Washington Square Park is about to get a lot weirder this weekend, as a dual lookalike contest invites New Yorkers dressed as both comedian Nathan Fielder and disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to face off in the park. The contest is set for Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m., and it comes with a built-in afterparty for anyone who wants to keep the bit going into the night.
The event, first detailed by Time Out, describes the gathering as a dual lookalike contest featuring both Fielder and Holmes impersonators competing side by side. Per the outlet's report, the afterparty is planned for The Alligator in Williamsburg, and tickets are required to get in. Attendees who snag a ticket will reportedly be able to party with whichever contestants take the stage in the park earlier that day.
The Documentary Behind the Bit
The contest is riding the coattails of You Can See Everything, a documentary from Fielder and co-director Lance Oppenheim, according to the same Time Out report. The film, per A24, follows Holmes thirty-four days before she is sent to prison, as the notorious Silicon Valley founder invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. A24 lists the film as having hit theaters on October 16, placing its release about a week before the lookalike contest was announced.
Holmes, once the celebrated CEO of blood-testing startup Theranos, is now a convicted fraudster who was scheduled to begin an eleven-year prison sentence on May 30, 2023, for defrauding investors in her medical-testing device, according to IndieWire. Fielder, meanwhile, is associated with HBO's The Rehearsal, a show whose offbeat premise has made him something of a cult figure in his own right.
Why The Alligator Lounge Fits the Bit
The choice of afterparty venue is not random. The Alligator Lounge in Williamsburg has hosted filming for an early episode of Fielder's HBO series The Rehearsal, and per Eater NY, the bar factored heavily into the plot of the show's first season. Eater NY also reported that Fielder himself took over bartending duties at the lounge as part of a promotion for the show's second season back in April 2025.
New York's Growing Appetite for Lookalike Contests
This will not be the first time Washington Square Park has turned into an impromptu stage for doppelganger competitions. A JFK Jr. lookalike contest has also taken place in New York City. Months later, hundreds of people reportedly showed up near Washington Square Park to judge a Zohran Mamdani lookalike contest, as the Associated Press noted at the time.
The trend has not been confined to New York. CNN has characterized celebrity lookalike contests as a phenomenon that is taking over the internet, even though the format itself is not new.
Whether this weekend's Fielder-Holmes mashup draws a crowd on the scale of those earlier gatherings remains to be seen, but the park has proven itself a reliable stage for New York's appetite for strange, internet-fueled spectacle. For now, anyone hoping to compete, or simply watch, just needs to show up in Washington Square Park Sunday at 1 p.m.
