New faces arrive at Pasapalabra. The successful Antena 3 contest features four new celebrities on September 18, 19 and 20. Four guests who will display their knowledge and good humor to help the contestants, Moisés and Fernando, who are fighting for a jackpot that exceeds 800,000 euros. On this occasion, Marta Torné, Ana Ruiz, Damián Mollá and Juan Ibáñez join the program. Let’s get to know these last two guests a little better.
Juan Ibáñez and Damián Mollá have been going hand in hand for more than two decades. Their names may not sound too familiar to many viewers and their faces may not even tell them anything immediately. However, everything changes as soon as they are added to the plush characters that they have been playing for years in one of the most watched programs on the Spanish grid. And they give life every night to Trancas and Barrancas, the famous ants of El Hormiguero.
Ibáñez and Mollá were born in Madrid in the summer of 1980. They met 22 years ago while studying Advertising at the Complutense University. “Juan was the cool one in the class, the popular one, and I was the taciturn outcast,” Damián explained in this interview with EL MUNDO.
During that time at university, Damián made cartoons for university newspapers and Juan was on the faculty radio, where they both began doing a program. “At that time our fan was Isabel Díaz Ayuso. I always say that, because she makes me excited. She was in our faculty and she came from the public,” Mollá remembers.
However, their professional turning point came in 2002, when they were recruited by Pablo Motos for the program No Somos Nadie on M80 Radio, thanks to the recommendation of Jorge Marrón, another of El Hormiguero’s heavyweights.
Since then, Damián Mollá and Juan Ibáñez have been linked to Motos. They worked on El club de la comedia and, in 2006, they accompanied the Valencian presenter in his jump to television with El Hormiguero, first on Cuatro and later on Antena 3.
In addition to being the scriptwriters of one of the most watched prime time programs, the Madrid comedians play, crouched under the Motos table, Trancas (Juan Ibáñez) and Barrancas (Damián Mollá).
But their common projects go beyond El Hormiguero. Both are members of El Hombre Lantern, a musical group that covers cartoon songs, a band created by Pablo Ibáñez Pérez, Juan’s brother and former El Hombre de Negro, and in which other colleagues from the program participate.
Together with Marron they have an audiovisual company called Tres calaveras hollowas and they have had a vaper store, the Vicky restaurant in Madrid and even a caganers store. That, without counting the comedy shows that usually tour Spain.
On an individual level, Damián Mollá is a writer. He has published works such as Oh My God!, which deals with curiosities of mythology, two books for learning English called This Book Is The Milk and a comic called Rabbit-Man against the coronavirus. For his part, Juan Ibáñez has made his first steps as an actor, such as in the series Small Coincidences (Amazon Prime Video).