Bill Bailey reflects on disastrous comedy gig in New Zealand that was intended to ‘breach the racial divide’

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Bill Bailey has reflected on a disastrous comedy gig he did in New Zealand.

The comedian, who is performing at the Royal Opera House in London next month, told the story in a new Q&A, in which he was asked: “Can you remember a gig so bad, it’s now funny?”

“I was doing a show in New Zealand years ago and I used to do a song about racial harmony called ‘Hats Off to the Zebras’,” he told The Guardian.

“It was about black and white living together in harmony, and a sendup of ‘Ebony and Ivory’ [by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder].”

He continued: “My wife said to me, ‘Do that song, they’ll love it.’ The gig was going great, then I did this song and the gig crashed and burned because I didn’t realise the whole evening was about breaching the racial divide.

“It was white New Zealanders and the Māori community. It was like I turned up there and gave two fingers up to the whole thing.”

Bailey is at the Royal Opera House, London, 11-14 August.

In August, Bailey is taking on a 100-mile walk along a section of the South West Coast Path to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. He is doing the walk to mark the one-year anniversary of comedian Sean Lock’s death from cancer.

In March, Bailey talked about how much he misses his friend Lock, saying the comic knew him “inside-out”.