Stebbins begins with a history of stand-up comedy, giving vital background about the industry as it emerged and flourished in the United States and subsequently developed into a popular form of entertainment in Canada. He deals with the nature of comic performance in comedy rooms - cabarets designed specifically for stand-up comedy - and examines the career of the comic: how people become interested in comedy, how they progress as amateurs, how they survive on the road and how, sometimes, they become headliners and later writers for film and television. He also discusses the business of comedy: booking agents, comedy chains such as Yuk-Yuk's, room managers, and the comics themselves as entrepreneurs. As the first comprehensive study of a growing phenomenon, The Laugh-Makers will interest sociologists of humour and sociologists of occupations and will contribute to our understanding of Canadian popular culture.

斯特宾斯从单口相声的历史开始，介绍了这个行业的重要背景，因为它在美国出现并蓬勃发展，随后在加拿大发展成为一种流行的娱乐形式。他论述了喜剧室--专门为单口相声设计的歌舞厅--中喜剧表演的性质，并研究了喜剧演员的职业生涯：人们如何对喜剧感兴趣，他们如何作为业余爱好者进步，他们如何在路上生存，以及有时他们如何成为头条新闻人物和后来的电影和电视作家。他还讨论了喜剧的生意：订票代理人、喜剧连锁店，如Yuk-Yuk's，房间经理，以及作为企业家的喜剧演员本身。作为对一个不断增长的现象的首次全面研究，《笑匠》将引起幽默社会学家和职业社会学家的兴趣，并将有助于我们对加拿大流行文化的理解。