Pre-med and Lyman Briggs senior Zaaki Mandwee is the host of Michigan State University’s first late-night comedy show: State Tonight. 

After three years in the making, Mandwee hopes that the project will become essential to the MSU experience. 

“We want State Tonight to be something that people go to like one of the football or basketball games,” Mandwee said. “Every Spartan should want to attend one of the late night shows.” 

State Tonight will become an official Registered Student Organization, or RSO, beginning this Fall, according to Mandwee. 

The show follows a typical late-night show structure, which Mandwee said consists of “a monologue, bits, and everything that a typical late-night comedy talk show would have.” 

“We’re going to have satire, political satire as well in the monologues, probably the news will be a part of it,” Mandwee said. “Making fun of the news, making fun of what’s going on and trying to bring happiness and comedy to all aspects of life.”

State Tonight will bring on members of the Michigan State community to be guests on the show. With over 1,000 RSO’s at MSU, Mandwee said that he wants State Tonight to have “all different types of students, from all sorts of backgrounds, to come together" and hopes to bring a “unifying ambience for all different organizations on campus.” 

The show will also feature musical guests to perform alongside a house band, according to Mandwee. He teased the MSU acapella organizations and NCA fellows as potential guests that the show would like to bring on to perform. 

State Tonight is meant to be experienced as a live show, but for those who can not attend, it will be available on their YouTube page. The show also has an Instagram, which currently has over 900 followers before any tapings, and TikTok account that will feature content from the show.

Mandwee said that while he wants to “keep people in suspense” surrounding who State Tonight’s first guest will be, he can assure students that the mystery guest will be “very special.”