I was a Beech FO. I've done talked to my share of pax. But seriously, even as a Beech CA I'd let the FO sit down, and take care of the passenger interaction. You should be comfortable enough in your own skin (and your recently laundered uniform) to deal with passengers on an individual and group basis.

shackone's comments were dead on. When things are abnormal, talk to the pax directly if at all possible. Tell an agent that we have a massive, 400F bleed air leak that needs to be fixed and they are guaranteed to tell the pax that "the defroster is broke." Way to **** poeple off on a 3 hour delay. Further, the labor pool that our airlines are pulling agents from is rapidly approaching the bottom of the bucket. They may or may not have a firm grasp on the English language, and for darn sure they don't have a clue about aviation. You and the FO may be the only college educated employees at the station. So man up and talk to the people. They'd rather hear it from the person whose ass is also going to be on the line.