![\"Winner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/mmail.com.my\/1209e0fe648e7ed11f70ff9352bc72f6.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nNEW YORK, Aug 31 \u2014 While Mayor Zohran Mamdani was learning how to build a fire for s’mores at a family camping programme across town, a group of men who looked suspiciously like him were busy competing to be New York’s best Mamdani impersonator.<\/p>\n
About 200 people gathered near Washington Square Park on Sunday for the look-alike contest, hosted by Sonder, an app designed for Gen-Zers to connect and form friendships, US media reported today.<\/p>\n
Nine contestants channelled the mayor through carefully chosen suits, facial hair, hairstyles, ties and, in the winning case, a New York Knicks jersey.<\/p>\n
The man who pulled it off best was Amadeo Fusca, a 40-year-old Manhattan comedian and actor who beat about 10 other contestants to take home a US$100 (RM421) prize.<\/p>\n
Fusca’s winning formula was a smirk, Mamdani-like haircut and facial hair, topped off with a Knicks jersey tucked underneath a suit jacket \u2014 an homage to the mayor’s outfit after the home team’s NBA Finals win.<\/p>\n
The resemblance was hardly accidental, as Fusca has racked up millions of views on social media by impersonating Mamdani.<\/p>\n
“It was kind of the perfect storm of people constantly hitting me up,” Fusca told The New York Post after his win.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Winner Amadeo Fusca collects his US$100 prize after winning a Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest near Washington Square Park in New York City on August 30, 2026. \u2014 Getty Images pic via AFP<\/p>\n
Winner Amadeo Fusca collects his US$100 prize after winning a Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest near Washington Square Park in New York City on August 30, 2026. \u2014 Getty Images pic via AFP<\/p>\n
Fusca said friends began bombarding him with pictures of Mamdani while he was campaigning for mayor, repeatedly pointing out how much the two looked alike.<\/p>\n
He eventually embraced the comparison so completely that he asked his barber to give him the mayor’s haircut.<\/p>\n
“I went to the barber that morning and said, ‘Here, cut my hair, and make me look like this now.’ And like, I have to look like this all the time now!” he said.<\/p>\n
What started as a joke has since become part of Fusca’s professional life, with his Mamdani parody videos attracting enough attention for him to land bookings at variety shows.<\/p>\n
At Knicks watch parties, the impersonation has also given Fusca an unexpected level of celebrity.<\/p>\n
“People were reacting like crazy, beyond what I even thought,” he said.<\/p>\n
The other contestants were not exactly phoning it in either, with several sporting the mayor’s signature suit-and-tie look, while others added bike helmets, silver rings and facial hair to complete the effect.<\/p>\n
One contestant went shirtless but wore an apron, a reference to Mamdani’s rap career under the stage name Mr. Cardamom.<\/p>\n
Then came the crucial test \u2014 pizza.<\/p>\n
Each contestant was asked to name his favourite pizza, with the winner ultimately decided by which man could draw the loudest applause from the crowd.<\/p>\n
The contest had initially been planned inside Washington Square Park, but police asked the group to leave because organisers had not obtained a permit.<\/p>\n
The contestants and spectators simply moved just outside the park and carried on with the competition.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the real Mamdani had spent Friday much further north in Manhattan at Inwood Hill Park, where he stopped by an NYC Parks family camping programme.<\/p>\n
“We made s’mores, talked about s’mores, and learned how to build a fire (for s’mores),” Mamdani said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
The mayor also pointed followers towards the Urban Park Rangers’ free outdoor programmes, which include the family camping sessions.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January, has built a large following among younger New Yorkers and on social media, while making support for the city’s struggling working class a central part of his mayoral agenda.<\/p>\n
For Fusca, however, being mistaken for the mayor appears to be working out rather nicely.<\/p>\n
The Washington Square Park contest is the latest in a series of look-alike competitions held at the Greenwich Village park, including one in June for Knicks star Jalen Brunson.<\/p>\n
It was also not the first Mamdani look-alike contest, with a similar competition held in Brooklyn in 2025 while Mamdani was campaigning for mayor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, Aug 31 \u2014 While Mayor Zohran Mamdani was learning how to build a fire for s’mores…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[125415,10663,1445,9,24,55,54,8783,30347,56,30416,125416,15081,82],"class_list":["post-333524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fusca","tag-knicks","tag-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-yorkers","tag-new-yorks","tag-ny","tag-the-new-york-post","tag-the-washington-square-park","tag-washington-square-park","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}