the third sex

Thailand’s ladyboy shows may have reached epic proportions with places such as Tiffany’s, Alcazar and Golden Dome, but their traditions go way back into history and were always very much a family show. The small travelling cabaret can still be found in Bangkok and many other cities throughout the country.

Shortly before Christmas I had photographed a ladyboy named Jenny. I hadn’t met her before; she just turned up as a friend of a friend. I got talking to Jenny and found out that her father is also a ladyboy, and that she has a 13-year-old ’sister’ who is a ladyboy too. Together they form the nucleus of a travelling ladyboy cabaret show that performs at temple fairs and community parties around Bangkok.

I came to know Jenny better as a friend, as she is a genuinely nice person, and in due course I met 13-year-old Toppi, and also their father, who if seen out in the street would pass for a middle-aged woman. The invitation was always there for me to go and see one of the cabaret shows, but they always seemed to be too far away, either on the other side of the river or at some other impractical location in this sprawling, traffic-choked city.

Then the other afternoon Jenny called to say that there was a show on that very evening, and at a location near to where I live. I had been away travelling for a week and had only just arrived home from the airport, so on the one hand all I wanted to do was get changed and relax. But on the other hand, the chance to see the show so close to home was one I didn’t want to miss. The family called for me at 7pm, and we piled into a taxi and off we went.

The venue was by the river, down a tiny little alley leading off Charoen Krung, the oldest road in Bangkok. We waited on the kerb for the other members of the troupe to arrive, and within a few minutes they turned up carrying their bags of clothes and props. So narrow was the alley that we had to walk along it in single file. Houses and fences hemmed us in, the pathway twisted and turned, and we could hear the sounds of the river only yards away. Then we came to the end of the alley, where there was a little courtyard surrounded by houses. This was to be their stage.

This was a community party arranged for the eve of Songkran, the Thai New Year. The next two days were a public holiday, and after that was the weekend. The community that lives in and around this alley were going to enjoy themselves and they had booked a band that was to play on through until the early hours. The community leaders to add a little extra spice to the evening had booked the family cabaret.

A timber house acted as a changing room for the cast, and as a rather large farang crammed into a 10-foot square room with eight ladyboys and the residents of the house, on a night when the temperature was about 35 degrees centigrade, and with an excited crowd pressing up against the doorway, I did my best to be a fly on the wall, I really did.

The performers were a very mixed bunch. Father no longer dances since he was injured in a road accident. Jenny and a couple of other girls were the glamour. There were a couple of clowns, middle-aged masculine men, although one had silicon breasts. And there was Toppi; the undisputed star of the show, not yet five foot tall and every inch the showgirl.

I watched as the makeup went on and the cast were transformed. Then I moved out into the crowd, who sat on the ground or perched on the river wall. I realised that this is how the now-famous Thai ladyboy cabaret shows must have started. Although Tiffany’s began the modern phenomenon, there have been transvestite performers in Thailand throughout history. They too would have played at temple fairs and village fetes, and so Jenny’s family were simply carrying on an age-old tradition.

There is a formula to ladyboy shows. You have the glamorous dancers performing traditional Siamese dance, and then you have a clown act. Then there is lip-syncing to a couple of popular songs, and another clown act, followed by a grand finale. The audience were in raptures, right from the moment the first dancers appeared with tiny little Toppi in the centre. The clowns of course drew huge laughter and applause with their ribald act. I found myself laughing aloud.

Payment for the cabaret comes out of community funds, but the audience also likes to tip performers, calling them across during their act to hand over banknotes, usually 20 baht (50 cents), or even running onto the stage to hand the money over.

Then the show was over, the performers were back into their street clothes within 10 minutes, and in a final burst of goodwill and cheering we were making our way back down the alley to Charoen Krung, to find taxis. As a family evening out, it had certainly been a little different.