Best pens for autographing Playbills?

In my stage-dooring, I've noticed that a fine point Sharpie is not really ideal for getting Playbills signed. It's too thin.

So I'm looking to get a pen that gives a better signature. I'm thinking a medium point paint pen. Does anyone know of a good one or have a better suggestion?

I want to get one black pen and one metallic silver pen.

Yes. It is pretty smart to get one of each because some playbills are darker than other(so you would use the silver) and ones that are lighter(which you would use the black sharpie).
For example, on the Spring Awakening playbill I have it signed with silver sharpie because it mostly black.

I went to a few places today, and couldn't find any "regular" Sharpies. Just fine point and extra fine.

Regular= fine tip, as in this: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=6935309

Not Ultra fine, like a regular pen, or the really fat ones, like highlighters. Just the.."regular" Sharpie, which would be Fine Tip (I just bought them, they are under "Fine Tip"). Get a Metallic Silver and Black.

I just want to add that you should avoid paint pens that can be bought at craft stores. With many of those pens the user needs to press down fairly hard while writing to get them to work. When actors are trying to sign as many playbills as they can fooling with a paint pen can be a bother. A regular silver sharpie will do just fine. I have, also, used the pink, purple, and blue sharpies with nice results.

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I'm a proud supporter of the silver sharpie.
:)

When you say that the fine point Sharpies are too thin, do you mean the black ones or the silver ones? The black fine point ones are pretty standard, and as you can see from roseaddams's avatar, the black fine point Sharpie signatures show up just fine. I've used medium point, but the line is too thick IMO, especially if you want to get a lot of signatures on a Playbill.

If it doesn't look like the signatures are showing up (and you're using a fine point not an ultra fine point -- the ultra fine point ones don't always work well and have exactly the problem you describe), I'm guessing you're running out of ink. The silver ones run out of ink incredibly quickly (sometimes after just a handful of signatures), and they also don't write well on a windowcard or program all the time (as opposed to a Playbill) unless they are really, really new. The black ones last a while but run out eventually.

The other thing that makes it look like the signatures are not showing up is very cold weather, but I'm guessing that's not the case at this time of the year!

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between autographs do u keep the sharpie lid off?
I learned this the very first time stage dooring at Ave Q. By the time I was getting my last sig (Jen Barnhart) it came out very small and dry and she asked me if I kept the cap on cause they dry out very fast. She told me to always keep it capped between sigs

I remember that advice to this day :)

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Has anyone used bronze? I'm shopping for sharpies right now and thinking of getting silver, black, and blue sharpie pens. Does red work well on dark-colored playbills?

StephieElise said: "I'm really a fan of the gold sharpie and have received many compliments from performers on it. At one point I found a retractable one which was good too as you didn't have to fuss with a lid. "

I use a Sharpie on work documents for a word or two to stand out. And I am addicted to the retractable ones. Much easier than a lid. I'd think this would work best at the stage door, Playbill in one hand handing to the actor while you hold the Sharpie and click it with your thumb just before handing off. Retractables haven't taken off yet so I've found some folks fumbling with it trying to take off the non-existent cap. But maybe actors are more well versed in Sharpies than the general public.