What comes to your mind when you see a man who laughs for living ? Yes, it sounds very strange and odd indeed. But the man in this story is a professional laugher. He is neither a clown nor a comedian, but a very professional laugher. In short, his laughing is a trigger to draw out a roar of laughter from the whole audience in a night club. He is, in another word, a claque laugher. In a sense his laughing must be infectious and it is actually so.
He can laugh at will according to any requests, laughter of any race, any age, any area.
On the contrary, his private life is very quiet. He seldom laughs for himself. His wife, too. They just exchange silent smiles. Though he knows all kinds of laughing as business, he doesn't know what laughing truly means to him.
Isn't it sarcastic ?

I envy those who can say exactly what they do; like I am a bookkeeper, I am a barber......
I am a laugher. I make a living by laughing. I am confident in myself doing my job, because no one else laughs as well as I do. I can laugh in any situations with various expressions and I can be anyone in all classes of society at any age.
I have become indispensable especially for the not-known comedians. I must laugh at the right time, all audience follow me.
On the other hand, I hardly laugh in my life. I forget laughing. My wife used to say I should laugh in my first married years but I feel so relived when I stay quietly and stilly.
As we spend time together, my wife also fogets how to laugh. We only smile each other, we speak in lower voice. Have I ever laugh in my life? No. I have never heard my own laughter.

Heinrich Boll(ハインリヒ・ベル）は1972年にノーベル賞を取りました。日本語にも翻訳されています。「The Laugher」は笑い屋という職業で成功している男は私生活では、微笑むことがあっても決して声を上げて笑うことはないという話でした。
笑い屋というユニークな職業のことも驚きですが、ひとつの職業を例えに、仕事からは想像のつかないような私生活を人はしているのだろうなと思いました。
悲しいような、面白いような、不思議な気分になりました。