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John Waters Month · Cuff’s Basement

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Before we begin today's episode, we'd like to provide a
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  Speaker 1: brief clarification on behalf.
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  Speaker 2: Of my co host Ryan.
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  Speaker 1: While today's discussion takes place within the context of a
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  Speaker 1: podcast that focuses on LGBTQ plus lifestyle topics, perspectives, and experiences,
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  Speaker 1: Ryan wishes to note that he personally identifies as heterosexual.
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  Speaker 1: His appearance on this program is intended to support open dialogue,
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  Speaker 1: shared understanding, and respectful conversation across different communities and perspectives.
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  Speaker 1: His participation should not be interpreted as a representation of
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  Speaker 1: his own sexual orientation, but rather as an effort to
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  Speaker 1: engage thoughtfully and constructively with the topics being discussed. We
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the importance of transparency and authenticity for our audience
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  Speaker 1: and our guests alike, and we thank you for joining
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: this conversation and always wanting food off culture chaos.
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  Speaker 2: And you saved me.
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  Speaker 3: Like a lost Christ streams your glass sales, got the
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  Speaker 3: words that builds the last.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Cuffs Basement. I'm your co host who
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: is not as straight as Ryan uh Tim, and I
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  Speaker 1: am with.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: My co host, the one straight, Ryan McDonald. How are
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  Speaker 2: you doing?
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  Speaker 1: Ryan?
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  Speaker 4: Great to be here how are you guys.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And CC, you're probably gonna hear it, So we're doing
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: it early today and you're probably gonna hear a CEC
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: running around, which makes me so angry because I told
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  Speaker 1: Shannon she's watching CEC alone so we can do the podcast.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I said, I should be able to hear a pin
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  Speaker 1: drop in this house. But we have a very special
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  Speaker 1: topic and very special guests for this series and this
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: month we do it every year to celebrate Pride Month.
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  Speaker 1: We have the newly Married, which is so wonderful. I'm
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  Speaker 1: major round of applause for that sound effect. It is
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  Speaker 1: Mark Fulcini and Refall. I don't know how to say
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  Speaker 1: your last name. Welcome back, Welcome back to the podcast.
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: Good to be again, back back back again.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Back back back again. Thank you so much for returning
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: as our resident experts on being gay to do the
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  Speaker 1: Gayest series we do all year, every month for the past,
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  Speaker 1: every Pride month for the past.
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  Speaker 2: I don't even know how.
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  Speaker 1: Many years, because we did it before we start doing.
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  Speaker 2: It with Fall, so do you know how many years
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  Speaker 2: we've been doing it?
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  Speaker 5: Mark, I feel like this is our maybe or is
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  Speaker 5: it for the Ryan for this is the third one
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  Speaker 5: with me. The third one was with you. Okay, so
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  Speaker 5: we're four.
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  Speaker 1: I think I think five sounds right. The gay the
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  Speaker 1: Gay Cinema Podcast Series or or Queer Cinema Podcast Series
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  Speaker 1: is I think we changed it last year, but we're
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  Speaker 1: going with a theme this year. So normally we always
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  Speaker 1: just pick.
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  Speaker 2: We decided like.
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  Speaker 1: Any you know, pick anything within the community of LGBTQ.
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  Speaker 1: Plus it can be any movie you want. Rafall refuses
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  Speaker 1: to pick an American movie, but I found out a
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  Speaker 1: loophole that would force him to pick an American movie
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  Speaker 1: this year, and uh, we are only covering films made
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  Speaker 1: by the director John Waters. John Waters is an American
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  Speaker 1: director from Baltimore, Maryland, who is openly gay and includes
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  Speaker 1: many themes of gay, lesbian, trans.
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  Speaker 2: But also just like Serial Killers.
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  Speaker 1: Serial Killers. We did cover John waters movie already, which
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  Speaker 1: was Serial Mom. But Mark, describe, yeah, describe John Waters
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  Speaker 1: and your your history with him, and how if you
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  Speaker 1: if an alien landed on Earth and was like, describe
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  Speaker 1: John waters movies to me, what would you.
