As you take the size of a black hole to extreme mass, just outside the event horizon is as safe as any other place in outer space, as curvature (in the sense of

As you take the size of a black hole to extreme mass, just outside the event horizon is as safe as any other place in outer space, as curvature (in the sense of tidal forces) at and near the horizon falls off dramatically as the horizon radius increases. The increase in the horizon area also reduces your chances of colliding with something on a different orbit around the black hole, so you're less likely to be vaporized by matter in the accretion disc moving relativistically with respect to you. Your buddy could be holding your beer for a very long time though, because gravitational time dilation at a given small distance outside the horizon increases with the mass of the black hole, and it will take you more of your own proper time to move through the region near a very large black hole than through the region near a small one.