Audiobooks narrated by John Waters

"The return of a spectacular, reviled, and iconic classic of American filth—listen as Waters himself acts out each role! John Waters takes us back to the scene of his original crime against good taste. Listen as Babs Johnson fights to hold on to her title as “Filthiest Person Alive,“ fending off the craven attempts to dethrone her by her nemeses Connie and Raymond Marble. Waters takes us on a romp through his filthy vision of Baltimore, from a child’s playpen occupied by an egg-worshipping grandmother to unhinged kangaroo courts, to the film’s iconic and revolting coup de grace (no spoilers, but it is just as stomach-churning on the page more than fifty years later!). Pink Flamingos is John Waters at his provocative, disgusting, piety-puncturing best, with the hellish and hilarious trash masterpiece that first made him a household name. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux."

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

Flamingos Forever: A Screenplay

"One part of John Waters’s iconic Trash Trilogy, Flamingos Forever is a dark-comedy screenplay about a drag queen trying to retain her title of “Filthiest Person in the World.” Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! Fifteen years after the events of Pink Flamingos, Babs Johnson returns to Baltimore from a life spent largely in bus station lavatories, only to find that she once again has to fight for the right to claim the title of “World’s Filthiest Person.” Her nemesis Connie Marble’s sister, Vera Venninger, and her necrophiliac husband, Wilbur, are in her way. So begins a new battle of filth. This raucous, filthy—and essential!—volume in John Waters’s oeuvre never made it to the screen, so this is listeners’ and his legions of fans’ one chance to hear how this ghastly and irreverent saga meets its end! A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

Female Trouble: A Screenplay

"“Burroughs famously dubbed Waters the Pope of Trash. Female Trouble, we might say, is his Summa Trashologica.” —Ed Halter, The Criterion Collection Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! It all goes to hell when Baltimore bad girl Dawn Davenport doesn’t get the cha-cha heels she’s been demanding for Christmas. In this hilarious, irreverent, pyrotechnic melee of high-trash hijinks, Dawn ruins Christmas, skips town, and embarks on a wild ride that involves hitchhiking, robbery, murder, pregnancy—and, of course, modeling and glamour, too. The second installment of John Waters’ classic Trash Trilogy, Female Trouble explodes conventional norms of good behavior (and art) and is all the proof you’ll ever need that sometimes being bad can feel so, so very good. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hairspray: A Screenplay

"A feel-good fable and an enduring critique of conformity told with true John Waters flair. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! Tracy Turnblad, a spunky, full-figured Baltimore teen, wants nothing more than to be a featured dancer on The Corny Collins Show. So when she gets chosen to be on the air, it seems like all her dreams are about to come true. But when she and some of the Black cast of the show try to integrate the segregated dancing, things take on a life of their own. A sweet, hopeful parable about the dangers of conformity and segregation, Hairspray is perhaps the one optimistic entry in John Waters’s shocking and delightfully deranged oeuvre. Both a clear-eyed social critique and a celebration of the dizzying aesthetics of Baltimore in the early 1960s, this is another, softer side to the essential John Waters. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

Multiple Maniacs: A Screenplay

"A very John Waters traveling show, replete with freaks, robbery, murder, sex, blasphemy, and savage shellfish—a lurid, surreal celebration of filth and trash. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! The Cavalcade of Perversion is a traveling show run by Lady Divine and a crew of her fellow degenerates. They have to drag suburban housewives into each vile, tasteless performance—only to rob them at gunpoint at the end of each show. When Divine gets bored of the routine and graduates to murdering the attendees one day, it sets her off on a rampage, hunting down her cheating lover, Mr. David, and unleashing a chain of frenzy, a truly blasphemous sex act, and a surreal violation by a giant lobster. Multiple Maniacs is John Waters’ paean to the glories of trash. As Lady Divine chants as she marches proudly into downtown Baltimore at the end of the movie, “I’m a maniac! A maniac that cannot be cured! O Divine, I am Di-vine!” Multiple Maniacs is available in audio here, on its own, or in the The John Waters Screenplay Collection where you can also listen to Waters narrate this iconic film along with five of his other masterpieces, including Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Flamingos Forever, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

Desperate Living: A Screenplay

"A grotesque and hilarious satire about the American dream, suburban living, and the corrupting influence of power, set in a world that could only have sprung from the unhinged and brilliant mind of John Waters. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role! On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalized by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society’s rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen Carlotta, who parades through the cardboard streets taunting and terrorizing her subjects. John Waters’s wild and visionary fable lampoons everything from the staid conservatism of the American dream to race and class relations. The New York Times ranked Desperate Living at “the highest peak atop [John Waters’] trash heap of a filmography.” High praise indeed! A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

The John Waters Screenplay Collection: Hairspray; Pink Flamingos; Flamingos Forever; Female Trouble; Desperate Living; Multiple Maniacs