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  Speaker 5: Say, Oh, that's actually a really difficult question. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 5: because actually, like also I think that our picks, I
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  Speaker 5: mean three are in a certain style of John Waters,
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  Speaker 5: and then one is a more of his like mainstream
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  Speaker 5: like for a kind of main audience, but it still
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  Speaker 5: has a similar theme. And he's kind of just absurd.
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  Speaker 5: He's making he's counterculture, he's making fun of just the
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  Speaker 5: absurdity of life. I think, especially in this period I
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  Speaker 5: think where he grew up, like in the fifties and
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  Speaker 5: also in the sixties, he kind of it seems like
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  Speaker 5: he goes back to that period a lot in his movies.
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  Speaker 5: But yeah, John Waters. My I was thinking about, like
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  Speaker 5: how I like my first interaction with John Waters, and
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  Speaker 5: I remember specifically it was with Hairspray. I think I
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: was at like my I was with my family. We
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: went to like a friend's house or was at my
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  Speaker 5: grandparents and I was alone in the living room watching
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  Speaker 5: TV and Hairspray was on, and it was my first experience.
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  Speaker 5: And at the beginning of Hairspray, John Waters has a
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  Speaker 5: cameo which I did not realize at the time he
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  Speaker 5: was the director of the movie. But he's just like
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  Speaker 5: he flashes Ricky Lake and he has like this very
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  Speaker 5: you know, pencil thin mustache, and he like that's I
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  Speaker 5: think stuck with me. And I just remember I don't
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  Speaker 5: know if I knew he was like the director of
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  Speaker 5: these movies, but I just knew him as the sort
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  Speaker 5: of pop culture character. And it wasn't actually till I
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  Speaker 5: think later in life that I realized his kind of
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  Speaker 5: you know, collection of movies he's made and really like
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  Speaker 5: dove deep into them.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Have myself on mute.
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  Speaker 1: I think that John Waters is a unicorn and that
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  Speaker 1: there's there's no other director that's like him, and specifically
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  Speaker 1: because he goes from the absolute fringe of the fringe,
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  Speaker 1: craziest shit that you could possibly imagine, two very mainstream,
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  Speaker 1: like appearing on The Simpsons, appearing on Saturday Night Live.
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  Speaker 1: Hairspray is probably the most like famous mainstream movie he
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  Speaker 1: ever made, and it was also remade where John Travolta
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  Speaker 1: plays the divine. Wait, it was a Ricky Lakes roller.
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  Speaker 2: Divine's role is Divine in Hairspray.
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  Speaker 5: I've never seen it divin Hapray, Yeah, okay.
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  Speaker 1: I've actually I've never seen Hairspray and Rafall. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if they have. I don't know how popular a
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  Speaker 1: mainstream The Simpsons was when you were growing up in Poland.
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  Speaker 1: I don't I don't even know if you had a television,
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  Speaker 1: I'm you've probably lived in like some sort of ramshackle
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  Speaker 1: hut in the woods. But did you watch The Simpsons
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  Speaker 1: growing up with Fall?
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  Speaker 2: I absolute okay.
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  Speaker 1: So one of the best Simpsons episodes of all time
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  Speaker 1: is about Homer coming to grip with being okay with
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  Speaker 1: home sexuality and he befriends a guy named John who's
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  Speaker 1: played by John Waters.
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  Speaker 2: This was my introduction to John Waters.
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  Speaker 1: So John Waters is like kind of playing himself and
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  Speaker 1: he befriends Homer Simpson and then Homer realizes he's gay,
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  Speaker 1: and he's very not okay with this, and then by
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  Speaker 1: the end of the episode he like comes to grips
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  Speaker 1: with it and realizes I'm being stupid. But uh, it's
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  Speaker 1: like definitely probably inappropriate to watch now and people would
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  Speaker 1: find it defensive, but it is so good.
