The curtain falls with a final bow and a lasting impression for Barcelona’s cultural scene. This image captures the moment as the Catalan trio—Joan Gràcia (born 1957), Paco Mir (1957), and Carles Sans (1955)—took to the stage for their last performance together as Tricicle, on Sunday, December 4. The evening was rich with emotion and laughter, a fitting encore titled Ship Explosion that closed a long, celebrated run. The Grand Theatre hosted the show, a maximal mashup of the best gags from their extensive repertoire, and tickets disappeared in hours without the need for advertising.
The farewell was not meant to be simple. Covid-19 interrupted their planned 2020 send-off at the Colosseum, making this moment even more meaningful. After just five performances at Liceu, Sunday’s event welcomed a sea of friends and longtime supporters into the seats, marking the brightest peak of their shared stage career.
Esteemed figures across music, literature, sports, and media joined in the tribute. Legends like Joan Manuel Serrat, writers including Eduardo Mendoza and Boris Izaguirre, athletes such as Àlex Corretja and Ona Carbonell, and comedians including Barça president Joan Laporta, Andreu Buenafuente, and Carlos Latre filled the house. Actors like José Corbacho, Cayetana Guillén Cuervo, and Sílvia Abril added their presence, all gathered to witness this farewell from the ensemble that has left a permanent imprint on Spanish-language comedy.
The room was alive with shared memories and a few inevitable chuckles. Tricicle began creating their language back in 1979—gestures, timing, and minimal props that built a powerful connection with audiences. Decades later, even when years had passed since the first collaborations, the trio still found ways to spark laughter with spontaneity and precision. Their chemistry remained infectious, and the performers themselves could not help but smile at the faint echoes of past tricks that resurfaced during the show.
The applause in these closing performances carried a different weight—gratitude for a body of work that included beloved titles such as Manicòmic, Exit, Slastic, Awesome, Entretres, Sit Down, Garrick, and Bits. Viewers who saw them on stage felt the moment as a rare convergence of intelligence and warmth, a shared intimacy among three people whose humor defined an era. The end of the act signaled not only the end of a tour but the closing of an extraordinary phenomenon that reshaped contemporary physical comedy.
More Than 450 Theatres in 20 Countries
A concise summary of Tricicle’s career highlights reveals a remarkable footprint: over 4.2 million viewers, about 6,200 performances, appearances in 450 theatres across 20 countries, and around 300 jokes per show. The troupe, once described in the cultural press as a benchmark for theatrical humor, has become part of a broader history of Catalan stage artistry. Their work was celebrated in a major exhibition at Palau Robert, where the project Lenguaje—an exploration of the troupe’s signature joke structure—was introduced. Estimates suggest the troupe delivered roughly 675 laughs per show, a rate that translates to laughter roughly once every eight seconds when the performance was in full swing. In many ways, Tricicle joined a lineage of iconic Catalan companies that announced retirement in recent years, leaving behind a legacy that continues to influence performers and audiences alike.
The farewell sequence at Liceu underscored a long arc of achievement. Even with a career shaped by many collaborations, the closing performances reminded spectators of the trio’s unique ability to blend motion and expression into a compact, universally understood language of humor. Their remaining projects include a documentary that will chronicle a career built on precision, timing, and an almost instinctive understanding of what makes people laugh. The trio’s influence persists in the memories of audiences who experienced their work firsthand and in the ongoing work of peers who continue to push the boundaries of visual, gesture-based comedy.
In the end, Tricicle’s farewell at the Liceu stands as a defining moment in contemporary Catalan stage history. It celebrated a lifetime of performance and invited a broader reflection on how humor can connect people across generations. The show’s success—a sold-out engagement, a global footprint in theatres and tours, and a lasting cultural imprint—speaks to a simple truth: laughter, when executed with craft and heart, can endure long after the final curtain. The documentary project aims to preserve those moments for future audiences, ensuring that the distinctive spirit of Tricicle remains accessible to fans and newcomers alike. In this way, the trio’s legacy extends beyond a single tour and becomes a living part of the theatre’s evolving narrative, a testament to the power of playful imagination to unite communities.
[citation: Triple] The audience response and the retrospective discussions surrounding the troupe’s career are cited in cultural records and press archives, highlighting the breadth of influence and the enduring appeal of their style. The final performances at Liceu are celebrated not just as a goodbye but as a milestone that captures the essence of Tricicle’s contribution to modern theatre and comedic art.