Carles Sans returns to Andorra with solo show Per fi sol!

Carles Sans, former member of the comic trio Tricicle and now a solo performer, will appear on the 18th at the Congress Centre in Andorra la Vella with his show Per fi sol!

Sans has visited Andorra professionally many times, both with Tricicle and as a solo artist. He first presented Per fi sol! during the strictest phase of the pandemic, with venues at 50% capacity and audiences wearing masks. “I left with a thorn in my side. I wanted to come back because I have an audience in Andorra and I wanted to perform in normal conditions,” he says, speaking to Altaveu by phone in a friendly, relaxed tone.

Per fi sol! gathers a series of anecdotes from forty years of his career: personal stories and professional memories from his time with Tricicle. Sans stresses that, however improbable they may seem, “all are real,” which he believes makes the show accessible to people who are not familiar with Tricicle’s history. He says the audience laughs four to five times per minute—a figure he checked once by having a councilor certify the ratio.

The decision to move to a solo spoken format came after Tricicle ended in 2020. Sans considered whether he wanted to end his own career as well, but chose instead to continue and “move to words.” His wife encouraged him to formalize the anecdotes he often shared at after-dinner gatherings, where guests would not stop laughing. Developing the project yielded many stories, and he regards the choice as a good one.

Having told the anecdotes dozens of times, Sans admits it is harder to feel surprise now, but he still enjoys the interaction with the audience. “Sometimes you make yourself laugh when you know you are telling something comic. In the end it’s a game between the audience and me. It’s like extending an after-dinner conversation to the whole auditorium,” he says. Seeing the audience enjoy themselves, he adds, energizes him.

The biggest challenge of solo performance after years in a trio, he explains, is sustaining an hour and a half on stage without the support of two other performers. When he watched colleagues perform solo monologues in the past, he admired their bravery and thought it was something he could do; ultimately it became a process of learning and discovery.

In the five years since Tricicle ended, Sans has broadened his activities. He has directed productions, including a humorous Tenorio with Andreu Buenafuente and Sílvia Abril, now in its second year. He also writes for El Periódico and Sport, reflecting an early interest in journalism that he did not pursue formally. “Originally I would have liked to study Journalism. Fortunately, I went in another direction, and I think I’ve come out ahead choosing this profession,” he says.

He credits part of his successful transition to the guidance of director José Corbacho and feedback from people close to him, which helped him refine aspects of the show. The external perspective, he notes, is essential, though the shift from gesture to spoken storytelling was not overly difficult. Acting, he adds, requires the ability to be alone with oneself and to fill the many hours of waiting that come with the profession.

Sans says the show arrives in Andorra at an optimal moment: as a production matures through performances, it gains solidity and improves, making the current phase the right time to present it there. Reflecting on Tricicle’s longevity, he believes the group created a very personal, distinctive genre—an approach that helped sustain them over time.