"'As [John] Waters narrates the screenplays of six of his movies, his over-the-top style is outrageous...Waters performs with great gusto, making the surreal, the disgusting, and the absurd weirdly entertaining.' — Kirkus (Earphones Award Winner) A collection of John Waters essential screenplays, adapted for audio. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role in the most delightfully deranged and iconic classics of American filth, camp, and trash! John Waters takes us back to the scenes of his most beloved films, as well as his original crimes against good taste. In this inimitable audio collection— which includes Pink Flamingos, Flamingos Forever, Hairspray, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Multiple Maniacs—Waters voices every single character, jumping back and forth between all the demented roles. Listen as Waters plays Babs Johnson, fighting to hold on to her title as “Filthiest Person Alive,“ or Tracy Turnblad, as she learns she will be a featured dancer on the Corny Collins Show, or Dawn Davenport, as she gets her first hairdo at the Le’ Lipstick beauty salon. Waters takes us on a romp through his camp and filthy vision—from nefarious baby-stealing lesbians to scenes of unspeakable things done to unsuspecting chickens—as well through the more optimistic world of 1960s Baltimore in his bubblegum masterpiece, Hairspray. Reflecting on his role as the narrator, Waters remarks, “Finally I get the opportunity no other film director would want; to go over the top of ‘line readings’, beyond multiple-motion-picture-disorder into a new dimension of celluloid insanity, and perform every single role in my movies out loud for your twisted enjoyment. That’s right, from Divine right on down to the filthiest day player, I am now, for the first time, the entire cast of Multiple Maniacs! Pink Flamingos! Female Trouble! Desperate Living! Hairspray! Flamingos Forever! Aural anarchy or cinematic schizophrenia? You be the judge. Go ahead, play it. You won’t believe your ears.” A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

John Waters (Author), John Waters (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Way I See It: The landmark BBC art series in partnership with MoMA

"30 leading cultural figures choose an artwork from the Museum of Modern Art's collection, and discuss the response it provokes in them Art critic and broadcaster Alastair Sooke, accompanied by some of the world's leading creative thinkers, takes an in-depth look at the outstanding exhibits in New York's MoMA, exploring how the way we 'see' art is shaped by our experiences and perspectives. His guests include some of the sharpest minds of our time - artists, writers, designers, comedians, musicians and scientists, among them Steve Martin, Margaret Cho, John Waters, Roxane Gay, Fiona Shaw, Orhan Pamuk and Stanley Tucci. Each guest selects a piece of art that speaks to them - one that's inspiring, startling, intriguing or challenging. Some pick familiar works, others ones they've never seen before, and their choices range from paintings and sculptures to photographs, films and even symbols. Drawing on their personal history and expert knowledge, they share their thoughts, insights and observations. How does a cosmologist view Van Gogh's The Starry Night? What does a jazz pianist see in Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie? What will a top fashion designer decode from the clothes painted by an artist in Harlem in the 1930s? And what will a psychologist make of Picasso's unflinching depictions of man's inhumanity, The Charnel House and Guernica? These questions, and many more, will be answered in this eye-opening series. Revealing, surprising and perceptive, it deconstructs the gallery experience, bringing us a new way of looking at, and appreciating, art. Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Produced by Paul Kobrak and Tom Alban The Way I See It is a co-production of the BBC and the Museum of Modern Art, New York Tracklist: 1. Starry Night and Janna Levin 2. Steve Martin and the Lonely Synchromists 3. Jason Moran and Piet Mondrian 4. Neri Oxman and the Endless House 5. Steven Pinker and Picasso 6. Steve Reich on Richard Serra's Equal 7. Margaret Cho and Lady Vengeance 8. Duro Olowu on William H Johnson's 'Children' 9. Michael Bierut on Ed Ruscha's OOF 10. John Waters on Lee Lozano's Untitled 1963 11. Roxane Gay and Christ's Entry into Journalism 12. Es Devlin on Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Perfect Lovers 13. Hisham Matar with Man Sleeping Along the Seine 14. Renee Fleming chooses Colors for a Large Wall 15. The Director's Choice 16. Fiona Shaw on Georgia O'Keeffe's Lake George, Coat and Red 17. Bryan Stevenson on Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series 18. Richard Serra on Jackson Pollock 19. Madeleine Thien on Vija Celmins' Bikini 20. Zac Posen on Constantin Brancusi's Bird in Space 21. Mark Morris on Florine Stettheimer's Costume Design for Orphée 22. Sarah Sze and Siddhartha Mukherjee on Louise Bourgeois's Quarantania, I 23. Orhan Pamuk on Taglioni's Jewel Casket by Joseph Cornell 24. Liz Diller on Marcel Duchamp's Network of Stoppages 25. Isabella Boylston on Maya Deren and Talley Beatty 26. Stanley Tucci and Giacometti's Head of a Man on a Rod 27. Lady Ruth Rogers on Henri Rousseau's The Dream 28. Yves Behar and the IEC's Power Symbol 29. David Henry Hwang on Martin Wong's Stanton near Forsyth Street 30. Alastair Sooke"

Alistair Sooke (Author), Alistair Sooke, Fiona Shaw, John Waters, Orhan Pamuk, Roxane Gay, Stanley Tucci, Steve Martin, Steven Pinker (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by John Waters

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