The Hairspray and Pink Flamingos director cruises his hometown’s diners and bars, and reveals the location of Divine’s ‘poop scoop’

As a kid I explored the sewers of Baltimore. They were building the beltway (ring road) near my parents’ house and we used to crawl down in the drain pipes really deep. So dangerous now I think about it, but that was my first journey. Like C.H.U.D – that movie about cannibalistic human underground dwellers.

I used to hitchhike a lot. I’d come home on the train from New York and there’d be no cabs, but people would pick me right up and take me to my door because they recognised me. It was like a car service. I never really had a bad experience hitchhiking. Well, once somebody pulled a gun, but they fired it out of the window.