ABSTRACT The aim of the thesis was to investigate the relationship of stand-up comedians and audience during the performance. In order to check research questions, the method that was used are in-depth interviews. The sample was purposive and included five Croatian professional stand-up comedians and the five actual viewers of their performances. Research has shown that the domestic stand-up comedians began her professional job in early 2005. The first introduction that year produced the first wave of today's comedians, and then it followed two more waves. Due to the professionalization, research has shown that today we have Zagreb's School of stand up. Its center is located in the Studio smijeha in Zagreb. The main feature of this school is that its comedians every month must write the new material for their shows. This increases the chances that the audience would come every month to see new performances and to prevent fatigue. The reason for this is that Croatia is a small country with a small population, compared to the western countries and their comedians. Because of the characteristics of the country, the domestic stand-up comedians are forced to travel a lot around the country, but also abroad. Country neighbors like Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia have priority in their performances because their citizens can understand the show without major difficulties. Stand-up comedians are faced with the stereotype that they are not funny, but the greatest impact in spreading positive opinion are members of the audience who watched funny performances. Members of the audience at the performances are coming mostly to laugh and have fun. They like to watch more live shows instead of recorded one. They always go accompanied by friends or family members at the performances. Viewers admitted that on some issues, on which comedians talk, they start to think differently and notice problems in everyday life. The majority of respondents disagreed with the statement that comedians can joke about all topics. The reason for that lies in personal experience and connection with topics in jokes that were heard during the performance. In the opinion of the comedian, for the promotion and recognition of stand up in the future will be responsible their appearance, and their recorded performance on television programs.