Armin van Buuren Impersonator Plays Pranks on Fans

What would you do if you saw Armin van Buuren on the side of the street posing for photographs? Would you run up to him? Or would you keep walking? That’s the dilemma these people were met with as Armin van Buuren stood in front of his billboard. The only catch? It wasn’t really Armin van Buuren.

While the man standing in front of the billboard wasn’t really Armin, the comedian and look-alike Patrick O’Sullivan did a pretty good Job impersonating him and making people think it really was him.

The prank went down on a busy street corner right in front of a giant billboard advertising one of Armin’s residencies, which made the whole thing even more convincing — O’Sullivan matched the pose from the ad practically frame for frame, arms spread wide, same smile, same everything. He even had a friend playing the part of his assistant to sell the illusion a little harder. It’s a pretty simple setup on paper, but Armin’s look is distinctive enough that it clearly worked on more than a few unsuspecting fans passing by.

That’s really the beauty of a good look-alike prank — it doesn’t take much when the subject already has one of the most recognizable faces in dance music. Armin has spent over a decade near the top of DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll and built A State of Trance into a globally syndicated radio institution, so it makes sense that even a passing resemblance was enough to send fans into a full-blown fanboy spiral without a second thought.

Watch as people pose with Armin van Buuren’s impersonator and even go as far as fanboy-ing.

“Literally, like, I’m shaking. I’m fanboy-ing right now.”

That reaction pretty much sums up the appeal of these prank videos — for a few seconds, total strangers genuinely believed they’d bumped into one of the biggest DJs on the planet, camera phones and all. Whether or not Armin himself has ever seen the clip, we’d bet he at least got a kick out of how well O’Sullivan nailed the impression, right down to the trademark grin.