Hoover Institution Fellow and former Secretary of State George Shultz, wearing his trademark red sports coat and bow tie, was the moderator of Wednesday night’s panel in the Faculty Club on nuclear nonproliferation.

The event was both somber and alarming, but that didn’t stop Shultz from showing off his lighter side.

When raging wildfires in Southern California forced Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cancel his visit, he called Shultz to ask if the Hoover fellow would read his prepared remarks about “lifting the nuclear nightmare from our nation’s future.”

Shultz did — while trying to mimic the governor’s Austrian accent when talking about the great state of KAL-E-FORNIA.

The Schwarzenegger advisor also didn’t skip the introduction.

“George Shultz is one of the people I admire most in the world — someone for whom I feel great affection,” Shultz deadpanned, reading from the governor’s script to hearty laughter.

When Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, got his chance to speak after dinner, he protested that he had not been asked.

“I’m still recovering from the fact that I wasn’t asked to read the Schwarzenegger speech,” said Kissinger, whose accent is also the butt of jokes.

Then Gerhard Casper, former University president, yelled “What about me, Henry?”