I went to see John Waters and his vaudeville act This Filthy World at the Opera House the other night. He was talking nineteen to the dozen - firing on all cylinders. He blasted just about every social, sexual, gender stereotype and taboo out of the [excuse the pun] water. The man is dynamite. He told the story of how he and Divine used to cut school and go to a burlesque club - a time when burlesque in Baltimore was in its last throes. They used to go and see an overweight stripper. “She came out naked. She’d stand there and say, what the f**k are you looking at? We worshipped her.” Waters said if he had his own burlesque act, he’d do just that. Go out there “naked and alone with no makeup - like Tilda Swinton at the Oscars,” just to make people uncomfortable.

He was heading straight from Sydney to LA to hit up the Oscar parties and have lunch dates with Patti Hearst and Ricki Lake.

I like this old picture of Waters - look at that head of hair… who knew?! And I had the best time chatting with him for this issue of RUSSH… go check it out.