Investors heading to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting may have been expecting a sombre mood given the recession and the company’s weakest performance since Warren Buffett took over in 1965. But the humble “Sage of Omaha” did his best to break the ice.

In an opening film montage to welcome the record 35,000 shareholders who made the pilgrimage to Omaha’s Qwest Center, Mr Buffett was recast as a salesman in his Nebraska Furniture Mart. The 78-year-old was relegated to selling “Nervous Nellie” mattresses, which come with pockets for stashing cash. At the store, a perplexed customer asked what he was doing there.