John Waters on AI, LA’s pros and cons, and why he thinks laughter can bring the country together

What happens when a self-proclaimed “cultural provocateur” who’s embraced titles like the “Pope of Trash” and “Duke of Dirt” turns 80?

For one thing, writer and filmmaker John Waters told LAist, applause comes easier: “People applaud and I say, ‘Why?’ I haven't even said anything yet.’ It's 'cause I'm still alive.”

Not only is he still alive (and not quite 80 yet) he’s still “out there” and is not slowing down.

“I go to heavy metal concerts. I'm always going to things to spy on young people,” Waters said. “I'm always watching. All writers watch all the time.”

In addition to writing, he’s touring with a new one-man show titled “Going to Extremes” (with a stop in Los Angeles on April 14).

And as for what “extreme” means to him at this stage in his life, Waters said, “It used to be a good word, [but] now it's so bad because the government seems so extreme in such a ludicrous way to me. But the left and the right are both extreme now, they both are touchy, they have no humor. So I'm in the middle, using humor as a weapon [...] Humor is the only thing we have left to change things.”

Here are some highlights from Waters’s interview with LAist host Julia Paskin ahead of his “Going to Extremes” show in L.A. — condensed and edited for clarity.

“Provocative” versus “shocking”

Julia Paskin: Is it harder to be provocative or to make art that shocks in today's world? Talking about spying on the young people, I think about young people and how they're saturated with imagery that previous generations weren't. How do you penetrate that?

John Waters: That’s true. But to me, it's hard to be provocative. It's easy to be shocking, but shocking isn't always that good or funny or doesn't change anything.

What’s more intriguing to me, is to go to that edge where you can't walk and have both sides laugh with you, and at themself first, and then that's change. That's the only way we're gonna solve this. That's the only way we're gonna bring the country together.

 And maybe we should have sex with each other. Maybe every Proud Boy should have sex with antifa.

The pros and cons of Los Angeles — for writers and book-lovers

John Waters:  I don't wanna be around people that only talk about show business. And unfortunately, most everyone I know in Los Angeles, and I have great friends there, and I have a great time there, but they're all in the arts in some way. So that's all anybody talks about. In the other cities [San Francisco, New York, Provincetown and Baltimore, where Waters has residences] I know people that are truck drivers, funeral directors. I get more material that way.

Julia Paskin: You wrote in your 1986 book Crackpot that “Los Angeles is everything a great American city should be: Rich, hilarious, of questionable taste and throbbing with fake glamour.” Does that assessment still hold true for you?

John Waters:  It certainly does. But I also like being in L.A. recently when I have friends that take me to places that I've never been, because I'm always working when I'm in L.A. I'm never there with time off. 

So I really have fun there — lots of good bookshops and lots of neighborhoods I didn't know, like Echo Park. So I have fun in L.A. in a whole different way.  But that's when I'm not working.

Julia Paskin:  Any spots in L.A. you wanna shout out? Anything that was particularly cool? 

John Waters: [Stories Books and Cafe], that bookshop I love in Echo Park, there's a guy named John Tottenham who wrote a hilarious book about working there that you should really read. So I like to always go there. They have a really good selection of books.

Artificial intelligence for art?

John Waters:  Everybody asks me about AI and the thing is, I've used it a couple times and was shocked at how good it was, but then I didn't want to use the image, so I had to have it repainted by a real artist so I wasn't using it. 

But I want AI to cure cancer. I want AI to cure AIDS. I want AI to cure COVID. I want AI for science, and I'm all for it, if that works. 

Julia Paskin: What about in art?  

John Waters: I mean, nothing is off limits for art. You can use anything in a new way and AI is new, so of course it can be used for something. The problem is it's a good first draft that you didn't think up, but you sort of thought it up because you told it what to do.

So it is astounding. It is a magic trick to me that's amazing. But it's here, it's certainly not gonna go away. I always thought it would be good for just porn, but you can tell immediately, it never looks real. It's too good. It looks ridiculous. 

Advice for aspiring artists, writers filmmakers

 John Waters: Always have a backup career. I like to tell stories, so if I can’t get a movie made, I write a book.

Go see everything. Whatever field you wanna be in, participate. If you wanna be an artist, go to every gallery 'till you see a gallery that might like your work. See every movie, watch 'em with the sound off so you can see how they're edited. 

You have to participate in the world that you want to enter. If you wanna be in fashion, go to the thrift. You don't have to spend lots of money. Go to the thrift shops and buy the worst outfits that cost a nickel, that then are referenced by big designers that cost $5,000 a week later.