Carles Sans: "The word 'retired' I do not want to hear it nor read it"

BarcelonaWe meet with Carles Sans (Badalona, 1955) in a venue on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona with walls full of posters and stage photographs, sofas on one side of the room and a very large table on the other. "Forgive me if it's not very bright, it's a space I mostly step into at night," says Sans, who adds that they meet here once a month with Paco Mir, "president of this association of golfers". For decades, Sans has lived against the grain, working mainly on weekends and show nights and traveling up and down with his shows. Now the comedian and former member of El Tricicle says goodbye to the stage with Me'n vaig!, a monologue directed by José Corbacho that will premiere on November 4 at the Teatre Poliorama, and which can be seen until January 10. The show arrives after Per fi sol!, with which he sold more than 180,000 tickets.

Why have you decided to say goodbye to the stage?

— There is no very specific reason. I have reached an age where I don't want to spend my whole life touring. It is very uncomfortable, it means missing out on many things, traveling kilometers, spending many hours in a hotel. Of the job, it is the worst part of all and the most exhausting. I don't feel like it, I don't need it. If I only had to perform, I wouldn't leave it. I really like stepping on a stage, I feel very comfortable in that hour and a half of the show. But now I look at it in perspective and I think that if this show lasts the same as the previous one, it will be about four or five years. And in four or five years, surely what I will want to do is go to Barça.

How did you consider your professional path, after El Tricicle?

— When we put an end to it, I told myself that what I would do would be to give myself some time. What I am doing is a kind of professional bonus that I give myself. I wanted to investigate another genre, all alone. And I have discovered a B-side to my professional life that is very interesting and fun, but it is still a second part, as well. At the beginning some people told me: “But what need do you have?” “Are you sure, all alone and talking?” I took a delicate and brave step. Proving that I could do it has given me a lot of self-esteem.

Finally alone! had a very good reception, but you already came from El Tricicle, one of the most successful Catalan companies of the last 50 years. After so many triumphs, does the fear of failure disappear?

— No, it is always there. No matter how many years or how much success one has had, for an actor or actress every project is a suffering. Many things are mixed into it. It is not just that the show is liked, it is that I have to be liked. In everything you present to the public, there is a mixture of what is professional and personal. That is hard. I remember Concha Velasco, one day on the radio, when she had already been acting for I don't know how many years and she was suffering because she had to premiere. Now I understand her perfectly.

What has been the moment in which you have suffered the most, in relation to the profession?

— In the history of El Tricicle there haven't been many hardships, honestly. The creative processes were complicated, because we had three opinions and sometimes we didn't agree. We had to reach a consensus, with the weight that a huge amount of the audience always expected the new show to be the best. Now a little bit of the same thing is happening to me, that I have an audience that expects something and until I premiere it I won't be able to say that it works.

What was El Tricicle's secret to staying together for so many years?

— We used to joke that we were a three-way marriage and that was why it worked. I don't know, we had a lot of tact, and even though things got tense during creative processes, we knew how to handle it very well. Even now, after stopping, we still do. We all have a lot to thank the others for; none of the three would be who they are without having been part of El Tricicle.

What is the starting point of Me'n vaig!?

— With the emergence of artificial intelligence, it seems we will all end up having much more free time, because, by what they say, it will replace many jobs. It seems that many of us will live in indefinite leisure. Well, I am already preparing myself and studying what hobbies I can put into practice. The problem is that I don't have any, and from there I start breaking down a whole series of things I can do and I keep discarding them. Traveling, meditation, yoga... In the second part of the show, I talk about more personal things. I explain it with the gestures of El Tricicle; the audience really likes seeing the combination.

Joan Lluís Bozzo, founder of Dagoll Dagom, said the other day at a press conference that the best part of working is stopping it and that he is happy making rice in a casserole dish at home. What do you think?

— It depends on everyone's life. As for me, the word retired, I don't want to hear it or read it. It has connotations of parking that don't suit me at all. The other day I was at a gas station, a man passed by and the gas station attendant said to him: “I haven't seen you in a long time”. “It's because I've retired”, he replied. “Well, how lucky!”, he told him. And I thought: “Of course, this man must have been pumping gas for 45 years and what he is thinking about right now is just retiring”. But in my job I have a great time, there is always that constant stimulus and motivation. After this show I will continue directing and I hope to have projects, remaining active around this craft.

When you think about the long-term future, how do you see it?

— Professionally projecting and working. For a good part of your life you dedicate yourself only to climbing. But then an age of life arrives in which you must try to flow. When you have reached the top, breathe, look at the landscape and do not get overwhelmed. Health worries me, which is what usually breaks at a certain moment, and now the only thing I try is to do nothing to cause that to happen. I eat more or less healthily, I play sports. In the end, everything is written.