Rod Paulette set out to be an actor and majored in theater at Columbia College in Chicago but found comedy more to his liking. After a stint in advertising, he chucked the corporate world for the stand-up stage. “I like California — I just don’t like Californians,” he tells an audience. “I find them to be a little arrogant. I was talking to this lady there, a white lady, and I told her I was from Ohio and she asks, ‘Did you grow up on a farm?’ Really? When’s the last time you saw a black guy on a farm? I mean without the chain on his foot keeping his ass there? If you ever see black guy on a farm, walk up to him, tap him on the shoulder and tell him he’s free to go.”