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Northeastern student takes mini-Jimmy Fallon abroad

Jimmy Fallon was recently spotted wearing a backpack and a camera around his neck in Florence, Italy. A few days before that, he was seen standing between two buildings in Venice. To the uninformed, it would seem he’s been doing a lot of traveling in the region.

But it’s not the real Fallon who was eating gelato or strutting through a piazza with a bag of groceries in hand — it’s just a miniature cardboard cutout of the late-night comedian.

Call him “mini-Fallon.”

Halle O’Conor, a fourth-year student at Northeastern University who is traveling abroad in Italy, has been placing and taking pictures of the 8-inch replica of Fallon around Italy’s many cities. She then posts the humorous images to her Instagram account, “Jimmy Fallon Studies Abroad.”

She is hoping the stunt will grab Fallon’s attention, and secure her a production internship on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” next semester. O’Conor’s Instagram account has been gaining traction online, and was also featured on the TODAY show’s website.

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“I wanted to do something that would make me stand out in a competitive pool of applicants,” she said via e-mail from Italy. “I honestly wasn’t sure what would come of the Instagram account, but I hoped that it would at least make some people laugh.”

It seems to be working. O’Conor said she regularly is stopped by tourists who ask to pose with the cutout, which changes outfits as much as it travels with the communications student.

O’Conor’s mini-Fallon has taken in the sights not only in Venice and Florence, but in Pisa (of leaning tower fame), as well as Bern, Switzerland, and Paris.

A friend of O’Conor’s family helps her with using Photoshop to place Fallon’s head on different outfits. Then she prints the pictures out and brings the mini-Fallons on adventures.

“I just printed out about 10 new versions that I am really excited about,” she said. So far, O’Conor hasn’t heard back from the real Fallon, but she’s making the most of the project.

“I am on my way to Prague right now, so we will see what happens there,” she said.

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Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.