Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder

by John Waters Narrated by John Waters

Overview

This program is read by the author and includes a bonus conversation.

No one knows more about everything-especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling-than John Waters.

The man in the pencil-thin mustache, auteur of the transgressive movie classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, the original Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame, is one of the world's great sophisticates, and in Mr. Know-It-All he serves it up raw: how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and yes, how to cheat death itself. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: "Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all."

Studded with cameos of Waters's stars, from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracey Ullman, Mr. Know-It-All is Waters's most hypnotic, upsetting, revelatory audiobook yet -another instant Waters classic.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Alan Cumming

…"knowing it all" inevitably means truly knowing himself, and this book—more than any of the [Waters's] others I have read—shows a vulnerability and an honesty and an almost frantic desire to impart to us, before he can no longer, his manic mantras, his obsessive treatises and his biting and blisteringly honest bons mots that are actually really enlightening life lessons. Watersian palimpsests, if you will!…Mr. Know-It-All is…perhaps his most revealing, his most authentic. A shadow of impending death hangs over this tome, like a recurring guest in a psycho sitcom. But unlike authors who in their later works allow a sober knell of perception to ring through their prose, Waters instead manages to impart his wily wisdom like some giddy, gurgling, bratty child waiting to be caught and brought back home to clean up his soiled bedroom and do his homework.

Publishers Weekly

03/25/2019

In this delightful hybrid memoir/advice book, film director Waters shares highlights from his 40-year career and musings on a random assortment of subjects, including music, architecture, and the best vacation spots. Waters, a self-described “garbage guru,” begins by providing a wealth of tips for aspiring filmmakers and other artists, such as “Believe your own grandiosity and go wrong to make your career go right.” He also dishes on some of his most memorable acting hires, including Serial Mom’s Kathleen Turner, who taught him to “pay attention to your stars as if your life depended on it,” and Cry-Baby’s Joey Heatherton, who, while auditioning, “spoke in tongues convincingly as the script called, but seemed unable to stop.” The book’s second half gives Waters more freedom to riff, with endlessly entertaining results, whether he is ruminating on his favorite music (including 1960s “car-accident teen novelty records”) or imagining opening a restaurant that serves kittens. In a punctuationless ode to Andy Warhol styled after Warhol’s “novel” A, Waters asserts provocatively that, as a filmmaker, “Andy was more important than Thomas Alva Edison and D.W. Griffith.” Though not quite as surreal, Waters’s musings are as funny and eccentric as his films; longtime fans will be delighted with the treasure trove of insights into his brilliant oeuvre. (May)

From the Publisher

That John Waters is a national treasure is a surety. Period. Thank you and good night . . . [Mr. Know-It-All] shows a vulnerability and an honesty and an almost frantic desire to impart to us, before he can no longer, his manic mantras, his obsessive treatises and his biting and blisteringly honest bons mots that are actually really enlightening life lessons.” —Alan Cumming, The New York Times Book Review

“[Waters is] an indefatigable coiner of droll one-liners . . . Whether he likes it or not, [Waters] is a Great American Institution. Or maybe he belongs in an institution. Either way, we wouldn’t want to be without him.” —Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times

“In Mr. Know-It-All, the curtain is pulled back and Waters’ life, a multi-decade exercise in adaptability, perseverance and ceaseless hustle, is revealed. The essays are hyper-driven with the caloric burn of nervous energy . . . Full of insight and scrappy, hard-earned smarts.” —Henry Rollins, Los Angeles Times

“That this Prince of Puke has become an accidental darling of American cinema and letters—an institution, however depraved—may be a dirty shame to [Waters], but it’s a blessing for the rest of us.” —Charles Arrowsmith, The Washington Post

“On a line-by-line basis, [Mr. Know-It-All] always sparkles” —Katie Rife, The A.V. Club

“[Mr. Know-It-All] is outrageous and, in ways that only the man who unleashed Pink Flamingos on an unsuspecting public could get away with, sentimental. It peers into the future with eyes both delightful and decadent, and looks backward with a nostalgia for things many of us never knew we missed . . . A delicious, deranged blend that may not be for everybody, and that’s just fine with [Waters].” —Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun

“There’s no denying that Waters is a whip-smart . . . , funny, multitalented and unique cultural icon.” —Alice Cary, Bookpage

"An exuberantly transgressive American filmmaker gets down, dirty, and weird about life, art, and career . . . Comic and rude but always compulsively readable, Waters demonstrates that he is not only first among Filth Elders; he is also a keen observer of American culture. Wickedly smart and consistently laugh-out-loud funny." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Nothing can squelch [John Waters'] outrageous imagination . . . If you don't laugh loud and often, check your pulse, then your breath on a mirror." —Ray Olson, Booklist

"Endlessly entertaining . . . Waters’s musings are as funny and eccentric as his films; longtime fans will be delighted with the treasure trove of insights into his brilliant oeuvre." —Publishers Weekly

MAY 2019 - AudioFile

Cheerfully lewd and sincerely disingenuous, cult filmmaker, comic, and lifelong raconteur John Waters narrates his latest memoir/tell-all with a good-natured wink and a well-earned dab of sentimentality. Waters happily doles out observations and advice on any number of subjects from how to make it big in Hollywood and Broadway (CRY-BABY, HAIRSPRAY) to how to choose and self-administer the best recreational drugs, avoid flying coach, and pick out one’s own coffin. Waters is at his best honoring old friends like the groundbreaking drag queen Divine, reminiscing about his beloved hometown of Baltimore, and celebrating all things LGBTQ. Disarmingly entertaining—and absolutely inappropriate for children; the squeamish; and most priests, ministers, and rabbis. B.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2019-03-17
An exuberantly transgressive American filmmaker gets down, dirty, and weird about life, art, and career.

In this collection of loosely connected, photo-illustrated essays, Waters (Make Trouble, 2017, etc.) ponders his improbable state of respectability after years on the artistic fringe. He begins by reflecting on his first major Hollywood success, Hairspray (1988). The film catapulted Waters, along with such colorful actors as Divine and Mink Stole, from the world of underground filmmaking to at least the edges of the mainstream. The author's newfound status as Hollywood insider allowed him to direct such A-list celebrities as Johnny Depp and Kathleen Turner and make films that enjoyed marginal success in the 1990s. After several box office failures that included Cecil B. Demented (2000), a film about an insane movie director who kidnaps an A-list actress to star in an underground film, and A Dirty Shame (2004), a "sexploitation satire" that he "was amazed got made at all," Waters cheerfully slid back into the gutter to cash in on his fall from mainstream grace. Waters discusses everything from his wide-ranging musical tastes, which include the Nutty Squirrels, jazz vocalists who predated Alvin and the Chipmunks, to his latter-day yippie political leanings. He also shares his fantasies of his perfect "Stalinist chic" home and dispenses remarkably sound advice on how to invest in art made by monkeys. A lifelong "drug enthusiast," Waters tells the story of an LSD trip he took at age 70. Aware of—and perhaps reveling in—the gruesomeness of his own mortality, he includes a letter to his "son," a plastic baby doll named Bill, and a meditation on a "lunatic resurrection" after death as the "Duke of Dirt." Comic and rude but always compulsively readable, Waters' book demonstrates that he is not only first among Filth Elders; he is also a keen observer of American culture.

Wickedly smart and consistently laugh-out-loud funny.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172067839
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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