Tricicle: “Many are leaving: Piqué, Serrat and us”

They say that all good things come to an end. Tricicle, the Catalan humor trio that has triumphed without saying a word, reaches the end of its journey. Although they have announced it on other occasions, the time has come for the final goodbye to the stages. That’s what they say. After 40 years of shows and laughter, Carles Sans, Joan Gràcia and Paco Mir say goodbye to their audience at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, starting this Saturday.

Tricicle’s decalogue could be summed up in its tenth commandment: “You will love the public above all things and above all you will never bore them”. They will put it into practice for the last time in the five planned performances of ‘Hits’ where they will offer a selection of their famous gags from Fast-paced and Surprising Intelligent Humor (HITS). After a long career making people laugh with his inimitable style of gestural theater, Tricicle is ready for the final chimpanzee

“This is all friends”, as the Looney Toons would say, is it true? “It is. We can no longer continue to say that we are leaving and not do it. It is partly our need, but also the public’s. The Chimpún tickets at the Liceu were not advertised and in a matter of hours they sold out“, says Sans. “In that you notice that there is a desire to say goodbye once and for all”, jokes Gràcia. “And it is complicated because many are leaving: Piqué, Serrat, us… I don’t know if anyone else will sign up” adds Mir wryly.

Gags in DNA

The covid interrupted the performances of ‘Hits’ with which the Coliseum theater said goodbye to the public in 2020. Rehearsals have shown that 40 years of working together leave their mark. The great Tricicle carry the gags of engravings in their DNA. “We remember everything quite well, but since the show at the Liceu alternates with the operas of ‘Il Trittico’, we won’t have the chance to rehearse for two or three days on stage. I hope it won’t show,” says Gràcia. “The important thing is to get the rhythm that the show requires. We’re working on it,” adds Sans.

They are excited to make their debut in a great theater like the Liceu, with so much history and relevance in the Catalan capital, where they had only performed at some private event. For now they do not plan to include any gag related to the world of opera in the show.

Barcelona-Seville-Ibiza

In these almost two years of hiatus as ‘Tricicle’ each one has dedicated himself to his own. Carles Sans is the only one that is still located in Barcelona and that maintains face-to-face contact with the public through the show ‘Per fi sol’where he has recovered the word.

Paco Mir, who lives in Seville, successfully premiered at the Almagro International Classical Theater Festival a one ingenious version of ‘The dog in the manger’, adapted and directed by him. After doing two seasons of shows for schoolchildren in Barcelona and some night shows, this December he returns to the Poliorama. For his part, Joan Gràcia moved to Ibiza two years ago where he prepares the cabaret shows for next year at the famous restaurant ‘Lío’. “I’m also in charge of the shows that are going to be done in other similar spaces in Mykonos, a new venue that will open in London and another in Palma.”

Tricicle began his career with a children’s show, ‘Coloraines’ (1980). She made her debut at La Villarroel with ‘Manicòmic’ (1982). later they premiered ‘Exit’ (1984), his first single-themed show. Then came ‘Slastic’ (1986), ‘Terrific’ (1992), ‘Among three’ (nineteen ninety six), ‘Tricle 20’ (1999), ‘sit’ (2003), ‘Garrick’ (2007), ‘bit’ (2012), hits (2016). Despite the success of his proposal, not many groups have emerged that follow in his wake by combining physical theatre, mime and humor. Only clownica clone group founded by them that later became independent, maintains the flame of stage work that is much more complicated than it seems at first glance.

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“Unquestionably we have reached the public but I don’t know how far we have reached the profession. I don’t know if the schools have looked at Tricicle as it deserved given the success of years and a loyal audience. Perhaps they have not dared to approach the genre of Tricicle for considering it so genuine. There hasn’t been that hitch,” Sans acknowledges. “Finding that point of genius, without being a clown, is not easy. Otherwise, there would be more people doing the same,” recalls Gràcia. “Sometimes there are performers who do ‘ganyotes’ and that’s not our job,” adds Sans. “It’s something else. We’ve created a genre of our own and any intruder might not feel comfortable if what he’s doing isn’t genuine.”

A phenomenon

Tricicle is a unique phenomenon that imposes. In addition, his work has gone far beyond the tables. They have also made movies and television making series like ‘Tres estrelles’, ‘Xoof’ and ‘Dynamite’. And they were the first to introduce humor in an Olympic ceremony, in the closing of Barcelona-92, 30 years ago. The magnificent exhibition dedicated to the trio at the Palau Robert in 2020 collected the keys to their own unique style, which has led them to connect with a wide audience. For Mir, the key lies not only in ingenuity but also in the hours invested in polishing every last detail. “In 40 years and we have done 150 gigs a year. We have worked a lot. The complicity that we have been generating is something that cannot be improvised”.