during a quiet, suspenseful scene in a movie theater…otherwise, you have my permission to play your whistle in the theater. Just not while I’m there.
during one of those hearing tests, you know, the kind with the headphones and those high-pitched squeaky tones (beep…beep, beep…)
during oral surgery. probably doesn’t matter if you’re the patient or the surgeon.
tonsillectomy (see above)
during a recognized (government-, school-, church- or otherwise imposed) “moment of silence”
during a transmission of a top-secret morse code message
playing Irish rebel tunes during a reunion of the Black & Tans
at the International Whisperers Conference
at the International Bird Watcher’s workshop on “How to Record the Mating Songs of the Atlantic Dwarf Albino Spotted Pelagic Swallowtail”
anywhere with the following sign posted: NO TINWHISTLING ALLOWED WITHIN 100 METERS
just after the preacher at the local parish emphatically recites,
“Thou shalt not pennywhistle”!
most funerals, except those of whistle players, where you should freely join in on the second verse of Amazing Grace and Danny Boy.
At my school during lunch you get a mix of “stop playing that flute thing or I will kill you,” “What is that thing,” “You’re pretty good at that thing,” and my personal favorite “You should dance an Irish dance/Jig while playing.” These people are major idiots there is also the case of them notice this is always during an air coming over and flailing there legs widly and think they are dancing some sort of jig? Athough there is a girl who does step dancing at my school she heard me playing once and guessed what type of tune it was it was a slip jig then she asked me if I could play any reels during a reel.
I find Flute better for funerals. 
Hi everyone.
I saw this thread and couldn’t resist posting an incident that happened at Milwaukee last year.
I was in the lobby of the Park East which is the hotel that all the musicians that play at Milwaukee Fest stay during Irish Fest, talking to some people and
Tommy Makem came over and introduced himself and sat down and we chatted a few minutes. This is “THE Tommy Makem” I am talking about here.
I said to Tommy: “Do you play the pennywhistle?” (Playing the dunce because I have been a fan for years and I know he can play) "I play a little , he says, and I offer him a D whistle and said, “What do you think of this whistle? Tommy played it beautifully, and I was in heaven watching him begin to enjoy the whistle and he played on for a couple of minutes. All of a sudden a young man in a suit appears and says: " Sorry you can’t play that instrument in the lobby”. I sat there with my mouth open for about ten seconds and wanted to say, “Do you know who this guy is that you are stopping from playing?”, but I figured it was a waste of breath and I just said, Ok. I couldn’t believe that you could not play a whistle in the lobby of the hotel that contained hundreds of Irish Musicians, and the guy playing the whistle was one of the most famous of them all. So it is not always easy to find a place where your whistle playing will be welcome. With my playing ability, the places are really difficult to find 
PS: The next night, the management relented and there was music everywhere, which is as it should be at Irish Fest. I saw Tommy on stage that night and nobody complained a bit when he played whistle or sang and he had three curtain calls for encores. His Son, Rory was playing guitar for him and singing with him and they were just brilliant. Tom is getting up in years, but he can still command an audiences love and enthusiasm. See him if you can, now that he is back out there, and don’t stop looking for those places that you can play and enjoy the wonderful instruments we all love so much.
Michael Burke
We have had 3 paid gigs in libraries and several that were unpaid.
