John Waters at BU on Tuesday

John Waters will speak at BU's Tsai Performance Center on Tuesday, April 10, at 7:00 pm. Tickets are free, but you have to get them from the Barnes & Noble at Kendall Kenmore Square.

John Waters used to provoke fear and terror in the plain-vanilla types. The mere mention of his name would have people thinking of transvestites, poop-eating, poop-mailing, cha-cha heels, and Tab Hunter. Now, Waters is almost cuddly, if a guy who wears a pencil mustache could be called cuddly.

Maybe he's mellowed, but he still has a superbly trashy streak. Waters is now hosting one of our new favorite shows, Court TV's "'Til Death Do Us Part," which dramatizes marriages that end in murder. As the Groom Reaper, he is a modern Hitchcock, suddenly stepping into the frame to make dirty jokes. His best lines often come at the end, such as when he says, "I'm off to a wedding - hope it isn't yours!"

Waters is serving up his spoken-word show "This Filthy World" at Boston University. "This Filthy World," the DVD version of which is available on Netflix, reveals Waters' past and his philosophies on art, life, and certain sexual practices that we'd never even heard of.

Don't go to this show if you're expecting Hairspray. Go prepared to hear all about Pink Flamingos.

Image of John Waters gleefully awaiting another marital murder from CourtTV's official site for "Til Death Do Us Part."