John Waters with David Schmader: Mr. Know-It-All | Town Hall Seattle

No one knows more about everything-especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling-than John Waters. He joins us for a discussion of his new book Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder. Town Hall invites you to a conversation with Waters, joined onstage by writer David Schmader, that spans the breadth of his incredible and eclectic knowledge, fielding questions of every variety and exploring the idiosyncrasies of life.
In Mr. Know-It-All, he offers insight on everything under the sun: how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and even how to cheat death. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: “Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all.” Listen in for a deep conversation drawing on a lifetime of experience from a master of transgressive film.
John Waters is a film director, screenwriter, author, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, and visual artist. He is the mind behind numerous beloved cult films, including Hairspray, Multiple Maniacs, Cry-Baby, Pink Flamingos, and many others. His books Role Models and Carsick were major national bestsellers, and his spoken-word shows This Filthy World and A John Waters Christmas continue to be performed around the world.
David Schmader is a writer and performer devoted to exploring his obsessions, from homophobic rock stars and conversion therapy to cannabis and trash cinema. From 1998-2015, Schmader was a staff writer and editor at The Stranger where he wrote the issue-opening column “Last Days: The Week in Review” for 18 years.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

[@violetbrown2372]

The man is an American Treasure, thank God he's ours!

[@crispyrobot77]

John Waters is certainly no Steven Spielberg..and we can all be very thankful of that. John is truly a one of a kind filmmaker who enjoys shopping for others 🤪

[@jscho8674]

He is just genuinely funny. I love him so much!

[@Maymun_Maymun]

That's the best way he's ever closed an interview. This man is irreplaceable.

[@paulaharlfinger829]

What a beautiful soul❤ I love this man.

[@dr.g3860]

“PETA should be worried: because where do crabs go?” Brilliant.

[@MrDavid849]

Probably my favorite person in anything ever. I adore his tarnished wisdom.

[@cauldronmoon]

John Waters is an amazing ! Thank you for uploading this interview. 😀

[@sliverscreen]

John Waters! My hero!

[@PickledPotato]

Damn this man is so amazing. I hope I will be still as cool as him at that age

[@Chris-yj2di]

Every single interview I see with John Waters now the interviewer calls Divine a 'she'. John corrects them by saying 'he' yet they still do it. Don't misgender Divine. He wasn't trans he was a cross-dresser.

[@urzathehappy72]

Boo hoo. The last person who ever would be offended over anytging was Divine. Stop taking offense for others

[@Chris-yj2di]

@@urzathehappy72 Um, not sure if you got exactly what I was saying. John Waters, Divine's friend, correct someone who was trying to virtue signal that they were this great person. I'm not taking offence about misgendering as much as I am about the interviewer being an overly PC person.

[@urzathehappy72]

@@Chris-yj2di thats the only way to fight the liberal insanity is cause them to purity spiral by accusing them of what they accuse others. good work keep it up

[@allangray6764]

Lol how lucky we are to have this man

[@emilyfarfadet9131]

left my computer running- I forget where I'd started, but 6 degrees of separation lead the algorithm here. And I could not be happier!

[@mayhemfilmkreationsvideoch1114]

This is great! Love you John!

[@arnageboy]

I could listen to him all day.

[@lanolinlight]

When a genius is also a happy person.

[@suzannevaichinger8233]

Thank you for your mention of the brilliant @Dina Martina in this interview. So love John Waters. Can't get enough of him.

[@SmallTownNewYorkCityBoy]

The feigned shock from the interviewer though. Cringe.

[@anibaltorofigueroa]

I'm listening to this while I work and the interviewer sounds like he nuts every time John answers something. He moans a lot.

[@Chris-yj2di]

For reals, the embodiment of a soyboy right there.

[@astaunchcharacter]

@@Chris-yj2di What's a soy boy?

[@PSYCHOTRONICbrdcst]

@@astaunchcharacter en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_boy

[@astaunchcharacter]

@@PSYCHOTRONICbrdcst Thank you for sharing the info with me.

[@flazeda8743]

The dig to Kamala Harris is legit and was a discussion point back then but has since been drowned in the convenient "first woman VP" media storm.

[@farrellmcnulty909]

Harris always fails to mention she's the first woman with severe learning disabilities to become Vice-President.

[@palmereldritch7777]

Love how the interviewer cracks up every time.

[@BrandonFer]

Woah, his severed head in the popes bed!?!?!?!?!? That’s wild...

[@Transformational_change]

National treasure 💗🔥🌈

[@mar1812]

22:05 LOL

[@LarsPop-Tartus]

I’d love to have John Waters direct a biopic on Cardinal Mccarrick

[@douglasmendez6501]

What’s wrong with that interviewer? Was he ordered not to laugh? Liberate yourself, man! He should see how Martin Scorsese behaves while interviewing Fran Lebowitz!

[@wendygarcia1279]

I Love You John Waters 🥰😍😘💋♥️

[@StevenSegalFu]

One thing that makes me cringe whenever John is interviewed at these things is the interviewer and Q&A participants always tries to shock or match Johns humor and it never works

[@PictureThisFromUs]

David's sighing makes this even more enjoyable!

[@loucat2779]

I'm getting a wooden coffin in the desparate hope that it explodes and sends people running.

[@annalisabeck9192]

What a laugh fest! Can you imagine a conversation in a small group with John Waters? I would be in tears of laughter with a sore belly yelling for it to stop but not really wanting to. Grew up near Philadelphia Key West since 1977. I became familiar with Devine and Mr.Waters in an old theatre on South St. Continuously playing Pink Flamingos and Night Of The Living Dead in my teens the movie was beyond wild P.F.during the movies the activity of people inside the theatre was wild filled with all different kinds of smoke. Tried to explain P.F. to people who had not heard of or seen it they thought I was crazy and or making it up. I am so glad that changed . All of the actors were treasure as was Devine with much too short a life. John most of all. Thanks for shocking and disturbing and maddening and all the good stuff,laughter you have given. Totally irreplaceable. Very difficult if not impossible to find the”Bucket of blood”type of tavern these days. Regrettable.

[@rogerdale5451]

Somehow Waters is the epitome of the gay experience. A people shunned by everyone, not afraid of a good time, abandoning all norms, decorum, and "taste". A true people at the bottom -(NPI)- of the totem pole -(NPI)- Get over yourself, laugh at the absurd, it's all shtick. I'm like his father... "that was pretty funny, and I hope I never see it again". (the early films).

[@PSYCHOTRONICbrdcst]

John Waters is always great. Thanks for uploading this. I could do without the interviewer, though. It's like he simply HAS to laugh at everything John says. Fake laugh, too.

[@loucat2779]

The Commodore of Cool, person I would most like to meet, never mind Ghandi, MLK, RGB.

[@bernae1902]

This interviewer is just awful. Fanboying isn’t interesting to the audience, luckily John Waters is never boring and never relies on stupid questions alone.

[@cauldronmoon]

I love John Waters. 😀 This interviewer is weird. Why is he panting in between comments and questions?🤔

[@eddiecamacho6479]

Why does the interviewer keep losing his breathe and being giddy before every damn question. It's annoying.

[@lsmoulton]

They should have asked Mark Kermode.

[@anthonyrisola6144]

Where did they dig up this "interviewer"? Fake reactions,trying to be funny and failing . At one point he asked Waters about graffiti on tombstones,something Waters had talked about less than 10 seconds earlier!

[@cauldronmoon]

I love John Waters 🙂 I agree with you about this interviewer. Why is he panting between questions and comments? 🤔