What a dummy

It seems that Leeds-based Eversheds partner Jonathan Guest has got over his enormous embarrassment at being turned into a ventriloquist’s dummy. This means it’s high time the story was brought to a wider audience so that he can go red all over again.

The tale starts at the national firm’s annual commercial conference earlier this year. Eversheds had booked the ventriloquist Paul Zerdin as after-dinner entertainment and, in traditional style, Zerdin asked for a volunteer from the audience to help him with his act. A helpful member of the the marketing team kindly volunteered a less-than-enthusiastic Guest, and seconds later he was on stage and sporting an outsized pair of fake lips on strings.

Imagine the poor man’s embarrassment as Zerdin went through his paces, asking Guest questions and making him ‘talk’. The Q&A went along the lines of: “What’s your name?” – “My name is Tracy.”
Always game for a laugh, Guest ballsed it out, but was clearly relieved when the act was over and Zerdin said he had suffered enough and could get down. One observer said: “His eyes lit up.” That was, until ‘Tracy’ said: “I don’t want to go – I want to do a dance.”

Guest’s comments to said marketeer are not known, but they are believed to be unprintable.