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  Speaker 2: So that was my introduction to John Waters.
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  Speaker 1: And then I saw Cereal Mom when I was very young,
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  Speaker 1: and that was you know, we.
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  Speaker 2: Already covered that movie.
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  Speaker 1: But Rafall, were you familiar with John Waters at all?
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  Speaker 1: And like, had you seen a lot of his stuff?
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  Speaker 2: What you know, what's your history with him?
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  Speaker 6: Actually not until I started watching Group Poles, Drag Race
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  Speaker 6: and the franchise altogether. So this was actually kind of,
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: you know, this introduction through the points of reference like
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: that we're kind of popping up in however, many episodes
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: of Repulse rag Race, probably in every single one of those,
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  Speaker 6: and I remember I was actually back then in Canada.
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: It was twenty eighteen, and we were probably watching with
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  Speaker 6: a friend of mine with whom I was actually living
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  Speaker 6: back then. Yet another episode and I think I just
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: random the ask, listen, what is this reference actually about?
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  Speaker 6: Like what's going on here? And then he's like, wait,
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  Speaker 6: haven't you seen that? And I was like, well no
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  Speaker 6: in the first place, first of all, what is it?
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  Speaker 6: What is that thing that I haven't actually seen? And
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  Speaker 6: secondly know what happened? So when do we do that?
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  Speaker 6: And this was the first time we actually kind of
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  Speaker 6: got to got me to see any John Waller's film,
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  Speaker 6: which I believe was actually being Flamingos.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk about my history of that movie later on
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  Speaker 1: in the series. But another pivotal this is a movie
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: we're not going to be talking about. Another pivotal experience
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  Speaker 1: in my life was I'm always as if you listen
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  Speaker 1: to the podcast like and Mark obviously knows more than anyone.
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  Speaker 1: I love to push the envelope of what is appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: And when I came of age, when I was over seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: the first NC seventeen theatrical release after I had turned
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  Speaker 1: seventeen was A Dirty Shame. So I made Andy go
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  Speaker 1: see it because he was like, what is this? Who's
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  Speaker 1: John Waters? And I was like, this is the first
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  Speaker 1: NC seventeen movie that has been released in theaters in
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  Speaker 1: like years, so I'm going to see this. Ryan.
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  Speaker 2: What is your history with John Waters?
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  Speaker 4: I think somewhere like where you guys say knowing being
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  Speaker 4: aware of him as like a public figure before the movies.
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  Speaker 4: I think my first like knowledge of him was Bride
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  Speaker 4: of Chucky. He plays like a photographer that they horribly kill,
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  Speaker 4: and like seeing his name in the credits and I
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  Speaker 4: was like, Oh, this is the guy that they always reference.
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  Speaker 4: And then like he does a lot of like talk
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  Speaker 4: show appearances and stuff like that because he's like a
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  Speaker 4: really big, like again persona. And then I think the
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  Speaker 4: first one I actually saw was A Dirty Shame, and
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  Speaker 4: it was this big like, Oh, he's kind of going
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  Speaker 4: back and doing what he was kind of famous for.
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  Speaker 4: And then Hairspray used to be on Comedy Central a lot.
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  Speaker 4: I think it was one of the few of his
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  Speaker 4: movies that like they probably could play without a lot
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  Speaker 4: of censorship. So he's just I've seen that one a
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  Speaker 4: few times on TV and then yeah, then I told
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  Speaker 4: you this a few days ago. But I think he
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  Speaker 4: was one of the last directors where like when I
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  Speaker 4: was buying like DVDs constantly, I was like, buy everything
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  Speaker 4: he's made, watch all of it, and then like listen
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  Speaker 4: to his commentaries because he's just a fascinating speaker to
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  Speaker 4: listen to to. He's such a great personality.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that, you know, going back to
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  Speaker 1: me saying he was he's a unicorn. I truly don't
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  Speaker 1: understand how how he is so mainstream. I'm glad he is,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: but I and I don't know how to describe John Waters. Really,
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  Speaker 1: it's really really difficult. But he says in Ryan let
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  Speaker 1: me borrow his DVD of Pink Flamingos, and after in
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  Speaker 1: the actual runtime of the movie, at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the movie, because it was I think the twentieth anniversary,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: there's like a little monologue he gives and he was
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  Speaker 1: he basically said that, you know, hippies were trying to
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: freak out the squares, and we were trying to freak.
