is] butch rain. Sleet: bisexual rain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Though mostly based in Baltimore (where the weather is objectively more extreme), Waters has long kept an apartment in San Francisco and has hosted\u00a0Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland for over a decade. He simultaneously teased and praised local culture throughout his sermon, nodding to local drag performer Peaches Christ and the legendary Cockettes, as well as the C.H.U.D.s at People\u2019s Park in the \u201970s and his visit to a punk show at San Francisco\u2019s short-lived Deaf Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cRecently I saw a San Francisco restaurant … that boasted the only meat served was slaughtered by gay farmers,\u201d Waters quipped to uproarious laughter. \u201cIs breeder beef the new no-no? I\u2019ll go further: bread baked only by pickled pervert pastry chefs.\u201d<\/p>\n