All hail the Pope of Trash! This summer, John Waters is set to perform an all-new spoken word show at the Barbican Hall, which will see the cult filmmaker deliver a “fast-moving, comic monologue about his career, movies, fashion, art, and the urge to startle”. 

Titled False Negative, the talk will feature Waters in the flesh, looking back over almost 60 filthy years in the film industry, spanning everything from the scatalogical Pink Flamingos, to the “accidental” family movie turned Broadway musical Hairspray. 

During these decades, of course, the filmmaker pioneered a unique brand of queer cinema alongside a band of outcast collaborators such as Divine, simultaneously making a mark (or perhaps a suspicious stain) on the worlds of fashion, beauty, and art.

The Barbican show runs for one night only, and precedes the publication of Waters’ upcoming book, Liarmouth: A Feel Bad Romance, “a hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime and family dysfunction”. Though he’s authored ten other books, Liarmouth is his debut novel and will be published in the UK via Corsair on May 5 (needless to say, if you go home with somebody and they don’t have John Waters’ debut novel…).

Tickets for False Negative, meanwhile, are scheduled to go on sale for Barbican patrons and members on March 2, and for the public on March 4. Waters and his Maybelline Velvet Black moustache will take to the stage on June 10, 2022.