A JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS COMES TO UCLA DEC 17TH

Renowned Writer and Director John Waters Brings his Critically-Acclaimed One-Man Show "A John Waters Christmas" to UCLA Live, Dec. 17

"An uproarious, if some-what transgressive, glass of holiday cheer."-Daily Variety

LOS ANGELES-UCLA Live welcomes the return of legendary filmmaker John Waters in his funny and delightfully wicked one man show, "A John Waters Christmas." The evening also features electro-punk-rocker Peaches opening the show with her erotically charged and untamed blend of music. This celebrated event begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus and is approximately two and-a-half hours with one intermission. For tickets call 310-825-2101, visit www.UCLALive.org, or contact Ticketmaster. An exclusive pre-show Meet and Greet with John Waters will be offered from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Royce Hall West Lobby for $35 in addition to the ticket price. This event is presented in association with Ian Brennan.

Filmmaker John Waters has become the world's preeminent auteur of dark, gross-out comedy, changing the cinematic landscape forever with such unexpectedly intelligent camp classics as "Pink Flamingos," "Hairspray," and "Serial Mom." In "A John Waters Christmas," Waters provides caustic holiday observations in a rapid-fire monologue covering all of his Christmas
obsessions. The evening offers a Joyeaux Noel like no other as Waters reveals his compulsive desire to give and receive personal gifts, a religious fanaticism for Santa Clause, and an unhealthy love of true crime, yuletide horror stories.

Canadian-born, Berlin-based performance artist Peaches opens the show. Beloved by zealous fans for her combination of minimalist electronic beats and power-chord stadium rock, Peaches pushes boundaries and makes no apologies. She has performed with leading tastemakers in music and film, including Bjork, Josh Home of "Queens of the Stone Age," and Vincent Gallo's "All Tomorrow's Parties," among many others.

John Waters was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1946. He was drawn to movies at an early age and subscribed to Variety when he was twelve, absorbing the magazine's factual information and its lexicon of insider lingo. This early education would prove useful as the future director began his career giving puppet shows for children's birthday parties. As a teenager, Waters made 8-mm underground movies influenced by Jean-Luc Godard, Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Russ Meyer, Ingmar Bergman and Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Since the 1970s in the early stages of his career, Waters was inspired by necessity to develop his live performance skills. When he didn't have distribution for his films and was forced to rent theaters himself to screen his works, he and his leading lady Divine would appear and concoct outrageous skits to make the evenings more memorable. Thirty years later, Waters has gained success as a director, as a noted author of multiple books, a visual artist, actor, lecturer and emcee. He has even been immortalized as an animated character on an episode of "The Simpsons."

Waters is also an accomplished writer and photographer. He has published two volumes of his journalistic exploits, one screenplay collection, and a great big book of pictures he took featuring his television. In 2004, he released a compilation Christmas album filled with holiday music oddities and obscurities titled, "A John Waters Christmas" on New Line Records. The Orange County Museum of Art is featuring a festival of Waters' work in "John Waters: Change of Life," (October 30-January 15).

Tickets to "A John Waters Christmas" are available for $45, $32, $22 at the UCLA Central Ticket Office at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center, online at www.UCLALive.org and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information or to charge by phone, please call 310-825-2101. UCLA students may purchase tickets in advance for $15. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, are offered at the same price to all students with a valid i.d. one hour prior to show time. An exclusive pre-show Meet and Greet with John Waters will be offered from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Royce Hall West Lobby for $35 in addition to the ticket price.