The Lonely Island Fan

I’ve been receiving quite a few e-mails asking about where and how to get autographs of The Lonely Island through the mail.  This post should help anyone looking for help on this.

I started sending out mail on and off to the three dudes since about May of 2008.  Andy Samberg was my very first write and I surprisingly got a great response back, though what I sent to have signed was rather large (the Hot Rod movie poster), but got it back!  I would have to recommend starting smaller though.

Let me first start this post by stating that while I have had good successes with my mailings I will not take responsibility for no responses sent back by anyone.  I think Andy, Jorma and Akiva do the best they can to reply to all fan mail enclosures of items to sign, but please don’t send hate mail if you aren’t getting anything back.  They are very busy!  With that being said…
There’s precautions to take when sending items off to get signed:

1.  Don’t send something you aren’t willing to lose. Photographs are a great way to start.  If you don’t end up getting a reply back after a certain amount of time then at least you can make another attempt with another photo as they are replaceable.  Stuff like special posters, CDs, movie props (etc) make sure to be careful.

2.  Don’t send too many items at once. When I request for a photo be signed I send one to two items max.  If you send off five items you might not get them all signed.  I also personally feel even two things might be stretching it, but it’s not uncommon for people to send multiple things.  Just be courteous.  I’m always just happy getting one thing at a time as it is.

3.  Protect your stuff! If you want your photo(s) back in good shape make sure it’s mailed appropriately protected from the shipping handlers of your mail.  Sometimes they are ruthless in the way they treat your stuff.  This will be outlined later on.

The Letter
It has been suggested that hand-written is one of the best ways to write as it is more personal than creating a canned letter that you would be able to slap someone else’s name on and easily print out.  It also shows you took the time out of your day to write.  Admittedly the first time when I wrote to get my poster signed I typed up a letter, but after getting some pointers agreed that writing was a better way to go.  Yes, it takes a while, but it’s worth it in the end, right?

What to write?
Introduce yourself!  Tell them why you like their material (or the group etc.)!  I treat it as if I’m writing a letter to a friend.  I be sincere, but honest.  I usually write about a page to page and a half (front and back).  Somewhere in the letter though make sure to mention you’d like to get your photo signed and returned.  If you want to request the signature be personalized (my personal preference) then make sure to request it be personalized to you.  Often that is a good way of showing you aren’t wanting to turn around and sell it to someone and that it’s only for you, but personalization requests aren’t required, nor are they necessarily guaranteed.  I sent Andy two photos late last year and they came back signed without personalization, which was fine by me.

Shipping Materials:
- rugged photo mailer (I get the 8 3/4″ x 11 1/4″ photo mailer 4-packs from Staples fits 8×10 photos)
- 9×12 mailer envelope (or larger… the rugged photo mailer must fit inside this envelope)
- proper postage

You’ll be almost doubling your postage. Before you pack up your letter and photo, you need to make sure you have prepared a self-addressed and stamped mailer inside.  You want to make the process as easy as possible for the return mailing process.  I calculate the postage and post enough on the rugged photo mailer for it to get back to me.  If you want to pay extra you can pre-address with priority shipping, but that might be a bit ridiculous if you’re not willing to wait a few days.   Of course if you want to track the mail you are sending online you could always spring the extra few bucks to do that just to see that your mail got delivered, but that’s up to you.

Step 1 - Cut a hole in the box. Address the rugged photo mailer to yourself.  The return address will be the one you used to send to them.  I’d recommend for security through the mail that you don’t use their full real name and maybe a character name.  For example when I had my last autograph request I made it addressed from “Ras Trent.”  Just in the event you worry about anyone stealing your mail.  Not a bad bit of advice, but not a necessity.  Affix the proper postage on the return envelope.  Place the photo you are enclosing inside the photo mailer, but DO NOT SEAL THE PHOTO MAILER!

Step 2 - Place rugged photo mailer with the unsealed flap folded over and slip inside the outgoing mailer with your letter inside and seal the outgoing mailer envelope.  Address the envelope to the person you are writing to (or all three) and affix proper postage.  Don’t forget to put a return address on it too just in case!

Step 3 – Mail it and play the long waiting game.  You may get a response in as little as 18 days, or as long as 100+ days.  Please understand that they won’t get to your letters immediately and that it will take a while.  They get a lot of fan mail.

---

***7/29/09 Addition***  Simplified diagram:

---

Where to send your fan mail to
These sources are found amongst many other celebrity autograph addresses at fanmail.biz.  These two addresses have been tested and confirmed work by users of this site via their forums.  That and well…  one of them I’ve used a number of times and has worked:

During the SNL season (my preference):
<name>
c/o “Saturday Night Live”
NBC Studios
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
USA

During the non-SNL season (haven’t personally used, but references through fanmail.biz have shown successes with):
<name>
c/o Mosaic Media Group
9200 West Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90069
USA

---

Tips

- I like to print out nice big address labels to look more clean and professional.  You don’t have to.  It’s just my preference

- Stand out!  I like to use mailing envelopes that are different than manila or white.  If you mail a different colored envelope it might stand out faster in the big pile of fan mail.

- Don’t send too much mail at a time.  Doing this might work against you if you’re writing 15 autograph requests in 15 envelopes at a time.  If you’re wanting multiple requests spread it out over time.  I think that might be getting a bit greedy and they might not appreciate that.

- Be patient.  Waiting time varies.  I’ve received mail back in one case that took only 15 days and on another occasion from the same person took well over 100 days.  Timing seems to be everything, of which we don’t know when that is…

I’d love to see and post any of you fellow readers’ autograph success stories if you have them!  Good luck to you and if you have any questions regarding sending items please feel free to post or email me!

Thanks very much and hope you enjoyed this post!