Friday night, students will get the opportunity to see the live antics of Aasif Mandvi, known best for his position as Baghdad Bureau Chief on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” At the show, Mandvi will bring clips of the show and talk about reporting on the best fake news show on television. Luckily, FYI had the chance to chat with Mandvi about life, his work on “The Daily Show,” and what’s next in his career.

The free show starts at 8 p.m. at Stephens Auditorium Admission with doors opening at 7 p.m.

Q: Why Ames?

A: You guys invited me and I was like “I’m not doing anything, so sure, I’ll come out.” I’m very excited to come out there.

Q: How do you come up with the material for your part on “The Daily Show?”

A: It’s a very collaborative thing, I can’t say I come up with it all. We have a team of writers there and often the ideas are generated with this huge think tank and then those ideas are assigned to the particular correspondents and then we get to bring in our particular take.

Q: Considering you play a news correspondent, have you ever wanted to play the part in real life?

A: Oh no, it’s so much work. I get to stand in front of a green screen and the real correspondents actually have to go to Iraq. I don’t actually want to do any work, I just want to pretend that I’m doing work.

Q: How did you get into comedy?

A: I didn’t really choose comedy as a career, I kind of came up through the ranks as an actor and writer. But, actually a lot of the work I’ve done hasn’t been comedy. I’ve gone back and forth between the two worlds of dramatic and comedic, and I become bored if I do one thing to long. I need the back and forth.

Q: What’s great about “The Daily Show?

A: No one is really doing the satire and commentary that “The Daily Show” is doing. None of the news outlets or comedy shows are doing it. So it’s an unusual hybrid that very few people have been able to recreate. And in that way for someone like me who comes from a background as a Muslim-American, it’s a tremendous opportunity to be on there and intercourse with the public dialogue.

Q: Are there positive and negative effects for the satire?

A: The effects would have to be positive. I don’t know what the negative effects would be, like laughing about the government too much? I think there needs to be the class clown. A lot of news cameras shine the light in the same direction and have the same language and stories.

But we come along, take our camera and point it at a very bizarre angle and show it a way you’d never see it otherwise.

Q: So, what’s next?

A: I’m going to go back to “The Daily Show” and I have a movie coming up that I’m shooting later this year. Then I have a film I’ve written that I’m also shooting next year.