A person walking down the stairs to the GHH atrium on Saturday, Nov. 18 might think they just walked straight onto the set of Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show.”

Nearly every seat on the floor was filled and the packed crowd eagerly awaited the start of the WQRI Late Night show, hosted by sophomore Alex Bowden, who is also the news director for WQRI. With colorful lights flashing brightly onto the table and chairs set up for the show, the crowd welcomed a surprise guest to the podium: our very own president, Donald J. Trump.

Well…not quite.

It was Bowden dressed up as Trump. But, his impression of the reality TV star-turned-politician was so good that it may as well have been the president of our country. Bowden came out singing his own rendition of “You’re Welcome” from the movie Moana with the Presidential Seal glowing on the TV in the background. He had the audience cracking up with his creative lines and hysterical imitation of Trump.

After that creative intro, Bowden disappeared behind the curtains and reemerged as the host of the show and introduced the three guests that would be joining him on the show: Senior and Student Senate President Jake Brostuen, beloved shuttle driver Jane Walker, and Manager of Transportation Cate Tobin. He pumped up the crowd and encouraged students to laugh even when they did not think something was funny, which prompted false laughter echoing through the atrium.

Throughout the introduction, Bowden repeatedly brought up Trump, even after promising not to talk about him again (several times). Shortly after, the first skit of the night inspired by MTV cribs began and had the audience cracking up. Several students gave tours of their dorm rooms in Stonewall, Cedar, and Baypoint.

Throughout the show, the WQRI members had the crowd roaring with laughter during their hilarious skits and games that interacted with the audience members. Bowden began to write some thank you notes to various people and read them aloud to the audience. He thanked the RWU shuttle service, for “teaching me to exercise… by walking,” said Bowden. He also thanked people who started listening to Christmas music in early November for “helping me to recognize who to stay away from.”

In the hot pepper challenge, sophomore Max Goldberg and freshman Alec Beauvis read articles as the audience yelled at them to eat hot peppers and drink hot sauce. The spiciness of the peppers could be smelled as far back as the third row of the audience, and every time someone in the crowd yelled “EAT IT!” the two guys had to stop reading and take a bite of the sizzling hot peppers they had in their hands.

Sophomore Amelia DeMelo enjoyed this game the most because “it was funny and interactive with the audience.”

 In between skits, DJ’s and radio hosts from WQRI promo’d their own shows, and eboard members ran out to the audience and began throwing free WQRI gear into the crowd.

Another very popular sketch was “Ew” starring Goldberg and senior and co-General Manager of WQRI, Jackie Zerio. As the two made their entrance dancing down the aisles, they took audience member and freshman, Mackenzie Seccombe, by surprise as they grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the set with them. They took turns holding up photos of superstars and chanted “EW!” when showing photos of Zac Efron, Ryan Gosling, and Channing Tatum.

Next, Brostuen entered as the first guest. Bowden began with the classic Q&A method, asking the senate president what he loved to do most as a student leader. The interview took a funny twist as an Brostuen’s inner monologue began to play over the audience. 

Bowden’s inner monologue responded to Brostuen’s comments about being an RA with “How could anyone take this guy seriously? If he was writing me up I’d laugh in his face and toss another drink down.”

The monologue bounced back and forth between Brostuen and Bowden’s inner voices, each revealing their true thoughts in response to what each other were saying.

Brostuen also participated in the game “Box of Lies,” in which he and Bowden took turns telling each other what was in their boxes, and then had to guess whether or not they were telling the truth. Brostuen went first and revealed a creepy baby doll and a swoop mascot head. He told Bowden that it was “a blue version of Donald Trumps’ toupee,” but Bowden knew it was a lie.

Guests Tobin and Jane came out and played the “Lip Reading” game in which they had to guess what Bowden was reading to them with loud music playing through the headphones perched on their heads.

Bowden read his card to Tobin, saying “student debt,” in which she guessed he was saying “juicy and sexy,” prompting roaring laughter from the crowed.

Throughout each sketch and game, audience members cheered and clapped excitedly.

“My favorite part of the show, as always, is the audience,” Bowden said. “If that is not the favorite part of any host’s show, they should not be a host.”