Malaysian-born singer, Kamahl, told The Feed he’s received an “ocean” of support after a viral clip was posted showing what he described as “crude” treatment on ‘Hey, Hey It’s Saturday’.
“As an 86-year-old, I haven't had this much attention and all my life,” Kamahl said.
“Even as I speak to you now, there is an ocean of tweeters pouring in like a waterfall,” he added.
“In fact, one of them said, ‘by the way, I'm a 35-year-old, and my mum still has the hots for you’. Did you hear that?”
The clip emerged after ‘Hey Hey It’s Saturday’ host Daryl Somers told the Herald Sun, “You probably could not get away with half the stuff you could on ‘Hey Hey’ now because of the political correctness and the cancel culture.”
“A lot of comics can’t work much because what would have been just tongue-in-cheek previously now can easily get them into trouble.” He spoke to the paper ahead of his upcoming appearance on Channel 7’s 'Dancing With the Stars'.
Australian pop singer Kamahl walking in Hyde Park with 70-year-old fan Zel Redford in 1975. Source: AAP
The mash-up clip posted on Twitter in the wake of that interview showed Kamahl being clocked in the face with white powder by Somers and his fellow cast member, John Blackman, in 1984.
At the time, Blackman ‘joked’ this made Kamahl a “real white man”.
In another skit, the lighting crew called Somers and asked if Kamahl was coming up next, adding, “could you ask him to smile so we can see him?”
“It's humiliation. It's like pouring crap over somebody,” Kamahl said of his treatment on the show.
Kamahl confessed that even 34 years later, he couldn’t bear to watch the footage back until yesterday when he watched the viral clip on social media.
“My philosophy is that if you're an entertainer, and if the people don't see you on television, they only make one conclusion: you must be dead,” he said.
“So it was survival and it was like, like a soldier going into a minefield.”
“I knew there would be problems like that with ‘Hey, Hey’ but I never expected to be that bad.”
But it wasn’t until 2009 that the show caused international controversy when it returned to Aussie screens for a reboot.
Kamahl arrives on the red carpet at the 2012 Helpmann Awards at the Sydney Opera House. Source: AAP
Central to the upset was a performance in which five men wore black face while performing a Michael Jackson tribute they had performed during the ‘Red Faces’ segment many years earlier.
A sketch reading “Where’s Kamahl?”, was held up during the act.
US judge Harry Connick - a guest on the reboot program - expressed his discomfort with the performance, giving it a zero.
“If they turned up looking like that in the United States, they’d be like ‘hey, hey, there’s no more show’,” Connick said at the time.
Later, he told host "I feel like I am at home here and if I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably, I definitely, wouldn't have done it."
Somers delivered a live on-air apology to Connick Jr before the show finished.
Speaking to The Feed about that segment, Kamahl said he felt it reflected the “upbringing” of those involved.
He went on to say: “It's not gentlemanly behaviour. It's crude behaviour.”
Despite his ethnicity and background frequently being the butt of the joke during his time on Hey Hey, Kamahl said he holds no grudges against the show or its cast.
“I've never asked for an apology,” Kamahl told The Feed.
“I am an 86 year-old man, and I don't hold any grudges. And it's their life and you pay for everything you do good or bad.”
When Somers’s interview with the Herald Sun was published earlier this month, he said that political correctness has killed TV comedy.
He added, “Our humour was never meant to offend anybody” and that it was always “about having fun; good, clean fun.”
After a clip featuring Kamahl on 'Hey Hey' circulated on social media, many voiced their outrage.
Later on, former 'Hey Hey' voice over artist John Blackman took to Facebook to claim Kamahl should have “marched up” to him and complained if he had been offended by his treatment.
Kamahl arrives for the opening night of West Side Story at Star City on July 4, 2010 in Sydney, Source: Getty
“Goodness me Kamahl, 37 years and you’re still ‘humiliated, you knew where my booth was!” Blackman wrote.
“I do recall you getting offended after I mentioned you at a Melbourne venue,” he added.
“Something along the lines of ‘Kamahl is performing tonight – he’s running just a little bit late because he’s having trouble getting his elephant under the boom gate in the carpark.’ Got a huge laugh but I heard you took umbrage. Why?”
Kamahl told The Feed he believes Daryl is a “talented man” and “that there is an evolution going on in life every day, and we live and learn.”
Asked why he didn’t speak out at the time about his treatment, Kamahl said as a showman he realises that “timing is everything.”
“I didn't want to bring it up at that time,” he said.
“And I'm glad somebody brought it up and we can discuss it in a more mature fashion.”
Rather than focusing on the white powder incident, Kamahl said he wishes people focused more on his story.
Kamahl grew up in Adelaide after arriving from Malaysia, putting himself through the Conservatorium before reaching great heights as a singer.
In 1958, at 19 years of age, Kamahl said he met Rupert Murdoch, who later invited him to live with his family for several years before he finally secured permanent residency in 1966.
He’s sold over 10 million albums and played in the most prestigious concert halls in the world. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1994.
Kamahl doesn't hold any grudges. Source: AAP
He said his life has been full of serendipitous moments where “unbelievable things have happened.”
“I find it frustrating, you know, it's a human story,” he said.
“[It should be] how did this black guy from Malaysia get to do Carnegie Hall twice?”
Kamahl said he believes “there are not enough people telling people to love each other.”
“My experience, I believe in love, love conquers all. Love and truth, those are the two things that matter.”
The Feed contacted Daryl Somers and John Blackman for comment.
