The Moustache Brothers

Comedy, freedom of speech, freedom to choose whose photo you tac up on your wall, freedom to pursue or develop your interests and hobbies, the freedom to entertain whoever you wish...we have a lot of freedom really.

In Burma, freedom isn't something there is a lot of and certainly not in the case of any of the above, but in a small house tucked down a street in Mandalay live three quite astoundingly admirable men who simply refuse to sacrifice the freedoms we take so for granted.

With a sense of anticipation we made our way along the streets to the infamous house where one could hear comedy (in Burma?!!)...as we walked along looking for some sign a man shouted and waved us over "moustache brothers?" he asked, we nodded and were ushered into a small living room directly off the street. A single row of old chairs lined the wall and a few tourists were there already. In front of the chairs was a space about 2 meters deep which was the "stage". The walls were adorned on one side with traditional burmese puppets and on the other with photos of Aung San Suu Kyi - a woman whose photo it is forbidden to display in Burma, and photos of the brothers themselves.

We received a wonderful welcome from the brothers, who have paid very very dearly to stay in the comedy scene...6 years of imprisonment for two of the brothers to be precise in addition to being banned from performing in their own language or for Burmese people in any way which of course was once their source of income. Now they can only perform for tourists, in English, and even at that their aged mother sits outside the house every night while they perform watching out for government spies who would jump at the chance to arrest them again.

It was a wonderful evening. Plenty of wit, hilarious dancing and a lot of laughter. Like most comedy it pointed to the truth of the regime under which the Burmese are forced to live...and although they hold Aung San Suu Kyi in the most high regard these men do disagree with her stance that tourists should boycot Burma. For them, tourists are the only people who can take their message out and help people to understand what is really going on under this brutal military rule. We are so glad we got to see the moustache brothers...what a laugh!