The Entertainer

When Andrew was the Employee Support Coordinator in the fire service he coordinated the Employee Assistance Program and had oversight of a group of peers. These peers were fire service personnel who volunteered to be the face of the EAP in and around the stations.
Each year the two dozen or so peers and their partners were invited to attend a thank you dinner.
Prior to the night Andrew spoke to me about his plan to put everyone on edge. He was going to ask each person to put their keys in a basket. then he said he would draw one set out at each dinner course and that person would be given a task they must do on the spot. He said to me it would only work if the first person was a set up with prior knowledge. I agreed of course and we worked out a suitably challenging task. On the night his opening speech included a description of this game he created. Sure enough my keys were the first to be drawn, I pretended to be surprised and very nervous when he said I had to recite the poem 'Charge of the Light Brigade' which I promptly did.
He then reminded the room full of stunned people that any of them could be next. Of course it had desired effect, a room full of nervous faces and nervous laughter. Later in the evening he revealed it was a scam.
His wit, compassion and company will be sadly missed. A man of big size and even bigger presence. A man who could talk well but could listen better. A man of character. Farewell Andrew. You will be missed.