TikTok ‘Party Shirt’ Xavier Di Petta and Nick Lavarone: Who are they?

San Juan Capistrano native Nick Iavarone and Australian Xavier Di Petta are popular guys on Tiktok known as ‘Party Shirt’. Who really are these guys?

The duo began posting videos in late 2020 during the time of “Mr. Covid”. They’re fans of the show “MythBusters” and decided to recreate something similar, busting viral life hacks. “We were like, OK, why don’t we just test them, make it easy and have some fun with it,” Iavarone said.

They go by the moniker “Party Shirt” for their wildly famous “fact or cap” videos, in which they try to prove or refute TikTok trends. In each video, the duo predicts and tests whether viral videos––such as detecting metal in baby food brands or charging an iPhone with a banana––are true (fact) or false (a.k.a. “cap” on the internet).

In just over a month, Party Shirt became the most popular TikTok account operated by an Australian, collecting over 10 million followers. Di Petta and Iavarone credit their meteoric ascent to a polarized media environment, which is especially present in the United States, where they are situated.

“People connect to ‘fact or cap’ because there’s a lot of fake media, and it’s hard to tell who’s fact-checking information online,” Di Petta says. “We’re now in a time when two average dudes in an average apartment are people’s only reliable source.”

They currently have 20.8 Million Followers on the Tiktok platform.

How They Met

Mr. Iavarone was up in Orange County, California, and has always been active in sports. When he became more interested in music in college and began DJing, a buddy introduced him to Mr. Di Petta, another DJ, with the hopes of assisting each other.

Di Petta, who was born in Australia and grew up in the United States, was no stranger to social media. He launched a YouTube account in 2007, and it grew to become Australia’s 10th most subscribed channel.

They started working together on music projects and eventually became Party Shirt, a DJ duo. However, when the epidemic struck, they turned to TikTok. They started making the “Fact or Cap” series after gaining admirers by publishing their songs on the app.