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  Speaker 2: Out the hippies.
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  Speaker 1: So like, if you think your counterculture.
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  Speaker 2: You have not watched these films.
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  Speaker 1: You don't know what counterculture is. And obviously a lot
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  Speaker 1: of that is rooted in LGBTQ themes and how non
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  Speaker 1: mainstream they were, especially back when he started making movies.
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  Speaker 1: But it's not just about that. It's also just about
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  Speaker 1: like pushing the envelope and like, you know, being absurd
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of being absurd, if that makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: He also even being a gay man I've discussed before,
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  Speaker 1: he's obsessed with breasts, which I appreciate and I've always
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  Speaker 1: heard that that like that, you know, oh gay men
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  Speaker 1: still appreciate boob. So John Waters is living proof. And
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  Speaker 1: I met John Waters. I lived in Baltimore for I've
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  Speaker 1: told this story on the pod before, but for those
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  Speaker 1: that don't remember, I lived in Baltimore for years and
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  Speaker 1: I had never seen him. I didn't even know if
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  Speaker 1: he still lived there, and he, uh, there was a
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  Speaker 1: skateboard theme bar, because again Baltimore is weird and the
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  Speaker 1: best way, and I was at the skateboard theme bar.
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  Speaker 1: It was called Johnny Rad's and I was there one
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  Speaker 1: week night. One week night, it was not crowded. John
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  Speaker 1: Waters walked in and I turned and saw him and said,
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  Speaker 1: very loudly, holy shit, that's John Waters, because he's.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Like a hero of mine.
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  Speaker 1: And then he very abruptly turned and walked out when
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: he heard.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Me say that.
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  Speaker 1: So that was my encounter with John Waters in real life.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: But rafall I also wanted to ask you you were
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: introduced one of the ugliest accents in the entire world,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: which is the Baltimore accent. I can't imagine you were
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: familiar with it, but to describe it, it's like a
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  Speaker 1: hard o's Like instead of saying like the Orioles they
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: call the o's, they say the a's, like I'm going him,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and instead of water they say water. So have you
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: have you experienced that mid Atlantic Baltimore accent at all
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: our fall.
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: To be quite honest, not much. I think I'm actually
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: kind of stuck on the Paris saltanfe Cali at the moment.
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  Speaker 6: Once in a while, I'll listen to Mark speak to
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: his parents, which obviously after ten seconds of conversations, which
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: is to the very deep Boston and otherwise I think
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: with true Bloods, it's been Louisiana blood.
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  Speaker 2: We can walk me through that love that that's true.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, It is truly not. It is an ugly,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: ugly accent. But yeah, they say Orioles are the O's
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and then the Baltimore beer is called Natty Bow. So
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to go to an Orioles game, you go to the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: O's and drink bows. So they say, like, what are
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you doing this weekend? Bos and aves? It's it's an
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: awful disaster of an accent. But you know, I think
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: we should just talk about so we didn't cover We're
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: not covering Hairspray. I still have never seen Hairspray. It's
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: a little too normal for me. But we're going to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: talk first about his most normal movie of all time
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: other than Hairspray, which is cry Baby's starring Johnny Depp.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So I think a lot of folks, if they haven't
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: seen cry Baby, they're just they know it existed. If
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: they grew up in the nineties, they remember coming out,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: they saw the poster with Johnny deppbeat like as a greaser.
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  Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna just pause it right here
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  Speaker 1: for a moment. And then the next thing you will
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: hear will be us covering crybaby, directed by John Waters,