Kamahl performed his first show in Newcastle in 1963. On Sunday, he'll perform what he says will probably be his last show in Newcastle.
The 87-year-old will perform "A Lazy Sunday Lunch with the Legendary Kamahl" at Lizotte's at Lambton.
It's a two-hour show with singing, poems and prose.
As we spoke to Kamahl, he was making headlines over separating from his wife of 55 years, Sahodra.
"Of course it's sad, but it's not the end of the world. I still talk to my wife. She cooks for me. In fact we are friendlier now than we were maybe a year ago, because I was spending too much time attacking Trump," he said.
"Also my views on religion - my wife takes it too personally. You know, we have Scott Morrison who belongs to the Hillsong Church. Politics and religion don't mix."
Kamahl came to Australia from Malaysia in 1953. He managed to avoid deportation under the White Australia policy with help from his friend Rupert Murdoch, who he lived with for three years from 1962-65.
When the immigration office said he'd been granted permanent status, he was overjoyed.
"I got to the nearest telephone and called the hospital where Sahodra was a nurse."
Kamahl said to her: "What are you going to do for the rest of your life?"
They were married soon after.
"It sounds romantic, but that's not the way to start a life without really knowing who the other person is. It was nothing more than feelings."
As we spoke, he said: "Are you familiar with Invictus?"
"It's a poem that was written 150 years ago," he said, before reciting it to us.
Invictus means "unconquerable or undefeated" in Latin. To Kamahl, it means "never surrender".
"Nelson Mandela took that poem with him to prison. He looked at it every day and shared it with his prison mates.
"They made a movie called Invictus about Mandela's life."
Kamahl said the poem had meaning to him because he "never gave up", despite facing racism throughout his life. This included his time on the TV show Hey Hey It's Saturday, which has attracted recent publicity.
"My philosophy is, if life hands you lemons, try and make lemonade. So I've been making lemonade," he said.
"I have an orchard of lemons and a factory of lemonade."
He said the prejudice against black people and other minorities was related to children being brought up with "false values and principles".
When he grew up in Malaysia, the country was under Japanese occupation in World War II.
"I saw heads being chopped off and stuck on bamboo poles," he said.
"I was taking the only cow we had to pasture. A Japanese officer crossed the road and approached me."
The officer put his hands near his hip.
"I thought my head would be on top of a bamboo pole as well. He gave me a chocolate."
Odd Password
Speaking of Lizottes, research from a password manager company suggests the top five passwords in Australia are: 123456; password; lizottes; password1; and 123456789.
We have absolutely no idea what "lizottes" refers to in this context.
