Waters and Peaches Champion Bad Taste

When filmmaker John Waters performed with triple-X vocalist Peaches at the El Rey Theatre on Friday, they were, of course, the embodiment of bad taste. During the campy double bill, headliner Waters detailed his rise from an excrement-obsessed no-name to cult hero in his appropriately titled stand-up routine, “Shock Value.”

The 56-year-old director, who is as much of a character as any of the stars in his many films, held an hourlong VIP meet-and-greet before his show, signing autographs and fielding questions from a handful of fans who had paid $75 to yuk it up with the man responsible for some of the most revolting films of all time.

Waters told one fan that many of the people in the room looked like they were from Baltimore, the town where he was raised and has shot his films. That may or may not have been the case, though it could have been a casting call: disco victims in gold chain belts, rockabilly girls with skunk-striped hair, even a transvestite (though he was slimmer than Divine, the obese cross-dresser who starred in many of Waters’ early films).

Before Waters appeared on stage, Peaches, a singer-rapper with a libido seemingly in overdrive, opened the evening with a high-energy but low-class romp. The red curtain drew back to reveal Peaches and a girlfriend enjoying a white trash moment: chugging Corona and slurping spaghetti.

Beginning her show wearing a pink satin jacket, black pants and snakeskin ankle boots, she proceeded to lose an article of clothing with every song. Two tracks in, her jacket was gone, revealing an ill-fitting red satin tank. By the next song, she had stripped off the tank to show the waistband of her fishnet stockings riding high over a pair of hot pants that were, predictably, gone by the time she got to her next number.

With mullet-like curly locks and 5 o’clock underarm shadow, Peaches’ allure is a raw exhibitionism and trashy sex appeal that says she’d be just as happy getting it on in a dumpster as she would at home. The singer premiered two songs in as many encores, ending her performance by spitting fake blood, stage diving into the crowd, then snapping a picture of the audience before departing. Highly entertaining, Peaches’ go-for-broke performance primed the audience for Waters.

In an hour program that was not just a laugh a minute but a guffaw every 15 seconds, “the filth elder,” as he called himself, demonstrated he is a natural monologuist, on par with the likes of Eric Bogosian.

Loosely based on his 1981 book of the same title, “Shock Value” was a lurid and hilarious look at Waters’ life and career, peppered with cultural commentary. In it, he talked about a youth that cultivated his passion for sleaze, from the days he idolized “The Bad Seed” star Patty McCormack to his first sexual experience in a library. He then chronicled his early days as a filmmaker--from screening films in church basements to handing out scratch ‘n sniff cards to moviegoers so they could share fully the abominations on screen--and gave brief highlights from his controversial film history.

Waters got his start in 1964 with the film “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket,” but it wasn’t until 1972 that he came out with what he called his most notorious movie--”Pink Flamingos.” “If I discovered the cure for cancer tomorrow, ‘Pink Flamingos’ would still be ahead of that in my obituary,” Waters quipped. The 1972 cult classic had characters competing for the title of world’s filthiest person.

“Polyester,” his 1981 film starring former teen heartthrob Tab Hunter, marked his entrance into first-run theaters, and in 1988 he “accidentally made a family movie” called “Hairspray,” starring then-unknown actress and present-day talk-show host Ricki Lake.”I remember the day I got a PG rating. I held my head in shame,” Waters said. “Hairspray” is now being made into a Broadway show--an experience that has him feeling like Bob Fosse, he said.

“Hairspray,” a film about racial tolerance, among other things, marked the beginning of bigger-budget movies with marquee-value stars, from “Cry-Baby” starring Johnny Depp and Patty Hearst, to “Serial Mom” with Kathleen Turner, to his most recent release, “Cecil B. Demented,” starring Melanie Griffith as a fading star who is kidnapped by renegade filmmakers who force her to act in their movie.

Among the movies he said he’d like to make in the future: “Holy Anorexia,” a film about the eating disorders of saints, and anything starring Don Knotts.

Waters ended his show by answering audience questions. What’s your favorite fetish? (“Catholicism.”) Did you ever sleep with Divine? (“No, that’s why we were friends to the end.”) Who would play you in a biopic? (“Steve Buscemi in my youth, and Don Knotts in my autumn.”)