Dave Bootle came to Bermuda on what he thought was a four-month contract – 15 years later he is about to bid Bermuda farewell.

He was the entertainer for Cock and Feather, now Pickled Onion, and he has performed at Henry VIII for the past 12 years.

Leaving the Island has left him with mixed emotions, but he will not let that dampen the spirit of the parties that begin tonight and which continue throughout the weekend, ending with a 'Thanks for the Memories' going away party on Sunday.

Mr. Bootle's relationship with Bermuda began in 1992 after some Bermudian tourists saw him perform in Toronto.

When they returned to the Island they told the manager of Cock and Feather Chris Regittnig, who then flew up and offered him a job. Mr. Bootle declined, but Mr. Regittnig persisted until the entertainer agreed to come.

In 1997, the Cock and Feather was renovated and became the Pickled Onion and he was told he wouldn't be needed for a few months, so he asked if he could seek work elsewhere.

"I had Henry's in the back of my mind, because I liked it there, the venue and the way it is laid out," he said.

"So I went to Henry's and talked to the owner, who was Andy Allen at the time, and he said, 'no we are not having any more entertainment, it is not working for us, since Jimmy Keys left it is no good'.

"Between Jimmy Keys and I there were four years and they had tried everything, they had guitar players, piano players, and nobody seemed to cut the mustard, but they were spoiled with Jimmy."

He performed there for free on a Saturday night and at the end of the night the manager ran up to me with $200 in his hand and hired him from March the following year.

"I never knew that I would be there for 12 years, I thought, two or three years and that would be it, but it worked out really well and I had a lot of fun."

Mr. Bootle has led a varied career, including gymnastics, a stunt man and a musician. His father was a musician and his mother was a ballerina who also taught ballet.

"My dad did what I do for a living, but he was more of a piano player. My three older brothers are musical as well, so that was always in me.

"On the other side I was into gymnastics in a big way, so much so, I excelled I became the Ontario high school champion, so that led me to go to York University in Toronto to train with their team for the Olympics.

"I guess I was only there for six or seven months when I said, 'I want to do music'.

"So I quit. I then ended up auditioning for a job that was back into gymnastics at Canada's Wonderland, which was a huge theme park.

"In the middle of the park is this lake and there was a pirate ship in the middle of it. The pirates do all this acting and stunts and it is about a 30-minute show that you perform six times a day for $30 a day.

"They drove you into the ground, it was amazing. I ended up being one of the choreographers and what they called a flight captain, getting everyone warmed up in the morning and making sure the show stayed consistent."

From there he went to Australia in 1984. "As soon as I got into the country I got picked up by a movie stunt agency," he said.

He continued performing at night working in bars but in 1987 he was injured and decided to cut out the stunt work completely.

"I love my job, there is nothing like seeing the smiles on people's faces. For me, you walk in there and people are generally just long faced, they have their drink and they are talking, but the next thing you know within an hour, I have them dancing on the dance floor or on their chairs and drinking shots."

Being in Bermuda has been good to him in many ways; it was at the Henry VIII that he had the fortune of meeting his wife, Maria, who had come to Bermuda as the only single person travelling with four couples.

"We had a great time getting to know each other. I said goodbye to Maria about two days later, I came home, wrote a song for her, called her on her cellphone, and sang it on her voicemail so that when she got home she could hear it.

"Twenty days later I flew to Philadelphia with a ring and asked her to marry me. I knew, she knew, we were meant to be together. I met her in 2004, I was engaged to her in 2004 and we were married ten months later on April 2005."

From here, he and wife are planning to head south to Key West.

Mr. Bootle, who is originally from Toronto, "We know what the cold weather is like and we want to stay away from that now."