My audience stands in a semi-circle around me, looking expectantly, and suddenly I’m feeling nervous. It’s only a small group of 12, but for some reason this small group is more nerve-wracking than speaking to 500 from a main stage. So I take a deep breath and launch into my usual approach: I open with a story.

“I can clearly remember the best campfire I ever had.
It was a dark night and a bunch of friends and I were standing in a field with a huge, empty metal drum. The drum was loaded full of wood and we’d cranked up a blazing fire”

There’s silence. Eyes watch me, and I go on.

“We’d set this big drum up underneath a tree, and this roaring fire was spitting sparks up into branches. At some point we realised that this could be risky… what if the tree caught fire? There were loads of other trees around… it dawned on us that we were taking a huge risk”

“So I told the others, ‘No worries fellas, I’ll just move the bin a little out from under the tree’ and stepped over to the drum. The heat was hot, but not so hot that I couldn’t lift the bin up by its metal handles

“But I’ll just pause here a second. Think about this,” I tell my audience, “It’s a metal bin, with metal handles, and a big fire burning inside… any guesses what happened next?”

The realisation is dawning in the eyes staring at me from around the circle.

“Yup, I burned the crap out of my fingers. But I got lucky for two reasons.

“Firstly, I reacted fast. I hadn’t yet curled my fingers around the handles, so the burns were only superficial.

“But most importantly, that became the best campfire I have ever had. It was the fire taught me that no matter how many blazes I make, no matter how relaxed I might feel staring into the flames, there is always a risk.

“I ALWAYS have to take fire safety seriously.”

The Scouts stare back at me from around the circle, smiling and nodding. They’ve got the message.

“Now” I say, “Let’s go light some fires, do some campfire cooking and have some fun!”

It’s my first time running an activity as a Scout leader, but a group of teenagers is possibly the toughest audience there is. Suddenly, I’m grateful that I’ve prepared well, and quickly, we’re into the swing of things.

An hour later, covered in flour and well-fed with macaroni and cheese, campfire damper, and baked apples, the Scouts look grateful, too. We’ve had a blast.

It’s been a great night and the irony isn’t lost on me: if a campfire that burned my hands can somehow be the best fire I’ve ever had, it seems logical that the toughest audience I’ll ever face might also end up being one of the funnest.